Seri Mengasih’s 30th Anniversary Dinner and Concert was last night and it was fantastic! The whole event was to celebrate our birthday and maybe raise some money too. There was a 9-course meal, professional dancers, “lucky draws,” and bidding on student artwork. My country coordinator was able to attend but, sadly, I was so busy that I only saw him when he first arrived because I gave him his ticket.
What was I doing?! Oh it was so great! I was backstage with all the kids who were getting ready for their performances. There were a few students who were in more than one performance so they needed to change costumes quickly and get ready to dance again so I helped out a little with that. The students have been practicing for this night for a long time and it definitely showed. I’m happy that they were still excited when it came show time and they shook it like Polaroid pictures.
I was more or less officially assigned to two dances (because I was assigned to a certain teacher and these were the dances that she was in charge of); the Modern dance and the Charleston/Charlie Chaplin dance. Our rehearsals increased in frequency over the last three weeks and intensity over the last two. These kids were ready to rock! Both of our dances were near the end of the line-up for the evening with the Charleston as the “Grand Finale.” I was so impressed with their patience. If anyone needed patience it was definitely myself. It was sometimes hard to keep things organized with two teachers looking after 8 students and their things with 30 other students and 10+ other teachers in between it all. And their costumes. On at least one occasion, I would place a prop in a place where it would be easy (for me) to locate when it was time and then later be asked for it and it’s not there because someone else found a ‘better’ place for to be easy to find. But hey, everything went smoothly and it was… so… CUTE!
I’ve become very attached to the students in these two dances. I love making them laugh. Back stage I was like their personal clown dancing up and down the hallway to whatever music was playing on the other side of the wall. Their smiles and happiness were more important to me than how quiet and organized everyone needed to be while another performance was going on. I guess I didn’t care. I like dancing and I wanted them to like dancing too. And relax because it would be terrible if these students were nervous and backed out or froze last minute. I gave them a reason to laugh off any stress they might have. I like to think it paid off.
I am proud of the students for all their dancing and giggling but I am also proud of the staff. They did a great job with this event and I’m really glad they could feel comfortable enough to ask me for help with any errands or jobs they could use a hand with. I feel like I’ve been able to use some of my God-given gifts and am looking forward to using them more in the future.
It’s time for our first visa renewal and this means 90 days in this country is almost expired. The YAGM-Malaysia Crew and Peter The Country Coordinator are headed to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The four of us who have work (and not a long vacation because of the school year) will return in one week. Those seven days are going to be noisy. Non-stop talking and stories and processing. I neeeeeeeeed to process. NOW! I am very much looking forward to this trip so that we can word vomit all over each other, and feel so much better afterwards. You always feel better after you vomit anyways.
Thank you for your prayers for our safe travels and beneficial processing. And thanks so much for reading! Love you all! Peace.
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