Coming back from Leskovac, either by bus, either with the car of Yoann, we took one day of break in Skopje, trying not to juggle, not to speak about juggling or even not to think about juggling… Quite hard but… We did it!
So, first of all, we must present you the place whew we were going: The area of Suto Orizari, more commonly called “Shutka” is a town in the town of Skopje. A town where are living most of the Roma people, around 40 000 inhabitants. It’s a colorful, alive and messy place, where big houses are rubbing shoulders with wooden huts, where you can see everything, animals, garbage, carriages, shops… everywehre, hear any sound, smell differents odours… In a word: The place to be.
Some of us had already done punctual juggling activities some time ago, so we already knew some of the kids there, and some of them did know us as well.
The meeting place was on the basket ball field, between 5PM and 5:30 every day (from monday the 4th to the 6th of august). Because of the heat, we couldn’t start before, so we were using our time before 5 to buy material (rice and balloons, as usual) and to prepare balls and pois in advance
The global concept was this: We arrive, show kids how to make balls, give them the balls they’d made and those that we had made at home, and teach them juggling with 1, 2 and eventually 3 balls. Same story with the pois.
Lots of kids were present from the 1st to the last day with us, and developped some skills with 2 or 3 balls, or could show good tricks with 2 pois
In average, we had between 50 and 60 kids(aged between 5 to 160 per day, ,which is a lot for 6 or 7 people, especially because we were in an open area, needed to keep an eye on the material, canaliwe their energy, sometimes make other games… That was quite exhausting to make it 3 days in a raw, but in the meanwhile, kids were so smiling, with bright eyes, teaching us a lot (eg. games, danses..), bringing us fresh water, sharing their energy… That we always had motivation to go on.
On the wednesday, we were in a Roma educative center, calles Ambrela, run by Ljatifa and Roma volunteers: Muharem, Alma and Ajda. From 1 to 4 PM, we made those juggling activities with less kids, around 20 or 30, in an indoor area. At a moment we started to make plats made out of wool in the hair of most of the girls. That was like a good relaxation, more than welcomed after 2 days non-stop, and before 2 last hours in the basket ball field.
The climax of those 3 days was certainly the fire performance, held on tuesday, still on the stadium. Before doing it, we feared a bit to lose the control of the situation, see the “usrplus of energy” of many kids. Also the fact of having 2 liters of petrol was kind of stressful. And yet, all finally worked as it was planned. But what was amazing, was the quietness of the children: at the beginning they were all (around 30) sitting quietly on the ground, waiting for the first fire light. Then when the show was going on, they were:
-still sitting
-applausing most of the time
-screaming our names
-afraid for us when we were touched by a poi or a stick.
At the end, there was around 60 persons around us , nothing had been wrong, we had held the performance for more than 30 minutes. This night was close to perfection…
So, to sum up briefly, we can say that we saw maybe a hundred of kids, built at least 400 balls and pois, made 7 or 8 wood plots, used 20 kilos or rice, and 4 kilos of cement when we ran out of rice.
And, last but not least, we want to say a huge thanks to all people helping us those days, making matrerials, drinving, supporting us, juggling, teaching kids, keeping materials, taking pictures, feeding us, coming with us, and more:
Dzeki, Sinan, Muharem, Ljatifa, Ajda and Alma from Sutka
Pijattah from Finland, still with us
Anja and Martin from Poland
Dominique, Yoann and his family, Antoine (aka scoutboy), Gabrielle from France
Carsten from Germany
Hibe and Alija from Skopje
Thanks to all of you, and hope to see you in Struga between the 19th and 23rd of august!
Next step: Some village around Prizren, we still dont know which one. The departure is planned on Thursday the 7th.
