Circus Cont'd. - by Sara

What a way to travel! Gotta love it. Thanks Dreamtime, for letting me tag along again. (Wish I were still with them, too, as the story continues with gusto; in Lima, they're performing in an arts festival for audiences of nigh on a thousand people and even making it on TV, so I hear.) My week with Dreamtime this time looked a bit like this:

Day one: We arrive in a tiny village called Coya (or Qoya, depending on which billboard you look at; this goes for Cusco and Cuzco, too, which in Quechua is actually Qosqo, and Pisac or Pisaq... I believe it's a discrepancy between Spanish and Quechua, and so the compromise is to haphazardly alternate between various spellings). We immediately check in to our free accommodations chez Loco, which consist of a handful of rooms in various states of construction, one cold-water bathroom between thirteen circus members and five or six family members (must admit there were so many kids running around I don't have an exact head count). I held the video camera, audio recorder, and Nikon D40 the whole time as the circus lead about thirty community kids in hoola hooping, acrobalance, poi, and juggling workshops and painted all of their aggressively eager faces. (When I was painting faces I, too, had to learn to say "Ninos!! Mas espacio por faVOR!" as those who were waiting wouldn't leave you room to move your elbow, or breathe.) The show, which I guess I saw about six times in total, is adorable and funny and entertaining, for the adults as well as the kids: first a playful quasi-narrative with colorful characters, conflicts, and non-fire circus acts, then a showcase of these San Franciscans' true colors: sexy, riveting, well-choreographed and at times pretty mind-boggling fire dancing, with poi, staff, hoola hoop, swords, torches, fire fingers, and even a fireball and chain.

Day two: Casa de Milagros, an American-run orphanage at the end of a rubble-filled road that had had to be evacuated during the major floods in the Valle Sagrado that devastated entire towns and villages, tore through bridges, and demolished homes and schools. The only damage that made any amount of news was the plight of the stranded tourists in Machu Picchu, of course. But in any case, most of my experience of the Valle Sagrado was when it was back to some sense of normality, and this beautiful orphanage was no exception -- garden, waterfall, mosaics, and love, lots of love.

Day three was San Pedro; day four the show was in Huaran, another tiny town along the river. For reasons unbeknownst to me this one was attended by a Peruvian circus as well as the typical crop of little kids. There were about fifteen of them, all dreadlocked and earlobe-stretched, pretty similar in age and arty-punk style to Dreamtime (to watch the two groups flirt after the show was disarmingly cute).

Day five: Urubamba, at Arco Iris (this means rainbow, I learned long after the fact, though with all the imagery everywhere at the school you'd think I could have figured it out), a school for children with developmental disorders. It was harder to paint their faces, but in some ways, more rewarding. One girl who resembled a boy wanted dragons everywhere, all over her face, and her arms, and her hands. Just as soon as I finished one she'd frown a little and point to a new scrap of vacant flesh and say fiercely, "DraGON!" The evening show at Arco Iris was extremely satisfying, as scores of kids from scores of schools in the area turned out, as well as their families, and the adults were as enthralled as the children were (I have video footage to prove it).

Overall, there's nothing like being part of the Joy Train. Everyone who participated in the workshops and saw the show was impressed, excited, jubilant, you name it. It's a rare gift to see such a thing pass through town -- and not only pass through town, but teach you how to juggle and paint a dragon on your face.

Stay tuned for an audio slide show. It might take me a few months to get the software together, but I did some interviews and tons of background recording; I'm on it.

For more blog posts by Sara, please go here.

Photos from All Stops on the Tour Now Posted!

We've sorted through 15,000 photos and uploaded the best from each stop on the tour here!

A Moment Made Possible - by Chris

Just as I started to write this, a cat mysteriously entered the cafeteria where I sit alone at a table and chair using the happily unexpected wifi connection at this Christian school for kids and young adults, many with various disabilities. We’re staying here for three days - two workshops a day and a show tomorrow. I’ve barely left the compound, so an unlikely place feels strangely like home to me.

