This film was created by Les Rivera after our 4th trip to Egypt in 2008. Enjoy.

archives: New Orleans May'07

Dear Friends and Family,

There is an enormous need for laughter in Southern Louisiana and Mississippi. Yesterday, my clown partner, Elisa Lane, and I completed our nine-day tour of this stricken region and are still overwhelmed by the damage done to the infrastructure. For many, life is still a struggle, with few positive outlets or happy distractions. At the Diamond FEMA Trailer Park, a mini-city seemingly in the middle of nowhere, kids leave the site each morning for school - a brief respite from claustrophobic living conditions. Once they return to the trailer park, there is nothing for them to do. Some kids aren't even making it to school. One child told us, "I used to go to school. I liked school." We heard similar words from a preschool-aged boy while clowning at a shelter provided by Common Ground Relief.

In the latter half of our trip, we clowned at the Children's Hospital of New Orleans, following in the footsteps of our clown colleagues, Deven and Yvette. The kids got up and danced with Elisa while I played my accordion. One kid ran up on stage to become part of the action, seeming briefly to forget that his IV system was still attached. His mother rushed after him, the IV system in tow. In a place called Harvey, just outside New Orleans, we visited an elementary school for special needs children. We performed for about 200 kids as part of their Very Special Arts Festival. One boy we brought on stage during an interactive bit, loved whales. I mean, LOVED whales. He wasn't shy about his feelings either, so a good portion of our show turned into a lesson on Marine Biology. We followed his lead, gave him the stage and were totally impressed by the young guy's knowledge of mammalian sea life. The kids were such a delight to perform for. After our show they gave us wonderful hugs! -My favorite reward for clowning!

In Waveland, Mississippi, we clowned for a children's shelter and an after school program. We played in the hot spring air and cracked up around 300 people, most of whom where elementary and high school-aged. No small feat! These kids live in a community that was one of the hardest hit during the hurricane. Elisa and I made approximately 1,760 people affected by Hurricane Katrina laugh during our nine-day stay, but the truth is that these kids really need permanent services to replace programs that were lost or discontinued as a consequence of Katrina. We are happy to help where we can, but at times it is frustrating to offer only a short respite to the children and teachers who work hard everyday with very little.

Still, we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't believe that it makes a difference. One of the great challenges of clowning for children is that you're bound to encounter kids who think they're too cool to participate. In some cases they may withdraw from the group, sometimes they'll heckle you. In our show we call upon young audience members to join us on stage. We often call on the more disruptive kids to include them in the fun rather than compete for the audience’s attention. The pride they feel from being picked and then applauded by their classmates brings an instantaneous change in their behavior. These kids deserve a stage, and when they get one they are beaming and unforgettable performers.


Maggie Manzer, Scott Kip, Jim Anderson, Justin Gebhard, Jeffrey Stockbridge, Chris Morris & Yards Brewery, Cantina Los Caballitos, Margret Rooker, Bradly, Justin, everyone who came to the dance party, Emergency Communities, Deven, Selena and Yvette, Lisa Shattuck, Meret, Carolyn Gillman----thank you for all your support.

We are still encouraging donations for this trip. You can donate online at: http://www.clownswithoutborders.org/helping/index.shtml . Please remember to specify the donation is for Elisa and Gwen.

Sincerely,

Gwen Rooker

achives: New Orleans May'07

Dear Friends and Family,

Greeting from New Orleans! As many of you may already know, Southern Louisiana and Mississippi are still in a very nightmarish situation over one and a half years after the levees broke. The Lower 9th Ward, where we are staying and partnering with Emergency Communities (www.emergencycommunities.org), is in exceptionally bad condition. Only one to two houses on a block are inhabited while the rest remain in the condition they’ve been in since the flooding. No grocery stories have reopened, the eight o’clock curfew still remains, and military police are still present. Some people who weren’t addicts before are now smoking crack as means of escape. Still, the residents of the Lower 9th Ward and New Orleans have hope, and envision a better future ahead.

