Report-Haiti Dec. 07

Haiti Expedition, December 10-24, 2008
Sarah Liane Foster, Moshe Cohen, Brendon Gawel, Elisa Lane, Tim Cunningham
Final Report
Expedition Overview

Expedition Summary

# Performances: 27.
# Clown Hospital Visits: 3.
# Workshops: 7.
# Informal Walk-around Performances: Numerous.
# Estimated Audience: 5000

Mission
To spread laughter. The primary goal of Clowns Without Borders’ December 2007 expedition to Haiti was to spread joy and laughter to people affected by disease, poverty, violence and unrest, with a particular focus on children. We used clown shows, circus skills workshops, clown doctor visits to hospitals, and informal walk-around performance as means to this end.

To strengthen relationships. Continue to work with organizations and communities we visited in 2005 and 2006 in order to establish a consistent presence in these communities and build on their circus skills through workshops.

To explore toward expanding our programs. Make contact with new organizations and potential partners, and explore the idea of a potential long-term project in Haiti.

Moshe wows an audience at a holiday celebration.

Situation
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Many people struggle with oppressive poverty and have a difficult time obtaining adequate food, clean water, clothing, housing and medical treatment. Haiti has endured numerous tropical storms and hurricanes in the past few years. Many in Haiti live under the constant threat of epidemic treatable diseases like malaria, dengue fever, HIV, and diarrhea.

Because there has been political unrest in Haiti for so many years, the government has been unable to organize and manage land, utilities, or infrastructure. There is no sewer or waste disposal system, resulting in severe congestion of waste in urban areas like Port-au-Prince. Public electricity is sporadic. Roads are often unpaved and full of large holes. Public hospitals have no food or medical supplies. Massive deforestation leads to large amounts of dust and erosion.

Security is a big issue in Haiti. Some locals told us that violence and kidnappings are less now than what they have been, but our contacts at UNICEF were warning us about increasing incidence of kidnappings. It’s hard to tell. There are some areas of Port-au-Prince, like Cite Soleil, that many NGOs do not enter because it isn’t safe.

In our work with orphanages and homes for street children in Haiti, we have learned that many children living in orphanages or on the streets do have parents and families, but were given up by their families or chose to leave home, having perhaps better prospects in orphanages or on the streets.

Itinerary
Overview:
Sarah, Brendon, Elisa and Moshe spent the first week in the Les Cayes area in the southwest of Haiti. This was CWB-USA’s third visit to the area. The group spent the week performing shows, doing walk-around performances, and teaching stilt, juggling, balancing and clown workshops to local kids. We saw a lot of old friends – adults and children in the community who remembered some of us, our previous shows, and even some circus skills they were ready to build on. We also met a lot of new people and made some new contacts – for example, we visited a nearby orphanage and did a lively show under a metal airplane hangar for about 600 kids.

After a week we flew back to Port-au-Prince to meet Tim, who had just finished his finals and was able to join the group for week 2. We re-worked the show to have Tim replace Moshe. The group spent the week in Port-au-Prince working through Pere Fanfan, Medecins Sans Frontieres, and a group called FOCAS, while Moshe worked through UNICEF doing solo shows.

Audience members look up to the elevated stage to watch our show at a festival for Orphans and Vulnerable Children where we performed through FOCAS in Port-au-Prince.

 The Show
For the first week, Moshe, Sarah, Elisa and Brendon performed shows together. During the second week Moshe did solo shows through UNICEF while Sarah, Elisa and Brendon did shows with Tim. The show structure remained quite similar the second week, with different solo bits and character interactions. We started off with a parade entrance with Moshe/Tim on ukelele, Sarah on trombone, Brendon on a waterjug drum, and Elisa carrying the trunk. Elisa kept getting lost in the audience and Sarah had to get her back. The third time of this slapstick with the trunk ensued. When we finally put down the trunk and got together in front of the audience to finish the song, Elisa took Brendon’s drumsticks and began to dance with them. Sarah went out to get her but got caught up in the dancing. Brendon joined in. This dancing brought the house down every time, due mainly to a combination of exuberance and butt-shaking. Tim/Moshe, left alone, began to cry. Others returned to comfort him and began to cry as well. Brendon began wailing, which brought down the house once again. Struck him on the head with a squeaky hammer to quiet him.

After the crying routine was over, Tim’s audience volunteer came up and started it again, to the delight of everyone at this school for orphans in Carrefour, outside of Port-au-Prince.

Finally it was time to announce the show. First came the acrobatics routine, a series of tricks performed by Elisa and Brendon. Next, Moshe did a sponge ball magic routine, and Tim did a funny hat routine. Both of these incorporated audience volunteers, which audiences adored. Next, Tim and Sarah did a club juggling/stealing routine. The routine arose from the announcing/interrupting that became a theme for these characters. Elisa and Sarah did a bit with the disappearing “moushwen,” or handkerchief, trick. This culminated in pulling them out of 2-3 audience members’ ears. Next Brendon did a bit tossing an invisible “ball” into a paper bag. The bag snapped with every impact of the invisible ball, to the delight of the audience. Audience members then got a chance to toss the ball. At the end Brendon pulled a real ball out of the bag – the audience volunteer magicked it into reality! We emphasized in each trick that the “magic” came from the audience.

Elisa pulls the magic handkerchief out a volunteer’s ear.

Brendon threw the ball back to us at the trunk, and Moshe/Tim accidentally caught it in his mouth and swallowed it. Doctor scene! Sarah put lab coats on herself and a volunteer doctor from the audience. They cast a spell on the patient, turned him around and around, and finally hit him on the head with the squeaky hammer, which did the trick: the ball went flying out into the audience. Once again the audience member saved the day! When Moshe was in the show, he would do his cigar box juggling routine at this point. When Tim was in the show we did the water lazzi, resulting in water being spit and dumped all over everyone except Elisa. She then got her umbrella for the umbrella pantomime: the umbrella has a mind of its own and pulls Elisa all over the stage. It rises up into the air and is dragging her off the ground when Sarah, on stilts, comes in and takes it. Chase scene! Brendon on stilts gets in the mix. More chase scene! Finally tired, everyone decides to share. Then music comes on for the final dance.

Photo Information
Photos from this expedition are posted on the CWB Flickr Pro account. Contact CWB for details on viewing these photos!

There’s More!
This is an abbreviated version of the final report for the December 2007 Clowns Without Borders expedition to Haiti. For more information or to view the full version, email Sarah [at] clownswithoutborders [dot] org