It has already been several days since we were in Belem but the congress didn’t really begin until 2 days ago. It was hot - a little like Montreal during the last heat wave. The congress was held in different places in the city: at the university, in the casa de Linguagem downtown, in different theatres… The locations were separated. We had two choices - take expensive taxis or take the local bus. Two participants were pickpocketed.

There were highs and lows, complete disorganization and rich meetings. I was searching for community theatre in Latin countries. That is one of the reasons I came here. There are two people in the Latin American community theatre: Adhemar Bianchi, director of teatro Catalina Sur de Buenos Aires and Julia Victoria Escobar Holguin from Guatemala. Devora and I went to meet her. If you want to have an idea of what she does, you can visit www.cajaludica.org. I also met a young woman who also does community theatre but this time in Peru. She works with the Natives. She is very simple and direct. In her group there is no director. Her group prefers horizontality. We will meet her tomorrow. We really like her.

During this search for a potential partner, I had some lovely discussions with Devora concerning the criteria of exchange. Engrenage Noir/LEVIER is searching for partners who share the same values - fighting against poverty, projects coming from the community, etc. We also discussed the criteria such as internal ethics (no guru), the transparency of the budget, the model of rich creation (development of the popular culture), and accessibility allowing for a concrete passage between individual and collective transformation, the type of partnership already begun with another Quebec organization, etc.

In addition to all of that, I asked myself over and over again the importance of creating a network. I am persuaded of the necessity of creating ties between different practices and different practitioners. The congress allows us to create relationships and establish contacts but it takes a ton of patience because there is constant disorganization. Everything is a question of chance.

Today we were divided into groups of 6 to visit the islands. I swam in the warm waters of the Amazon. Wonderful! It is the largest freshwater reserve on the planet. I talked for a long time with Véronique Leduc (of Agir par l’imAGinaIRe) but as I looked around I had the impression that I was at a camp for adults or a Club Med. I really don’t understand the motivations of the people who go to (and organize) the congress.