c i r c u s 2 i r a q

2008 TOUR

Started in Cairo in February working with Happy Families the Iraqi group that the Circus worked with in 2004 in Baghdad.
Then went back to the West Bank in Palestine to meet new and old friends, from the 2006 and 2007 tours.
And then to meet new friends in Jordon.
More information and regular reports can be found on the updates page.
As ever we are funded purely by donations from lovely people like you ;o)
And if you want to be added to our mailing list please e mail sheila@hfhclothing.co.uk putting "add me to your list" as the subject.

Bigging up the Boomchuckas love and peas xxx

A LONG WALK

Our man in Egypt, Graeme Fordham, is walking from Taba to Sharm El Sheikh over the next few weeks, to raise money for us and the Circus in Dahab....please sponsor him generously.

As you know we don't get paid; infact we pay for our own flights, food and rent. Money is used for transport, phone calls and kit. We also gave funds to two groups working in mad circumstances thanks to the Oil Wars.

Circus is an international language that crosses Walls and brings people together, it gives people something positive to do with their lives, in places where there is so little to do because of illegal Walls and occupations.

Go to Graeme Fordham's photo site
Go to projects page to sponsor us...

TO GET IN TOUCH WITH THE CIRCUS PLEASE USE THESE E MAILS

sheila@hfhclothing.co.uk OR ruthfirefly@hotmail.com

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS

The Circus has finished the 2007 tour of Israel and Palestine, 40 shows and 20 workshops later...8000 children laughed a lot and only 5 cried.
On a budget of 1500 pounds which works out at 19 pence per child per show, pretty good value hey!!!

Boomchuckas to all who partied and helped with funding...
Chiily Big Ups to Ruth, Annie, Matt, Nash and Graham that came and saw and laughed and cried...

Bring on 2008, Onwards and Upwards...Badger and out!!!

LATEST NEWS — Reports from Palestine now coming in:

Read them --> HERE

The Circus is on tour again!!

The circus is currently off and entertaining in Jerusalem. We've done three shows already and will be posting reports and hopefully pictures soon! Keep your eye on the updates page for the latest stuff.

For info on the current tour mail: ruthfirefly@hotmail.com or sheila@hfhclothing.co.uk

And don't forget to check out our friends at the Palestinian Circus School here: www.palcircus.ps/

OLDER NEWS

Read all about it!!! Read all about it!!! Don't Shoot the Clowns!!!
Jo Widing's book about the Circus and Iraq is avaliable now from Amnesty International
www.amnestyshop.org.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info_id=305
And much more information at www.jowilding.net/
The First Palestinian Circus School's Opening Show
Have a look at the reports on their page...Brilliant work!!!

NEWS FROM JENIN
We would like to add our condolences to both families...

The Freedom Theatre wishes to express its condolences to the Nagnagiyya family for the death of their son Eid (16), who was murdered on 6 July 2006, by the Israeli army in Jenin refugee camp. The Nagnagiyya family contributed their old house to The Freedom Theatre to host a computer centre. The family offered to renovate the house as a contribution to the children of Jenin. Eid's brother was also killed during the Battle on Jenin in 2002.

The Freedom Theatre also wishes to express its condolences to the El Hannoun family for the death of their son Ammar (16), who was murdered in the same incident, yesterday, 6 July, by the Israeli army in Jenin refugee camp.

The attack of the Israeli army took place at a memorial tent where many people were expressing their condolences to the Qandil family for the death of their son Fida (22), who was killed by the Israeli army on Tuesday 4 July. Among the people in the tent was Zacharia Zubaidi, the leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades. According to the army the force was intending to arrest him. The special forces acted in a crowded place, injuring 30 people and killing two children. Zacharia Zubaidi managed to flee the attempted assassination.

The Freedom Theatre

www.thefreedomtheatre.org
info@thefreedomtheatre.org
THE TRAVELING OASIS OF ABSURDITY
Theo's article about the tour...
Published in The Economist Apr 12th 2006

On the road with six clowns in Israel and Palestine

The Jenin refugee compound, more than 50 years old and one of the oldest camps in Palestine, is home to 13,000 people, half of them under 15. It was the centre of some of the fiercest fighting during the second INTIFADA, and even today many of its schools remain closed. When Israeli soldiers used to enter the camp, the children would
automatically put down their schoolbooks and pick up stones.

Not knowing when the next military raid will burst upon them and with little opportunity to escape, Jenin's children have a far from stable upbringing. But over the past month one school playground has been been taken over by a carnival atmosphere. There are no advancing tanks, no explosions, no bloody deaths of local martyrs. Instead, from among a
phalanx of laughing children, emerges a group of flat-footed clowns who have wandered, seemingly lost, into the cement and wire enclosure. A few minutes later the children are sitting quietly on the floor and the show can begin.

