This week has been full of shows, work and visits! The week started with a mystery, and this time didn’t involve a “What did Paddy do?” but “Where are Karen’s shoes?” Nobody saw them, nobody took them… We were totally clueless until Ramon, the guard, who is always making sure that we have enough water and are safe, emptied the bins and found them there! (It might not sound very exciting but life in San Marcos is quite quiet…)
So, life in San Marcos is quiet and the village is pretty small so it’s not a surprise that we started getting lifts from locals, like the day that Josh and I got a lift from an old rustic cart pulled by a horse at the same time that Paddy and Bea were getting into the car of the owner of the restaurant where all the cool people hangout (actual words on the restaurant’s menu… not just because we hang out in there…)
We had a full power visit to Managua, with three shows on Thursday, two in the morning. One of them fitting right on time with the schools celebration of the “World Down’s Syndrome day”, where everyone was wearing fun socks and even unmatching shoes!
The show in the afternoon was in “La Mascota” (the pet), a children’s hospital, kids and parents loved our show and kept asking for more and more acts.
On Sunday we had our last show in the morning and La Casa Filtro’s visit (Filter House), one of the first steps for the kids to get to Los Quinchos, our main partner organisation here, in San Marcos. The team gave a very entertaining workshop so the kids could have a taste of circus, we also had the chance to try hammock making, one of the things that kids can learn there.
Liz, our host in Managua, was amazing, we have to thank her for organising all the shows, taking us around, letting us invade her house, introducing us her very funny son Ryan and even taking us to eat ice cream!
And because the team is awesome and very hard workers, we had a full power weekend too, filled with workshops and visits of the stilt walkers from Leon and La Escuela de Circo y Mimo (Circus and Mime School) from Granada. The kids and us were inspired by their shows and their workshops.
There’s only one week left in Los Quinchos and if saying goodbye to the kids in Leon was sad, I don’t even want to think how it will be when the last day comes here… a mix of emotions though because the excitement of the new project starts kicking in too!
The routines that I saw the kids practising for the show are looking very nice already, hoop’s acts are going to be Massive, the hat routine looks so professional, juggling balls funny and neat, poi looks so cool, the ones doing acro, unicyle and skipping are practising so hard and its looking great, the little girls doing contact are very sweet and the dancers have created beautiful moves.
The team is working very hard and I am very proud of them, they still have energy to make jokes all the time and pull some killer moves always up for a dance!
One of my favourite moments to share with them is the sharing circles. We have them every week and every time we choose a different object to use as a “talking power-tool”. Rules are simple, if you don’t have the object, you don’t talk.. some of them have been: a pointy hat made out of the rest of my birthday’s pinata along with Bea’s heart-shaped sunglasses, a bottle of water (always very handy), a tiny doll shoe keyring, two juggling rings and a tea bag balancing on a spoon. It seems that having these funny “talking power-tools” make the sharing circle feel less heavy hearted and helps to pull out a smile.
On Sunday we had an epic dinner at Zelinda, the founder of Los Quinchos. We had three amazing ladies cooking for us, two Italians and one Nicaraguan. We lost the count of how many dishes and desserts we had, but they were all amazing. Zelinda told us the story of why Los Quinchos has that name, there is even a song about the story behind called Quinchos Barrilete
(Barrilete means kite in Nicaragua)
So, I am loving Nicaragua, the people who we are lucky to meet, the sun, all the beautiful flowers, the cute dogs, cats and horses that cross our paths, our holidays in Ometepe island, the food, I really, really like gallopinto (rice and beans), the very cool forms of transport like camionetas, pick up cars, open trucks, our show, I can’t get tired of our show, we have done 23 so far, every time it gets funnier and better… the kids and of course my team!
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