day 1 au Port au Prince

A single trumpet cuts through the playful chaos–it is the tune of “Silent Night.” Here in Port au Prince it seems that nothing is silent, ever. The closer you get to the ocean, the more crowded the streets become; a cacophony of voices, diesel trucks swerving to avoid children and potholes throwing puffs of black exhaust into the second floors of the tin and block buildings, the oppressive smell of sewage seeping up from the cracked streets–nothing is calm nothing is bright.

But it is ironic, the juxtaposition of hearing this song played by a boy at Foyer Lakay (a home for boys rescued from the streets of Port au Prince) a song about silence and peace during the holiday season and the constant motion of this city. And though the walls of Foyer Lakay block us from the destitute slums of Port au Prince, we can see in the eyes of our audience unspeakable experiences living in these streets. At the same time though, we see a certain joy a sense of excitement and peace with their surroundings.

These boys have just seen our performance and now we’ve split up, Sarah playing music with the band, Elisa and Brendon running stilt training and Moshe and Tim practicing with the jugglers. All of them have been training with Clowns without Borders-Quebec for years and the second we presented them with our juggling equipment, for example, they showed us their expertise.

These boys possess a drive to succeed, grow and have fun. We played for two hours, practiced our skills and then left in our UNICEF vehicle very content that we had been able to connect with and meet some of the circus prodigies trained by our partner organization (CWB-Quebec).

This is just day one and we fall asleep tonight excited to share joy and laughter the rest of our time here in this ironic place of deep deep poverty and also intense joy and play. Christmas is just a week away and Port au Prince is abuzzz in anticipation!

Tim C.