Our Mission
The Gesundheit! Institute is a project in holistic medical care based on the belief that one cannot separate the health of the individual from the health of the family, the community, the world, and the health care system itself.
About Patch Adams
Patch Adams is best known for his work as a medical doctor and a clown, and he is also a social activist who has devoted 30 years to changing America's health care system. He believes that laughter, joy and creativity are an integral part of the healing process.
About Gesundheit!
The institute began as a group of twenty friends, including three doctors, who moved into a six-bedroom home and called it a free hospital. The hospital was open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week for all manner of medical problems from birth to death.
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CLOWNING AND CARING in MEXICO
CLOWNING AND CARING in Mexico
April 12-16, 2010
This educational clown tour is now full
Gesundheit! Institute and the School for Designing a Society invite you to participate in CLOWNING AND CARING, an educational clown tour in Mexico. The tour will combine daily clowning with daily workshops in imagination and inquiry into the locale of our clowning.
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico was once a fishing village. In the last several years, Cabo has made great strides in environmental issues and sustainability by opening the FIRST desalinization plant in Mexico recently and providing much needed water to certain parts of the Baja peninsula as well as becoming a leader in water conservation. Recycling projects have also increased in the last several years.
In addition to clowning and care in clinical settings, there will be daily practical workshops in clown technique, love strategy and reflection on where we are, and design groups for sharing dreams of a not-yet-existing society. There will also be an opportunity for clowns to help in the construction of a kitchen for El Carribe neighborhood. Patch Adams will be leading this trip.
Day 1, afternoon: The Red Badge of Courage: the Clown and the Nose The politics of 'help': exactly who am I 'helping' when I clown? 'Them'? 'Me'? 'It?' Charity versus bi-directional care. Clowning as anti-hierarchical intervention, clowning as invitation to social chaos, as a trick to bring love close, as warming up public spaces.
Day 1, evening: The Art of Making small things BIG, so as to make BIG THINGS small Clowning as a way of making small things (small actions of kindness, simple props, "fictional" premises) BIG in order to make BIG things (overwhelming grief, pain) small. Clowning as a way to invert a disproportionate relationship between joy and suffering.
Day 2: What is YOUR love STRATEGY? A 3-hour workshop with Patch Adams: how love is thoughtful action, not only emotional expression. Discussion on how to design strategies for showing and engendering 'love'. Hands on exercises.
Day 3: WHERE AM I? Eyes on Mexico (Baja California, North America), I: Where are we? What is it? Who are 'we' in it? How to 'look a system' when visiting another country briefly? Discussion of the economic, historical, ecological, cultural, compositional life in Cabo San Luca, Mexico.
Day 4: W(here I am!!!)HERE AM I? Eyes on Mexico, II: discussion of domains of personal, communal, public. New questions for old answers, new answers for old questions.
Day 5: Synthesis of our week's experience Talk back sessions in small and large groups: Have I changed? Has it? What's my next step?
(To see the complete schedule, download the attachment at the bottom of the page).
Instructors/Facilitators
Patch Adams—entered medical school in 1967 to use medicine as a vehicle for social change; promotes and practices living a life of public joy as a revolutionary act; fount of ideas for avoiding burn-out in long-term social justice and health. Enthusiator.
Susan Parenti—composer, playwright, pianist, accordionist, poet, virtuoso speaker; critical observer & dramatizer of language's troubled relation to thought; composing not only pieces but also contexts where pieces might function: house theater, scripted rehearsal, timed discussion. Adept at making her personal curiosity social.
Melanie Meltzer—clown and scholar, mover and steadier, catalyst.
Jacob Barton—composer, inventor of instruments and of means, aspiring metaclown, language hacker
Mark Enslin—composer, actor, listener, teaching composition facing the power of the respondent, assignment as an art form.
Further playful readings on clowning:
Re-Designing the Character of the Care-Actor by Susan Parenti
Metaclown by Jacob Barton
General Information:
Lodging: Accommodations will be provided by Cabo Inn Hotel
Cost: $1250 covers food, lodging, all educational and clowning events, and transportation within the country. This fee does not include your transporation to Mexcio.
Travel: Please inquire with Melanie about joining our group flight or meet us in Mexico and arrive by the evening of April 11.
Registration: To confirm your registration, we ask you please to (1) Register here and (2) Send either your full payment, $1250, or a $500 (non-refundable) deposit by March 15.
Payment: The full fee or deposit can be paid online via secure Paypal account HERE
OR with a check payable to Gesundheit! Institute Global Outreach and mailed to:Melanie Meltzer, 4038 Rock Maple Lane NW, Apt 203, Olympia, WA 98502
Passports: No visa is required. Passports can be expedited by your local post office. Please bring two color photocopies of your passport with you.
Vaccines: The following vaccines are recommended: Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B. Typhoid, Measles Mumps Rubell (MMR) and Tetanus-diphtheria.
Forms: All forms must be notarized and mailed to: Melanie Meltzer,4038 Rock Maple Lane NW, Apt 203, Olympia, WA 98502