Pies de Pollo

This is the second day in a row I've been stopped by a couple of soldiers and asked for my documents. Yesterday they wanted my 'tarjeta' or ID, and today they wanted my 'libretta militaria' which is a document exempting you from military service. Both times, the guys couldn't have been older than twenty, and approached me with an odd smile. They left me alone shortly after the words 'turistico' and 'Estados Unidos.'

Tonight was my last workshop with Fundacion Contacto, but tomorrow I'm going to see them perform in a hospital. They gave me a clown nose, apron, and other trinkets of thanks over some aqua-panella. Other than some confusions with time management and transportation arrangement, things have gone well with this group. They expressed in closing that I was able to offer them some training that has helped them develop as a group, and will help them in their work as clowns. So I felt very appreciated, but I also tossed out to the group that I feel what they do using laughter to heal is great, but they need to be careful they aren't also using laughter to avoid difficult things, a trap that occasionally popped up in our work.

Tuesday I taught a longer class at Colegio Alfonso Hoyos. Five hours, a one shot deal, with a group who were all very interested in theatre, from elementary to high school age students. I'll post some pictures of this eventually.

Things went much better today in Neira than they have other days. I think they still are in school mode, which disengages them sometimes, but there are also moments when they fall into their own creativity and forget to be embarrassed. Today we really hit on the community issues directly, and although their was some drifting into 'movie moments,' the effectively rendered real moments definitely made up for it.

I took some pictures of Neira, and the bus ride back to Manizales:
http://picasaweb.google.com/108723329678166020807/NeiraAndTheRideBack#

Yesterday I worked with a group of five girls at Teatro Fundadores, a combination of some from the original Fundadores group, and some from Wilson's group, and we created 'La Danza de Los Madres Adolescentes.' I guided the girls through a sort of meditation on friends of theirs who have had children at a young age, taking on the form of that girl, creating images of their friends and their differing attitudes towards their young motherhood, arranging those images and transitioning between them to create the dance.

Also yesterday, I spent about an hour last night chatting with an English class at the Colombo. It was great just to speak in English at such length. The overall shy group asked me questions about acting and life and such, like 'who is your favorite celebrity actor?' 'what do you like most about acting?' 'do you want to be a hollywood actor?' I rambled about this and that, and maybe a few of them understood what I was saying. Upon request I recited the first Hamlet soliloquy, and then did a quick bit of 'sculpting' with the group.

Oh, also in Neira today for lunch I had some soup, with quite a variety of chicken parts in it: liver, feet, leg. I might like to think I'm adventurous in eating, but when it came to the reality of eating chicken feet, I just finished my soup and left the feet in the bowl uneaten. The liver was good though. It was a little more today, but lunch for two the other day, a full lunch with soup, meat, rice, potatoes, salad, juice, for two people, converted to $4.

People here keep asking, "And how to do you like Colombia?" In Spanish of course. I answer this question, saying I like it, the people are friendly, the country is beautiful, and it's very different from New York City. But I'm not sure if that is really the best answer. At least it feels odd repeating it just because I don't have a better answer. How do I like it? I'm certainly glad I'm here, experiencing what I'm experiencing. How do I like Colombia? The extent of poverty here is hard to ignore. Not that I try to ignore it. Last night I was having a late bite up in a restaurant, and a thief stole and man's wrist watch and ran off right outside the window. Lorena was giving some change to a small boy, and while they were talking his eyes kept darting from her eyes to her change purse. I didn't mention this here yet, but the first day I was in Medellin a fight broke out in the park right in front of the little place I was eating. A commonality in most of my workshops is people don't feel safe in their own community. I won't name which workshop, but one young student said he didn't like to smile and he liked being violent. How do I like it here? I'll have to sleep on it.