Food and Hygiene (not sure why I've done them both in the same blog?!)

Food:

I have been a vegetarian since coming to India (except for some prawns and a chicken wrap that I had at the beach from a Cockney man’s coffee house) and so far my body is enjoying it.I very occasionally get cravings for lamb or beef but these pass quickly.

The food we get at the boarding house is plentiful and I haven’t really felt overwhelmingly hungry since I’ve been here. I was surprised initially at how good it tastes as well. There is rice for every meal, including most breakfasts, and there are usually 2 or 3 vegetable dishes to go with them. The dishes are not usually very spicy and the chillies are usually pretty easy to spot (although one meal time Molly and I both managed to accidentally eat a chilli at the same time. We had synchronised tears running down our faces as we both desperately reached for the water!). There are lots of green beans, ‘lady fingers’, onions and squashes in the dishes and, to my surprise, very few tomatoes (as I would usually choose a tomato based dish when I eat Indian food in UK). We usually get an egg dish each day, my favourite being the egg with spicy cabbage) to give us the protein we need and on occasion we have had lentils and chickpeas. They also do a very nice boiled carrot dish that is seasoned with black pepper and they do the same with potatoes. We usually eat the same food for dinner as we had for lunch which can get a little repetitive but I feel full after each meal and that is the main thing. One thing I am missing in my diet is calcium as I am not drinking the milk (the one thing that made me ill in Nepal) but I will rectify this when I get to a big city to get some supplements.

My favourite breakfast so far has been chapattis and spicy peas. We were also quite enjoying the noodles for breakfast (there was something slightly naughty and student-like about eating them) until we realised that they were packet noodles that had just been boiled up and served. I watched the children make their own chapattis in the first week that I was here and I’m very glad to say that these were not the chapattis that we ate. The reason for this is that each chapatti is handled by at least 5 children before it is cooked. The chapattis are rolled out on newspaper (for added lead poisoning!) and the balls of dough are thrown across the floor as they are shared out to be rolled. Molly and I have been asked to do some training with the girls on hygiene and this will feature in the session!!

We are always offered a desert after each meal and this is usually papaya, banana, watermelon or Jack Fruit. The bananas are tiny and very sweet and the Jack Fruit has an interesting floral taste. I am still undecided on the Jack Fruit but I will continue to eat it as it’s not offensive. Apparently we ate some of the Jack Fruit for breakfast the other day – they can make it into a curry then it is not quite ripe. I melted my Easter egg that Mum got me in the sun about a week ago and made chocolate covered banana for all of the Nuns – it was a good day (and, ironically, helped with my calcium deficiency!)!!!

Snacks are interesting in India. Because they have a ‘the guest is God’ belief in India we are given tea and snacks at around 11am and 4.30pm every day. It took them a while to come to terms with the fact that both Molly and I were asking for black tea (they make their tea with milk instead of water here) and they still don’t understand that we don’t take sugar! Every snack here is either tooth decay or heart attack on a plate! Most of the snacks that we have had have been pleasant but most of them have a very different texture to what you would expect (it’s almost as if the taste and texture don’t marry up). My favourite snack is either the spicy peanuts (that have been fried, of course!) or the Bombay mix, similar to the mix that you would get back in UK.They also offer us a strange sweet snack that seems to be fried honey/ sugar. I don’t like this at all – it’s far too sweet.

Usually we eat at the table in the dining area with the Nuns and the girls eat on the floor in the main room of the boarding house with metal plates and metal beakers. When we went surfing we ate with the girls in the restaurants that the surfers had picked out. I was very surprised to see that a lot of the girls didn’t eat their vegetables, like lots of the children in UK. Considering that most of the children have come from very poor backgrounds where food is scarce, I was surprised to see them turning down food. The girls had also never eaten prawns before and had no idea what they were (which is understandable as none of them had ever been to the coast before!). The water at mealtimes at the beach was always ice cold – another thing that the girls found strange as they usually just drink from the tap which is, at best, luke warm. All of the girls eat with their right hand (the left is used for cleaning after going to the restroom) and it’s actually an impressive skill that I am yet to master. They even managed to eat rapidly melting ice-cream with their hands and were surprised to see Molly and I eating it with spoons!

