February 26, 2008

This week has proven to be as exciting as the last. I started two new projects, and continued working on two old. I spent several hours at JIS teaching clown, made another visit to Cilincing, performed a show and workshop at the One More Chance house and started an after school club at JIS for students to come and learn circus!

Tuesday after school, I met up with a JIS teacher, two Tolong Anak-Anak (Help the Children) volunteer students, and two of my IB students, to board a bus and drive across town to Cinere, where the One More Chance house is located. Traffic was bad, as usual, but it’s beginning to become a normal thing for me again. After an hour or so of riding in the car, we arrived at a small, one story house. The front yard was well groomed and the house appeared very clean from the outside. Standing in a line at the front door were ten of the One More Chance students. A mix of boys and girls, small and large, but all very happy to see us, they greeted us by introducing themselves, shaking our hands, and then placing one hand briefly to their heart (an Indonesian tradition). After the introductions, everybody sat on the couches of the very neat and well-kept house and socialized a little, while I quickly went to the back room to change into my clown gear. In the “changing room”, there were about 6 mattresses leaned up against the wall and clothing nicely folded in piles, a few pictures hanging on the walls, and fans everywhere!

As soon as I popped my head out the door, everybody started giggling. I quickly retreated to the room, as though I was embarrassed. I stepped out again and banged my head against the door, creating a bigger reaction from the audience. I made my way to the stage, a bit nervous to perform my show for a group of kids, consisting of high school and college students, but they enjoyed it just the same. They fell for the same pranks and clapped for the same tricks. By the end of the twenty-minute show, the group was very pleased and excited to learn some circus skills themselves!

We spent the first part of the workshop learning how to juggle. Everyone was very successful and showed a lot of promise. Then I spent a few minutes explaining the other props that I’d brought with me and let everybody try things at their own leisure. By the end of the workshop, even the Ibu and Bapak (Foster Parents) were joining in on the fun! When it was time to leave, we all gathered around for a few closing remarks. I asked them if they had enjoyed the circus workshop and they replied, “Yes!” I told them about my idea for a Saturday circus, where they would come to JIS and learn alongside other JIS students similar in age and ask them if they were interested, and they replied with great enthusiasm, “Mau!” (We want to!) With the help of TAA, we arranged for a bus to pick up the kids from their home and bring them to JIS, so that on Saturday, we could start learning together and creating some work to show people outside of our circus classes!

Wednesday was our first after school Circus Club at JIS. There were about seven students who came and they all seemed to really enjoy the club. We worked on some basic skills and the students that came to class were very excited about the idea of having a Circus Club at JIS. One student was juggling so well, that he moved from three to four balls in one day! These students were also very excited when I told them that there would be a Saturday circus class available. I’ll be performing at a lunch time next week to get the word out about the club and project, hopefully getting a few more students interested in participating in the club.




On Thursday, we made another visit to the kampung (village) in Cilincing. It rained a lot this week and the roads were in bad condition on the way there. Not only were they flooding with a few feet of water, but also there were enormous potholes in the road, making driving an absolute nightmare. Despite the terrible conditions of the roads and the heightened traffic capacity, we arrived to a musholla (prayer room) full of eager and excited children ready to learn more about circus.

After last week, I suggested that we break the children into groups, so as to give each child a chance for more personal attention. Mita did this and the results were 25 children inside and another 30 outside looking in through windows, doors and even a whole in the wall. We started class with some juggling scarves. It was interesting how the boys didn’t mind trying and failing, but the girls had a hard time trying until the boys were preoccupied with something else.

After everyone was on their way to juggling three scarves, I pulled four or five students aside at a time and taught them how to make their own juggling balls. The tennis pro at the American Club donated over 60 old tennis balls and another group donated two bags of fresh sand. They prepared the balls by cutting a hole in them, then the kids filled them with a little sand, taped the hole and covered them with a balloon. Some of the boys were more interested in juggling then making the balls and some of the girls were more interested in making balls then juggling. Things quickly turned into a state I like to call, organized chaos. At first, I would help all the kids stretch the balloons around the tennis balls, which was not an easy task. Two of the older boys saw that the line for fitting tennis balls into balloons was beginning to back up, stopped juggling and offered to help.

When it was time to go, the musholla was a mess. There was sand everywhere, and everyone hadn’t had a chance to make their juggling balls. I sat all the kids down, and naturally they divided the room in half by gender. I talked to the kids about sharing. I told them that we didn’t have time to make juggling balls for everybody, but if one of their friends wanted to juggle, what should they do. As if they were reading a teleprompter, they all shouted “Penjum!”(Share!). There were several kids who couldn’t stop juggling, even when I was talking to them and they were looking directly at me. So I took this opportunity to teach them about the “Tada!” I gave everyone who wanted a chance to come up in front of the group and juggle. I told them it didn’t matter if they juggled one scarf or nine balls, it wasn’t what they did, it was how they did it. The first brave boy jumped up and juggled very well for somebody who just learned and ended with a explosive, “Tada!” The other kids all clapped, hooted and hollered and the boys smile spread across his face like I’d never seen before. He sat down and a few other boys got up to perform finishing with tadas just as beautiful as the first. I ask some of the girls if they were interested in standing up, and they weren’t. Trying to take the pressure off of any individual, I ask all the girls to stand up and juggle together. They all stood and a few of them juggled, but they sure styled with pride. The boys all clapped for the girls, and then I asked the boys to do the same. They did! In fact, the only thing they didn’t do was stop juggling, even while they were styling! We cleaned up the circus equipment and packed it all away in my trunk and then gathered together in the middle of the room. I like to end class with a group cheer. Today we all put our hands in the middle of the circle and on the count of three cheered, “Go Circus!”

