Circus Life

The circus has a complement of over 60 acrobats, all of them boys and girls between the ages of seven and twenty-two, all of them trained by Wude Zeleke herself. She rousted about in the community and succeeded in obtaining an outdoor training space in a school yard, and sufficient locker space for storage of what equipment the circus members have been able to scrounge, things like discarded foam mattresses from local hotels for tumbling mats and a few ropes from the company that runs the lake ferry service. The circus "office" was a 20-foot container.

Despite obvious impoverishment (the children perform barefoot), the Yenegew Tesfa Circus is capable of putting on a snappy and highly skilled one and one-half hour performance for almost any person or group, sometimes at no charge. At the moment there is no set scale for ticket sales because audiences vary so much. Ethiopian audiences can pay only pennies to see a show, whereas tourists (the tourist industry is in its infancy) can afford to pay something more. At the moment, most performances, therefore, are negotiated "command" performances - some being absolutely free just in order to give the youthful acrobats necessary performance exposure. Often they have participated at local carnivals, fairs and football matches - and these, many times, at little or no charge. In the few years they have been going, these youngsters have tumbled and somersaulted their way into the hearts of everyone in their community, but they do not want to stop there. They can go further - and they know it.

Schooling

All children attend school. Some of the older ones are taking adult and university courses. As part of the circus program there is a large emphasis on local afflictions such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Discussions in these and other troubling areas are frequent and openly encouraged. Many of the children are in need of strong psychological and moral support, and there is no shortage of affection between all members of the group.

Offical Recognition

The YT Circus has attracted the attention of the national Red Cross and the directorate of the Amhara National Regional State. With encouragement, this troupe is now one of the major tourist attractions in the area.