Hygiene:

Yesterday Molly and I had to clean wounds that 3 of the girls had got at the beach (they had only just told us 2 – 4 days after they cut themselves). The girls didn’t know that they needed to clean cuts and grazes or they would get infected so two of the girls were in a bit of pain. This will be another thing that Molly and I will educate them on.

Angel has been at the boarding house for about a year now. Before that she was living on the streets with her sister, Roselin which explains a lot of what I am about to tell you. Angel’s left knee is constantly weeping pus. Apparently she has had this ailment for about 3 weeks but not told anyone (this may have been learned on the streets: bad leg = more money from begging?). The reason that the leg got this bad is because Angel, like lots of the girls here, doesn’t wash very often at all. As there is a water crisis here the girls are limited to 3-4 baths per week (and unlimited hand-washing) but Angel doesn’t wash anywhere near as often as that. We’re not sure if this is, again, learned from being on the streets (dirtier = more money from begging), whether she is unaware that washing is essential to good health or whether she’s just lazy. Molly and I will put together a training session on the importance of washing and how to wash (as lots of the girls wash with underwear on which means that the most important bits aren’t getting cleaned – we’ve noticed a lot of scratching in this area recently!).

Yesterday I took the girls in groups of four and showed them the proper way to wash their hands. I explained that they need to use soap each time they wash and I showed them the NHS approved hand washing technique. A lot of them were very surprised to learn that I have a qualification in hand washing (I have a certificate and everything!!!) and I think this made them realise how important it is to do it right. Most of them listened to me and took in the information – let’s see if it can become common practice now! At the end of the training sessions I looked a little shrivelled as I’d washed my hands about 10 times (and then I proceeded to wash my hands again for dinner, just to be sure!)!

Headlice are a real problem here. Thankfully Molly and I have been pretty careful with our hair (mine is permanently plastered to my head) so we haven’t got them. We’re also very careful about letting the girls touch our heads or letting their hair get too close to ours. Lots of the girls, particularly the younger girls, have very itchy heads. They sit outside and groom each other – they remove the eggs, crush them between their nails to kill them and then wipe them on their clothes! Molly and I would like to buy them some headlice removal kits but this is only part of the problem. We will also have to provide education on how they are transferred from child to child to prevent them from getting them again when they go back to school or when the other girls come back from spending their summer at home.

I had my first run in with bed bugs the other night. We spent the night at one of the orphanages in Kerala (about 4-5 hours away from the beach that we surfed at) so that we could breakdown the journey a little bit. I woke up the next morning covered in bites. They looked different to mosquito bites (although I had a couple of them too) so I checked on the internet and I’m pretty sure that the bed was infested with bed bugs. I spent the 16 hour bus ride home the next day feeling very itchy indeed – it’s died down a bit now!Thankfully I won’t need to stay there again!

The Wiz - opening night review

The Wiz Review:

“That was the highlight of the trip” said Brandon, one of the surf instructors as the show finished. The audience were on their feet, cheering and applauding, the children were smiling ear to ear and I had a tear of pride in my eye.

As soon as we put the kids in front of an audience everything just seemed to click for them. I think, because of the language barrier and the fact that most of them have never even been in a performance before, they didn’t understand the humour in certain parts or why they had been asked to do certain things. But as they saw the audience’s reaction they were instantly energised and this made for a very special performance indeed.

The audience loved Toto, the balloon dog that Dorothy (Mary) has attached to her arm the whole performance – thanks to Auntie Molly’s balloon artistry. They loved the stuffed tights with the silver slippers that we used as the legs of the Wicked Witch of the East that stick out from underneath Dorothy’s house as she crashes down in Oz. They have been so crudely created (by stuffing them with cardboard, banana leaves and noodle packets!) that one leg is longer than the other and the poor witch has about 4 knees per leg! If she wasn’t dead she would need major surgery to correct all of her issues!