So far, Gwen Rooker and I have performed in elementary schools, community centers, after school programs, and the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. We held a parade in the Lower 9th Ward with the help of a local four-year old girl, her twenty-year old sister, and our new fiddle-playing friend, Mazy. Although most homes here still stand uninhabitable and empty, those residents who remain welcome our playful presence. They danced with us outside their homes until we continued on down the street.

The kids in the communities we visit laugh so hard during our shows that I’m pretty sure I lost some hearing. There’s one part of the show where Gwen makes a handkerchief disappear. The kids get so excited they shoot out of their chairs, telling her where they think the handkerchief went, and screaming with glee when she pulls it out of a child’s shirt collar.

Gwen and I have another five days to make the situation here a little brighter so you’ll see another email update from us. Until then I hope this email finds you healthy and in good spirits.

Elisa Lane

Archives: Haiti Nov'06

In November I went to Haiti with Clowns Without Borders members Tim Cunningham and Sarah Foster. The first leg of our trip started out in Torbeck, a small town in the South Western part of the island. The heat and humidity made every day a struggle...a struggle to not only perform or play with kids but to even eat three meals a day and do anything other than lay on the cool tile floor. I came down with a crazy virus which lasted a week giving me sharp pains in my chest with every inhale and exhale. The deeper the breath the deeper the pain. The only reason I pushed through the pain for performances was because of the satisfaction I received from hearing the kids laugh. They made it all completely worth it.

Some of the kids in Torbeck remembered the show Tim did on the last trip. They performed the bits they remembered and even coached us by showing us bits they were creating. There was one day we were playing with the kids on the beach, teaching them juggling and practicing "two highs", where on person stands on another's shoulders. There was a group of maybe fifteen kids with us all playing together. At one point two brothers came up. We had spent a lot of time with the brothers previous to this day walking up and down the beach and they kindly collected shells for us to keep. But when the boys walked up to the group of kids playing they other kids started making fun of them because they didn't have pants. Their family was so poor they couldn't afford to buy their kids pants so instead they dressed them in long shirts. Well, the other kids thought this was good reason to poke fun at them. I found this to be fascinating considering all the other kids came from poor families as well. It's interesting to me that at this young age these kids caught onto the idea of class and that in their world there is adistinction between them and the "poor kids".

We visited a children's section of a hospital to clown for the children and their family members. Most of the kids were sick from malnutrition, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. A mother walked her young girl over so we could see her. It's hard to say the age of the child because malnutrition often causes the kids to look younger then they are. Her mother lifted her dress so we could see her belly. Her stomach was larger then a basket ball which clearly causes her a lot of pain. She cried and screamed until Tim blew some bubbles for her. For a split second her attention was with us instead of on her pain. Our second visit to the hospital about a week later she wasn't there anymore. Talking to a doctor we were with we found out she probably had Hepatitis B which caused her liver to stop functioning. He said that the hospital didn't have the tools to treat her and if they did the family may not have been able to pay the medical expenses. [In Haiti families have to pay for their treatment before they get it. If they don't have the money they don't get treatment.] He continue to say that she probably would have survived if she was flown to Port Au Prince for the treatment.

The second part of our trip was in Port Au Prince. At first we were very nervous go because of all the stories we heard about kidnapped foreigners and riots getting out of hand. There was one day we were on our way to do a few shows but our host, Fanfan, realized we were driving into a political protest. He turned the truck around to wishing to take any chances and took up back to our gated hotel where we stayed the rest of the day. We never heard that the protest turned into anything bad so we would have probably been okay but it's better safe then sorry. When we would perform for kids in Port Au Prince they were extremely appreciative.

archives: Egypt Dec'06

Dear Friends and Family,

Hopefully this email finds you well and happy. Gwen and I have been thriving beyond belief in Cairo. The past week marked the end of this tour of Project Egypt, but I can honestly say we went out with a bang. Over the coarse of the first two weeks, word spread that the clowns were in town for a limited time, causing a flood of requests for shows and workshops from all corners of Cairo. We worked ourselves silly trying to accommodate for everyone, but sadly we had to turn some schools down and even missed a workshop because we spread ourselves so thin. All said and done, we performed for over 1,660 children and adults, and provided workshops to 880 students!

