An Innovative Toymaker in Cordoba, Argentina.

One of my favorite things about travelling the world with Circus of Smiles is the inspiring people we meet along the way. Last night we met a first class innovator at an outdoor crafts market in Cordoba.

Cork Action Figures, CD Storybooks, Soda Bottle ¨Ball and Cups¨

Javier, originally from Colombia, makes toys out of the recyclables he finds around town. He also leads sustainable crafts workshops for parents and teachers. This, of course, made me wish we weren´t leaving Cordoba that very same night... but at least it leaves us one more thing to look forward to for our next visit.  Tyler decided he had to buy out the entire stock of finger puppets (made of soda bottle tops, yarn, binder coil, and paint.) We were extra impressed by how they came wrapped and ready for travel, in a little house made from two small water bottles cut in half.

 

Javier´s company can be found on Facebook, as Paz Verde Juguetes Sustentables. I am currently waiting for him to accept my friend request, because he says there are plenty of photos and ideas posted there. As many of you know, I work for a company that places high value on using recyclables within the classroom as well as on creating innovators that envision and create a better future. Naturally, I find his work very exciting, and look forward to trying out some of his projects back at home! I hope these pictures give you a bit of inspiration to try something different today.

A children´s story about unconditional
 love, writen on a recycled CD book. 

A soccer game with a marble for a ball and popsicle sticks for players.

Cork action figures with moveable parts- and a great paint job

¨Gangnam Style¨ at the SOS Children´s Village

Unless you´ve been living under a rock, as I apparently was until arriving in South America, by now you have heard of the K-pop sensation ¨Gangnam Style.¨ Most notable for its catchy tune, being the most played YouTube video of all time, and the fact that it marks the first time a Korean pop artist has been able to break into the mainstream US (and broad international) market. I was introduced to the song in Buenos Aires over lunch with two friends visiting from Korea; I have not been able to get away from it since. But let´s be honest, I really don´t mind.

QuadraNose Clown

In my last post, I mentioned that we finally made it out to the SOS Children´s Village Cordoba. There are 30 youth living in the children´s village, about 10 of which are teenagers. We had a great time clowning at their party to celebrate the International Day of Children´s Rights! It is quite possible that this one will stay one of my favorite moments of the tour. We did our regular shtick, the 30-minute audience participation show followed by a juggling playshop with the neon scarves- and of course the distribution of red noses. After that, the kids and the junk food took over, but we were happy to follow their lead. A few of the older girls took on the roll of dj, and seemed to have an affinity for the Gangnam Style song -- they played it SIX times in a row.

And oh, how we danced!

Gangnam Style Dance from Paula Heather on Vimeo.

Scavenger Hunt Cordoba- Aldeas Infantiles SOS

"We were all children once. And we all share the desire for the well-being of our children, which has always been and will continue to be the most universally cherished aspiration of humankind."

We the Children: End-decade review of the follow-up to the World 

Summit for Children Report of the Secretary-General (2001)

Yesterday we had a whirlwind of a day that finished with a visit to Aldeas Infantiles SOS Cordoba. I am so thankful to have finally tracked them down- makes for almost a week of searching very well spent!

A short synopsis of the day´s scavenger hunt:
* a disappointing Internet search for children´s homes in Cordoba
* a visit to a museum in an old Jesuit Crypt
* finding an exhibit of paintings by children with special needs in the crypt
* a visit to the founder of Manos Creadoras (the foundation that teaches these special needs artists)
* Being sent to see a woman who works in the Cordoba Municipality´s Special Needs Department.

Betty (from the Municipality) just happened to have worked with SOS in the past and was able to get them on the phone immediately. Though she seemed to have some hesitations around their work- reservations shared by a few people I have met but have yet to get an honest explanation for- she helped us arrange a visit that same evening. Earlier this week, on November 20, was the Universal Day of Children´s Rights; Aldeas was throwing a celebratory party as a follow-up to a workshop on Children´s Rights they had just finished. They invited us out to be a part of the celebration, clown show and all. Rush, rush, rush- the theme of the day!

An Argentine poster about Children´s Rights. In honor of the Universal Day of Children´s Rights 11/20.

Houses of Aldeas Infantiles SOS The Aldeas Infantiles SOS mission statement:   “Cada niño y cada niña pertenece a una familia y crece con amor, respeto y seguridad.”  Every boy and every girl should be a part of a family  and grow up with love, respect and security. Aldeas Infantiles SOS of Cordoba was inaugurated in 2002 and has a capacity for 105 children. It is one of 116 autonomous member associations active in 133 countries and territories- SOS Children´s Villages is a huge organization. The Cordoba shelter is a compound of 12 homes that are located in a neighborhood about an hour bus ride away from the main city of Cordoba. What makes the SOS Children´s Villages unique is their family model. Children who have lost their parents or cannot be cared for by their biological families live in small homes of up to 10 children with one constant staff ´mother´ in each. There are, of course, psychologists, social workers, and other professionals who make up the care team. Although the compound has enough beds for over 100 children, and the website advertises as such, I was disappointed to find that in reality there are only about 30 children currently residing on-site. What I was delighted to find was a group of people absolutely in love with a large group of very complex children. Big hearts and smiles all around for sure.  Aldeas Infantiles SOS has four locations in Argentina, to contact any of them or donate they ask that you go through the regional office for Argentina. Phone: 011.5352.2000 E-mail: info@aldeasinfantiles.org.a. I wish you nothing but luck in getting through to them- since I had such a hard time. More tomorrow as soon as I can get the Internet to cooperate with me and upload this awesome video, I promise. Including an epic dance party with a whole lot of spirited children... how´s that for a cliffhanger!?