As the kids were leaving, I asked if there was anybody interested in helping me clean the musholla, since it was very messy and I didn’t want to leave a mess for one of the adults to have to tend to once we left. An overwhelming number of boys and girls volunteered, so they all got brooms and swept the sand outside, shook the rug that was on the floor, even took the small chairs that were in the corners and wiped them off outside. Before we could leave, the other members of Yayasan Emmanuel needed to give out the flood relief packages that they’ve put together for the kids. I asked if there was anything I could do to help and there wasn’t, so I took the opportunity to teach some of the kids that weren’t able to join us in the class how to juggle outside. Many of the kids from class were outside playing with the juggling balls, and when they saw me working with the new kids, several of them offered to loan their juggling balls to the others. One of the girls was very protective of her juggling balls, and when she was done with them, stuffed them down the front of her shirt. One of the other kids from class saw this and reminded her, “kamu harus penjum!” (You have to share!) And she quickly changed attitudes and began showing the others how to juggle and lending them out, never taking her eyes off them, but sharing none the less.

The village is in pretty bad shape. They have lost 18 homes in the last few weeks to the ocean. One of the children told a story of where her house used to be, and how it was now covered in waves. There was a large field outside the kampung, which used to be used to play soccer and give the kids a place to run around. It was now filled with 18 inches of water. The small area of mud and dirt in front was covered in puddles and litter. Before we left, one of the children asked me, “aren’t you afraid of that dog?”, pointing to the stray dog who would snarl at the goats and cats if they came near. I said, “No, I’m not afraid of dogs. At my house we have many dogs.” She said, “But you don’t understand, that dog is very mean and bites us if we have food or get too near.” And I changed my answer, “well, I don’t like dogs like that either!” After all the flood packages had been passed out, we waved goodbye and said, “sampai Kamis depan!”(See you next Thursday!)


On Saturday, we began our circus integration program, where international students from JIS and Indonesian students living at the OMC House learn together, fail and succeed together and have fun together! This project is closest to my heart here, because I believe so strongly in the importance of teaching our youth to see people for who they are and not for what they look like, where they come from or what language they speak. I started the day nervous, not knowing how many students would show up at all. As it turned out, there were about 13 Indonesian kids and 8 international kids, including one of the JIS teachers. Mr. Hara, who has also been attending Circus Club. When everybody came in, I asked everybody to introduce themselves to every one in the room. After introductions, I gathered everyone up in a circle to talk about what we were going to do. This was the first class where language became an issue. I had to keep reminding myself to say things in both Indonesian and English, because many of the International students didn’t speak much Indonesian. We played a few focus games to develop an environment of creation and teamwork and then we played “the name and action game”. Everyone was to say their name and do a large gesture along with it, and then the rest of the group repeated their name and action. This allowed everyone to hear each others names again as well as break the ice by goofing around!

We started out class with some open juggling time. Almost everyone had been to circus class either at JIS or at the OMC house at least once, so the students who’d yet to learn things were quickly assisted by other students. I walked around and tried to get to know each of the students a little bit as well as give them a few pointers on what ever skill they were learning. It was at this point when I learned that all but three of the OMC “kids” were actually university students! They have all grown up in the OMC house and many of them are getting ready to graduate from college and move out. These young adults from the OMC house are really a testament to the great work that the One More Chance house is doing. You can tell from their faces and their attitudes how much love and care they’ve all been given. They are friendly, polite, excited and generally happy people. To know where they started, on the street, from broken homes, abusive homes, or no homes at all. It really puts a huge smile on my face to know how these young adults have really been given “one more chance” to live happy and healthy lives.

After a little while of open circus, we moved into partner juggling. I told everyone to find a partner of somebody that they didn’t know. To introduce themselves, tell their age, and the degree that their getting in university (if they were still in high school, the degree they think they want to get in university.) This took a few minutes and when they were finished I showed them a few partner tricks and let them practice together while I walked around and gave them individual ideas on how to succeed with what they were trying to do. After partner juggling, we started with some basic partner acrobatics. Everyone loved this part of class. In fact, three of the OMC girls came up to me and told me, “You know, we enjoy juggling, but we LOVE acrobatics!” This was a really great moment for me as a teacher to be given such a gift as a student telling you they LOVE what you’re teaching them. After the acrobatic unit, I gave every body about 15 minutes of free time, during which the three girls who loved acrobatics were practicing their back walkovers. I gave them a few stretches that they could do to help their back flexibility and they were very excited to continue partner stretching as I moved on to help other students. The end of class came, we said our good byes and our see ya next times and everyone went home.

What I was most pleased with the entire afternoon was the sound-scape of the room. People were laughing, clapping, cheering and screaming for each other. They were laughing when they didn’t succeed and encouraging each other when they did. There was no pressure to “get it right” and we were able to create such a great vibe in the room that I believe everyone went home feeling great about the day and more importantly great about themselves!

I can’t wait to start a new week and see where this next week takes me!