"Tis the Season to be.. "over-all-our-Christmas-concerts-that-could-potentially-be-stressing-us-out-but-actually-they-were-really-alot-of fun-once-all-the-hard-work-was-done."
Sigh. There.
Lesley has completed what is possibly the biggest week/month for music teachers throughout North America. CHRISTMAS SEASON! (And yes, I know I'm in Asia!) The time when beginner bands sache up for their first, big concert; parents prepare for the honking and squeaking, and try to come up with positive comments when they are asked, "How did we sound?" Elementary students battle mid-year exhaustion as they sing, once again, the chorus to the Christmas concert songs; they don their shepherd and angel costumes, and prance across a stage, in front of admiring parents who would think they were awesome, no matter how they sounded!
What fun! It is really a priviledge to be part of all this, and Logos really had a super weekend of performances.
Friday evening was the Elementary concert. This year, we rented a large stage so that the kids could be seen, and it was worth every penny! It started in the afternoon, When we played our dress rehearsal in front of an audience of a handful of middle school students, AND, much to our delight that this worked out, about 60 kids from Marie Ens'
orphanage Rescue! These kids were all decked out in their finest duds for the event! They were so sweet to see! They sat in their chairs and just took in the whole thing, even though it was in english, of course, and they are schooled in Khmer. They probably were unable to understand the exact words, but the actions, the costumes, the message was universal! The Gr. 5's at our school had been out a few weeks ago on a field trip to visit the orphanage, so they were particularly thrilled to have them as our rehearsal audience! Although we invited our House of Smiles handicapped friends, I did not notice them in the audience, and apparently, they showed up at 2 or 2:40, much to late to catch anything! I was very disappointed for them, as I know they would have loved to watch this, but they all nap in the afternoons, and that could have been what held them up!
Anyways, the show was a nice success. Kids sang great and their costumes looked super. The gym was packed for the evening and you'd really think you were on the red carpet for all the flashing and videotaping that went on that night! Maya was a shepherd child with all the Kindergartens, and was cute along with all of them. Pre K's continue to steal the show on cuteness, and the absolute highlight, was the entire Logos Elementary choir, on their feet, swaying, clapping and singing to a southern gospel rendition of a song called, "Call His Name Jesus." Even Marie commented to Dean that to see so many cambodian kids, praising His name like that, all singing about Jesus and in worship to Jesus, was just tingling for her! She was blessed, and it truly was an awesome moment. Ange Booy came to the performance too, and laughed how she was expecting one of those sort of dry, dare I say "boring" kids concerts, where everyone gets up to sing their part, it carries on too long, etc, etc. (We all know the ones I'm talking about.) So in her words, she was "blown away" by how fun it was and how excited the kids were. Really, there is little to no opportunity for kids to participate in a large Christian performance like this, save at Logos! (The other Int. schools, if they do anything at all, are decidedly non-religious, so they try to host a "winter" event, in Cambodian December!) Technically, this was the largest, Christian, Christmas presentation in the country of Cambodia! And boy, did the kids lift their voices to the Lord! It was Awesome!
Saturday, the middle schoolers and I (Gr 7 & 8) started set-up in the afternoon, for a 5 o'clock performance at our new school. That meant MOVING everything over there, setting up, warming up, joining with high school warm-ups, and then presenting the evening. Again, a successful show was a joy to be a part of! The HS was, of course, awesome, in their choral pieces (I think I've used that word enough, now!) Middle School--kudos to you guys! They performed three pieces as the first ever, Logos Middle School Band: Pachabel's Canon, Angels we have heard on high, and worship song "Prince of Peace." We featured some kids as soloists, and small ensembles, and had one of the high school students guest perform with us. The kids really rose to the occasion and performed really well. They got a great round of applause and they certainly deserved it! They also sang two of their own choir pieces, and joined the HS for one song.
All in all it was a really nice evening, and even nicer to host it as the first inaugural presentation at our new school. We prepared for the worst; for the power to go out (set up a generator), we made sure the toilets were installed and working, Dan made sure the area had been cleaned and prepared for hosting, and the food that was intended for a reception at the END of the concert, was devoured in minutes during the intermission! Minus a few small glitches like that one, the venue was actually quite good, I thought. Guess I should mention, that we perfomed in what will be the school cafeteria, 4 flights up on the roof top of the school. By the time the sun went down, the bugs came out and that was a bit unnerving as they swarmed the audience under the lights, and aside from the rather large bat that flew a number of times through the open air cafeteria, all went well!
Myself and Megan Roberts, the HS choral teacher, were presented with gorgeous flowers. Add that to the lovely bouquet I received the night before from the Elementary concert, I've officially received every flower I could possibly ever want! The bouquets are made so beautiful our here, with tropical flowers, and the scent is so lovely. Forget pine of a real Christmas tree--I have orchids scenting up our house! haha. Not to mention, I received a lovely kiss from the Elementary Principal, as he presented me the flowers, in front of the whole audience--now THAT is worth it all!
So, as Bugs Bunny used to say, "That's all folks!" Sure feels good to be "free" in the sense of my brain no longer has to "think" about everything, now that it's all over. It sure does take up alot of my mental energy for me. You know, it's sort of like Christmas day, or Christmas morning, or Christmas dinner: It takes SO LONG to prepare! The shopping, the wrapping, the cutting, chopping, the cooking--Then it all seems to happen so fast, and suddenly before you realize it, it's all over! The presents are opened, the wrap is everywhere, the meal is completed, and it's time to clean up!
Well, clean up is what we're going to do this week! Besides just Christmas concert stuff, it's MOVING WEEK. Technically, we're going to clean up the whole school SO MUCH, that it'll be empty! Completely gone to the new school by Saturday. So, just when you think you're free, or finished something, or "done," well, it's on to the next challenge! This one, too, is very exciting! We'll keep you posted as we go, but by this time next week, we should be officially over there!
So, thanks for listening--I feel like this is a nice debrief for the week. Please enjoy the pictures that are either here, or coming very soon.
Merry Christmas all!
The Weisses
:)
