May 28th, 2012

Peace in Motion Project, Sambag 1, Cebu City.  May 24th 2012.

 I am happy to report that the first overseas 'Peace in Motion' event was a huge success.  It was a lot of work for Bernadette (of Hoopaholic Cebu and I (Apsara Hoops), but with the help of some friends we were able to make about 80 hula hoops, adult and kids size, which were mostly distributed in Cebu City on May 24th at a special event.  About 15 hula hoops were given away in the more rural area of Bohol island to unsuspecting kids and new friends.   
As far as the event in Cebu went, the kids were very excited and some in disbelief that they were allowed to keep their hula hoop!  After a short introduction to hooping and to the FLOW arts by Bernadette and myself, we split the 60 or so children and women up into 3 groups and had a couple friends (local flow artists) help with the worshop period.  We then had a free-play session followed by a fire-dancing performance.  We would have liked to do the event a bit later in the evening so that the effects of the FIRE could have been more awe-mazing, but we were just so happy that everything FLoWeD so well, we really had no major complaints.  Most importantly, and kind of heartbreakingly, we walked away with smiling faces following us asking us, "when would [we] be back?!"

As of now,  I am sitting at a convention center in Davao city as I attend my first peacebuilding training course.  I hope to do a presentation on Friday talking about the Peace in Motion initiatives, and introducing the flow arts as a serious arts-based approach to creating peace at the individual, and community level... 
The last three weeks have been so hectic, with some time here and there to reflect, and every time I get a chance to do this, I just think to myself, "wow, the project really happened... what's next for me and the hoop?!" 

-Peace, Love and Spirals...   
Angelica <3