The song and dance to “He’s the Wiz” was fantastic and got a massive cheer at the end. The girls all looked very cute and the stylised dance in the background was well received and got a couple of chuckles and smiles. Momatha and Sandya (the Good Witches) took the lead in this song and managed, for the first time, to keep in time with the music and didn’t need me to correct them at all. This left me free to dance behind the audience to keep the rest of the girls together (with only 8 days of rehearsals the dance wasn’t 100% cemented in their minds). They did brilliantly well and, even though they didn’t finish centre stage (I think I’ve only asked about 1,000,000 times!), they were all looked happy and pleased with themselves!

There was a collective “awwww” from the audience as the Tinman (Johtikka) came on stage. She is the smallest performer and, dressed in her head-to-toe silver costume, her silver facepaint and carrying her axe that is about the same size as her (!), she looked every bit the part!

Shwetha’s Wicked Witch of the West was as brilliant as ever. Shwetha doesn’t speak much English (she is only very young) but once she is shown something she runs with it, completely uninhibited. When she lurched towards the audience and hissed in their faces the collective intake of breathe (followed by nervous laughter) was brilliant! The flying monkeys took a lot of convincing in rehearsals to go over the top with their jumping/ flying (they’re all at the age where their inhibitions are overwhelming!) but it paid off as the reaction from the audience to both the characters they’ve created and the masks that Molly and I made was amazing.

“Brand New Day” was really good again! As it’s quite a fast song and there is a lot of English to fit into each sentence, I sang all of the verses for the girls from behind the audience and they sang the bridges and the choruses. I was very proud as most of them managed to get the works “liberty” and “independently” out during the bridges whilst dancing - not bad for girls whose first language is Canada! The audience loved this song and dance and cheered wildly at the end again!

When the Lion got his courage, the Tinman got his heart and the Scarecrow got his brains the audience joined in with the applause too – they really felt engaged and part of the show at this point! And the icing on the cake was when they realised that Molly had made a scale version of the hot air balloon that the Wizard floats away in at the end! It looked really good as it flew above Dorothy and her friends.

Mary spent hours in rehearsals learning the song and the words to the first verse of “Home” which she sang beautifully acapella  at the end before clicking her heels three times to get home. The audience erupted at the end as they were astounded that she had the courage (and the skills in English) to sing on her own in front of all of those people.

In rehearsals I don’t think the girls had understood why silly Auntie Jenny had asked them to stand in line and take a bow at the end. Once the audience jumped to their feet in gratitude, clapping furiously, whistling and cheering I think they got the message. They were all beaming with pride as they took their bows – it was at this point that I realised I had actually managed to make a difference in the lives of these girls and this was truly humbling! The audience swamped the stage at the end eager to congratulate the stars of the show. They were full of compliments for the girls and I believe that they were genuinely impressed with what the girls had managed to achieve in such a short timescale!

Overall, the narrators were clear (a special mention should be made to Shalini (the Scarecrow) and Shaini (the Lion) who had learned their narration and didn’t need the script!), the dances were crisp and energised, the singing was clear and strong, the characters were well sustained and the props were all on at the right time in the right place (once again, another first!!). Ashwini also did a great job with the music as she didn’t miss a cue.

I can’t explain how proud I felt of everyone who has been involved in putting together this show. I think this must be how a parent feels when they watch a school nativity concert, however, there was an added sense of pride as I have seen the growth of all of these children, not just on the stage but also within their day to day lives. I have taken a special interest in a girl called Nandini who is an orphan. She has no immediate family (siblings, Aunts, Uncles etc) and during rehearsals she was prone to mood swings that would mean her storming out or sitting in the corner with a face like thunder. I decided to befriend her and build up her confidence. I started to watch her closely as she performed and give her a couple of extra responsibilities as I was confident that she could handle them. I made an effort to talk with her about singing and dancing and promised that I will learn a Canada song once we are back from surfing. This gave her the confidence to commit to The Wiz and the progress that she has made in her performance as well as in her daily life (I haven’t seen her sulk for about a week!) is brilliant!

