After a couple of weeks of silence, we are back with a brief little taster of what we have been up to on the Plaza:
Mid-July, the Radio Publica del Ecuador came to record one of our sessions- the kids loved it, between the cables, mics, and interviewers…all was exciting novelty and a couple even got to speak up & out, including some mothers! That day, Bernarda from FyA’ s Choir was back to accompany the kids in expressing their creativity through their voice and bodies…creating an interesting array of sounds for the recording. For more on that, check out the show.For a couple of sessions, we have played a series of games as the weather was pretty clear and sunny and the kids happy to let loose…especially as it is the summer holidays here, no one really wants to sit down and be too serious. We have also had
a couple of surprise visits from potential future partners, such as Yvonne, a marvelous school teacher, who during her holiday break has taken to our kids, after passing by randomly a few months ago, and has been returning consistently. So, amongst the fun & games, we have been inviting the kids to come and relax under the tent to listen, or read with her, a story. We also had Pluma’s visit, an Origami artist from the Colectivo Caracolito de Papel Violeta, who came to “check out” our project to see how we could collaborate further...we were successful in baiting him in, so hopefully mid September you will see him return with his crew to lead one of our sessions, on how to make many figures from one same A4 sheet of paper...
The week running up to early August was preparing the celebratiions for Quito´s 200th anniversary of independence, this meant festivities were high, and the Plaza being one of the largest in the old town, was taken up for pretty much an entire week with stages, ramps, and chairs, making it impossible for us to set up. Despite some of the show shiners advising us where to position ourselves, we decided against it as the kids at the moment love ball games, running around, and it was potentially hazardous for all…
Learning about something can also be fun and take place in multiple ways as the crew from the YAKU museum, revealed to us. As it happens, part of their revised strategy is to reach out to new audiences and take their learning out of the museum walls…our contact-making was thus timely! ;0 So Fernanda, Paulina and Bernarda came to check out what it was the kids really knew about water (¨yaku¨ means “water” in quichua), where it can be found, what it evokes, what it does to us, etc. After a series of warm-up games that got the imaginations running, the kids were invited to represent “yaku” with plastilina & cardboard; as you will notice, some really harmonious things came out. After that, the girls turned into muppets, and later
clowns, tackling water as key to our body’s health mechanism, and how it is important to look after it. So, “the secret is, if you are not sure of the water: make sure you boil it” the muppets informed the kids, explaining what that meant of course. In the clown session, the kids got really involved as he was trying to steal the bad water and hand it out to them…all were shouting out “don’t drink, don’t drink”, even the little ones, were seeking refuge from the dirty water! The audience was also made aware that drinking the water from the fountain on the Plaza was not a good idea…something we invited the
Yaku crew to stress, as we find many hanging around there, supposedly playing! ;0 After all that fun and reflection, Bernarda, Fernanda and Paulina had lugged from the museum a huge tin container in which we had placed soapy water so with metal loops we were able to make some very large bubbles…clearly, even the tough ones, were caught up in being children…a really thrilling sight. There is a strong possibility the Yaku team will be back to visit us in the new school term as we pretty much had a ball!
This week, Henry and Santi, our leading coordinators who by the way have graduated with flying colours and starting university in Septe
mber remaining involved with us, led a session. They looked at the right to recreation, without labeling it that way. The kids were divvied up in groups and accompanied by one of our Cefistas, they set off to browse the Plaza and select a couple of people to later mime out their activities to the rest of the kids. Once the groups had convened, deliberated on whom 
they would be representing and how, they launched into peforming. The audience was then invited, in silence (challenging!), to write down their answers. Henri & Santi then went around electing the winning group- as it turned out, all were pretty succesful! The Cefistas then performed a scene where a group a young people met an old man with 3 different outcomes. When asked which the children preferred, they chorused they loved all three so then Yvonne (who was back!) kicked in to reflect with them what each scene was about, and which perhaps, was most appropriate… that of the old man getting mugged was perhaps not ideal! ;0 
This month, we also sat down with the team to reflect on a couple of the Mobile School´s boards and what sort of dynamics we could do with & around them. This was an interesting snapshot into the unrevealed creativity of some and showed that it was perhaps a useful exercise to carry out regularly as many of the creativity boards are pretty challenging to animate…and one cannot really do the same activity with 1 kid as with with 10! A new meeting is thus scheduled for mid September. ..
