Clowns on the Bus

By Judy Fisk Lucas

Whether you have already been, or want to go, on a Humanitarian Clowning Tour, this day-by-day trip journal will entertain and enlighten you with its informal, conversational and silly style. Clowns from many countries, aged 3 to 74, spent two weeks traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg, meeting Russians. Our two missions on this 24th annual Russian tour were to become a close-knit troupe, and to visit children and their caregivers in orphanages, hospitals and home hospices. Patchs passion for universal justice, peace and healing humor were contagious.
Clowning brings love close. Patch Adams, M.D.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 23, 2010
• ISBN: 9781469112589

Judy Fisk Lucas

Judy Lucas learned about clowns from watching Bozo the Clown in black- and-white television in Hawaii. A half-century later, she decided to become one after hearing Patch Adams speak at California State University at Channel Islands, where she was a part-time writing student. Recently retired from teaching and business careers, Judy discovered what she wanted to be next: a storyteller. And to begin, she would write for children about Patch Adams – healer and peace activist. Patch invited her to Russia with him and other clowns. She got on the bus. Judy and her husband, Ted, and dogs Wiley and Cleo live in Camarillo, California.

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Copyright © 2010 by Judy Fisk Lucas.

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

DEAR READER . . .

FROM PATCH . . .

DAY 1: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2008

DAY 2: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9, MOSCOW

DAY 3: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, MOSCOW

DAY 4: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, MOSCOW

DAY 5: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, MOSCOW

DAY 6: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, MOSCOW

DAY 7: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, MOSCOW

DAY 8: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, ST. PETERSBURG

DAY 9: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16,

ST. PETERSBURG

DAY 10: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17

DAY 11: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18

DAY 12: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19

DAY 13: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20

DAY 14: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21

DAY 15: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22

Dedicated to all clowns

who spread compassion and peace

by putting on red noses and silly clothes

and by being with people who are hurting.

I thank everyone in the U.S. and Russia

who contributed their signatures, words,

fabric, buttons and drawings

to my red Patch for Peace coat.

In memory of Alyona Kaplaya, age 9

ramz.jpg

Alyona and brother Kirill, November 2008.

Thank you, Photographers, Trudy and Lukas

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you from the basement of my heart to some special people:

Patch agreed to give me an interview and invited me to Russia.

Ted sent me off with his blessing, believing in this project and in me.

Our children were cautious with me while on adventures and missions of their own.

Our grandchildren – Benjamin, Jacob, Jeremy, Jordan, Juno, Lara, Madeline, Michelle, Samantha, Sasha and Stephen – are the most important reasons for me to tell this story.

Annamaria, our youngest clown, and Rosi, our oldest, generously loved us all.

MIR Corporation arranged the trip and allowed me to use details from its travelers’ materials about historical landmarks, hotels, museums and other places we visited.

Natasha Khasanova from Maria’s Children answered many e-mail questions with grace.

Natasha Sidorova, artist of cover painting Holiday Clown is not an orphan but came to Maria’s studio when she was a little girl. Her mother is a teacher in Orphanage No.4.

To all those who contributed photographs: Roberta Bigucci, Aslan Gaycumov, Indrani Goradia, Mariko Kanemoto, Sharon Stein, Susan Treida and…

Holton Rower collected hundreds of photos from us clowns to share.

Michael Schiffner created a documentary of our trip.

Ellen Sklarz edited the manuscript, educated me, and cheered me on.

Patti Robinson and Teri Helton encouraged me to tell the story.

Mr. Howard Tatsuno, my Konawaena High School English teacher, introduced me to the function and power of words.

Jeanne Whitehouse Peterson Kammer got me hooked on children’s literature at the University of New Mexico.

Mrs. Zelie Sutherland, my third-grade teacher at Keauhou Elementary School, introduced me to multiple re-writes and wrote me letters for years after I moved away. She believed me.

Joan Peters, Rennie Christopher and Andrea Marzell at California State University at Channel Islands encouraged me to show, not tell.

Patricia MacLachlan, author of Sarah, Plain and Tall and many other children’s books, inspires me with her gift for sensual, poetic prose every time I sit down to write.

My parents, Glen and Bettie Fisk, modeled humor, hospitality and generosity.

DEAR READER . . .

I wrote this for you, the clown who has gone on a humanitarian clowning trip with Patch Adams. I have also written this for you, who may be thinking about going on such a trip. But you just aren’t sure you can handle it. If you have not joined Patch on one of these trips, please don’t think this is going to be a vacation. Or a barrel of laughs. Or a way to see a new country or meet new people. Or to be up close and personal with a celebrity.

