Friday 13th January

Smaller than expected

Friday the 13th - unlucky for some, but not for me as my daughter Jess was born on Friday 13th of May in 1988, and I have always considered Friday 13th's to be pretty lucky since then!

An unexpected free morning

Today we go to Baan Bang Nang School, just 2 kms north up the road from where we are staying. We thought we were going to work here all day - and as we were told there were 200 students, we were going to run parachute games, 3 workshops and then a show for all the students - which would mean that all the students would get to participate in a workshop - but Somchai rang us last night and said that the students had exams in the morning and would we please go just in the afternoon. Okey-dokey! Bit disappointed, but quite pleased to have the time to catch up with my diary, which I had completely forgotten to start writing again in the excitement of getting back into the schools again!

Iced coffee - just the job

Mr. Wee comes and picks us up at 12.15 and we quickly load the songtheuw, and we arrive at the school shortly thereafter (having paused at the 7/11 to pick up the iced coffees that we have rapidly become addicted to - there are 7/11 shops everywhere in Thailand and their iced coffee - terribly sweet, as the Thais love sweet things - is exactly what you need to perk you up, cool you down and hydrate you all at the same time - and, at 17 baht, or about 20p a hit, it is a luxury we can afford, luckily.)

Roaring with laughter

It turns out that the school doesn't have 200 students at all - only 58 - which means that we can involve all the students in a workshop before the show, which is great. I run a bit of parachute games, and then Haggis takes the 8-11 year olds for juggling and Jo and Jake take the younger ones for plate-spinning and ribbon-twirling, and they all come to me for badge-making. We blow up a lot of modelling balloons and make simple hats for the children - one of the older boy students turns out to be really good at making balloon animals, which is a nice bonus. A nice afternoon, and the show goes really well. Luckily there is some shade on the dusty playground, and we spread the parachutes out for the children to sit on. As it is Children's Day tomorrow, ice lollies and cake and a lot of goodies have been handed out, and it's a bit like a cinema audience in a way, with a lot of munching going on, but they love the show and roar with laughter. More oranges (we are now overloaded with oranges and pass them on to Mr. Wee), ice lollies and more of the vile pink drink (clearly a Thai favourite!) are pressed on us before we can load the van and head off back to the bungalows..

Unpack - internet, dinner and bed. Even if there was anything else to do in the evenings, I reckon we would be too tired to do it!

What's next?

Tomorrow, Saturday 14th January, is Children's Day and we are doing one gig in the morning 9.30-10.00 at a big event to the north, for Gow of the Tsunami Volunteer Cetnre, and then another show 1.30-2.30, about an hour south at Khok Kloy, at another big Children's Day event.

Paul Molyneux (Crystal Ball Paul - a performer we know slightly, who wants to come and help as a volunteer) has arrived in Bangkok, and is taking the night bus down here to Khao Lak, so we will return to Krathom Guesthouse between the 2 shows to scoop him up and take him with us to the Khok Kloy event.

Sunday is a day off, so I will probably write up the diary again then and let you know how Children's Day went. Hope there are people out there reading all this - sometimes I feel I am just sending messages into the ether and that no one is actually receiving my messages! Still, we need to keep a record of what we are doing, and this as good a way as any!

14 January