a couple of surprise visits from potential future partners, such as Yvonne, a marvelous school teacher, who during her holiday break has taken to our kids, after passing by randomly a few months ago, and has been returning consistently. So, amongst the fun & games, we have been inviting the kids to come and relax under the tent to listen, or read with her, a story. We also had Pluma’s visit, an Origami artist from the Colectivo Caracolito de Papel Violeta, who came to “check out” our project to see how we could collaborate further...we were successful in baiting him in, so hopefully mid September you will see him return with his crew to lead one of our sessions, on how to make many figures from one same A4 sheet of paper...The week running up to early August was preparing the celebratiions for Quito´s 200th anniversary of independence, this meant festivities were high, and the Plaza being one of the largest in the old town, was taken up for pretty much an entire week with stages, ramps, and chairs, making it impossible for us to set up. Despite some of the show shiners advising us where to position ourselves, we decided against it as the kids at the moment love ball games, running around, and it was potentially hazardous for all…
Learning about something can also be fun and take place in multiple ways as the crew from the YAKU museum, revealed to us. As it happens, part of their revised strategy is to reach out to new audiences and take their learning out of the museum walls…our contact-making was thus timely! ;0 So Fernanda, Paulina and Bernarda came to check out what it was the kids really knew about water (¨yaku¨ means “water” in quichua), where it can be found, what it evokes, what it does to us, etc. After a series of warm-up games that got the imaginations running, the kids were invited to represent “yaku” with plastilina & cardboard; as you will notice, some really harmonious things came out. After that, the girls turned into muppets, and later
clowns, tackling water as key to our body’s health mechanism, and how it is important to look after it. So, “the secret is, if you are not sure of the water: make sure you boil it” the muppets informed the kids, explaining what that meant of course. In the clown session, the kids got really involved as he was trying to steal the bad water and hand it out to them…all were shouting out “don’t drink, don’t drink”, even the little ones, were seeking refuge from the dirty water! The audience was also made aware that drinking the water from the fountain on the Plaza was not a good idea…something we invited the
Yaku crew to stress, as we find many hanging around there, supposedly playing! ;0 After all that fun and reflection, Bernarda, Fernanda and Paulina had lugged from the museum a huge tin container in which we had placed soapy water so with metal loops we were able to make some very large bubbles…clearly, even the tough ones, were caught up in being children…a really thrilling sight. There is a strong possibility the Yaku team will be back to visit us in the new school term as we pretty much had a ball!This week, Henry and Santi, our leading coordinators who by the way have graduated with flying colours and starting university in Septe
mber remaining involved with us, led a session. They looked at the right to recreation, without labeling it that way. The kids were divvied up in groups and accompanied by one of our Cefistas, they set off to browse the Plaza and select a couple of people to later mime out their activities to the rest of the kids. Once the groups had convened, deliberated on whom 
they would be representing and how, they launched into peforming. The audience was then invited, in silence (challenging!), to write down their answers. Henri & Santi then went around electing the winning group- as it turned out, all were pretty succesful! The Cefistas then performed a scene where a group a young people met an old man with 3 different outcomes. When asked which the children preferred, they chorused they loved all three so then Yvonne (who was back!) kicked in to reflect with them what each scene was about, and which perhaps, was most appropriate… that of the old man getting mugged was perhaps not ideal! ;0 
This month, we also sat down with the team to reflect on a couple of the Mobile School´s boards and what sort of dynamics we could do with & around them. This was an interesting snapshot into the unrevealed creativity of some and showed that it was perhaps a useful exercise to carry out regularly as many of the creativity boards are pretty challenging to animate…and one cannot really do the same activity with 1 kid as with with 10! A new meeting is thus scheduled for mid September. ..
This week we have also wished a relaxing happy end of holidays to our kids as we will be closed for 2 weeks until early September when they will be starting with school again…Should you want, during that time, to find out more about us, check out our new (& very humble!;0) website: http://www.dsh.org.ec/ All comments/suggestions are more than welcome! 
