A to A

After a good rest in the noonday heat, Sarah and I ventured out again to play!! I had spotted a place near some tents during our morning walk, so we headed there first. We wandered through a Sunday market that was starting to close up. Piles of clothes, tables full of meat and chicken, sacks of beans, rice and ground corn. When we got to the spot, there wasn't the activity that I had expected, but I saw two young boys sitting next to a Lotto booth, they beckoned me, hoping for some money probably, and that was enough to start. They had no idea what they had started. There was a crew of three or four that were sweeping and shoveling up rubble from the center of the roundabout. Amazing that four months after the quake, there is still so much to do.

I pulled out my rope to do some tricks, but they quickly identified it as a skipping rope, so we all jumped rope!! What fun it was to play with them. I then pulled out the balls to juggle. They thought they were f0r them, it's hard to not give them away, but they are my tools! I would need to bring hundreds of balls if I were to start giving them away; something to consider. But I don't want to give away something physical. What I give is much more long lasting and valuable, in my eyes at least.

A middle aged woman watched from a distance. I made eye contact with her and she smiled back. She gradually edged closer and closer to the action. It was great to see how engaged she was in taking in all the action.

Sarah and I then wandered further along, back to the beach, where I was recognized from the river showlet and asked for a short encore! I juggled three medium sized rocks to the delight of a group of teens playing soccer.

I saw down a side street a group of people sitting. What attracted me was an old white haired woman. What surprised me was a group of young men sitting together drinking. I also saw in the back lots of paper mache' birds in various states of paint. I was engaged!! One young man spoke a bit of English. It's nice to speak English with them. They have studied it in school, but seemingly have had little opportunity to speak with someone who speaks English. It was a great time shared. Two of them could actually juggle a bit and we had fun stealing from each other. That means while they were juggling I would take the balls away from them and keep juggling. They loved the idea and I easily taught them how to do it. One man said that they drank to help them have fun. Maybe I gave them another way!! They shared their drink with me, it was a very strong liqour, reminding me of the Slivovich that I drank myself when I was about their age while travelling in what was then Yugoslavia. Tasty but lethal!!

While walking back, I recognized a young man who had juggled with me at a tent city show back in March. He recognized me too!!

All in all, a very successful first day. Nothing had been arranged for me, but it was a good test to see that I really don't need something arranged to make it work. Maybe the numbers weren't as high, but the effect may have been greater. Quality, not quantity.

The fact that we had walked all day had given us opportunities that would definitely have been missed if we had a destination we were headed for. Our only destination was to get back to the hotel!! It's A to A, not A to B!