Torbeck Dec 15th Elisa

As clowns we must live a contradiction during our stay in Haiti.  The work of the clown is about sensitivity and openness but at the same time I find we have to shut down emotionally in order to sustain our two-week expedition.  A mother asking me to take her child home and another mother telling me her baby girl is going to die doesn’t affect me like it would in another place and time.  Haiti is my lesson in human adaptability.  I’m amazed at how my clown partners and I are able to act stupid and dance wildly on two show days in the severe heat and culture shock.  I’m even more amazed by the Haitians we met who are able to laugh with us when they don’t have money to clean their clothes or feed their babies.  I’m learning that laughter is hope.  Sometimes, I admit, I’ve been a little skeptical about our work as clowns.  But today, in the pediatrics’ ward of a hospital, I witnessed a sparkle of hope in a mother’s eye as we sang her and her daughter Lean On Me.

Elisa