Rehearsals on rehearsals on rehearsals

First highlight of the day: no walk of shame. Good things are happening.

Today, I skipped all of my usual tutoring and spent almost the entire day in rehearsals. First, I gathered all of the teachers in the computer lab for a final run-through of “A Whole New World”. It’s still unclear whether they’ll be able to get through the entire song tomorrow without someone forgetting the words, but it should be a lot of fun for the students, regardless. Plus, a teacher or two forgetting the words would probably add some more comedic value to what is already promising to be a hilarious two and a half minutes. After the teachers came the young kids with their rendition of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “Silent Night”. They’re almost definitely going to be better than the teachers. Finally, the older students put the finishing touches on “Joy to the World” and “Hakuna Matata”. Both are going to be a ton of fun.

In between rehearsals today, I also went around to each class to get a picture of all the kids with their teachers. The only classes I missed were Class 3 and Class 4. I’ll get them tomorrow. Through taking these pictures, I realized that girls go from wanting to be the center of attention in photos to being ridiculously camera-shy almost overnight. The Class 6 girls all wanted to see their picture immediately after I took it, but starting from JHS-1, it took tons of coaxing by their class teacher and me just to get the girls to stand where I could see them. Girls. I’ll never understand them. Ever.

The last highlight of today is that I recognized someone walking along one of the really busy market streets tonight. Through the sea of faces, I saw a friend walking along the other side of the street and we stopped and chatted for a while when I caught her eye. I’ve finally met enough people/been out enough that I can see people I know in seemingly random places. Good thing this happened three days before I leave. As usual, I have the best timing.

As Sir Eric put it, tomorrow is “D-Day” for the teachers. Check back tomorrow night for a comprehensive analysis of how the teachers did (read: I’ll poke fun at the ones who forgot the words). Oh, and I’m technically in the running for the grand prize too, even though I’m the one supplying the prizes. The kids are all going to vote after the performance so wish me luck! Hopefully it’s okay to win the prize even if you’re the one bringing it.