Traveling for two weeks in Russia in November 2008 with a group of clowns, aged 3 to 74, was all that and much, much more. Gesundheit Institute plans many such clowning trips to Japan, Romania, Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Cuba, Italy, Brazil and other countries around the earth. Patch goes on many of them.

As I stepped onto Aeroflot flight 45 to Moscow in my red clown coat, I was scared. I felt unprepared, inadequate, out of character, an imposter, and maybe just too old for this sort of thing. One of my grown children didn’t help much by telling me, Mom, you are not even very funny!

So how did I think I could do this, anyway? Ten years before, I had seen the movie, Patch Adams, and that was my first introduction to Patch. I assumed he was probably dead or not actually a real person.

Then he came to my university, California State University at Channel Islands, in Camarillo, California, where I was taking some writing, psychology and art classes, mostly to keep me busy while my husband helped start the new school. Patch was a guest speaker on campus and in our community.

He was silly and goofy, I thought. He made me laugh. He had us do funny things and showed us a short video of his work in war-torn Afghanistan. I bought and he signed his two books, House Calls: How We Can All Heal the World One Visit at a Time and GESUNDHEIT! BRINGING GOOD HEALTH TO YOU, THE MEDICAL SYSTEM AND SOCIETY THROUGH PHYSICIAN SERVICE, COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES, HUMOR AND JOY. I went on a trip that weekend and in the car I wrote a story for children about Patch.

Patch told us that he did not e-mail, but if any of us wrote him, he’d answer in handwriting. So, I wrote him a thank you note and a copy of my short children’s story. He answered me, as promised, a few days later. That was the beginning of our writing relationship. Over the course of the next year, I read everything on his website, www.PatchAdams.org, and interviewed him over the phone. I soon realized that this man was bigger than life with a passion for peace, justice, humanitarian healing and a love for people everywhere. No exceptions. I wanted to know more about him and Gesundheit. He told me about the Russian clowning tour that would celebrate its silver anniversary in November of 2009. He told me to find the trip at www.mircorp.com. And so that’s how I went on the 24th annual Russia trip in 2008. And that is where this story begins.

Years ago when I worked in Korea and later when my children lived in Colombia, Japan and in Haiti for different reasons, we kept our letters and e-mails to and from each other and bound them into books. Writing about our happenings and reflections was easier if we were addressing them to each other rather than just writing in a journal.

This book is a day-by-day recollection, a selection of e-mails to and from my family (husband, children, grandchildren, mother, siblings) and friends, as well as interviews and correspondence with Patch before, during and after the trip. These are my responses, and I take full responsibility. I tried to capture in words what I saw, felt, heard, ate, and did on the trip. So, this is strictly my version. The other clowns have theirs. A glimpse of these is given in the clown quotes at the end of each chapter. I heard these comments on the bus, during our group sessions and in private conversations.

I have also tried to be respectful and compassionate in my observations of another culture that differs greatly in some ways from my own. In other ways, of course, we are just one big family with many of the same needs, feelings, desires and values.

All proceeds of this book will go to Gesundheit Institute for the building of the World’s First Silly Hospital, Patch’s dream child. For that reason, I thank you, my dear reader, for buying as many copies as you can afford and giving them to your schools, hospitals, libraries, doctors’ offices, places of worship, laundromats, auto repair waiting rooms, P.T.A.s, airports and coffee shops—wherever people need humor, hope, and healing.

Patch is exceedingly more than a funny doctor. By traveling around the world 300 days of the year and acting on words of love, justice, peace and affordable humanitarian healthcare for all people everywhere, Patch is an international icon of compassion and intention in action.

I hope you will consider going on one of the many trips offered through Gesundheit (www.patchadams.org)

Thanks for getting on the bus!

Juju

P.S. Clowns—what are your favorite clowning memories? How is your life different since you got off the bus? Any new projects? Please e-mail me at [e-mail]

I feel another book coming on.

FROM PATCH . . .

Thank you, Juju, for caring enough to write of your 2008 Russia Clown Trip with us. I’ve often wished that every clown would make such a log so I can see the trips through their eyes. I love that you came, even though your daughter said you weren’t funny.

In reading your log, I enjoyed how it included your e-mails home and sweet quotes as your clowning and engagement with your co-travelers unfolded. You say many things I hope would be said about the experience of touching and being touched by others, writing also about fears and concerns. I think that by reading this, a future clown would get excited and have a good idea of how to prepare for a trip.

I hope everyone who reads it would realize that all of this could happen in their own community. You can ask yourself as you enter each day, Why don’t I go spread love and fun in the world? I know it matters, and I know I can do it.

I hope you’ll come on another trip.

All my love,

Peace, # Patch

February 10, 2010

"There was an instant symbiotic relationship between them. Patch is one of the most well-read people I’ve ever met. So is Robin; he can reference anything. They immediately had a book reference banter going on. And they