"Over in the Meadow" performance for Loi Kratong Festival

Friday, 26 November 2004 (Thailand time)

Even though I am not in Thailand right now, here is the scoop from Christy who taught, arranged, and led our English Program students in a performance for the Loi Kratong festival in Nakhon Pathom. Here's a recap from her email:


Well, we made it through the big night!! Everyone arrived in costume at 6:30pm as I was told it started at 7pm and we were number 4 in line. Everyone was very excited and all decked out with makeup, hair and body sparkles. (Even the boys!!) It was fun to see my kids so decked out. We got there and saw the posted schedule and we were number 8. Ok..so a little farther down the line up but not too bad. We can manage. So around 7:15 we got all lined up and went toward the front to wait. We waited, and waited, and waited, and waited for almost 1 ½ hours!! Apparently we weren’t really 8th but 11th and most classes had at least 2 songs!! Ughhhh! It was crazy. If only I had known Our kids were very patient and did a great job waiting.

Finally, the time came for us to go on about 8:45pm and we were ready!! The hours of practice paid off as we were the hit of the night! Imagine a huge room filled with 100’s of people all talking and music cranked to the highest it can go! This was the scene – not a quiet performance at all. However, when our kids went on, the crowd quieted and actually stopped to watch. Our students speaking English, dressed as animals and singing with no music was something to take note of (most performances were students dressed in skimpy outfits doing dance routines to popular Thai songs). Phu dressed as a bright yellow frog hopping across the stage and Mint dressed as a lizard with sunglasses were definitely highlights for the crowd. I was so proud of them all! They did a fabulous job and it couldn’t have gone any better. No one forgot their lines and all remembered their cues.

Thanks for your prayers and support! It was a pretty stressful week and I am SO glad it is behind us. However, I am sure there is the next challenge just around the corner! J Attached is a photo of us all at the beginning of a long night. More photos will be on Webshots soon.

Hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Love,
Christy