On a Wheel and a Prayer

Each year, Kabul's only circus, the Mobile Miniature Children's Circus or MMCC, holds a four day competition where close to 200 children compete at clowning, juggling and other circus acts. We sent our reporter Aziz Ahmad Tassal to catch the unicycle competition:



The first thing I saw when I walked in was about 100 kids in a big playground, most of them too young to talk. The lawn was full of toys, and a very funny, enormous spongy puppet was hanging on one wall.



In one marked-off area there were two pails of water, and white lines drawn on the ground. This was the place where the unicyclists were competing. They had to cycle between the lines without using their hands. There was also a white board which they had to draw a line on every time they went past. If they could manage to stay on the unicycle and draw a face at the same time, they would win.



Ahmadullah is taking part, but isn’t too optimistic about his chances, “I took part but I don’t know how I’ve done. There are still five people to go. I don’t know if I’ll take first place.”



A scrawny 14-year-old named Nawab explains how the competition worked, “First of all there are two lines drawn on the ground, and then two roundabouts, and one roundabout in some other places, and the player has to get through all of them and then past some zig-zag lines and some arrows, and once you get pass the arrows, there are two buckets full of water. After that, you have to draw something on a white board, and if you manage to do all that, you’re the winner.”



MMCC opened its office in 2002, and since then it has helped children learn different types of circus performances, not just unicycling but also acting, singing and other things. There are around 140 children at the centre.



“We’ve had more than 55,000 visitors in Kabul and the provinces. Two circus groups have been on tour to countries like Germany, Denmark and Japan,” says Bashir Ahmad Popal, a circus trainer. “This year it’s also planned that two groups of 20 children each will go to California and Washington so that they can present the culture of Afghanistan to the people there.”



Behman Ahmad, out of breath and panting, has just returned from the competition ground. “I haven’t lost, but the playground was wet so I slipped two times,” he says.



Fourteen-year-old Fahim is also a member of the centre - he is working in the theatre and has acted on local television.



“When we see failure in ourselves, we lose hope. And if we do well, we are so happy,” he says.



A man calls out the winners. Nawab has won first place.



“I am very happy I got first place,” he says.



Although these kind games aren’t found in the provinces, in Kabul at least the kids have a chance to do them. There are competitions almost every day.



Aziz Ahmad Tassal, IWPR, in Helmand.