Dear friends—We will not be hosting the Alternative Spring Break Trip in 2021. Planning a trip like this is rather difficult during a global pandemic, with varying health protocols and border closures from country to country and hospitals and facilities with immune-vulnerable folks are not accepting visitors right now.
Feel free to read the information below to see if this trip would be good for your health in the future, and sign up for the Gesundheit! Institute newsletter to receive information on future trips and programs.
With a lot of love,
Mamacha/Charlotte
Guatemala City Trip Coordinator
We are welcomed every year by our friends in the Fabrica de Sonrisas and now other clown groups as well, we will come back to our very own boutique museum hotel reserved just for us, our clown home here, we watch our friends and their children move through life as clowns, as friends, and we learn from one another. When we visit facilities we are welcomed with recognition and open arms. We love visiting with the people of Guatemala.
There are folks who make this trip their annual tradition, a reset, a week to return to the magic of discovery, friendship, and giving and receiving wonder. People return with their children, parents, and friends.
As facilitators, we work to create a harmonious, familial space to learn and play together. Please invite yourself to a week of leading with your heart, learning with clowns of other cultures, music, play, excitement, love, care, acceptance, affection, and true, life affirming FUN. Let’s get ready to play!
Who’s invited to attend? You! All levels of clown are welcome (including “I’ve never been a clown before”). We will have welcome circles and workshops and time to answer questions, get to know one another, and get to know who we want to be as clowns entering spaces where people need care and friendship.
Invite your friends, family members, co-workers, family doctor! Who would you like to spend more time with? Imagine a week of play and learning together…
*You need NOT be in a medical field to attend (or to be a care-giver). No clown experience necessary. Required: willingness to be loving and engaged with others.
Gesundheit! Institute seeks to restore people, communities, systems, and the planet to wholeness and health through laughter and loving care. Our activism promotes the values of generosity, justice, and compassion. On this trip, you can further our mission by embracing the spirit of the clown. We define clowning as “spontaneous improvisational play.”
“Clowning” as described by our esteemed colleague Dr. Carl Hammerschlag
We will live together in a small family-run hotel, the Museo Inn Posada Belen, where we will take meals together around a long table and have time to discuss our experiences.
The day-to-day itinerary of the trip will not be available from the Fabrica de Sonrisas coordination team until closer to March, but this is what a typical day looks like:
Cost – $1550
Included in this program fee:
You will need some extra money for a lunch in Antigua, market shopping, and extra drinks at the hotel, and tips ($100 on the conservative side, more if you like marketing <3)
Please arrive before dinner Saturday the 14th. Leave any time on the 21st.
(Feel free to stay a few more days and travel to Antigua, Lake Atitlan, or Mayan heritage sites)
*International airfare is not included to and from Guatemala City.
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. (Patch is usually with us for several days on this trip, as his schedule allows).
Charlotte Huggins has been clowning and traveling with Gesundheit since 2004 and has fallen deeply in love with the spirit and process of clown as action. She is dedicated to the path of the unusual, upside down nature of clown as care giver, and finds the clown to be an enchanting and disarming way of exploring the world. Curiosity, wonder, and care drive her life, and these ethics extend to group facilitation and care. Let our hearts be our guides. Let us look and listen with love, let us extend that love to others and to ourselves.
Colin McLaughlin has been with Gesundheit for 7 years, from the Peruvian Amazon to Guatemala City. He is currently a clown at the St Louis Children’s Hospital, as well as a community social worker, a director and playwright, and a musician. This trip is his favorite week of the year.
– Check back for 2022 Registration –
1) Begin by completing the Guatemala Spring Break Registration Form & agreeing to the International Release Form. Be Prepared to make at least a $500.00 deposit to secure your place on the trip & have your passport ready.
2) If your under 18 years old please be sure to fill out the Parental Authorization Form (ONLY if Under 18).
3) The Trip Coordinator will be in touch with you for any additional information, concerns, or questions.
Passports: No visa is required for US citizens. Residents of other countries please check with your embassy. Passports can be expedited by your local post office. Please bring two color photocopies of your passport with you.
Vaccinations: Please talk to your doctor about the recommended vaccinations for travel to Guatemala. We will not be in any areas of the country where Malaria is a possibility.
Contact: If you would like more information about the trip, please email Charlotte (cstarocean@gmail.com) or call (828)215-5956 with ANY questions you may have. Secondary contact, Colin McLaughlin (colindmcl@gmail.com) or call (540) 421-8964.
| Attachment | Size |
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| Parental Authorization for International Travel | 26 KB |
| Gesundheit Institute Internation Release Form | 24.5 KB |
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