This is our first blog entry. Magicians Without Borders is starting a blog so that we can let folks know what we are doing while we are traveling.
Two weeks ago we returned from a couple of wonderful weeks in El Salvador and Guatemala. During the first part of January for the last five years we have hosted a week-long sleep over Theater-Art-Magic Camp in El Salvador for thirty five children from Santa Ana. This is a marvelous, much anticipated week for these children who live in grinding poverty surrounded by brutal gang violence. To spend a week in a beautiful, safe place laughing and learning in a delight for them. The Closing Circle was filled with tears of joy and gratitude for a wonderful time. There will be a detailed accounted of Campamento 2010 on our web-site.
After Campamento we took Maricela and Astrid to Guatemala. They have been studying magic with us for the past six years. We took a seven hour bus ride into the Highlands of Guatemala where Maricela and Astrid performed for thousands of Mayan children living in the villages near Lake Atitlan. They were a marvelous inspiration to the thousands of children who squealed with delight at their magic and comedy. In October we took Peter and Zumba, two of the boy magicians to Guatemala and they performed for thousands of school children in the Guatemalan Highlands.
These are the first of many trips we hope to take with our Salvadoran magicians who are now performing regularly around El Salvador in orphanages, hospitals and pre-schools. We are very proud of the hard work they have done to become skilled and delightful performers.
INDIA
Tomorrow we head off to India for two weeks. There are at least a dozen shows scheduled so far in Mumbai and in the villages around Fardapur. Walter Spink, the world renowned Indian Art Historian and scholar of the Ajanta Temple Caves, has set up the shows around the village of Fardapur and is funding a film of the entire trip. Walter has hired Dominic Howes from Rickshaw Productions to shoot the film. Go to www.americalistening.com/about to learn about one of Dominic's award winning films.
The shows in Mumbai have been set up once again by our friends Kalyani and Dhanu who work with the street children and orphans of Mumbai. We will be performing in Muslim, Hindu and Christian orphanages, the largest orphanage for mentally ill children and young adults in Asia, for the children of commercial sex workers and for many other children in the slums of Mumbai. We are grateful to Walter, Kalyani and Dhanu for supporting our work in India, we could not do it without them.
During our time in India, Mira Verner-Lust will document the trip and the making of the film. Mira will post a written and photographic blog entry as often as internet access is possible.
We are excited that Mira will be launching our blog. We look forward to your feed back and any comments, questions, suggestions you might have as we travel though India bringing magic and laughter to thousands of children.
Thank you for your support. Without your support we would not be able to bring magic, laughter and hope to many of the world's most forgotten children. Thank you!!
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