We returned to the Sudanese Community Development Program Education Center to perform two shows. The week prior our shows were canceled due to a flood in the courtyard. The first show we had to shorten on the spot because the little kids got so excited that they mobbed us. They wouldn’t give us space, and order could not be restored! The teachers tried everything to keep them back but with no success. They would not be satisfied until they were practically on top of us and all our equipment. Now we know the dangers rock stars face with their crazed fans. The older group, however, was calm, collected, and enjoyed our performance thoroughly.

A few of the other refugee schools we visited were Central School, Cannossian School and St. Joseph’s school. We were also able to return to two places we visited on our last trip here in February. One is an all girls orphanage and the other is a school for disabled students located in a poorer part of Cairo called Ezbet El Nakhl. Children at both of these institutions remembered us from last time, letting us know by imitating parts from our last show. Performing for children familiar with us is an extra bonus because they are comfortable with us from the moment we enter the stage. Sometimes, with audiences that don’t know us, it takes the first five minutes of them sizing us up to decide that we are okay. Luckily, so far, we have won the affection of all the children we have come into contact with.

We are sad to leave our new and old friends in Cairo, but we also know that we will return in less than a year to continue and further the progress we’ve made so far. We have also received many invitations to Southern Sudan and hope that some day we will be able to make it there too. We are so grateful to all our friends and family for providing financial and emotional support. We also thank you for not minding our lengthy email updates.

Regards,

Elisa Lane
Project Egypt
www.clownswithoutborders.org

archives: Egypt Nov. '06

Here's a post by my clown partner, Gwen Rooker----

Dear Friends and Family,

Another amazing week has passed for us, here in Cairo, and so it is our great pleasure to share with you the outstanding clown adventures that have transpired in this short time. The first school we visited this week is named The Modern Education Center, it too is a school for Sudanese and other refugees, and the teachers and students there have made a deeply positive impression on us. When we got there, we were also happy to see a familiar face. Isaac, the Sudanese actor playing Tybalt in the AUC production of Romeo and Juliet, is substitute teaching/volunteering at the school. We met with the principle of the school, Mr. Mark, who took us on a quick tour of the classes before we went out into the yard to clown for about 270-300 students. Elisa and I were impressed yet again by how organized everyone was, and when the students sang us a song welcoming their visitors, (wow, that’s us!), my face warmed with pleasure and awe. After sweet giggles and curious stares concluded our show, we had a very informative conversation with Mr. Mark, about how the Modern Education Center came to be, what challenges face the school, and about some of the other Sudanese schools barely surviving in Cairo.

He told us that the school facility has been donated by a religious organization, (although the school is not religious,) and that the organization checks in from time to time to see that their property is indeed a functioning school. The money, however, that covers the costs of running the school, including paying water and power bills, paying teacher’s salaries, buying teaching materials, and much more, comes from the Sudanese/African refugee community itself. UNHCR helps some, but this money only covers about one month of the school’s total annual costs. They’ve applied for other types of grants, but without success. Money from parents also helps a little. They can’t help much, though, because almost every cent they earn goes to the exorbitantly high cost of renting apartments from predatory landlords. (Several Sudanese have told us that what they pay for one month’s rent, an Egyptian national pays for one year. I believe this is true, and that for many Sudanese, this injustice is the most financially crippling trap they face.) When the school’s funds run dangerously low, teachers work for less pay, or sometimes they work for free. No matter what obstacles there are, the community makes it work. That’s strength.


We taught five workshops at the Modern Education Center, to over 200 of the most fantastic kids, with the help of some wonderful teachers who translated for us. (The school emphasizes learning English, hoping the kids will eventually be relocated to an English speaking county/US, Canada, England, Australia. Also, we were told that English is the official language of Sudan. I had no idea! I suspect there is a hope that a unifying language will help overcome disparate tribes.) So, we taught the children our games and our songs, and they in returned shared with us their songs and dances, their bright innocent faces, and their strength.

