21 January


Saturday 21 January

A small show

 

We only have one show late-afternoon today, so In the morning I do the internet, catch up with my diary and do some ringing around to check out what we should do from Wednesday - should we head down to Krabi and Phi Phi or should we remain up here in Khao Lak?

 

To move or not to move

 

I spoke to La (who runs an excellent organisation called "hiphiphi", who knows all about children in Phi Phi and Krabi) a couple of days ago, to see if he could set up at least 3 useful days of work for the CWI team down there - if we could afford to go. He hadn't got back to me - though this may well not be his fault as our phone appears to have been behaving very dodgily (possibly because I stuffed it down my bra the other day - I didn't have any pockets in my clothes and I didn't want to lose it, and it got very hot and sweaty, which is probably not very good for its health, or possibly because one of the Orange masts has gone down - we are not sure which is the real reason).

 

JAKE, JO, HAGGIS AND LEE DOING A FIRE ROUTINE AT THE AFTERNOON SHOW AT THE NEW HOUSING CENTRE

(YOU CAN SEE PAUL TO THE LEFT, AND MR. WEE IN YELLOW T-SHIRT AND FINE FORM, TO THE REAR)

 

The fire showAnyway I give La another ring and the phone is working, luckily, and I manage to get through to him, and he tells me that there are NO tsunami-affected children left in Krabi - many had been evacuated there straight after the tsunami, but they have now all either returned to Koh Phi Phi (where they now have 67 on roll at the school) or have returned to the original provinces they came from before they first went to Phi Phi over the last few years (the Government is apparently not allowing much rebuilding yet in Phi Phi - I hear they may have plans for most of the now-empty land to be filled with big resorts - so there is not a lot of work available for the Thais who were living there, at the moment, and most of them are apparently returning to their original home provinces).

 

 

 

Counting the pennies

 

It appears that Linda hasn't managed to get the promised free accommodation for us down in Krabi after all (I think Zahid has gone on holiday, and no one else knows who is meant to be dealing with this) and it is really not worth us trecking all the way down to the island of Phi Phi, at some considerable cost, just to work with 67 children (who have already had a lot of entertainment and will get more soon hopefully from the excellent Doug Francis of Invisible Circus), when there are so many more schools and children we can work with up here in Khao Lak.

 

Accommodation and food would be much more expensive down in Phi Phi and Krabi - up here in Khao Lak, we are managing to live really very cheaply (and we really want to save as much money as we can, so that we can send one or two performers back to Sri Lanka soon). So I tell La, "Sorry, we won't be able to make it this time", and ring Linda and Somchai to ask them to set up more gigs for us here in Khao Lak (where 78% of the deaths and damage from the tsunami occurred.)

 

To the new housing area

 

Lee HayesAt 3.45 Mr. Wee arrives with the songtheuw and we load the show up and set off to the ITV (Thai television company paid for it) housing in Bang Muang. We visited this area of temporary housing a few days ago, and asked if we could run a show there on Saturday late-afternoon, and they seemed delighted and said they would publicise it for us.

 

We arrive and set up the show in the open-sided sala building in the central plaza, where varioius fishermen are mending their nets. There are a few children around, but not a lot - we wonder if we are going to round up enough for a decent show. 5.00 pm rolls around and we don't have more than about 30 children, so we load Trent with his ukelele, Martha with her accordion and Lee with his juggling clubs onto the roof of the songtheuw, and get Mr. Wee to drive them around the housing complex, to try and round up a bigger audience. The village chief gets on the microphone and shouts that people should come - we eventually land up with an audience of about 60 children, 40 adults and about 10 dogs - not a lot, but still worthwhile.

 

THIS PICTURE SHOWS LEE JUGGLING FIRE ON TOP OF HIS 7 CRATES (WATCHED BY AN ANXIOUS LOOKING HAGGIS!)

 

Lots of fun

 

They really love the show - which is pretty much the same as usual, except that Lee does his 5-ball cascade and his 5-ball bounce in the middle of the show, and then his 7-crates (which we borrowed off a local supermarket) climb and then juggles fire from the top of them at the end of the show. We have been blowing up lots of balloons during the show, and make hats or swords for the children before they leave. Disappointing not to have had a bigger audience, but they had a lot of fun, so it was worth a try!

 

Supper and bed.

 

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