I could barely hold in my laughter, though the children hadn’t even seen us yet. We were hidden behind a sheet, preparing for the “Little Man” skit, and just picturing what we must have looked like was completely ridiculous to me. I stood behind Seth, acting as his arms, while his arms, covered by shorts and ending in shoes, served as his legs. Krystle was next to me, acting as the arms for Jeanette. The plot was set—Molly was the mom, and Seth and Jeanette were her two American children, about to wake up and get ready for school—and the sheet was lowered. Immediately the children started to giggle at the hilarity of how Seth and Jeanette looked. The laughs grew as we started to wake up and prepare for the day, brushing our teeth, combing our hair, eating breakfast, etc. the entire time I was trying to stifle my own laugh behind Seth. That was one of the funniest things I’ve ever participated in. the kids really seemed to enjoy it, and it set a fun tone for the rest of the morning.
This was Tuesday morning at a primary school of nearly 100 Thai students. After the skit we had some songs, a memory verse, and the story of creation narrated and acted out. We played some games and then taught English for about an hour. What an amazing time we had with them!
Wednesday was similar, except this primary school had almost 300 students, and they did a presentation of traditional Thai dancing for us at the beginning. After we taught English, all of the students mobbed us to get our autographs. We were the first foreigners to ever visit their school, and for some, the first ones they had ever seen. It was very surreal—we were made out to be superstars based on the color of our skin. We had lunch there, and were able to play with the kids for recess. That was the longest recess I have ever seen, though. They had like an hour and a half from the start of lunch until the end of recess. I played volleyball with five of the 6th graders I had taught English with. I was horrible, as usual, but they got quite a kick of my struggle to succeed, and I didn’t mind.
Thursday we went to a High School of 500 students. We changed the program a bit to impact the older age group better. We did a Drime (drama/mime) to In the Light by DC Talk. It dealt with one girl turning from God and choosing to live in sin—narcissism, drinking, smoking, etc—and a second girl choosing to admire God for creating her. Girl one was lured (by Satan) into this unfulfilling lifestyle, and then eventually put in a “box” by Satan; she was trapped by it all. She cries out to God and he comes and rescues her. It’s a very powerful Drime, and during it, there was one girl in the front row that I think definitely saw the seriousness of it. She sat there wide-eyed, with her hand over her mouth, practically cowering back the entire time. There were several others that I noticed were very attentive to it. We played some games with them and taught English a little while later. I had 9th graders for an hour before lunch and then another hour and a half after. I couldn’t believe I filled the two and a half hours without any sort of lesson plan. We worked on pronunciation of the alphabet and numbers, body parts, followed by “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes” (which they laughed hysterically through), practiced fruit and colors, played hang man, and sang “The Hokey Pokey.” I was dripping with sweat the entire time! It was in the 90s, with high humidity and no fans, but it didn’t matter to me. God has really been instilling joy in me this last week, and I LOVE it! I had no problem acting goofy to loosen the kids up and involve them. After all King David said “I will be more undignified than this.”