Surfing in Kerala

Surfing in Kerala

The journey:

For those of you who know me well, you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of going anywhere by bus. However, over the past couple of years I’ve become a little better (especially when travelling in Asia as there’s often no better option) so when I was told that the bus ride to Kerala from Hassan would be 15 hours I wasn’t happy but I definitely understood that it was the best way to transport 30 girls to the beach. Initially Molly and I were told that we would be travelling by Jeep so we packed up the costumes for The Wiz into a bag and packed our clothes (including our washing!) into another as we thought we would have plenty of space for our luggage. We positioned ourselves in the Jeep with two of the smaller girls in the middle – we had lots of space and we were very comfortable. 40 minutes into the trip we stopped at the bus station and were asked to get out and get onto the overcrowded night bus to Kerala!!!

The night bus was no different to the night buses back in UK. It was filled with drunken men who thought it was fun to ‘accidentally’ touch my leg for hours on end. For me this wasn’t pleasant but it was just a part of life in India. However, when the men started to touch the girls things really started to get serious. Molly saw this first and swapped places with one of the girls so that she could try to stop it. Molly then woke me up as it was happening in multiple places on the bus so, in the end, both Molly and I spent the rest of the bus journey standing in the centre isle patrolling or moving seats to make our presence felt. The saddest part was that Sister Mary and the teacher, who had come as the designated chaperones (Molly and I were never asked to be chaperones but obviously couldn't turn off our maternal instincts!) knew that it was happening and did nothing to stop it. This is probably because it is accepted in India, however, in US and UK it’s illegal and those were the rules that Molly and I were working to.

Once we arrived in Cochin we were taken to one of the other orphanages that is linked to the Homes of Homes for some well needed breakfast (I hadn’t managed to eat dinner on the bus as my nails were too long to manage to eat the rice with my hands!!!). Molly and I borrowed the computer at the orphanage and emailed Paul to get some more money to charter a bus home to keep the girls safe.  We then piled onto the school bus and were told that we had another 3 hours of driving to the beach. I was so tired at this point that I put my headphones in and listened to some familiar music. The girls danced in the isle and were a lot happier on this bus. The journey actually turned out to be 5 hours and my top that started off white ended up grey with black speckles!!!

As soon as we saw the sea the girls’ jaws dropped – they’d never seen so much water before! All of the rivers near their boarding house are dry. They jumped off the bus and were excitedly met by Jack and Jeff from Indo Jax Surf School from Wilmington in US. We were taken to a brilliant hotel (it has a pool, A/C in the rooms and is pretty much heaven on earth compared to the 'if there's electricity then the fan will work' boarding house!) and given time to shower. This was the third best shower of my life (behind the showers after trekking in Nepal and climbing Kilimanjaro!)! And we actually have a working shower so I don’t have to shower with buckets for the next couple of days!

Surfing and the beach:

Indo Jax seem to work on all sorts of projects with autistic children, blind children and children with learning difficulties and I can see how rewarding it is for all involved. After the girls received their t-shirts, hats, nail polish and necklaces from the team they were taken down to breakfast. This was an interesting experience as none of the children had ever drunk from a mug before (they only have metal beakers at the boarding house) so they had no idea how to drink their tea. We have breakfast every day at a coffee shop run by a Cockney man who moved to India 10 years. The food is good and plentiful.

After breakfast the excited girls were led down to the beach, complete with inflatable shark, inflatable crocodile and life jackets. Some were scared to get into the water at first but most of them jumped straight in with smiles like the Cheshire Cat. The water was beautiful. Some of them needed to hold onto Auntie Jenny as we jumped over the big waves (I think at one point I had 8 girls clinging to me) and some of them were confident enough to stand on their own. None of the girls have ever learned to swim so it’s no wonder that they were a little apprehensive. A couple of the girls were taken off and taught to surf but most of the girls aren’t strong enough swimmers to learn. They are still having fun though, regardless! Johtikka, our Tinman, is fearless and managed to stand on her first attempt.