Our final day at the Center, Elisa and I had an educational experience we won’t forget. We hope it inspires you too. Some of the teachers asked us to teach them all the songs that we knew, so that they could in turn share more songs with the kids. So, for about two hours after class, we sat together, singing songs into an old tape recorder and writing down the words. We taught them the songs of our own youth; songs like, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider”, and a beautiful South African song Elisa knows and that all the kids really like. We even taught them the “ABCs”. (This was a great help to the teachers, who struggle with the correct pronunciation of our alphabet themselves. They told us that B and P are especially difficult for them to differentiate. Yeah, when you think about it, that is tough!) All these children’s songs are so completely taken for granted within the confines of our busy, “grown-up” lives back home. Here, though, these songs are precious lessons about caring, wisdom, and the English language. We learned that anyone who knows a song has a gift to offer this world. What a sweet, important lesson!

While we were at the Modern Education Center, we made plans with the principal of another nearby Sudanese school, called the SCDP (Sudanese Centre Development Program), to visit and perform there. This school was also awesome, but it stands out in particular because of how packed into the classrooms all the students were. Principal Deng took us to meet each class, and we had to squeeze just to get inside the small rooms. The school has two shifts everyday in order accommodate all the kids attending there. Small children go in the morning, and teenagers go in the afternoon. When we returned the next day, our plans to perform the clown show were thwarted because water had flooded their small schoolyard, (Egypt has some troubles keeping water flowing nicely, just like Philadelphia.) Drats! These schools face so many daily challenges. We’ll be going back to try again, though, don’t worry. Elisa and I are clowns on a mission.

We hope you are doing well and have enjoyed this update. If you don’t wish to receive emails from us just let us know.

We are still encouraging donations for this work. As much as we love eating 35-cent bean sandwiches everyday, we’d like to step it up to the $2 chicken special! You’re contributions keep us fed and energized so that we may continue bringing smiles to children’s faces. You can donate online at: http://www.clownswithoutborders.org/helping/index.shtml


Sincerely,
Gwen Rooker
Project Egypt
www.clownswithoutborders.org

archives: Egypt October '06- letter of intent

Dear friends and family,

We are thrilled to announce that we are returning to Cairo, Egypt to bring more laughter to kids and adults alike. In February we performed 14 shows in schools, orphanages, and a cancer hospital during our two-week visit. In all we reached about 500 children and even some innocent bystanding adults. We made many wonderful friends who encouraged us to return to continue the work. Thanks to our physical and metaphysical angels, we will be in Cairo for three weeks, starting November 17th.

On this trip, we will be focusing on the Sudanese refugee population living in Cairo. There are currently 30,000 Sudanese refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) living in Cairo. This number, however, does not reflect the actual number of refugees actually residing in Cairo, which is estimated to be above 500,000. These refugees fled their war-torn country and are now dealing with poverty, overcrowding, racial discrimination and political uncertainty on a day-to-day basis. Through clown and theater workshops, we will provide emotional support to these communities, as well as a venue for telling their stories. On this trip we are planning to reach 1,000 or more Sudanese refugees.

Also this trip, we are teaming up with a well-established organization called Clowns Without Borders (www.clownswithoutborders.org). It is similar to the better-known humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, in that participants bring their skills to the most troubled parts of the world. CWB has been visiting places like Sudan, South Africa, Kosavo, Mexico, and Haiti since 1993. To find out more about them please check out the website.

Because of a generous donation we have the funds needed for our airfare to Cairo, but we are still trying to raise money. In order to implement our project’s goal of reaching as many people as possible through performances and by making workshops more accessible, we have a goal of raising $1,000 between now and November 17th. We have been offered free accommodations while in Cairo, but still need to raise money for food and local travel. We would also like to take1,000 clown noses with us to give to children. We are asking for you to participate with us in our goal by generously sending a tax-deductible donation. Your money will help brighten the lives of many children and adults in Cairo.

With every donation of $25 or more, the donor will receive a genuine clown nose of the same quality and inspiration as will be given to the children. Yippee!

Please make your checks out to Clowns without Borders with Egypt in the memo line and send them to:

Clowns Without Borders
967 N. American St.
Philadelphia, PA 19123

If you are receiving this email it also means that you will be included in our frequent email updates while we are in Cairo. If you are not interested in receiving this emails just let me know.

Thank you kindly in advance,

Elisa Lane and Gwen Rooker