Today was one of my favorite workshops. I was teaching a bunch of boys how to juggle and I noticed a young woman sitting on a bench holding a single juggling ball in her hand but not doing anything with it. I didn't notice at first that she had crutches and leg braces and I asked if she wanted to learn to juggle. She nodded and I started teaching her, eventually sitting down in a chair so as to demonstrate the skill from a similar position as her. I’ve noticed here that people that can't walk can potentially pick up juggling even faster because they probably compensate for a lot of things with their upper body. I taught a guy in a wheel chair how to juggle yesterday, and I’ve never seen someone get it so fast, it was amazing really.

Anyway, I had this great interaction with Rosa, the young woman I was teaching to juggle. I asked her what she was studying and she said computers, then I asked her what kind of job she wanted and she seemed kind of ashamed. When I pressed her a bit she finally said secretary. I told her that I used to work an office job that I liked a lot because I liked to organize things, and that instead of smoking breaks I would take juggling breaks which is actually really good for your hands and arms which can get sore or even injured from typing all the time. We developed a really wonderful connection through all of this but, as she continued to learn how to juggle, I realized the balls kept hitting her friend sitting next to her. I also noticed her friend was very quiet and withdrawn and eventually it occurred to me that she was blind. Her name was Katia, and she had just had her face painted by Savannah. I told her how beautiful the stars on her face were. She smiled shyly, but quickly withdrew again. I realized that the situation for her was not so good. It was loud and crazy in that room with music on the stereo, kids banging drums, shaking rattles, and the occasional piercing screech whenever one of the kids got a hold of this plastic flute (that is now safely tucked away in my bag, never to come out during workshops again), and on top of all this, she was occasionally getting hit with juggling balls because she was sitting next to Rosa.

I decide to turn the music on the stereo down and wait for a bit of a lull in the kid generated "music", and then I pulled out my harmonica and played a little bit for Katia and asked her if she had ever heard such music before. She said no, but when I asked her if she'd like to try she gave me another shy smile. I handed her the harmonica and explained how to play, having to constantly ask for the correct Spanish word to "breathe in" because I can never remember it. It took her a bit to get it, but then she was mesmerized by it and played for probably 20 minutes or so, lost in a world of music she was creating, unfazed by the clamor of workshops and the occasional juggling ball dropping in her lap.

It was a sweet moment that I feel fortunate to have shared with those two young women, and it's yet another moment that could only exist because of this tour. In times like these I definitely feel like it's all worth it.

Farewell My Mountain Town - by Alex

And farewell to the flaky municipalidad! Today is my last full day here in Cajamarca and my first day off since last I updated this blog. The past week has been four straight full days of performances, workshops, parades, and sporadic rain showers.

So Tuesday and Wednesday, we had been booked by the municipalidad of Cajamarca (the government basically) to lead workshops and perform in the big stadium a few blocks from the plaza de Armas. They'd be bussing in scores of children from all over Cajamarca for this event and all we'd have to do is stay put in the stadium, do workshops in the morning and performances in the afternoon. That was the original plan at least. We were expecting 150 children (ages 4-7) the first day, so we decided to split them all into four groups, put someone in charge of each group and rotate workshops for two hours or so. We got to the stadium about ten minutes before the workshops started, thanks to the municipalidad flaking on transportation they had promised, and found not 150 children waiting for us, but closer to 300. Splitting them up into four groups and handling that many kids proved to be a big challenge, albeit an adorable one. I was put on facepainting and had to whip through nearly 75 kids at a time in 25 minutes. The "good" news is that as the day went on the kids thinned out after spending too much time in the intense mountain sun.

We were able to convince the municipalidad to spring for lunch for us and then we returned to the stadium to try and figure out how we were going to set up the stage for so many people with our very diminutive backdrop. The answer lay (lied?) in hauling some very heavy stage pieces from one side of the stadium to the other to create wings. At about three o'clock, we were scheduled to get down to the plaza de armas and parade back to the stadium to rake up an audience for tonight. That nearly snagged up as by 2:55 no transportation had arrived again, nor had any fliers showed up as promised, and to top everything off, we found out that the stadium was charging the public for our free circus show. Well, in spite of all these obstacles, we cleared up everything with the management about charging, decide to forget about the transports and the fliers, rallied the band and simply paraded down to the plaza by ourselves and back announcing our show all the while. I was whizzing up and down the parade lines on my uni whipping a green flag around and causing general mayhem in the roads. When we got back we found the fliers waiting in a nice stack for us, completely covered with incorrect information anyway.