After lunch (more rice!) we went to an elephant sanctuary so that the girls could ride on the elephants. It was very sad to see the elephants as they looked really miserable. They had lost all of the traits that made them elephants (the children could go up to them as if they were trained pet dogs). Their eyes were very watery and their ears were very ragged. We had taken bananas to feed them (probably the most nutrition they’ve had in months) and I enjoyed showing the girls that they could feed them directly into their mouths, not just onto their trunks. Some of the girls tried it and the elephants seemed to be a little happier at this point.

We had dinner at The Juice Shack (that does amazing fresh juice – the Joint Relief juice being my favourite as I’m now 30 and old!) and then the girls went back to the hotel to watch TV as it’s a huge luxury to have a TV in their rooms.

Molly and I have also done some shopping and I bought some fabulous Asian trousers. I also got my nails taken off (I was shocked to see my real nails for the first time in 8 years!) and so far I haven’t bitten my nails which I’m massively proud of as it’s my worst habit! Let’s see how long I can last!

We have the first show today of The Wiz. The surfers are all really excited to see it and I have no doubt that the girls will be able to pull a good performance out of the bag. We’ve also met a nice lady called Kelsey from Australia who will bring some of her friends to watch too. Fingers crossed!

Rehearsals for The Wiz

Rehearsals

17^th April:

On the first day that we arrived in Hassan we discovered that, after surfing, we would only have 8 people left to do the musical (a musical that was chosen because it contains a lot of ensemble parts to allow us to include everyone!). The reason for this is that I have not come to work in an orphanage, as previously thought, but a boarding house. Most of the girls here are not orphans but they have been removed from their homes because of a financial reason (their parents couldn’t afford to keep them) or because one of their parents (usually their father) is a heavy drinker. Some of the parents can afford to give money to the nuns for board and schooling (around 3500 rupees per year). Other parents cannot so this is subsidised by the work that Paul does with Homes for Hope as well as a very small amount from the government. So most of the children will be going home to parents or relatives for the remainder of the summer.

So since we would be down to 8 after the surfing trip (and most of the girls don’t speak brilliant English) we decided that it would be best to do a condensed version of The Wiz.  I have written a script, we have cast our narrators who will read from the script so that they don’t have to memorise it and we have cast our lead characters who will mime out the actions described by the narrators. Most of the narrators are doing well with their English and we will continue to work with them over the coming days. We have also learned the singing to one song (He’s The Wiz) and some of the singing (the words “Can’t you feel a brand new day”) in Brand New Day. The dance to The Wiz is a little more involved than the Brand New Day dance. This is purely because of three factors – talking, talking and talking! Rehearsals are a mixture of excitement (when a tune clicks and everyone sounds great), pride (in myself and Molly as well as the children at what we are managing to achieve in a very short time period) and frustration. The frustration is mainly borne out of the fact that the children shout, talk and hit. And not just in breaks in between songs! They start talking to one another DURING the songs!!! So Brand New Day is a very easy dance purely because the children wouldn’t listen after being asked countless times over numerous rehearsals!

We have also learned the tornado dance which looks pretty good and we did our first full run through yesterday with most of the props and some of the costumes. Molly and I were busy a couple of evenings ago making 4 monkey masks (out of the leftover fur that Mum used to make the Lion costume). Molly has also made a scale version of the hot air balloon (from card, balloons and bamboo), she stuffed some green tights to act as the Wicked Witches’ legs that poke out from under Dorothy’s house when he lands in Oz and she made a medal for the Lion (when he gets his courage) and Toto the dog from balloons. We are hoping that we can create a backdrop on a single bedsheet, however, we may run out of time (plus, we’re not sure where we can hang it when we perform!).

18^th April update:

I walked out of rehearsal today to show the children that it is not ok to talk constantly during rehearsal and it is not acceptable to leave mid-way through a rehearsal or a dance (I appreciate the irony in walking out to prove that it’s not ok to walk out!). They were quite shocked when Molly explained that I had left because I was sad as I had come a long way to play with everyone and no-one was paying attention. After about 5 minutes I came back to a chorus of “sorry Auntie”. The nuns scolded the children and told them that they were lucky to have us here and that they needed to pay attention to direction. They explained that I wanted to work with them and that I was prepared to give them as much time as was necessary, however, I would only work hard if they worked hard too! The nuns want this to be a success as much as Molly and I do and, even if no-one else does, they appreciate the effort we are going to!

