gReEtInGs...
Good morning from beautiful Awassa, Ethiopia. Today's blog is the first glimpse of a what we consider to be small, yet significant, bit of history in the making here. Namely this week we broke ground on what will be Ethiopia's first paved, hence proper, public basketball court! Thank you to all those whom made this dream a reality.
Finally, today there is a couple more photos of what was also a bit of "history in the making" a couple weeks ago. Namely, our theater tour to the Omo valley. It was history for two reasons 1) to the best of our knowledge no one has taken a production of this scale and provided it to people there for FREE and 2) the majority of visitors to Omo mainly travel their to people watch, take some photos and leave, this tour was about giving back to the people of the Omo, even if it was just a smile. Yes people, this is what CAN be done.
One Love, One Fight. |
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hElLo WoRlD...
We continue today with some more pics of last week's tour. While the photos are great they can't really do justice to the magic of the tour. Life remains very vivid, undiluted in the Omo and the tour seemed to reflect this.
One the road...
...anxiously awaiting the first show of the tour....
...a big, blue-sky finish...
One Love, One Fight.
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gReEtInGs OnE lOvE pEoPlE...
We freshly back from the road, namely the "ONE ZANY BLOSSOMING LOVE" tour. A 1-week journey that took us to Ethiopia's remote, historic and jaw-droppingly beautiful Omo Valley, home to some of the most unique and stunning people's on the planet. With a cast and crew of 34 we piled into a bus and made the 2-day journey to Jinka, the capital of the Omo Valley. There and along the way we performed 7 shows for over 12,000 people!!! All performances were performed with a live band, free of charge and conducted in venues such as town squares and market places. It is safe to say that majority of audiences had never seen anything like this in their lives and, thus, were gracious, respectful and fun. Even in places were the quality of life could be a "bit" better, smiles filled the audiences. The tour concluded with a packed-house performance in Addis Ababa's historic Hagar Feker theater. Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the audiences, artists and donors who mad this truly unique opportunity possible. There will be more photos to come this week.
A tour map (South Western Ethiopia), yellow is our route...
...travelling takes it's toll...
...though luckily there was no shortage of scenery...
....nearly 40 hours were spent in the bus but there was also some flying too...
stay tuned....
One Love, One Fight. |
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gReEtInGs EaRtHlInGs...
We are in the midst of a workshop this week. Though not the kind of typical workshop that merely brings together a bunch of so-called "experts" to discuss their mistakes only to repeat them at a higher pay scale. Oh no. This is a different workshop, it is a ONE ZANY BLOSSOMING LOVE workshop. Bringing together 3 different groups (One Love, Fikat Circus, Zany Umbrella Circus) to collaborate on a special show that we will take on tour to Ethiopia's historic Omo Valley next week! Fun. Today we debuted the show to a great response at a nearby school for an audience of manily children, the best critics possible. Here is a sneed peak of the past week of training, show pics to come soon...
One Love, One Fight. |
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gOoD pEoPlE...
We hope this finds you sturdy. Two very important things to mention on this Thursday Blog. The first is this Saturday we will begin the "One Zany Blossoming Love" workshop and tour. Let me explain. The workshop will bring together 3 circus groups...the Zany Umbrella Circus(www.zanyumbrellacircus.com) , Fikat Circus (Addis Ababa), and One Love Theater...together to create a show that we then will take on a tour across Ethiopia! Culminating with a show at the historic Hagar Feker Theater in Addis Ababa on the afternoon of Saturday, August 16th. Oh, Fikat means "blossoming" in Amharic...hence ONE ZANY BLOSSOMING LOVE. More to come, be assured.
Secondly, this morning One Love travelled to Yirba (about 45 km outside of Awassa) and performed in the market for a very excited and excellent audience of over 1,000 people! As always, the show was performed with live music and, if nothing else, seemed to make everyone involved smile. It looked like this, only better...
One Love, One Fight.
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wOrLd...
Today. Morning. Bus. Market. People. Theater. Circus. Music. Art. Smiles.
One Love. One Fight.
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hElLo FrOm SuNnY/rAiNy AwAsSa....
Last Friday, July 4th, AYC organized a 3+ hour extravaganza aimed at celebrating the end of school, hope, endurance, life, etc. We would like to thank all the artists and youth whom made it possible. Beyond that let the photos do the talking...
One Love. One Fight.
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gOoD pEoPlE...
We hope this finds you all well in your respective niches of the World. Last Friday, July 4th, we had the first AYC Community Event. Held at the park located in front of AYC, it included aikido demonstrations, a One Love Theater performance, several talented youth musicans and Fikat Circus from Addis Ababa. Despite torrential rains and power outages over 1,000 people attended the 3-hour event!!!! The following photos give an idea what it takes to make something like this happen. Hopefully soon we should have some photos of the show. For now, enjoy...
One Love, One Fight.
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gReEtInGs...
Today, June 16th, is the International Day of the African Child. Unfortunatley, celebrations here in Awassa had to be postponed. However, here at AYC we try and celebrate it each day for the following reason...
One Love, One Fight.
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gReEtInGs gOoD pEoPlE...
We hope this finds you all well in your respective corners of the Globe. As of late Ethiopia (along with the rest of the World) seems to be in a "funk" (to put it midly), thus, today we though we would provide a short example of what can happen even during the hardest of times. About one month ago One Love Theater took "Adventures in OneLoveLand" on the road to a Ethiopia's only prison for children located in Addis Ababa. It was One Love's second performance at the prison and despite the bitter cold and a night-time performance we were greeted as warmly as ever by the 100+ child-inmates. After our dusk arrival the first priority was to set up the road-stage with the residents anxiously peering from their "rooms"...
...then OLT brought the OneLoveLand spectacle...
...as the show closed to applause and thank you's on the eve of one of Ethiopia's biggest holidays (Fasika) we packed up the stage then several of the children remarked "thank you, you made it seems like the holidays nobody's done that in a while". Enough said.
One Love, One Fight.
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