El Cedro was the middle stop of our walk. It was here that the beauty of the Nicaraguan people and countryside contrasted most starkly with the poverty and the hardships of war. We were greeted warmly by the cooperative leader who told us that his cooperative had been attacked by the contras on four occasions. He also showed us American-made Claymore land mines and anti-personnel mines excavated on the road that day by the town's militia.

 

It was important for us to produce a show in El Cedro that sparkled with joy, and we succeeded. The looks on the childrens', farmers' and soldiers' faces was what Nicaragua Tour '87 was all about. Deutschmann, in a clown mask, drew three kids out of the crowd and had them lay on their backs. He juggled three and four balls inches from their startled faces. Minnock did his famous string tricks, swallowed a four-foot long balloon and drew out of his mouth the longest piece of multi-colored ribbon these people might ever see! The show could have gone on forever.

 

The evening was filled with serious meetings. Our group felt very vulnerable as gunshots went off in the dark around us.

 

We set out for San Jose de Bocay, caught in the midst of the seven­year Contra war only 15 kilometers from the Honduran border. A group of towns-people marched out to greet us, carrying banners and chanting, "If Benjamin Linder was alive, in Bocay he would be living!"

 

We all walked into the town square, where 800 soldiers of the national army greeted us. When Jugglers for Peace took the stage in Bocay, more than 1,000 peo­ple watched the well-traveled show. We did two more shows there, performing for 40 patients in the field hospital and at night with blazing torches.

 

The next day we headed back to the capital city of Managua, feeling that our tour had been to the area that needed it most!

 

The Jugglers for Peace plan to return to Nicaragua next year. Anyone interested in the 1988 Jugglers for Peace Nicaragua Tour or the "Passing through Nicaragua " video should write: Jugglers for Peace, Honokaa , HI .

Women's Circus by Sara Felder

 

What if there was a "performing troupe of women who combined feminist ideology, women's values and a political vision with theatrical and circus arts? Think about it."

 

I did. And by January 1986 all the women interested in the project met in San Francisco . Among other things, we pledged to meet in one year in Mexico to rehearse for two months, then tour the show in Nicaragua for three weeks in March of 1987.

 

Why Nicaragua? No place seemed more appropriate to launch our circus than in the new Nicaragua , an eight-year-old experiment in participatory democracy.

 

It was during rehearsal in Mexico that Jennifer Miller fell from the high rope and dislocated her elbow. To adjust to her temporary disability, we borrowed American Dream's "fat man" concept, putting two people in one giant pair of jeans.

 

We became "Sara and Jennifer, the Two-Armed Juggler." This way she could use her good arm as we performed object manipulation with hat, sunglasses and lighted cigarette, transferring objects from one person's face/head to the other's. We played the saxophone together, sharing fingering, and ended juggling four and five balls and apple eating. Little did we know at the time there were no apples in Nicaragua !

 

In fact, there's not a lot of anything in Nicaragua , due in large part to the U.S. trade embargo instituted in May 1985. How many Nicaraguans does it take to change a light bulb? None, there are no extra bulbs.