March 18, 2008

The week started out with a bang with the children from Rawamungun. They arrived at JIS on time and ready to play! We introduced two new skills to the kids as well as practicing two old skills. Class started out by breaking into three groups. A few JIS seniors headed up the spinning plate and flower stick groups, and I worked with the kids on the rolling globe. At first all the kids were very timid about the globe. “It’s a giant blue ball and you want us to stand on it?” After I demonstrated, I still hadn’t won many of them over. In fact, it wasn’t until one of the youngest girls wondered over from a different group and asked if she could try that the others decided, it might not be as scary as they’d imagined. The little girl, just barely four years old, stood in front of me, held on to my wrists and hoped up onto the globe. I held the globe still with my knees and she stood up straight with confidence and a great big smile. It is at this point when I generally tell kids to walk like a penguin. Whoever, I didn’t know the word in Indonesian for “Penguin”. I thought quickly how I was going to explain this to her, and then it hit me, “Happy Feet!” the movie about dancing penguins. She then started bobbing up and down and giggling on top of the globe. When her turn was finished, I reminded her to style and she let out a great big, “Tada!” The group of older kids all cheered and applauded. When I asked who wanted to go next, every single hand shot up in the air.
While I taught globe, the other two groups were lead by JIS seniors and they did a fantastic job keeping the kids calm, yet excited! And, at the end of the day, the children were learning the skills faster than I’d expected them to at such a young age. At the end of class, we broke up into four groups and taught them a simple introduction to juggling called, the “Scarf Machine”. I broke the kids into groups based on their age and gave the older three groups to the JIS seniors to work with. I took the youngest group, knowing that they’d have the most trouble with this exercise. After we spent a little time learning the trick, each group performed for the others. It was really great to see each group jump up to the stage when it was their turn, without hesitation or bashfulness. And, what was even greater to see was how they just had a blast performing for each other. It didn’t matter if they did the trick perfectly or didn’t catch one scarf, they finished their time on stage with bright, gleaming “tadas” and their peer audience gave them great response to their enthusiasm.

We ended class with a song, which has become tradition with this group. They sang a song called, “Hari ini Aku Senang!”(Today, I’m happy!). It was a great way to end class, as all the kids are cheerfully singing and clapping. Even my high school students were clapping along to the song and having a great time.

Wednesday was our JIS Circus Club, and we had a very large turn out this week. Around 15 kids showed up and it was great to see the ones who’d been there since the beginning, jump right into the teacher position and show the new kids how to do all the stuff. All the kids had a blast and two more students began to learn how to pass juggling rings. This is a great step for them on their skill ladder and I was very proud. Even the new students were learning the beginning steps quickly and having a great time while they were doing it. I try to keep this club as laid back and relaxed as possible, so we play music over the stereo and kids are allowed to leave when they need to for sports and other after school activities that don’t start immediately after school. I think this club is really serving its purpose of supporting JIS students interest in circus and its also facilitating the creation of some great circus teachers!

Thursday was another early morning. I piled in the jeep along with the members of Yayasan Emmanuel and headed up north to Cilincing. The big event is coming up soon and today as spent preparing the kids for this event.

YE will celebrate World Water Week at Cilincing on March 30, 2008 starting at 9am. For directions and any questions, please contact Mita, msirait@yewaterprogram.org.

The kids are all very excited about the performance and the closer it gets, the more details we tell them, which excites them even more! Today, I introduced a few new circus props to the kids, and reviewed all the previous things we’d learned. I introduced the walking globe, box juggling and ring juggling. Some of the kids were very interested in trying the new props and others were more interested in sticking with the skills they’d learned already. I had a blast watching the kids practice and giving them pointers on different technique that they could change to excel more quickly.



After the skills portion of the class, we practiced our clown acts for the March 30th event. The boys have become more and more specific about their actions and connecting with the audience. And, the girls have stopped being so shy and embarrassed about being goofy and they’ve really started to make the group of people poking their heads through the doors laugh. It was a nice moment, when I watched one the Ibus (mothers) watch through the glass of the musholla as the girls practiced their clown act. The Ibu started out with a scowl on her face, watching almost in disapproval. Then as the girls started to bump into each other and get into the slapstick parts of the act, she started laughing a little, but not too much. By the end of the clown act, I think that she was clapping and laughing louder than any of the kids who were watching.

At the end of the class, I sat everybody down and we talked about the show. I asked if any body was going to be too shy to perform in front of a large crowd. In the boy’s class, they laughed and screamed, “No way!” I expected a much different reaction from the girl’s class, but to my surprise, they all said they were ready and excited to perform in front of people and as long as they could practice again next week, they’d be fine! I told them that next week we’d have class on Wednesday since Thursday is a holiday and then we concluded class with our usual, “Go Circus!” huddle. Some of the girls helped my roll my globe out to the jeep and two of the boys carried the trunk for me. We are all very excited about the event coming up at the end of the month and I know the kids will be fantastic!


We had class with the OMC kids on Sunday this week, because some of them couldn’t make it on Saturday. We started out class with our usual warm up and stretching. I introduced the splits to these kids today. Some were more excited about it than others, but everyone tried their best and didn’t moan too much about the stretches being uncomfortable. I explained to the students about the difference between a bad pain and an uncomfortable stretch. I told them that pain was bad, uncomfortable was normal when stretching. I think they all understood because through out the rest of the stretches when we’d lower into a deep stretch, they just took deep breathes and stretched as deep as they could. After the stretching we worked on our basic tumbling acrobatics. Luckily, JIS has some great gymnastic equipment that they’ve offered us usage of. We worked on backwards somersaults and cartwheels, as well as continuing our practice of handstands.

Then we moved onto partner acrobatics. I was most impressed when one of the youngest girls volunteered to base another girl in a two high (shoulder stand)! The older girl was hesitant, but urged by her younger partner and the rest of the group; she climbed to the shoulders and was able to stand comfortably for nearly 30 seconds. When she came down, I asked the girl on the bottom if she was okay, and she replied, “Siapa lagi?”(Who’s next?) I also introduced group pyramids today. Sadly, my camera was out of battery so we couldn’t capture any of them in pictures, but the group did a great job working together, spotting each other and succeeding at some intermediate level pyramids!


After the pyramids we had open circus skills and everyone worked very hard. There were a few girls who still hadn’t learned how to juggle, who spent the entire time, in front of the fan, juggling. By the end of class, they had definitely improved!

This trip has been such a wonderful experience for me so far and I can’t believe it is more than half way through! I can’t wait for some of the groups to begin performing publicly some of the skills they’ve been learning. I know that they will be absolutely wonderful!