Our show that night went very well and we played to what must have probably been about 500 people or more. We had spent all of last week rehearsing the show again and again trying to incorporate our new arrivals. This was the first show they were all able to participate in. The show was a big hit with some minor snags. One, since our fliers said we were starting at 3, when we were actually planning to start closer to 5 to allow some twilight for the fire show, a lot of our audiece had to eave mid show to get home before dark. We still managed to keep a bunch of them for the fire show except that the stadium{s power blew out in the middle of Mumu and I's duet. We ended the show there and bowed to a raucous applause anyway. We grabbed dinner and beer and thus ended day 1.

Day 2 started very much the same way with the Municipalidad failing to provide it's promised transport from our hostel to the stadium. Rather than try and repeat the workshop fiasco that happened the day before , we decided instead to just do a quick bus show performance for the little ones and leave it at that. The whole day went a bit easier than Tuesday simple because we didn't have a parade to worry about and our stage was already set up from the day before. The crowd that showed up that evening ( well early afternoon thanks to the faulty fliers) stayed a bit longer than the previous evening and our power held out for the entire show. That performance was arguably the best run of our bus show yet. Also, with the three large stadium shows that we did in Cajamarca and the monster show we put on in Fiteca (look up photos on facebook by the way), we could safely say that we performed for more people in the second half of the tour already than in the entire first half put together.

The next day, we were supposed to have the morning off, but as a favor to our contact Vicki (a tourist professional not connected with the Municipalidad and actually a great help to us) requested that we put on a performance for her school in the morning. In cased like this, we try not to over-exert ourselves especially people who needed some time to recuperate so, as standard procedure dictates, we slapped together a last minute variety show to put on for the school left completely voluntary. IN the last week, I've been performing a diabolo solo in cases like these pretty often and am getting good feedback. Much of it is pretty cheap and relies on insanely high tosses to really impress the audience, but man do those kids love it. Also, the lunch that the school provided was a feast compared to the dinky meals we had been getting with the Municipalidad. (Papas, ensalada, paltas, aji, pollo, the list goes on)

That evening we were scheduled to perform in small barrio in Cajamarca on the street. It was a nice change of pace to perform in a smaller venue where no one had to leave early to get home and everyone could see us a lot better. The downside though was the sporadic drizzly rain that nearly made us cancel the whole thing. We persevered though and got pretty muddy and soaked in the process. We had to drag all of our equipment home afterward and dry it out after such a long and exhausting day. The whole audience stayed put throughout it though, even through the intimidating weather.

Day 4: This gig we had booked at a school 25 minutes away in an area called Otusco (I believe). We also heard that this area had quite a few scenic walks and a natural pre-incan catacomb structure. SO we organized several of our own taxi trips (not even bothering to consider using the transportation from the municipalidad) so a few people could check out the ventillas and the town before the show. the ventillas weren't too much more than a bunch of square holes in the side of the mountain where a bunch of bodies had been found. The surrounding town though was full of the pastoral beauty typical of the Andean culture. We caught a collectivo back to the school in time to put make-up on and watch the storm clouds gather up and pour down on us once more. In the midst of the frustration, we thought it best to nix the workshops and go straight for the bus show in the school's only indoor area. The stage was tight and it definitely had an impact on the show, but we made the most of it anyway. The rain had stopped afterward and we wanted to give the school a bit more, so we went so far as to break one of the cardinal rule of fire performance and did a day time show. The circus itself was unimpressed with the day time flames (there's just so much more to fire when it's dim out) but the audience didn't really know better and enjoyed it anyhow. Plus we finally got off for the day before 8 pm!

That night to celebrate a full week of work, Mumu and Sophia invited everyone out to a bar and lounge a few blocks from the hostel. We tried to get the management to play some dub step off of Chris' iPod and then Beats Antique from Rich' when that didn't work. Eventually we just took the party back to our guest house and partied proper well into the night. Mumu and I woke up around noon today for our last full day in Cajamarca. The city is beautiful and everyone is going to be sad to say good bye, but on the other hand there's a lot of excitement to finally get to Pucallpa and see the Amazon rainforest.

