Los Quinchos and San Marcos – a Week of Firsts

We arrived late last Sunday to our home in San Marcos: The ‘BumBum Cultural Centre.

..That’s what its called.. no really!

After a lovely week off the team are tired but enthusiastic to start a new project.

Unsure of what to expect we found our accommodation at the Centre to be pleasant and clean. We were greeted by a friendly security guard called Ramon and some excited kids.

The first night we performed a show for the kids that we will be teaching here. The show was in the Osteria Italiana – a restaurant where some of the Los Quinchos kids work. I think the best part of the show was at the end when we got kids to “enseñeme” (show me) their tricks. That’s when we saw how awesome they are already!

Los Quinchos is essentially an orphanage run by an Italian lady called Zelinda.

The kids who are fortunate enough to be part of the programme at Los Quinchos live on a farm (la finca) just outside of San Marcos. They are provided with food, accommodation, schooling, access to psychologists, educators, a giant library and of course a loving family.

They all go to local schools but have extra curriculum activities dependent on their needs.

The kids here are aged 7-20, and mainly boys. In the last few years a girls finca (Casa Yahosca) has also been set up so we get to teach everyone here.

The team were pleasantly surprised to see the high skill level of the kids in circus. It’s the third year that PWB has worked here and the kids clearly practice outside of hours. 

Already we have kids doing 2-highs, sitting on shoulders on a unicycle, multi hula hoop tricks and most can juggle 3 balls. This has excited us as teachers because we feel we can really improve the kids skills. It also means we can focus more on choreography, theatre and clowning to enhance their existing circus skills

After a confusing couple of days in which we were unsure of where we were teaching or who was in charge of the kids/us, we took it upon ourselves to just arrive at the Finca with some kit ready to teach. As with many things in Nicaragua, this technique seemed to work. Scheduling a start time or waiting for a person in charge never seems to work. Just do it.

We now have a regular routine of teaching in the mornings and afternoons 3 days in the week.

On the weekend however, is when we get to have the most fun (oops, I mean work!).

That’s when all the girls and boys come together for a giant circus party at the boys Finca on both Saturday and Sunday.

The whole team gets to teach, all the kids are enthusiastic and when it’s windy and a coconut falls down nearly crushing a small child, everyone gets to share it!

This week we’ve taught almost all the diabolo we know (thanks  to Jake from the 2014 tour who got them so into diabolo), contact ball, poi, hoops, acrobalance, unicycle, club passing, hat juggling, ball juggling, beatboxing and skipping.

The kids also can drop into the Cultural Centre (where we live) any time they like. So we often find ourselves teaching and jamming with the kids at random times of the day and night.

So, back to our week of firsts:

This is the first time I’ve enjoyed diabolo and I learnt a bunch of new tricks, even practicing after hours! I’m proud to say that Paddy has asked me to be his teaching assistant in diabolo!

Bucket showers – although the room we stay in is nice there is no running water so every day we have to fill up dustbins of water to use for the toilet and carefully organised showers. Although everywhere in Nicaragua only has one tap in the shower (cold), there’s something quite strange about throwing a bucket of cold water over yourself first thing  in the morning to clean yourself.

Swing dancing – the team has added a new act to the show: a Westside story inspired dance battle; Swing vs. Salsa. So I’ve been eagerly teaching the team some swing dance moves and choreographing a routine. Ramon the security guy has had great fun watching us practice.

Karaoke – although we’ve been talking of karaoke for weeks now it was only last night in the Osteria that we realized that it was the place to be for karaoke in San Marcos. We got to hear many a lovelorn man croon slow ballads to the applause of the guests. We only wish we had joined in.

First time we’ve seen Motitos.  These are similar to Tuk Tuks and arrived in Nicaragua from India about 10 years ago. We managed to cram all 7 of us in one- which beats our record of 8 people in a taxi.

First time its rained – it actually rained! How much I’ve missed that smell!

First time we’ve had meals prepared for us by the delightful Marlene. We’ve mixed up the usual frijoles and arroz – she’s made us soup, tacos, (a whole!) deep fried potato (each!-exclamation marks added by Paddy), squash parmiganas and amazing frescas!

First time guys have lost their coconuts yelling at us ladies out of car windows. We’ve become used to being stared at everywhere we go because we’re foreigners, but the girls in particular get cat called ALL the time. This one eager fellow took his hands off the wheel and eyes off the road to say hello, causing him not to notice the speed bump! Consequently his load of coconuts bounced off the back and we got a free one (and some laughs).

First triple decker hammock stack – we’re aiming for a 7 high by the end of tour.

First time Paddy and Josh have slept in a bed since getting here. Not together (much to our dismay), it’s just they usually sleep in hammocks.

Finally, as I sign off for International Womens Day, I’d like to salute all the women in Nicaragua who work ridiculously hard and don’t get as many freedoms as we do in the west. They are always smiling and helpful and always help others less fortunate than themselves. I heard that the ladies were having a party today in San Marcos to celebrate, I hope you had a great party ladies and thanks for being so inspirational!

Til next time

Adios

Karen