In April I was touring three weeks with Clowns Without Borders (CWB) in South Sudan which is the youngest country in the world and has ben torn by a civil war since 2013, only two years after its independence. Big number of civilians have fled the country and the rest are being placed in UN’s protection of civilian cites (POC).
The tour was a international collaboration between South Africa, USA and Swedish CWB branches and there were clowns from Brazil, USA, South Africa, Swaziland, Sweden and me from Finland. We were leading workshops and performing in POCs in Juba, Bentiu and Malakal. Our team was the first clowns ever to reach northern POCs of Bentiu and Malakal.
I feel grateful to be able to give back to the world and help by spreading the laughter with my own speciality as a clown. Touring in South Sudan felt more than important and left me with a lot to digest about war, humanity and love. It is still difficult to put the experience into the words but here is a link to another blog which I wrote soon after the tour.
http://cwbsa.org/node/671
‘Nobody knows what happens tomorrow but in the moments of laughter and play when eyes are shining, we are all the same and everything is more than fine.’