June 29, 2007

It was decidedly hectic today, with prepations for the final show in full swing. The kids were psychotic, it being the last day of camp and with a show to be nervous and excited for. We spent most of the day finishing our props and costumes...and getting a few practice sessions in to round off the day. The dress rehearsal left me in nothing short of despair, as several of the little frogs managed to amputate a little paper frog finger or two, and were not able to keep their balloon frog-eyes upright....and please do not even ask me about the singing. Most of the little guys were more preoccupied with their dandy little frog hands, than they were with singing the words....although, just to give them the benefit of the doubt...as we do not share a common language and I would not want to be perceived as closeminded...it is possible that they simply thought that singing was optional. At the last minute, we decided to throw in a bit of a show stopper: waving their little froggy arms on cue...this being the obvious course of action when nothing else is going well. Just add one more element for them to remember. That oughta do the trick. I knew that we had lost the battle though, when my teaching partner resorted to fake crying to get the children to focus on her and be SILENT, if for just a moment. Another low point in the day occured when my teaching partner was leading a game of BINGO. The children were just not focussing and I think that she went temporarily insane. She pulled out a 50Euro note from her purse, waved it in the air, and told the children that the first person to follow directions would be given the money. Of course, the rest of the day took a marked turn...for the worse.

Although the day was hellish, the actual show went quite smoothly. Amazingly, everybody arrived wearing the requested green clothing, and came carrying hair clips to secure their balloon frog-eyes atop their heads. It only took them about five minutes to line up, as opposed to the usual ten, and they proceeded onto the stage solemnly and meekly. The singing could have been louder and they were unable to wave their little frog hands in unison, but they did appear to know most of the words. In fact...and I know that you will be surprised to hear this...there was only one real glitch...instigated by none other than Pier Luigi. When it came Pier Luigis turn to jump into the "pond" on the cue of "one jumped into the pool", he simply sat there with a vacant expression on his face. P.L. simply checked out for a few moments, perhaps pondering the greater questions in life. Whatever the case may have been, he was a bit late on the jump, and just barely made it in the pond for the last line of, "now there are 4 green frogs, buurrrup". By this time, most of the children had stopped singing and shouted, in unison "Pier Luigi, JUUUMP!". Of course this threw us off for a couple of lines, but we were able to pull it together and ended quite successfully. It was sad to say goodbye to the children at the end of the evening, but the memory of this experience will not soon fade :-)