You have to do something if you don’t speak the language well. You throw your texts through the translation machine and then you translate it back so that you take out the odd translations. Fortunately, the text for the announcement of the training at the Ilkhom theatre was posted on Instagram and Facebook by the theatre staff. Then google’s automatic translation on instagram could still throw a spanner in the works. The text in Russian about the clown training…

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Most of the time, the sky here is blue. Every now and then there are clouds. But yesterday there was rain! You could count the number of drops that fell. Большую часть времени небо здесь голубое. Время от времени появляются облака. Но вчера был дождь! Вы могли сосчитать количество капель, которые упали. Odatda bu erda osmon ko’k rangga ega. Vaqti-vaqti bilan bulutlar paydo bo’ladi. Ammo kecha yomg’ir yog’di! Siz tushgan tomchilar sonini hisoblashingiz mumkin edi.    

On the weekend of 23 September, I had the honour of giving a workshop of two days at the Ilkhom theatre in Tashkent, one of Tashkent’s most famous theatres. The training was clown-heart-warming. The group was open to everything in the training. People were focused, quick learners, willing to be vulnerable and listening carefully to each other. This resulted in wonderful interplay and fun.

We went to Tajikistan for the weekend of September 16. We went to Lake Iskanderkul (Lake of Alexander the Great). We crossed the border on foot, without any problems. There we took a car towards the lake. The difference in scenery between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan is huge. Tajikistan is all mountains. The road was pretty good, except for the last 40 kilometres. We hoped to camp freely, but we couldn’t find where we could. So we camped on the grounds…

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On 11 September, we went to a hospital in Samarkand. The clowns are warmly welcomed by the staff. You can tell from their happy faces that they enjoy having the clowns there. The clowns played and there was a lot of fun, the atmosphere in the ward had completely changed. Afterwards I gave feedback on the clowns play, the clown characters and about doing games. In some of the hospitals in Samarkand, children are gathered in one place so that…

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The weekend of the 9th and 10th of September, I gave a training to the Medclowns from Tashkent. We had a lot of fun during the training. I hope to have another training with them when I’m in Tashkent again. Medclowns_uz is a volunteer group playing in hospitals. I always train with them when I’m going through Tashkent to Samarkand. In 2020 some of the Medclowns attended a clowns-zoom-training which we organised from Holland. (Pictures below) В выходные 9 и…

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Jannet (my wife) arrived at the 9th of September at the airport in Tashkent. Grisha and me went to pick her up. I’m happy to have her here 🙂 We stayed for two days in Tashkent where we, among others, enjoyed the good food. Then we took the Sharq train to Samarkand. For a friend in Samarkand, we took a doyra (Uzbek drum) he ordered in Tashkent. (Pictures below) Жаннет (моя жена) прилетела 9 сентября в аэропорт Ташкента. Мы с…

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Last week week we trained for 5 days on the courtyard of the house I stay.     It was wonderful to meet he clowns again after four years! During this time we had some trainings over Zoom, but now we met live again, incomparable of course. We trained with five of the clowns. In Samarkand the clowns play both for groups of kids and for individual kids. The focus of this training was playing for individual kids.     We…

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Arrived in Samarkand the day before yesterday. Picked up from the station by Uktam. Great to see him! Uktam has been involved in the project as a doctor for years. He invited us for lunch with plov! Then took us to the house where we will stay for the next while we are in Samarkand. A very nice house with all the comforts. Even a courtyard where we can train with the clowns. Yesterday was the first training day. Lovely…

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The first three nights in Tashkent I stayed with Grisha and Maria. Wonderful to meet them again after four years. Grisha was a translator and troubleshooter for the project for many years and became a close friend. On Wednesday I met Elwina, she played in the Bukhara clown team a few years back. Now she lives in Tashkent and is going to assist me with some of the trainings.  Friday we discussed with Timur, Relisa, Grisha the steps needed to…

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