For more than an hour a loud, chaotic and colourful circus event rolls out mysterious card and water tricks, absurd clown skits, juggling of all varieties and a generous helping of good old slapstick comedy--the loudest laughs often coming, as they always do, when the low-status clowns ridicule the big-boss clown behind his back.

Volunteers are pulled out of the crowd to be a part of the performance and after uttering the immortal words "Chillybah Chillyboo!" they are amazed to see water disappear, cards pulled out of hats, magic wands extending above their heads and a real dart being thrown and caught in a clown's mouth. Even children as tough as these grow shy and tongue-tied on stage in front of their peers, but there is always that look of pride and a pure joy at being the one selected.

Boomchucka Circus, formerly Circus2Iraq, has been touring Israel and Palestine for two months. Originally from Britain, it is made up of six fools who answered an advertisement last November looking for performers to create a circus show for children living on both sides of the conflict.

For the children, the show is a new experience: a humorous, high-energy piece of foolish theatre that transcends the boundaries of culture, language, age and race. But there are lessons for the actors as well. The troupe operates as a collective, with each clown funding his own way. Riding on buses, eating handouts on the street and sleeping on
floors, often in return for nothing more than the offer of a chance to learn a little sleight of hand, has given the six actors a clearer insight into the daily lives of the local people and the reality of trying to conduct a relatively normal existence within a war zone than any number of subscriptions to 24-hour television ever could. Perhaps
the politicians should sign up for the tour.
More photos
www.flickr.com/photos/63405057@N00/
And Finally here is the News
Chillyboo...Chillybah...Chilly bye byes...1st April 2006
Well it's all over now, over 50 shows in 3 months on a shoestring budget!!! a massive thank you to all the hard working self funded clowns Theo, Andy, Matt and Sam and me the badger! another massive thank you to all the amazing people that helped us make it happen out here...you know who you are (big round of applause and bows please)and finally but not least to Home of Poi, Beard, Firetoys and Anne Harris for the kit, all of which is out there being enjoyed already, photos soon honest!! Personally for me,It's been amazing, any doubts that I had about coming and doing Circus here have been blown away big time, so thanks to Jo Wilding and Boomchucka I now I have more reasons than ever to do this again,I'm not sure when and where yet? keep watching this space. Love and Boomchuckas to you all. Sheila X
PS We would like to assure anyone who wants to join us in the future that no clowns were hurt during the making of this Circus, any rumours are not true and may involve large amounts of alcohol ;o-)
Whoops... and last but by no means least big shout out and thanks to Mr Devilstick Peat, without whom this trip would not have happened, may you recover well.

More News
All the clowns are safe today, 14th March 2006, they were not working in any of the trouble spots today, and are aware of the situation. May the peace settle quickly.
There's fresh photos on the pics page, down the bottom! they're great...
Sheila X
Latest News-Matt Boomchucka's Diary from the Middle East
mattboomchucka.iblog.com/index.php
Latest News
Dear Clowns!
Thank you so much!

See your pictures at: www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3222440,00.html
(by the way we have been called Clowns without Borders! but it's us really)
or: www.thefreedomtheatre.org/projects-gallery.php
there's more coming, I'll keep you updated!!!

You are most welcome again, the children (and adults) are awaiting you!

Jonatan Stanczak
The Freedom Theatre
www.thefreedomtheatre.org
News welcome to Spike and The Boomchucka Circus

Some good news to share with you all. Jo Wilding gave birth to a beautiful baby boy called Spike at 3.25am 2 July 2005. I'm happy to report that Mum, Spike and Daddy John are all doing well!!!
Congratulations to them all and 'Boomchucka' to Spike!!!!
We're off to Palestine!

Circus2iraq has been unable to return to Iraq since the first tour in early 2004 and all the signs are that it'll be a long time before it's possible to go back again. We're still working with people over there to rebuild one of the schools in Falluja that was destroyed by the US in November 2004.

Meanwhile, as Boomchucka Circus, some of us will be going to Palestine this winter to work with kids traumatised by the violence there, especially in the refugee camps. Kids face heavily armed checkpoints routinely, on their way to and from school. Sometimes they're under curfew, 24hours a day for days on end. Sometimes homes are destroyed. Their fathers and other men are liable to be arrested and held for months on administrative detention at any time.
Circus2Iraq

So we did it. We took a circus to Iraq. Famous before we even started, Peat found the clown apartment by asking a random Iraqi bloke in Baghdad if he knew Jo. He did "You must be one of the clowns," he said and brought Peat round to the apartment. I kid you not.

Thanks to a small grammatical error, Luis' French melodrama and the propensity of certain Iraqi poets to exaggerate, we quickly became the most famous circus in Iraq, touring for three months in squatter camps, refugee camps, orphanages, a street kids�Eshelter, schools, hospitals, theatres and the occasional police station (although that wasn't our fault).

