El Ultimo Truco (The Final Trick)

During our final week in León we were all working hard with the kids at El Barrilete to put together a routine for all skills they learnt. Each of the team worked with the kids that had chosen to perform their prop in an attempt to produce a show with 7 acts by the kids and one extra special surprise dance by the PWB team. On Monday we explained our optimistic ideas for the routines to the kids and by Wednesday it was starting to look like we had a show!

Friday was the big day and the show was everything we had hoped it would be. The kids performed brilliantly, they got to show their parents & relatives all the new skills they’d learnt and we were immensely proud to see how far they had come in just one month. Of particular note was the diabolo routine masterminded by the genius of Paddy, the hoop act engineered our very own super-dooper hooper Bea and, possibly most impressively, the way Poppy and Oihana fabricated order from chaos to create an all-singing, all-dancing routine with the Munchkins.

The final act was our dance. Now, this requires a little back-story, so bear with me here folks. During many of the outreach shows we have done we have been accompanied by 4 of the kids from El Barrilete who perform some dances, including one salsa number that has become a particular favourite of ours. We decided to get Vicente, one of the older boys who choreographs all their dances to teach us this dance with a little twist: the guys would dance the girl part and the girls would dance the guy part. With fake moustaches for the girls and lipstick for the guys we spent 5 minutes on stage relieving ourselves of what little dignity we had left. Clearly our salsa moves were not as polished as we thought they were. Nonetheless we had a great time and the crowd loved the whole thing (especially the boys dresses).

After the show it was time for the goodbye party. As you can imagine we were sad to have to say goodbye to this amazing place and it’s charming people. While our whole time here has been massively enjoyable there have been a few stand out moments;

Firstly, it has been amazing to see how people of all ages have reacted to our show. Often we are performing in the middle of the street, covered in dirt & dust and in the full sun & 35°C heat. However, all of these hardships are soon forgotten when we see everyone come from their homes to watch us perform. For many of these people this is the first and only circus show they’ll ever see and their gratitude is truly humbling.

Secondly, when we arrived at El Barrilete on our first day we found one girl, called Genesis, who wouldn’t join in with any of the games and cried for the majority of the 2 hours we were there. When we asked the teachers about her they said she was extremely shy and rarely joined in with the other kids. Over our time here we saw her change completely, by the end of our time was one of the most enthusiastic to join in and performed fantastically in the show.

Finally, every day when we arrived at El Barrilete all 50 of the kids run from their classrooms to greet us with hugs, energy and heaps of enthusiasm.

We have had such an amazing time at El Barrilete, and as a team we have improved in so many ways. The memories and friends we have collectively made here will stay with us for a lifetime. People like Amalia, who welcomed us into her home as if we were family, organised many of our outreach shows and cooked us an incredible dinner on our last night. And Edwin, our adopted team member, who excitedly showed us his city and become our good friend. And not to forget the numerous others we have met on our travels; kendamist camioneta conductors, the ladies running the market stalls, our favourite French stalker Bruno, and so many more.

However, all of this is overshadowed by the kids we have been working with. There were shining individuals like José; a natural superstar with the acrobatics. Kenya; the all rounder girl who performed in juggling, acrobatics, diabolo AND hoop. There were also those like Gabriel and Alexander, who will never be fantastic circus performers but always gave it their best, making everyone smile along the way. I am sure I speak for the whole team when I say that each and every one of the children we have had the privilege of teaching over the last 30 days has had a lasting impression on us.

After our time at El Barrilete we had a week of holiday to recover, recuperate, have a break from performing and get some “alone time”. Being the relentlessly enthusiastic people we are we decided we didn’t need any of these things so as whole team we headed off to Ometepe; a beautiful island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua hosting two volcanoes. A testimony to how well the team gets on is the fact that the whole team decided to stick together for their week off! After a whole 3 days of not performing we decided “enough was enough” and put on a show for the travellers at the hostel we were staying at. The rest of the week was spent swimming, cycling, relaxing, making friends and generally playing. A week well spent.

Over and out,

Josh – PWB Nicaragua 2015