Basically tomorrow, the circus is going to consolidate our seven hundred kilos of stuff, throw it all on a bus headed for Lima at 5 pm, arrive in the capital about 7 am, and then slug everything onto a tiny plane leaving for Pulcallpa at 11am Monday and arrive in the jungle that afternoon. It sounds crazy but the alternative of taking a bus all the way to Pucallpa would have taken us an extra day at least.

Today also marks the beginning of my last two weeks in Peru. After that I'll be headed from the rainforest to the carribean as Mumu and I go visit her family in Puerto Rico. I'm excited to bring once phase of my travels to completion, but I don't know if any amount of time in Peru would have been enough for me. Well, only two more of these blogs to write from this country. Till the next one!

Ciao
Alex

For more blog posts by Alex, please click here.

New Photos from Cuzco!

With 13 - 20 people shooting photographs on this tour, it takes us a bit to gather and sort them all, but alas, we've finally posted the best of the photos taken during our stay in the Cuzco region and they are truly magnificent. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dreamtimecircus/collections/72157623625900381/

A Circus in Chincha ~ by CHRIS

It’s our first day off on our second tour and I finally find myself with the time and creative energy to write. I’m not going to attempt to capture everything that has transpired or inspired me in these past two weeks. I’ll save that for the book I am still committed to writing about these tours and the greater life experience that the Dreamtime Circus has sent spiraling into motion for me. Rather, I’d like to take a narrative snapshot and capture just a moment or two to give my friends and family at home and around the world a taste of life on a charitable circus tour in Peru.

As I write this, the women in the troupe are visiting a shelter for about twenty girls, all survivors of abuse, all with children as a result of that abuse. The whole troupe, including the men, will visit this shelter again before we leave Chincha, but we decided that sending the women was the best way to introduce the girls to the circus. And every woman in the troupe volunteered to go, on their day off, with a bag full of make-up and other girly things, to spend an afternoon connecting, role-modeling, and allowing these young mothers to just be girls for a day. I feel fortunate to have played a role in making afternoons like this possible, even when I’m not participating in the particular activity. And I am so grateful to the amazing women in our troupe (nine of the thirteen members currently in Peru) who trust me enough to technically lead this organization and ultimately drive the circus agenda as much as I do, if not more. I believe the hearts of women will ultimately pull the world out of its war ravaged misery, and I want to do what I can to support that transformation.

Mayten, our incredibly generous host in Chincha, is one of these women on a mission to transform the world. She regularly works with the girls at this shelter and another one with about 80 girls nearby. And, she opens her door not only to charitable circus troupes from the US, but to all the children in the neighborhood where she lives. A lot of these kids have extremely difficult family lives and, since the earthquake in 2007, live in houses that have been scrapped together with whatever materials could be found – bits of wood, bamboo, sheet metal, and a plastic tarp for a roof. Mayten provides these kids a safe haven, where they know that anyone she introduces them to is “non-toxic” (won’t hurt them in any way). One of her passions is to help the kids that, through the trials and tribulations of a very difficult life, have lost their voice. She helps them find their voice through music, art, and other activities that build their self-esteem. Some of the kids I met, kids that came up and kissed me on the cheek and started a conversation with me, had literally lost their voice when they first started visiting Mayten. I mean they literally couldn’t speak anymore.

So thirteen of us are crammed into a couple of rooms in this hot, concrete house with no ventilation, sharing one bathroom amongst us which often means using the toilet while someone is in the shower and someone else is brushing their teeth. It’s the fast track to getting to know each other, that’s for sure. And, we’re attempting to put a show together in a handful of dusty, trash-filled spots because it’s the only shade around. We endure frequent interruptions because someone needs to run back inside and (urgently) use the toilet. But we’re all loving it, mas o menos, because we all wanted to come here and do exactly what we’re doing. We love having the kids around each day, getting to know them, learning their names, teaching them, playing with them, becoming friends with them. And we are all inspired, perhaps awe-struck, at the work Mayten is doing, and we want to be a part of it.