After this episode we had the full attention of all of the children for 30 minutes (30 minutes more than we’ve had the whole time that we’ve been here!) so we added in some more steps to the Brand New Day dance. This was 100% necessary as I was falling asleep watching it before!!! We also learned a few more lines to this song so that everyone can sing at least part of it. They are doing very well as it’s quite a fast song and they are singing in their second language. We will continue to work on this as we have some issues with singing and dancing at the same time (as is always the case!) but it’s definitely looking better.

After the morning rehearsal I spoke with Sister Mary and asked her if the children were enjoying the rehearsals as I was troubled by their attitudes. (At this point I should probably state that some children are very committed and dedicated to getting the most they can from this experience and they will ask me to help them and will study the songs on their own too). Even taking into account the fact that they are children, they are singing in a second language and they are dancing in a different way to what they are used to, Molly and I are shocked at the lack of discipline and respect for anyone/ everyone.  Sister explained that they are enjoying themselves and that this is normal behaviour for the children. Sister asked us for advise on how to get the children to be more disciplined and more respectful to adults as well as to each other. I appreciate that disciplining 90 children (the number of children at the boarding house when school is back!) must be a thankless task and the Sisters do incredibly well! Molly and I have already started to work with the children on saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and they are doing very well with this. We will work on the rest – the next challenge after we finish the show!

Update 20th:

We have painted everyone's faces today and given out all of the remaining costumes that I brought from UK. Everyone looked really good, especially the munchkins who looked very cute with their hippie facepaint.  Most of the children were happy with what they were given, however, there were a few who wanted more and one child even asked me if we would be giving them soap and painting their nails!!! I must confess that I was confused that children who literally have nothing (their parents can't afford to keep them!) could be acting almost a little spoilt. There definitely seems to be a "please sir, I'd like some more" attitude among some of the children that I struggle to understand. But this is only some of the children - the rest are very happy and appreciative when given treats. Maybe there is a good reason for this behaviour (and I have learned that some of the children have had bad times over the years) but this doesn't stop me from feeling shocked.

Nonetheless we continued with the rehearsal, did 2 run throughs (one good and one diabolical!) and then Molly and I took the afternoon off to explore the (tiny!) village.There is a little lake here so we went to sit down there to relax and regroup.We have done so much in the past week that it was nice to reflect with pride in our achievements.

It is not my intention to be negative in this blog, however, I felt that it was important to note that the attitudes of the children are vastly different to what I expected. To finish on a positive, I have recently found out that the children all pray for other people less fortunate than themselves when they pray and not for themselves. This is admirable!

My first week in India

My first few days in India – 11^th April

I was met from the plane in Bangalore by Molly, a lady who lives near Washington DC who will be working with me in Hassan. She has also quit her job and will be in India for somewhere between 3 and 6 months. She had been in the airport since 1am (my flight arrived about 8am) – she had waited so that the Salesian Sisters didn’t need to collect both of us at different times.

Just after 8.30am a nun appeared in white and helped us with our bags to a car that transported us back to the provincial house. We arrived to find some nuns on retreat (so they couldn’t talk for 6 days) and some kind hearted nuns who greeted us with chapattis and coconut sauce, fruit (lovely sweet bananas and green oranges) and tea. We were also given another snack and supper by these nuns before a well-deserved sleep.

