I feel so repetitive when I keep writing this day was the best day in my life and then the next day I say literally this day is the best day in my life... well just a warning, I am saying it again. Today was another best day of my life kind of moment. The new volunteers arrived at home base over this weekend (18 new people for a total of 22!) Surprisingly, everyone fits very nicely and it doesn't feel too crowded except at dinner when everyone is ready to eat and in line for food but other than that it's actually pretty neat meeting all of these new people! The age range varies from 11 up to 46 and there are also two families here as well so there is a ton of variety in this group (as compared to the first two weekers which made the 10 of us all in our 20s).
Usually when we go to our placement Kati and I swim a lot and work with the kids as well teaching them a few English phrases and tossing the basketball around. However, today (which is Tuesday) was a day out of the ordinary because A) the new volunteer Danielle who is super sweet joined us and B) we went to play a concert for a public hospital in Bangkok. My goodness... this hospital was HUGE! We walked in and it looked like a hotel. It had a lot of different waiting rooms in different sections and multiple buildings along with a food court. It was funny walking in because we were all carrying in different instruments through the hallways. It was a group of about 20 kids that came with for the concert and they have rehearsed songs and dances to perform on the main floor in part of the lobby. The hospital workers set up a stage for the children to play their instruments on. The kids perform at hospitals twice every month for the fun of it and for donations to support the school.
Kati, Danielle, and I all sat close to the stage and watched as the students began their show. The teachers introduced the school and each student got a chance to speak in the microphone to introduce themselves and then the show began! They played numerous songs and the group watching the grew immensely. People of all ages were sitting and standing all watching these children. The hospital was huge and there were about four stories in the building that we were in so if you looked up you could see people peering over the edges looking and listening. I can't even explain the emotions we all felt seeing all of the people just taking time out of their day to enjoy a performance in the middle of the hospital.
There was this one older lady who was having a ball and dancing around smiling ear to ear. Little children were hopping around and twirling around as well. I don't know why but it was one of those moments where I was so overcome with emotion at the beauty of it. At the end of a song or dance people would flock to the donation box to donate money to the school. Kati and I couldn't help it, we teared up and cried trying to hide it from the crowd because these people were so willing to give, so willing to support these children with disabilities and just filled with love. It was so touching because they wanted to stay and watch, sure they may have had places to go but they gave some time out of their day to just enjoy and be in the moment with these kids. It was amazing. I am tearing up about it now just thinking about it. It's one of those things where no matter how much I explain how wonderful this moment was, you had to be there to feel the emotion and understand exactly how inspiring it was.
The children sang songs and had choreographed dances. One of the girls who leads most of the dances even made Kati, Danielle and I to come up and perform in front of all these people! It was so nerve wrecking because we had noooo idea what we were doing, we simply followed her lead and performed some Thai dance. It was absolutely exhilarating not to mention I was probably shaking the whole time which is horrible because Thai dance is extremely graceful and slow. Regardless, it was awesome and I wish I could experience something like this again. Also, it is amazing how little one actually has to speak in order to understand something. So much can be said with little to no words. A smile can convey everything. There were moments where you would make eye contact with someone, a student or someone in the crowd and sure we speak different languages but one would smile and the other would reciprocate and it was such a beautiful moment just knowing that everyone was in the same boat, feeling the same energy and enjoying what was happening around us. It was truly an awesome day :)
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