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24 January

Page history last edited by PBworks 18 years, 11 months ago

Tuesday 24 January

Bang Bang Sak - a good day

 

Bang Bang Sak School today - this is a completely new school. It is being built by the army and paid for by the King, as the old school was completely destroyed in the tsunami. Yet again we realise how incredibly lucky it was that the wave struck on a Sunday - if it had been a Monday, say, then thousands more Thai children and adults, especially teachers, would have died.

 

620 children

 

The school is only half-built and it's a bit of a construction site, with open sewers and all sorts of dangers ("Health and Safety, Health and Safety," we mutter as we scramble up and down slopes) but it's clearly going to be a splendid building. There are now 620 children rather than the previous 180 - it is also partly a boarding school, with the majority of the children actually living there, either because they have been orphaned by the tsunami, or because they live far further away or because they have been removed from unsatisfactory living conditions in their own homes for various reasons.

 

The school site is very large, and it takes us a while to find "Miss Jen", our contact here - thank goodness for mobile phones! She finds us in the end and shows us the big "sala" where we will work. She speaks far better English than most of the teachers we have worked with on the Thai Tour, which is a great relief.

 

Our few needs

 

The new "sala" is perfect for our needs (which are minimal now actually - space, shade and a power point) but suffers from being a sort of major cross roads in the school, so there is huge excitement and a lot of standing, staring and giggling going on as we start to set up the show.

 

(We always try to set the show as soon as we arrive, even if we will be running workshops before the show, as this makes the rest of the day easier and ensures that we are :ready to go" in case of early arrivals or sudden changes of timetable, which are fairly frequent. "Setting the show" involves deciding which way round we are going to play the show, rigging a rope and parachute between whatever is available (pillars, trees, netball posts, etc.) to create a big, colourful backdrop to the show and, when we can, hazard taping off an invisible-ish backstage area where we set out the performers props and costumes. The PA system and cd player and speakers need to be set up and wired up (and to my surprise and pride, I can do this on my own now, if I need too - though the radio mic system is still beyond me!) and all Trent and Martha's musical equipment needs to be sorted out. We set out a rope in a big semi-circle to represent the front line of audience and talk (well, mime, usually) to teachers, explaining that the smallest children need to come in first and sit just behind this line, then the next biggest, then the next and so on. Once that is all done, we can usually run the show at 10 minutes notice if we have to - this is just enough time for the performers to dress, double-check their props and "psych themselves up". If the audience arrives too soon, then Martha and Trent can play pre-show live music - their costumes are really great, and, with their false teeth in and to the fore, they look hugely comical and insane, but the music is of really high quality.

 

Workshops without language

 

The first 60 workshop children, who are 12-13 year-olds, arrive and I hand out the badge centres and they put them in their pockets. About 16 of them go off with Trent and Martha to play with the "boom-whackers", 25-ish go to Haggis for juggling and ball games and the remainder go to Jake's plate spinning and Jo's hula-hooping, diabolo and ribbon-twirling. I set up my badge tables one end of the hall and children just come over and make their badge when moving from one activity to another - we used to formally move groups around the workshops, but we have found that as long as we have set them up right, they pretty much work out OK with children moving on to new activities as they want. Really, without a translator that is all we can do - luckily it almost always works well!

 

ME AND SOME CHILDREN AT THE BADGE MACHINE POST

 

Badge Queen BellaI really enjoy running the badge-making. One gets close contact with the children, and even though I can't speak any Thai, I can get really nice non-verbal relationships going in many cases. The children are fascinated by the badge machine, and they are always thrilled with the badge they have made. The machine is working like an angel, and hasn't gone wrong once - the only times there are problems is if I am being besieged by children and have my attention distracted and then place one badge front on top of another. One also mustn't put two of the film laminates on top of the child's drawing instead of the one needed, or the machine revolts - but my finger tips now "know" whether they have got one or two in them. I must admit that I really have got it down to a fine art! The felt tip pens have lasted really well - everyone said they would dry out in the heat and last no time at all, and that we should use crayons (not as bright or good as far as I am concerned, and one would be having to use a pencil sharpener all the time) but this isn't so - felt tip pens rule, and the children are really helpful about collecting them up for me afterwards and putting their tops back on. We have got away with just 8 packets of 20 for the whole Thai Tour, which is amazing, though I think I must buy a couple more packets when we stop at the 7/11 tomorrow to get our addictive iced coffee - just a few more to get us through the last few days.

 

Delicious lunch - Thai hospitality

 

We are brought a particularly delicious lunch - the usual huge bowl of rice and plates of Thai omelette, a very nice Green Thai chicken curry and some yummy morning-glory, as well as hunks of water melon. The lunches are very good at the schools, and there is always lots of food - in many cases it may be the children's main meal of the day, and it is always well balanced and healthy and sustaining - English schools could well learn a lesson about food from the Thais!

 

All the schools want to feed us - at first we thought we should perhaps make some financial contribution towards the food, but this was definitely not welcomed - we are doing free work for them, we are their guests, we are doing something for them, they want to do something for us - it's really nice! It also helps the Children's World International budget a lot - breakfast is included in our B & B costs, and we only need to pay for everyone's dinner in the evening because of the schools feeding us at lunch time. The schools are also very good about realising how unused to the heat we are (actually they could hardly fail to notice, as most of us are literally dripping with sweat from the moment we arrive to the moment we leave!) and huge trays with glasses and jugs of iced water arrive regularly throughout the day to keep us hydrated.

 

Too many children

 

MARTHA, IN GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOUR CLOTHING, LEADING THE BOOM-WHACKER WORKSHOP

 

Music in actionIt's time for the second workshop, but instead of 60 new workshop children arriving in an orderly manner with a teacher, the sala is suddenly teeming with more than 150 students, many of whom we recognise from the morning workshop session. Some of these are wearing the badges they made this morning, and can therefore be easily identified as having had their workshop session, but many have put their badges in their pockets, in the hope of doing the workshop again - it's very flattering, but we simply cannot work with this many children at one time. Miss Jen has disappeared and there is no one who speaks any English in the sala - so chaos rules for a few minutes. Miss Jen returns, but things are still a bit squiffy - not just some, but almost all, the students have suddenly been removed - "hocsip, hocsip," (five dozen) we plead - and eventually we land up with 60 new workshop students who really enjoy their hour of activities.

 

Then it's time for the show - there is an audience of about 500 children (some of the older ones are taking exams and can't be there) and they really love it, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the skills parts and roaring with laughter at the comic parts. The show really is getting better every day - we are all feeling quite sad that we are nearing the end of the tour and will only be doing the show a few more times.

 

Please come back!

 

Huge applause and thanks from the children and staff. Miss Jen says we must come back next year - all the dormitories will be finished by them and we can stay with them at the school!

 

Back to the bungalows, internet office, badge-cutting out and dinner, then bed. Just before we go to sleep, our daughter Jessica calls us, which is lovely - we hadn't heard from her for a few days (though of course I get daily reports of her from my lovely secretary/assistant/right hand Chris). Jess is full of beans, college is going very well, the cat misses us, the house is in "good nick" and she is longing to see us on Friday week - we are longing to see her too!

 

25 January

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