Guatelamala Jan 27-Feb 10, 2008
David Lichtenstein, Syada Trujillo, Rudi Galindo
Feb 10th.
Wow, we´ve done 17 shows in Guatemala the last 10
days plus two workshops, and the last two shows are tomorrow.
Yesterday we made the 4 hour trip to Panabaj. Two years ago
we performed there only two months after a deadly mudslide
caused by Hurricane Stan covered a large part of the village
there killing at least 84 people. It was disappointing to
see that many of the village families are still living in
the same refugee housing on top of the mud flow two years
later, but the kids did love the show.
The day before that Rudi with support from the rest of us
put on a clown workshop for thirteen clowns who work for
Proyecto Payaso, a very succesful organization that does
HIV-Aids education through clown shows throughout Central
America. The clowns were very playful and enthusiastic and
we worked them hard on basic elements of clown theater for
6 hours plus.
That same day we did a show for 850 girls at 8:00 in the
morning. We were mobbed after the show.
The day before that we did four shows at four schools in
one day in the very poor town of Concepcion Chiquirichapa.
Kids go crazy.
Rudi is already gone and Sayda and I have our last shows
tomorrow.
No child without a smile,
David Lichtenstein
Feb 3rd.
Clowns Without Borders is in Guatemala. David Lichtenstein,
Rudi Galindo, and Sayda Trujillo make up our little unit
here, and Pieter Van Nestelroy has organized our little tour.
The majority of the Guatemalan peple are indigenous Mayan
folks who speak 22 different Indian languages and often speak
Spanish as a second language. They have been mostly shut
out what economic development there is in Guatemala.
All our shows so far have been in the Quetzaltenango area.
Our first show was for about 200 kids and adults in the Benito
Juarez park. About half of our audience were child workers,
shoeshine boys and sweet sellers, who gather here at the
cheap end of the market. For our second show we went to the
Escuela de la calle, a school designed to pull in street
children.
Show number three took us to the Hogar de los ninos, an
orphanage with very good facilities for their 100 children.
Many children are true orphans and many were abandoned by
their parents because of drug and alchohol problems, or simply
because they were unable to feed them. These kids screamed
with laughter and we had many improvizations with children
entering into the show. As usual the kids will not leave
when the show is over but wait patiently and then mob us
when they realize we seem to be done. The show is never over
until you get in the car and leave!
Today we had two shows, one in the Central park, for a crowd
of street seller children, families on a sunday stroll, and
a sprinkling of tourists. The second show was in another
smaller orphange.
Tomorrow off to a school in Momostenango. Thursday we will
be doing an all day clown workshop for adult clowns, many
of whom work with a Guatemalan group called Payaso Proyecto,
that does clown shows that teach about AIDS and HIV prevention.
Adios,
David Lichtenstein
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