So, this has been quite a busy week for me and for Sapana. I was put in contact with the Roof of the World Tour (http://www.roofoftheworldtour.com.au/ ), a circus troupe from Australia and New Zealand who are just finishing up a 50-day tour of the Solukhumbu region of Nepal. They have kindly offered to join Sapana for a one-off fundraising performance which will be held in the assembly hall at the British School (two minutes walk from the EBT office). Since then I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, meeting with the headmistress of TBS, compiling a press release and contacting reporters, and posting fliers around cafes, restaurants and hotels in the neighbourhood.
The civil unrest hasn't helped me get things done quickly... It seems that every other day there is a bandh (strike) which means that all shops are shut and vehicle traffic (even bicycles!) is not allowed on the roads, grr… It also means that the kids cannot come down to the Bulls Club for training which is absolutely crucial at the moment since we are trying to rehearse for next week's performance. I can only hope that we are ready when Thursday rolls around!!
We are happy that Anya, a trained dancer who is in Nepal working for the UN, has offered to give her time on Saturdays to teach the Sapana group some ballet. She and I went to Godawari last weekend to see the room she'll be using to give classes and also for me to be able to show the kids some contemporary circus videos. It was great to watch their faces as they were clearly awed and inspired by performers on the screen. We are looking forward to starting the ballet classes this coming Saturday.
At Monday's training we had a reporter from the Himalayan Times come along to interview some of the kids for a follow-up story on last month's Book-a-Bee event. We anticipate the story to be published this weekend which will give some nice coverage on Sapana preceding British School performance.
Wednesday was spent rehearsing the acts that we will present on the 2nd of June. It's been hard work because I have to include two new members into the group acts, Pramila and Anjali. Because of the language barrier we end up spending a lot of time sitting around talking, as what I say has to be translated and then passed around the group. Not to mention the discussion of everyone's opinion about why and how we should be doing things. It can be quite frustrating at times, especially when I'm aware that we only have three more training sessions before the show!
There is a bandh scheduled to take place tomorrow, which I sincerely hope will be canceled as we cannot afford to lose any more days training.
Fingers crossed!!
Zoe x
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