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Earlier this month I had the privilege of visiting Darkhan, Mongolia’s Shonhoodoi Circus School. This fall, the International Women’s Association of Mongolia (IWAM) was preparing for its winter jacket drive and asked if I could help find some children who might best benefit from the donated winter jackets they’d be collecting. The director of Darkhan Elite 22, the school where I teach English part-time, suggested the Shonhoodoi Circus School and provided a list of names and the ages of the students there. When the jackets were gathered, washed and ready for distribution, the women of IWAM drove up to Darkhan from Ulaanbaatar to deliver them. Before the hand-over happened, we got a sneak preview of the circus performances that the children were preparing for; a competition in Ulaanbaatar, and a hometown debut at Darkhan’s Zaluuchuud Theatre. The performers of Shonhoodoi are kids who have very little, or have lost what most of us take for granted. There are orphans, abandoned and otherwise disadvantaged children in this bunch, but if you didn’t know their stories, all you would see is a group of determined, talented, young athletes. The school was created by the husband and wife team of Tumuroo and Battsetseg. They started the school to offer these kids an escape, an enviable set of athletic skills, an opportunity to travel, and a chance to be celebrated. After school, for those who are able to attend one, the kids of Shonhoodoi hurry to practice as often as Tumuroo and Battsetseg can offer them their time. Shonhoodoi has recently been given use of a large facility in the center of Darkhan’s Children’s Park. It was previously occupied by a Korean Baptist church, but city residents said it should be made available to a secular organization that benefitted the city as whole. (The church built a well-funded, gigantic facility right across the street on private land, so happy endings all around.) The Shonhoodoi Circus School has moved in with the bare bones performance fixtures it owns, but with a recent grant promised by the city, it will be renovating the space to make it more practice-friendly. The kids train without padding on the floor save for thin carpets, and have depended on donations for costumes and accessories used in performances. Some local businesses have also pledged to provide hot meals to the kids during their practice sessions. For some, that meal might be the only hot meal that they’d eat that day. The women of IWAM brought the kids winter jackets and a huge bag of clothes for everyday wear. After the preview performance, as the women loaded back into their vehicle to head home, the kids dug into the clothes and shared what they’d been given. We all fell in love with the kids that day. As routine as their performances may be in the realm of Mongolian circus arts (think Cirque du Soleil style acrobatics) they put tremendous amounts of heart and dedication into what they do. I invited two Swiss...
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Earlier this month I had the privilege of visiting Darkhan, Mongolia’s Shonhoodoi Circus School. This fall, the International Women’s Association of Mongolia (IWAM) was preparing for its winter jacket drive and asked if I could help find some children who might best benefit from the donated winter jackets they’d be collecting. The director of Darkhan Elite 22, the school where I teach English part-time, suggested the Shonhoodoi Circus School and provided a list of names and the ages of the students there. When the jackets were gathered, washed and ready for distribution, the women of IWAM drove up to Darkhan from Ulaanbaatar to deliver them. Before the hand-over happened, we got a sneak preview of the circus performances that the children were preparing for; a competition in Ulaanbaatar, and a hometown debut at Darkhan’s Zaluuchuud Theatre. The performers of Shonhoodoi are kids who have very little, or have lost what most of us take for granted. There are orphans, abandoned and otherwise disadvantaged children in this bunch, but if you didn’t know their stories, all you would see is a group of determined, talented, young athletes. The school was created by the husband and wife team of Tumuroo and Battsetseg. They started the school to offer these kids an escape, an enviable set of athletic skills, an opportunity to travel, and a chance to be celebrated. After school, for those who are able to attend one, the kids of Shonhoodoi hurry to practice as often as Tumuroo and Battsetseg can offer them their time. Shonhoodoi has recently been given use of a large facility in the center of Darkhan’s Children’s Park. It was previously occupied by a Korean Baptist church, but city residents said it should be made available to a secular organization that benefitted the city as whole. (The church built a well-funded, gigantic facility right across the street on private land, so happy endings all around.) The Shonhoodoi Circus School has moved in with the bare bones performance fixtures it owns, but with a recent grant promised by the city, it will be renovating the space to make it more practice-friendly. The kids train without padding on the floor save for thin carpets, and have depended on donations for costumes and accessories used in performances. Some local businesses have also pledged to provide hot meals to the kids during their practice sessions. For some, that meal might be the only hot meal that they’d eat that day. The women of IWAM brought the kids winter jackets and a huge bag of clothes for everyday wear. After the preview performance, as the women loaded back into their vehicle to head home, the kids dug into the clothes and shared what they’d been given. We all fell in love with the kids that day. As routine as their performances may be in the realm of Mongolian circus arts (think Cirque du Soleil style acrobatics) they put tremendous amounts of heart and dedication into what they do. I invited two Swiss...
Continue reading