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.
