Dear Friend and Family,
Gwen and I have had an exciting and productive first week in Cairo. After settling into our apartment and creating a new show, we quickly set out for our first stop at St. Andrew’s School. St. Andrew’s is an interdenominational church that provides free schooling to anyone in Cairo that needs it. St. Andrew’s and all the schools we are visiting on this trip are dedicated to providing education for refugees from Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Congo, Somalia, and more, Christian and Muslim alike. These refugees are unable to attend schools with Egyptian children due to the extreme racism against blacks living in Cairo, and the fact that a lot of them are illegal residents not registered with UNHCR (United Nations High Commission of Refugees).
It’s hard for me to grasp the circumstances these refugees face. Some of them chose to come to Cairo for a better life, while others were forced to flee their homeland. Most of them have come here only knowing their native tribal language and now have to cope with the stress of joining a foreign education system. I can’t imagine coming to a huge city, not knowing the language, and then on top of that, having to face racism everyday. The stress these children face on a daily bases is unfathomable.
Our job on this trip is to provide the space and time for children to simply be children. At St. Andrew’s School we performed two shows and lead five workshops. The workshops consist of song, rhythm, dance, and silly theater exercises. In one of the workshops with the younger kids, ages 6-9, we lead them through a theater exercise in which you sculpt a classmate like clay, making them into statues of varying gesture and emotion. The kids found so much joy in this game that they were perfecting the slightest details right down to a strand of hair and how clothing was laying on the body. Also, we taught them a song that goes, “I said a boom chick a boom”. Afterwards, you could hear them singing it all over school during recess and while they were in other classes. If they saw us around in between classes, they would come up to us and make sure they were singing the song correctly.
At the end of a workshop with the teenagers of St. Andrew’s we asked them to share something with us, like a song or dance or anything else they wanted. They ended up teaching us this great song they sing in South Sudan that goes:
Antimora, timora, timora
Antimora Michael Jackson
Simba la la lalala x 4
Simba, simba, simbo
A day later, we learned from another young person that Antimora is actually the words, And Tomorrow. They’re singing English words! He also told us that the song came from the Congo, and that Simba is written on the tea boxes from there. Amazing! They also taught us a fun dance to do with a partner. I’m very thankful that they were open to sharing part of themselves with us. I think our time with people here will be much more powerful as a shared interaction, rather then just us giving a show and teaching a workshop.
On Friday we had a long wonderful workshop with two refugee adult drama groups called Camara (Moon) and Synodos (Working Together). This workshop was extremely high energy and so much fun. We also worked with another drama group who is putting on Romeo and Juliet. Gwen helped a little with the fight choreography between Tybalt and Mercucio in the play. Gwen was explaining the posturing and character logic between the two characters. One of the actors had a natural intensity and physicality about him while the other, a more shy and artistic person, needed some extra direction. We found out later that the two men playing the characters were actually from two opposing tribes in Sudan. The actor that had the physical intensity comes from a tribe known for their strong fighters while the other actor came from a tribe known for their intellect. Suddenly, directing these two men in fight choreography with generations of intense history behind them seemed uncanny. We are here to teach and perform our show, but we have just as much, if not more, to learn from everyone here.
I hope this email finds you well and happy. I hope you look forward to our updates from Cairo while we’re here. If you don’t wish to receive these emails anymore just let me know.
Thank you for all your support. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the encouragement of our friends and family. Please send emails when you can we can always use the love.
Elisa
Project Egypt
Clowns Without Borders
www.clownswithoutborders.org
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