The work on the show is slow going. Key performers have been sick, we all went to the beach and everyone of us burned the heck out of our skin even though we all put on sunblock (imagine hooping, fire spinning, or acro-balancing with skin too sensitive to touch), and we’ve intentionally slowed the pace of our show development in order to invest more time in workshops with the kids. But now we’ve set a date – the first big show of the tour is a week from today, Friday March19^th, and the whole community is invited. It’s going to be a crazy week as we prepare the show, continue workshops, and squeeze in a few more shelter visits, but it will be all be worth it. Chincha has welcomed the Dreamtime Circus with open arms, and the least we can do is put on a spectacular circus show in return!

Love till it burns ~ by ALEX

So welcome to my first full length post on Dreamtime's tour through Peru. One week down and things have been pretty smooth so far. Lima wasn't meant to be our first congregation point but it worked out that way. We were only in Lima for a day and a half or so, but we made the most of our downtime before the official start of our tour. The peruvians we met in Lima were very friendly and easy to talk to. Even with my broken Spanish, I was able to follow a lot of the conversations and even carry a few of my own, most of which started with some one glancing down, double taking, and then yelling "Me gusta sus zapatos!" (I was wearing my Vibrams).

Our second day in Lima, the plan was to scour the city for various odds and ends we needed and then set off for Chincha that afternoon (about two hours south by bus) Come 1:00 we had all of our baggage downstairs and a hired bus driver claiming he'd be 6 hours late. It turned out our collective luggage was so massive that a second van was needed to make the journey. We're hoping that this will cease to be a problem as we embark on public transportation, but that will open a whole new can of worms that none of us have really considered for the sake of our own mental health. In any case, 11:30 that evening saw us at our contact Mayten's house in Chincha.

Mayten is an incredibly open-hearted woman who grew up in the circus herself and has devoted her life and home to providing creative and educational outlets for the youth of Chincha. Every morning Mayten wakes up to the calls of children outside her door begging to come in and learn. Chincha doesn't have too much in the way of...well really anything. The town was devastated by a disastrous earthquake some years back and poverty and violence are decently rampant. Mayten's one request in return for sharing her home and time with all of us was to spend as much time as we could with her kids and share the creative spirit. After meeting them, I was a little confused what she thought we could improve upon. All of her kids are incredibly creative, intelligent, affectionate and wonderful to be with. However it is clear that Mayten is really all they have in regards to higher expression. In a way, I see Chincha as a shadow of what California could become, seeing as my own state has compeltely cut the budget for arts and music and with our own earthquake risk. Mayten's work hardly stops in her community as she also helps with many humanitarian projects in Cusco and in the local shelters around Chincha.

We've had to split our time three ways between working on our own show and circus duties,working with Mayten's community of children, and keeping ourselves healthy, rested and sane. We were finally able to spend a whole day with the kids yesterday and the whole of the circus took off for a beach day with Mayten and company. We made juggling balls filled with sand and splashed around with the kids all day and were feeling pretty good about ourselves until we got back home and realized nearly every one of ourselves wer covered in a tropical sunburn, myself included. (hence the title of this post, clever no?) IT wasn't that we didn't prepare for the sun, many of us used ample sunblock (yes me too) and one of our circus members, Riko, who had been trekking through Brazil prior, had covered himself with some jungle seed oil the night before that turned his entire body bright orange (think Ernie and Bert) and even he turned bright red (like Elmo)

Our show and mission are proceeding on track, though bumps and questions are fairly common. On top of the sunburns, people are starting to cave in to sickeness. Mumu has been struggling with a stomach bug, but seems to be doing a little better of late. A lot of the time these litle ailments never amount to much but you can't help but be scared by them while travelling. I had my own difficulty the first day in Chincha when I tried putting on my contact lens. The dusty, dry, and sweltering heat (70 degree nights and 85 + days) were not kind and my cornea began to get extremeley irritated in my left eye. After trying Japanese anti-biotics drops, cold showers, and a make shift eye patch. I bit the bullet and ran to a Chinchan farmacia to ge anti-inflammatory drops. Those didn't work either. Thankfully the chamomile compress and a good nights sleep did and I'm happy to report that my eye is feeling much much better, although I don't plan to use my contacts for some time.