The next day a car had been organised by one of the nuns to take us to Hassan. They had packed us a bag of goodies for the journey (chocolate cookies, peanut crunch, oranges) which was lovely of them as this will probably have come out of their own pocket. The journey in the air conditioned car was pleasant as most of the roads were (surprisingly) new and smooth and, once we found the orphanage, we were greeted by 40+ excited girls who treated us to a song (I noted that they could sing which boded well for the musical!) and helped us with our bags. Sister Mary gave us both a beautiful flower and welcomed us with a handshake and a hug. We were given coconut water (which was nice and refreshing)and shown to our room – a twin room with basic beds, mosquito nets, a desk and a balcony. All we need really! After a little while we came down to be pounced on by the girls. Each one wanted to ask questions, to hold my hand and to be close to me. They were fascinated by my camera and insisted that I take photos of them each in turn. My camera then disappeared and it only came back when the card was full and they were struggling to take more photos. I have since looked at the photos and the latter 20 have all been taken through a smudged lens – obviously someone has put grubby fingers all over it!

Sister Mary informed us that there are 42 girls here currently and 30 will join us on the surfing trip on 23rd. She also told us that most of these girls will go home after the surfing, leaving only 8. Our initial plan was to stage “The Wiz” to an audience over a one week period after 5 weeks of rehearsals with 30 girls. Now the plan has changed drastically. We have 9 days before surfing, in which time Sister Mary has asked us to teach the 42 girls as much as we can! We will learn some of the musical numbers and I will ask the girls to help to choreograph as well. I have most of the costumes already for the lead characters and, in downtime in between learning the songs, we will make masks and other costumes for the other characters. The plan (which will probably change about 20 times before we go surfing!) will be to perform the numbers we have, in costume, with a backdrop created on a sheet with the 42 girls the day before we go surfing. After we get back from surfing and the number of girls drops to 8 Molly and I will have to further plan during the surfing trip. I genuinely have no idea what we’re going to do – scary and fun in equal measure!

16^th April update:

We’ve been rehearsing for 4 days now. We have learned “He’s the Wiz” and we have learned the dance (which was choreographed during the night when my jetlag wouldn’t allow me to sleep!) and “Brand New Day” (also choreographed at 3am!). We have decided that, because we have very little time, we will do a condensed version of the story and we will have narrators who will read from a sheet of paper so that no-one needs to learn the script as it’s in their second language. We handed out the costumes yesterday to the lead characters and they were over the moon! They were very excited to put the costumes on and they all looked brilliant. It brought a lump to my throat. The lion that Mum made is a particular favourite of mine along with the Tinman costume that I borrowed from Upstage Centre. Molly and I made monkey masks yesterday for 4 flying monkeys – Molly is great at crafts and I am enjoying being creative again (even if my job yesterday only consisted of cutting out the card and fur that Molly had outlined!). Molly will work with the children over the coming days to create a backdrop (some of them are quite good at drawing) and a scaled down version of a hot air balloon and I will choreograph the tornado dance. Mary is playing Dorothy and she is working super hard. She is trying to learn the finale song and she has spent hours so far with the CD trying to memorise the words and the tune! She will be wonderful. Swetha, our little Wicked Witch, has no inhibitions so she is running up to everyone and scaring them – she’s brilliant and takes direction very well.

Aside from doing the show, the girls take a lot of naps, spend quite a lot of time praying and play with the ball (throwing and catching) for hours. Their favourite phrase currently is “Please put up, Auntie” when they’d like me to throw the ball high for them. They’re getting very good at catching it from height and getting better at saying please (they learned quickly when they realised I wouldn’t do it when I was ordered to!!!)

Molly and I were taken around the very small village where the boarding house is today by Kavitha and Jennifer. They both speak English very well so it was a pleasure to spend some time with them. We saw the schools (one for years 1-7 and one for years 8 to 10), the church and the river (or where the river should have been as it is dry season so it is just soil). The female locals were very interested in us – one lady asked us our names and volunteered her own and one lady invited us to sit on her porch to chat to her via our young translators. We made sure that we didn’t make eye contact with the men as this is seen as a sexual advance (!) and we waved at the boys who were waving and fishing in the mud. Once again they wanted us to take their photo.

We have 4 more days before we perform (and 5 more days before the 15 hour bus ride to surfing!!). Hopefully we can pull off something special! At the very least we’ve all tried hard and had a good time rehearsing!