We took a huge round, red bit of fabric with us to play parachute games (thankyou to Children's World International and [what's her name that made it??!], did shows, taught the kids a few circus things and generally played with the people we met.

The effects were amazing �Etime after time people told us they hadn't seen the kids laugh like that, from their bellies, since before the war.

"Some of these girls, I haven't seen them smile this whole year and today they were laughing. It makes me think there's still hope."

If you gave the kids drawing stuff, they always drew planes dropping bombs on houses, tanks shelling, things exploding. After seeing the show they drew clowns and jugglers and magicians. An Iraqi journalist who interviewed us said his 5 year old son hadn't stopped talking about us since he saw the show. He was imitating the clowns, rediscovering the inner clown that had been another uncounted casualty of the sanctions, the bombing and the occupation. Dr Ali, Iraq's leading authority on child post traumatic stress in kids, thinks there's not a single child in the country without some symptoms of post traumatic stress.

A small story from elsewhere that was part of our inspiration: a woman called Tina from a group called Balkan Sunflowers noticed that all the kids were running about pretending to shoot each other, yelling, �Bang bang, you�re dead, you filthy Serb.�EShe got in a consignment of teddy bears and organised a gun amnesty, exchanging toy weapons and a couple of real ones for cuddly toys. Twee? Perhaps, but Peat said it transformed the town because instead of reinforcing old prejudices and behaviour patterns with shooting filthy Serbs, kids were saying, �Shall we have a picnic for our teddy bears.�EWhich is the kind of thing kids are meant to say.

As well we worked with Iraqi organisations like Happy Family, a group of actors and dancers doing projects with kids and helped them get in touch with theatre groups and kids�Egroups outside Iraq who could help with things like muppets and fundraising.

Someone described the circus as �the ultimate icebreaker�Ebecause you turn up and play with people and then you get to hang out with them and see how dismal, how precarious a lot of their lives are. At the squatter camp in Shuala we turned up one day to find a mourning tent in the entrance for a two month old girl who, as Abu Ahmed said, �died of the cold.�EA blanket costs about the same as a hand grenade but for all the billions spent on the bombing and occupation of Iraq, there wasn�t any for basic relief supplies.

They had a pool of sewage and waste water lying open in the camp and a plan to build a drain but nowhere near enough money to do it. We sent out an e-appeal, raised enough money and enabled them to build a drainage system that took in the whole camp.

Yeah, there are arguments against building anything that entrenches them in squatter-camp-slumland, but given a housing deficit of 2.4 million, or thereabouts, no one�s about to rehouse them so they�re �Equite literally �Eshitty arguments.The day they were building the drain, a man asked me to go and see his son, Abbas. Abbas is four and you could smell the flesh rotting on his legs before you even got into the half-arsed farm building shack they lived in. In the freezing night he�d burnt his legs on the paraffin flame which was all they had to heat the place, three weeks ago. There hadn�t been a doctor there in a month and when we finally got him to one that could see him, he was about four days from losing his legs, a week from dying of the infections.

We�re now working on raising the money to build a school in the camp because my gorgeous girl, Marwa, wants to be a doctor. Loads of kids, especially the girls, have had to drop out of school since the invasion because it�s not safe for them to travel there, or to spend the day there. As a result of the lack of physical activity a lot of girls are suffering developmental delays, from poor spatial awareness to lack of hand-eye co-ordination and that�s something else the circus was trying to address.

So many stories �blagging our way through checkpoints in Kurdistan with a vanishing cigarette, blowing bubbles at a gun wielding Iraqi policeman, the bunch of street boys we first worked with in a grotty shelter in Bab A-Sherji, the dodgy end of town, when they were solvent addicted, violent and completely devoid of self-esteem.

We worked with them for three months, through their move into long term accommodation, talked a few into going back to the orphanage after they�d run away back to the streets. Asmaa, the manager, told us that when the lads play football, when they score goals, they throw their arms up and yell, �Boomchucka�E the shout of the circus. When I left, seven of them had started going to school. It was loads of people�s effort but Boomchucka Circus was a part of it and it rocked.

You can read all the reports we all wrote from there. Luis is turning his, and some of Peat�s and mine, into a book in French. Oh yeah �Eand Richard Littlebrain in the Sun wrote that Jenny and I went to Falluja �to teach circus tricks to children�Eduring the siege. We didn�t. We went to Falluja to escort civilian ambulances past US marine snipers. Fortunately we were bilingual in the phrase �Please do not shoot the clown.�E

The clowns will be going back to Iraq and you can help get them there by fundraising, both for the tour and for the school in Shuala and by rebelling, with wild joy and fury, against the infliction of wars, sanctions, poverty and oppression that destroy kids� lives.

As David Bowie said, �Let all the children boogie.�E

Boomchucka.

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