Now those who know me intimately (albeit not biblically) understand that I pride myself on my modesty and damn good looks. And yes, I'm not usualy one to boast at my own clever witticisms however brilliant, but I have to put this in for the sake of my old time Barefoot Monkey crew who remember the glory days. At the height of my eye trouble, we were starting one of our brief four hour meetings and we were ging around the circle with a quick check in. It might have been th oversized Mtich Hedberg-esque shades I was wearing, but a flash of inspiration hit me and I just had to say it:

"My name is Alex.....Mucciolo
Mi ojo.....es rojo
So, no quiero.....diabolo
Pero.....estoy contento"

Maybe you had to be there. Hoping to make the next post from our next location, probably close to Nazca or Arquipa, but it's looking like we might make the most a good situation and stay here for a little longer. In any case, adios until then.

Alex

For more blog posts by Alex, please click here.

Paloma ~ by ERININA

For me Chincha is best represented by a little girl named Paloma. I believe she is about four years old. The first day that I met Paloma, she came crawling up to me on all fours meowing and then declared, ¨Soy una gatita!¨ with the biggest smile you´ve ever seen, as if I might need clarification that she was the cutest ¨little cat¨ there ever was.

Coming on this trip, I had some fears and reservations about what I would be able to provide to the chidren that we would meet. I didn´t have my trapeze with me, nor the places to rig anything if I did...I didn´t know anyone I´d be working with from Dreamtime to prepare ahead of time for being in a show or planning a workshop. And I feared that I wouldn´t have enough to offer, or that I wouldn´t fit in.

Paloma changed all of that for me in the first two seconds of meeting her. Immediately, she seemed to decide that I was worthy of her amazing friendship. Whenever I was in sight from the door of Mayten´s house, her little voice yelling, ¨Nina!¨ and calling me out to play rang through the house. She would make up games that we should play and insist that they be played, even horse rides (piggy backs) when my back was sore. She listened calmly from her perch on my back one evening as Mayten explained that she should be careful with me because I had injured my back, and after sharing her prescription for what native ointments I should rub on it to heal, solemly agreed to be very, very careful with me before kicking into my sides and yelling ¨Vamos!¨ with such glee, I didn´t really have the heart not to play along. I could always ice it later after all.

It´s hard to explain the appeal of Paloma without meeting her. If you look through the group´s photo complilation of the time in Chincha, you´ll see an abundance of her dimples and sparkling eyes laughing from her heart shaped face. A glow about her that defies the difficulties that she´s faced in her very few years of life.

When I don´t understand her Spanish, she is completely unfazed and calmly and slowly and quite precociously explains it all to me another way entirely. She may be the best Spanish teacher I´ve ever had.

I had a dream about Paloma before leaving Chincha that I had adopted her and her older sister Cyamara. I told it to Mayten and she said she felt the same way. But that not to worry. Paloma was a force to be reckoned with, a very strong little girl indeed and because of that, they´d both be just fine.

Now, sitting in an internet cafe in Cuzco, what I have to remember Paloma is a drawing that she made of me, with pink pigtails and a shining sun (my character in the show) and on the back her and I both in pigtails, holding hands and smiling and standing on a heart the size of the paper. When I think of Chincha, I will always think of Paloma´s laugh and the way she yelled my name with such joy.

More blog posts by Erinina can be found at www.erinina.wordpress.com

PHOTOS FROM PERU!

Photos from our arrival in Lima and our first tour stop in Chincha can be viewed here:

Dreamtime Peruvian Tour Photos

Enjoy!

Chris

HELLO FROM PERU!

Welcome to the Dreamtime Circus Peruvian Tour webpage. Here you´ll find stories from various members of the troupe currently traveling in Peru, a few photos, an occassional video clip (we hope), and links to even more photos and personal blogs of Dreamtimers.

One note about this blog style page - even though most of the posts will be made by ¨Dreamtime Circus¨, the authors of these stories will vary, so please note the author of the post that will be mentioned in the title.

A huge thanks to all of our supporters that made this tour possible. We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures and seeing all the smiles on kids faces.

Con mucho amor,

Chris Dunn
Co-founder
Dreamtime Circus