A Travelling Circus

Colima, Colima and Maruata, Michoacan-

I hitched on out of Jalisco and down into the hotter country of Colima where I met Paula and Aina.

Aina likes to lie and tell people that she is a gypsy and Paula has a cynical smile but a sudden laugh.  They were music teachers for circus kids in Spain, moving from town to town with the freaks and fat ladies, the jugglers and the clowns.  They carried fake noses with them and hitchhiked around Mexico delighting kids by putting them on when the kids weren´t looking.  They made me learn some of their children´s songs, and then they made me do the dances too.  That was alright with me.  They were fearless and flirtatious and I got picked up five times faster when I was with them.

Aina really knows how to face life.

Aina and Paula picked up some interesting tricks during their time with the circus-- for instance, how to decapitate themselves without harm.

They also were very persuasive, convincing me to do things I might not normally do, such as try to cut off my samurai top knot with my pocket knife.

When it came time to make Christmas videos for relatives, what else could we do but perform the Spanish version of "I´m a little teapot" which thanks to Aina and Paula is now sung by dozens of little kids around Mexico and by one 22-year-old American.



Now what spell, gyspy girl?



They went north
I went south
They with fake noses
and I a smiling mouth.