The village we went to was fantastic. It was simple and quaint, and people were friendly and curious because they don’t see many tourists in the area. When we walked down the streets and went to local markets people smiled and waved to us, yelling out Sabaidi, (hello), whenever they caught our glance.
The ride was not so torturous as previous ones, and it was only one hour from the city. When we arrived, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and went straight to the community centre where we would meet the participants and begin our sessions.
We had quite the shock when we walked in. The kids from our first week of day camp ranged in age from eight to thirteen. They were young, energetic, and uninhibited. Contrastingly, we walked into the centre to find a group of adolescents in school uniforms. As you can imagine, this changed everything for us. All the games we Planned to play, even the gifts we had purchased in advance for them, were no longer relevant. Try giving a sixteen year old a Barbie coloring book and some crayons while keeping a straight face. Although I personally would have been pleased with the gift, and quite possibly would have been occupied for a few blissful hours, I was nonetheless aware that they would laugh at our pathetic attempt at generosity.
After we had all exchanged worried glances and whispered nervously about what to do, we sat down and began the introductions. Since we were there and had no time to come up with a new Program, we went right ahead with the games that we had originally planned. As you can imagine, sixteen year-old kids are not quite as enthusiastic to get down on the floor and imitate an animal as ten year-old kids are. Teenage years are haunted by the ever-present voice in the back of our heads that continuously asks, What if I look stupid? As if acne and weird patches of wannabe facial hair aren’t bad enough. In reflection, I do think it was good for us to stick with the light and silly games we had planned. They broke the ice and showed everyone that this was a place where it was okay to look foolish.
That night we sat down in semi-panic mode and came up with a program that would be slightly more focused and challenging to match with the age of the group. We decided that even though we only had four days, we would put on an entire play, which I wrote that same night.
It would not have been possible to complete the play if we did not have a professional actress in our midst. Luckily, we had the super hot ball-buster Anne-Solenne Hatte present to whip everyone into shape and get the production going. Anne-So, as we called her, is somewhat famous in Paris. She’s extremely talented and frustratingly beautiful. I consider myself to be a relatively attractive girl, key word being relative. When I stood next to Anne-Solenne I often felt like some sort of creature that had crawled out of a Lady Gaga video. I had contradicting feelings toward her because, although I really enjoyed her company, I preferred if she stood very far away from me. Needless to say, the kids were mesmerized by her. If it hadn’t been for her electric presence and over-the-top stage coaching we wouldn’t have gotten anything done. The downside to doing a theatre program in a Buddhist country is that Buddhists are taught their entire life that any excess of emotion is rude and inappropriate. So when a Buddhist is told to act really sad or really happy, what is conveyed by Western standards appears only to be different shades of neutral. So mad would look slightly annoyed and clinically depressed often appeared to be merely thoughtful.
However, the show must go on, and it did. And although it wasn’t quite the spectacular romantic comedy I envisioned when I wrote it, it was actually quite good. More importantly, the kids really enjoyed the performance, and when we left they all said they were happy to have been introduced to theatre, and that they would continue to learn and practice after we were gone. Even the coloring books ended up making people happy! We gave them to the mass of young children who showed up to watch the final performance, and their looks of awe and appreciation alone were worth the trip to the village. :)
