Clowning & Caring in Ecuador 2020 – A report on my gratefulness

For the 11th year we traveled to the astonishing city of Quito in Ecuador, to bring ourselves, our intensions of loving and caring, our vulnerabilities, our strengths among hundreds of people in one of the most heartwarming and welcoming country I ever had the luck to visit.

I love Ecuador and its people, who both embrace you with kindness and smiles. And I feel so grateful for the privilege I have been given to accompany a group of amazing open minded people from 8 different countries through their journey into clowning and caring with us.

We gave ourselves to people from age 0 to 90, infants, children, teenagers, mothers, fathers, grandparents, lonely, happy, challenged, enthusiast, endangered… when we meet one another through the art of caring, any circumstance, any feeling, and condition becomes fluid, changes shape, gets bigger or smaller, relevant or irrelevant, while we recognize what in our distinctions and differences unites us: we are people, and we are there for one another.

Once again, I’ve been the clown, the patient, the relative, the nurse, the doctor, myself, and I’m deeply grateful. Thank you Ecuador! See you again in 2021, with another group of new and old clowns from all over the world. =)

And with you, dear reader, I’d love to share the inspiring words of one of the amazing participants of the program, Beaky Beakers.

And I hope to meet you and get the chance to accompany you in one of our upcoming Clowning & Caring programs, in Costa Rica (September 6-13, 2020), Ecuador (January 2021), Mexico (February 2021).

In gratefulness,
Dario =)
Clowning & Caring programs coordinator

“It’s hard to find the words”
by Beaky Beakers

It’s hard to find the words to adequately describe what a clown trip with Patch Adams is like. Clowning can open up portals within you that may have been blocked for a very long time. You’ll surprise yourself time and time again by allowing your inner child to come out and play. I think all of us have this deep love within, but the boundaries of society can make it difficult to express and share this unconditional love. Being a clown erases these boundaries and the possibilities are truly limitless.

Everyday is like jumping off a cliff into the deep unknown. It’s scary, magical, painful, soul-stirring and heart-wrenching. All at the same time. Arriving to the hospitals Patch always asks to see the patients who are in the absolute worst conditions. Every room you walk into is a new adventure, a new playground for joy and care to manifest. You never know what’s behind the next door- if someone is in their last minutes/hours of life, a child fighting cancer, or a 3 pound baby with a heart broken mama asking why. Approaching every situation with a sense of awe and wonder, you’re able to connect in ways normally I could never even dream of. Clowning gives you this super power to be able to connect with any person, regardless of language or background, in a short amount of time and sometimes on a very deep level. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced. In some situations I’ve witnessed it actually becoming more powerful than medicine, healing people in a way the traditional doctor never would be able to. It’s a real form of therapy, effective for both the patient AND the clown. Observing the balance between giving and receiving is a wonderful way to see the effects.

Going on clown trips changed the way I view myself and the world around me, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it changed my entire life. For me it is a pure&true spiritual path- I’ll be a clown until the day I die, and I cant wait to go on more clown missions around the world.