By Summer Shapiro
This morning 9 of us woke up in Casa Argentina, a hostel in Xela, not knowing precisely where Patricia (our bus) or the rest of our familia was. Yesterday, after an epic night of Patricia overheating, us pushing her up a 45% grade, then walking 2 miles up hill in the dark after her once she got going, turning her around, and then parking in an empty lot (aka trash yard) in the small town of San Rafael, we decided to split into smaller groups and take public transportation to Xela. Xela is where we are to meet with the women and children of a shelter from domestic violence. However, with Patricia’s new prognosis of “who knows what!” 9 of us find ourselves in Casa Argentina, Xela separate from the group and our beloved Patricia. The second group to arrive at Casa Argentina never showed up and this morning I knew we were going to have to just keep on moving forward.
We headed off to the shelter on foot and found that the address we had was for the office. The women and children were not there. To make a long story short, we met a lovely woman named Katerina who heads off programming at the shelter and we found the women and children. Caterina oriented us with the rules and regulations of volunteering at the shelter and how to be sensitive to the various emotional and physical conditions the children would be in. After reading over the orienting materials we shared with Katerina our experiences with working with various recovering communities. I have done theater with incarcerated women in a San Francisco country jail and performed clown at a boarding school of rehabilitating adolescents and teenagers, and Blitz shared that he had worked with children recovering from abuse as well. With that we entered the shelter.
I knew it would be very important to treat these children as perfect, whole, and complete just the way they are. It is counter to our mission and their healing if we tip toe around them for fear of offense – for they will be left with an experience of distance and separation. It was so exciting to see that as soon as we entered the shelter the kids swarmed us with smiles and excitement. They were ready to play and communicate. They were so vibrantly alive it was fantastic!
I took a minute to draft out a schedule of activities for the afternoon. At this point we had none of our planned tools: instruments, other bus mates, etc. I huddled with Blitz and showed him my plan. We smiled at each other and resolved to make this the best, most exciting time, filled with play and community. The activities were set to start right after lunch. Blitz and I were invited to eat an all-vegetarian meal in the bright and chipping green painted dining room. Blitz and I were surrounded by adorable faces. They smashed in around us on to the benches in this cool cement room. We ate together while Blitz requested they speak to me a lot in Spanish so that I will learn. My Spanish is getting better. We had so much fun with the kids. We taught them cultural sounds and expressions for something that tastes good from Japan and from the US. We put magic dust in out food before we ate it and we smiled and giggled endlessly.
Suddenly, as lunch was ending the rest of our crew started pilling into the shelter. They came carrying instruments and smiling faces! We had no idea when we were going to see them, and now here they were!!! I quickly briefed everyone on our plan. Meanwhile the kids ran around doing their chores. Once they were finished we piled into another cement room, this one with bluish green walls, and Blitz began the tale of Patricia. He told the tale of our journey and that we have come all the way from around the world (United States, Japan, Britain, New York, Iran…) to be with them. We played music in the background and used our bodies to tell the stories of us pushing Patricia up the hill. The kids got into it too. We introduced our selves and then had the kids get up on stage and introduce themselves, share their favorite animal, and make the sound of it. It was fabulous. We told them that we were there to play together, learn together, and share with them that they can create themselves to be who ever they want and fulfill their wildest dreams.
Ryan and I did some clowning with audience participation. We transitioned into an all-inclusive face painting session where we painted the kids to be their favorite animals. We let them paint us as well and then we piled out into the central yard (a cement flat in the center of the small dormitories, meal room, and play room). It had lines of rope with clothes hanging across them through the length of the yard. We slid the cloths up the line to make room for the games we were about to play.
We played red light green light, and had kids running shrieking through the space, painted as tigers, and rhinoceros, and lions, and ponies, and mariposas. We played the Magic Bag/Bulsa De Magico – where each kid got to get inside the bag and make movements and sounds like their animal. The element of performance in front of the rest of the group was essential. This way they could learn how to be who they are or who they want to express themselves as in front of others.
Blitz then taught them two songs teaching English, Japanese, and Spanish with each. We then circled up and I lead a movement session where we followed each other in big and loud expressive movements. We ended in a circle all together and exhaled magic into the center as we set it free into the sky.
Blitz went around and asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was. They said things like “sharing”, “my dreams can come true”, “being a lion”, “new friends”… and on and on. Their feedback really showed us that we fulfilled what we can to do. It was sad to leave them. One girl cried in Sam’s arms because she didn’t want us to leave. It is difficult to come into a community, get to know people very quickly and intimately, have them open up in our presence and then have to leave. We have started brainstorming how we can honor and benefit this shelter and the rest of the communities we have been touching and continue to touch after we are physically gone. We already have pictures and graphics to post on our website for a budding ecotrouismo community out in the bush of southern Mexico. When we return we will amp up our website to benefit the communities we have touched.
The day was fulfilling and moving. We left Xela quickly to get back to Patricia where she was parked about 1 hour down the mountain. It turns out Patricia is parked outside the mayor’s office and municipal building of Colombo, Guatemala. We were on our way to fulfill the last minute and very synchronistic request of the mayor to perform for the entire city for his Christmas Eve feast. We got in our vans excited and curious at what the next two days would hold.
Thank you to everyone who has made this work possible. These children were truly happy today and have been given permission to continue to play. Thank you for making such a difference for people you have never even met. You are big people to have such a big commitment to humanity.
Thank you.
Summer Shapiro & TEMA Familia