Flooding in Lujan. Or, ¨how can we possibly make it even harder to get to the places we give to!?¨

From our home base in Buenos Aires, we have quite a commute to get to Luján. We take a bus from Plaza Miserere in the downtown neighborhood called Once to the main terminal of Luján; this bus should take 1.5 hours but generally takes just as long as the day´s circumstances see fit. Once at the terminal, we hop in a remis (like a taxi) or a local bus to get to the neighborhood we are visiting for the day. I´ll repeat what I mentioned in the last blog post for those of you that haven´t seen it. ¨Luján is a complex area where the neighborhoods, schools, and social services span the map from wealthy middle class to very poor. The town has some geographic lines (rivers, highways, countryside and train tracks) that seem to very clearly divide the different populations. The places we visit tend to be very patchwork- schools in borrowed spaces, houses built from scraps of whatever people can find, clothes that have been found or donated and (almost always) children everywhere.¨ Because of the geographic dividers, the neighborhoods we visit are very rarely close to the center of town. This means that faced with special circumstances, our longest time door to door was six hours.

¨Why!?¨ you ask? 

Because early that week the province of Buenos Aires was hit by a downpour of rain that flooded many parts and Luján was hit especially hard by the rains. This left hundreds of families displaced from their now subaquatic homes and meant that the municipality was quickly charged with the task of setting up temporary shelters and otherwise providing for the people. Suddenly makes a six hour commute seem incredibly bearable, right? I was blown away by the grace with which the people of Luján -within the municipality especially- looked after the displaced. One particular shelter was set-up in the Polisport (a community sports complex) and housed up to 300 people at one time. Volunteers cooked meals off-site and brought them to the complex, necessities like water, mattresses and clothing were available to the people, etc. 



Provisions for the people. Photo: Cydney Justman

Flooded streets in Lujan. Photo: Cydney Justman


Within a few days of the flooding, we were invited to come to Luján and entertain/distract the 30 or so children taking shelter in the aforementioned Polisport. We arrived that afternoon to some very anxious and excitable children who were thrilled for something to do. We did our audience participation heavy show and then handed out juggling scarves to all that wanted to learn a bit of juggling. As that lesson ended, it became very clear that these children needed to run out a whole lot of energy. We reached into our circus teacher bag o´ tricks and played a lot of silly games like Big Mouth, The Invisible Ball, etc.




Outdoor show.
 Great, until the mosquitos arrived.



A wonderfully outgoing boy preparing to be our helper.

We finished the evening exhausted and covered in mosquito bites, and fortunately the commute home only took about 2.5 hours!

South America tour begins in Luján, Argentina

Circus of smiles has made it to Argentina! Luján, Argentina- to be exact. Though we got off to a slow start, once we started we hit the ground running. In Spanish, there is a saying: ¨arracamos a full¨ which I would roughly translate to starting up at full force. That is how it has been for us here, thanks mostly to the excitement and warm welcome we have received from the Lujaneros (people of Lujan.)

Luján is a city in the Buenos Aires province of Argentina, located 68 kilometers north west of the city of Buenos Aires, that is best known for its large neo-gothic Basillica. The town is visited by more than six million people each year. The city is known as La Capital de la Fe (Capital of the Faith). Getting beyond what the tourists see, Luján is a complex area where the neighborhoods, schools, and social services span the map from wealthy middle class to very poor. The town has some geographic lines (rivers, highways, countryside and train tracks) that seem to very clearly divide the different poulations. The places we visit tend to be very patchwork- schools in borrowed spaces, houses built from scraps of whatever people can find, clothes that have been found or donated and (almost always) children everywhere.

We have had the joy and privilege to team up with my very old friend, Cydney Justman. Cyd was one of my closest friends in middle school. After not seeing one another for almost 10 years, we both found ourselves in Argentina doing social/global projects that have now come to feed into one another. She has become our °in° for many harder to reach populations, our confidant, our advisor... basically, Cydney has become our local coordinator in Luján, and we are very grateful! 

This set of projects feel more like sprints than the long distance race that was our Southeast Asia tour. Just yesterday we finished 7 shows and a few hours of hospital clowning in a space of 30 hours. None in the same space, or even neighborhood as another. Some much joy, laughs, and exhaustion already... and so many stories to share. Stayed tuned for anecdotes on lost cameras, swearing toddlers, and conga lines.