Puppets from Hong Kong to Kenya

Judith O’Hare

www.youandmepuppets.com jaohare@gmail.com

I never thought puppets would bring me around the world, but in the past few years I have been to Hong Kong; Nairobi, Kenya (three times); Tanzania; and British Columbia, Canada. Puppetry in Education is an important aspect of the art of puppetry and I have had the opportunity to share my work and love for puppetry with teachers from other cultures. Teachers in both Hong Kong and Kenya were very receptive to puppets; they were a new concept for them and one that provided them with new ways to teach. Hong Kong was my first experience teaching abroad, I had interpreters to translate for me and for the teachers. It was a challenge. While China is recognized as having a long and distinguished history of puppetry, there were few signs of puppetry in modern Hong Kong. The puppetry/education group that brought me there pioneered in getting puppetry into the schools and my work was the foundation for developing a puppetry curriculum for Hong Kong schools.

In 2002 I was invited to take part in EduPuppets, an international puppet festival in Nairobi, Kenya. There was no tradition of puppets in Kenya although they did use masks. In 2000 the director of Family Program Planning Services(FPPS), an outgrowth of Planned Parenthood, discovered a puppeteer doing a humorous puppet show about AIDS-HIV on the street in South Africa. He invited the puppeteer, Gary Friedman, to Kenya, where he trained nine staff members to use puppets to talk about AIDS issues such as prevention, care for the children, treatment etc. These nine people went on to train 600 people who did puppet shows on AIDS across Kenya and into Uganda. After a year or so the FPPS organization realized the puppeteers needed more training; so they organized the EduPuppets Festival and gained the support of many international embassies.

I was invited as a second choice; they originally wanted a person who used puppets in therapy. I explained that I was not a therapist but used puppetry in education and teacher training. They had not considered teacher training but agreed to invite me anyway. That started a relationship that has lasted for five years and three trips to Kenya. After my second festival I realized that the teachers needed a manual, a reference that would help them create puppet characters, make puppets, integrate puppets into their teaching and have information easily accessible. I also felt they needed a resource room where they could access puppets, books, supplies and reference materials. I brought them a Toy Theater, several different types of puppets, books and materials to start a Resource Room in Nairobi, Kenya.

In 2006 when I returned for the Festival, FPPS built one day around my performances and workshops with children and I went on to spend a couple of weeks giving workshops, visiting schools and working with teachers to write a Teacher’s Curriculum Manual. We also worked to set up the Resource room that included the books, puppets, theaters and materials I and other international puppeteers had brought them.

Before I left I helped them get the US Embassy to make copies of the 144 page Curriculum Manual that is now being used and evaluated. At the end of this school year, my goal is to help them edit the book and get it printed.

I feel that my work in both Kenya and Hong Kong has brought me closer to understanding the people of these countries. I performed for AIDS orphans in the largest slum in Kenya. I discovered that children in Kenya only have public education up to grade eight; after that they must pay tuition to private high schools. Tuition, books and uniforms begin at about $750.00 a year. This is an insurmountable amount for most Kenyan children. Some children are fortunate enough to have a sponsor who helps with the finances of education; for example, this year my church choir sponsored a 16 year old boy, Martin, who has no father and no resources. For most children in Kenya, however, a high school education is an unfulfilled dream.

Puppets have not only brought me around the world, but they have brought me face to face with the realities of life in a third world country.

Judith O’Hare is a master puppeteer who has performed around the world. Her passion is education through puppetry. She has taught at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and has given numerous workshops; she is also an organizer of the Puppet Ed Magic Conference. Judith resides in Reading , MA