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The words of Tom Jobim give me wings and my eyes take me to Christ, who is in front of me with His opened arms. From the top of the mountain, He seems to look at and bless me. My mind starts traveling and I feel as if I were over there. Next moment, I am descending the mountain in my car, crossing the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Immediately, I am facing the red traffic light and my car stops, as if it was driving itself. Suddenly, I can see many children and adolescents in front of me.

They have tennis balls in their hands, or even lemons or oranges, and, with extreme ability, they juggle with these "balls". Some climb onto the shoulders of others and, from there, show their skills, as if they were in a circus. The spectacle lasts one or two minutes. They finish the performance and come to the drivers, asking for money. The lights become green and, at this moment, the fantasy finishes, and I come back to reality.

Are they homeless children? Do they have families and are "only" developing different strategies to face the daily adversities? Are they searching for new and creative activities for money-making in order to create income which makes possible their own survival and maintenance of their families?

Felsman (in Lusk and Mason, 1993), referring to the homeless children of Rio, says that the activities used by them to survive are limited only by their imagination. According to this author, these children can be seen selling everything, and doing any kind of job which one can conceive. From singing in a bus or charging parking tickets in the streets, they show an extraordinary inventive spirit. It is important to notice that "in spite of the shadowy and inexorable atmosphere, which one can find in the literature about homeless children, even dealing with an extreme and absolute poverty and with the urban violence, these children are amazingly happy. (p. 161).

To tell the truth, they can do almost everything to survive. But, concerning the homeless elderly can they do the same? Do they have such energy or creativity to overcome these adversities? What can they do to survive?

In general, they are sheltered in nursing homes maintained by the government, where they are cared for. Many of them are ill with physical or sensory impairments and also with mental retardation or emotional problems. In many of these homes music therapy is introduced, generally through contracts between the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música[3] and the government. One of these contracts - which has a project called "Searching Ways Through Art"[4] and which was introduced in four different institutions - was coordinated by the music therapist Marly Chagas and offered many kinds of art activities, in different creative languages, such as: music therapy, musical workshops, story telling, drama, dancing and constructing musical instruments.

In these activities, the professionals "had the cultural axis as a basic referential of individual and collective identity" and one goal was "to humanize the institutional relationships between the interns and staff members," since the activities were done with all of them, together. (Chagas, 2005). Here, certainly, music therapists were the jugglers because these kinds of relationships are very difficult to deal with.

In Stige's articles there are interesting and important discussions about music therapy with communities and one issue he brings up is the denomination of this kind of work, which is practiced around Brazil. It is not new but, here, it is called Social Music Therapy, which embodies also music therapy with homeless children, adults and elderly people, generally, in governmental institutions.

In "Searching Ways Through Art" there were many positive effects, besides of the intended goals. Some people, who seemed to be mute, sang! Women who were interested in learning the lyrics of songs, learnt how to read! "Composers" and "performers" were discovered. Musical ensembles were created with interns and staff members who kept on playing even after the end of the project.

So, although homeless adults and elderly people don't juggle with oranges or lemons at traffic lights, they have been encouraged by the professionals of this kind of project, to juggle with life, in order to overcome adversities for their own survival.

Notes

[1] Corcovado is the mountain on top of which is the statue of Christ the Redeemer with opened arms, blessing the whole city of Rio de Janeiro.

[2] Corcovado is also the name of a song, composed by the well known Brazilian composer Tom Jobim, which has a version in English named Quiet Nights. Here I have done a literal translation of Jobim's lyrics which is different from the English version.

[3] Brazilian Music Conservatory is the institution in Rio de Janeiro, where the Music Therapy Program has been offered, since 1972.

[4] This project is coordinated by Marly Chagas, music therapist and psychologist and the supervision of the clinical music therapy is done by Raquel Siqueira, also music therapist and psychologist.

References

Interview with Marly Chagas (2005).

Lusk, Mark W. and Mason. (1993). Meninos e Meninas de Rua no Rio de Janeiro [Fieldwork with Rio's Street Children]. In Rizzini, Irene (Ed.). A Criança no Brasil Hoje [The Child in Brazil Today]. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Universitária Santa Úrsula.

Stige, Brynjulf. (2002). The Relentless Roots of Community Music Therapy [online] Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved February 23, 2003 from http://www.voices.no/mainissues/Voices2(3)Stige.html

How to cite this page

Barcellos, Lia Rejane Mendes (2005). Juggling with Life. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 15, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=fortnightly-columns/2005-juggling-life