After a full day of teaching at the Mae Ramat Witthyakom school (that's the high school), I came home with just enough time to put on some warm clothes and jump in the truck to make the 1 hour drive to the village we were going to be celebrating at. My day at school was a fun filled day. Malee's (one of the girls at Agape) teacher asked me if I would edit and read her Electronic English books. She wanted to record my voice and use it when she teaches her children from her E-book. I told her of course. My morning at the school was spent doing just that. It was pretty funny. She kept telling me I had a beautiful voice (I think the only reason why she thought it was beautiful is becaus along with my voice comes an American accent ;)). It was a pretty official ordeal. After I finished the book I had to critique her book, and then sign the page I critiqued it on and write my qualifications (B.A. in education). She had to send all the paperwork into the Head of education.
Anyways, after we finished with the book, I went to teach her class. For class today, the students were cooking Thai food. They had to prepare the food and write all the ingredients and step-by-step cooking instructions in English. My laborious (;)) job was to sit at the table as the children brought me their food that they cooked. I had to ask their group leaders name, the name of the food and they had to tell me how they made it. Then I had the privelige of tasting each and every one of the dishes they prepared. There were 10 groups, so let's just say I had 10 lunches that day ;)
After my delicous lunch(es) I went into another teachers English class because she wanted me to teach her class. All the students asked me to sing a song, so I told them they had to sing me a song and then I would sing them a song. They sang the Thai national anthem and I sang my National Anthem. It was pretty intimidating singing in front of 35 high school students, but I made my way through the whole song :) After this lesson, I just got to play some scrabble with a couple of the girls. It was a lot of fun! As the day came to an end, I got back in the truck and made my rounds to pick up all the children from school. I had to go to 3 different schools to pick up all the children, but I was greeted at one of the schools with a lovely cake that Bybooa made for me, so it wasn't so bad. We hurried home so we could get back in time to go to the Sweet December celebration.
I had my scarf, beanie, long johns, sweat pants, gloves, and my beautiful afghan my grandma made for me on as I rode in the back of the truck with all the kids. It was freezing and the cold wind was making it even worse. But the cold weather didn't seem to bother any of us as we sang songs the whole time we drove (English and Thai- the kids love to sing the English songs). We got to the celebration and Somoo and Eja had to hurry up and run close to the stage. They were both singing in the singing competition. Eja was playing the guitar and singing and Somoo was playing the drums (well it's actually just a box seat thing that you hit with your hands and it sounds like drums :)). I walked around with Kawee and saw the village and some of our Agape children's bamboo huts in the village. It was so dark as we walked to some of the homes. Kawee held my arm and directed me. I really just had to trust her because I really couldn't see a thing. For all I knew my next step could be off a cliff. We made it to the house safely and back to the celebration just in time for Eja and Somoo's performance. They did such a good job! I was so proud of them. As they stood on stage I gave them roses and put little necklaces around their necks. It was so much fun!! They won first place!!
Me, Terra and our children went on stage and sang Jingle Bells. Me and Terra had the microphones so I'm sure it wasn't as pretty as it could have been ;) There were a couple more performances, including dramas, dances, and the grand finale performance was a Karen Christian rock band. It was really funny because when they first came out they started singing and it was like heavy metal. Heads banging, screaming and everything. Me and Terra were like "what the heck?!". We totally weren't expecting that at all. Then they finished their song and it was all a joke. They don't really play like that. They ended up being really good actually. Anyways, the night ended with fireworks and everybody welcomed in Sweet December.
2 comments:
Sawadeekup,
Wow, another great day. What a blessing to be a part of such a wonderful experience.
The necklaces look like spools of thread tied together... Spending the big bucks, huh? :) And I'm sure that you sounded wonderful; you've come a long way as far as singing is concerned. Love you!
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