TYT Festival

TYT is the Thai Youth Theatre that is organised by peace corps volunteers. Although we didn't know this when we arrived.

The secondary school has been practicing Mama Mia pretty much since we arrived. The students involved have worked so hard on it and it is now really quite amazing. The TYT festival allows all the schools involved to have the opportunity to show what they have been working on. Sadly, we only go to stay the morning but the other shows included lots of thai folk tales and even The Tale of The Three Brothers from Harry Potter which turned out really well.

So our journey began at 6 am on Friday morning. We went to Nanta's house where we boarded a "white truck". It was literally a white truck. There was a roof but open sides and an open back. Then two long benches to sit on down the sides. Then space on the floor for everyone else to sit on who couldn't fit on the sides. We all got on and left for our 10 hour journey to pitsanulok. The worst thing about the truck was the wind. It felt so horrible and blew all the grit onto your face. I felt completely disgusting the entire day. The best thing though was that you could lie down in the middle and have a proper sleep. Only an hour into the journey and all the students were lying on top of each other completely out of it. It was really very cute.

We only stopped for toilet trips and a quick lunch and we arrived at the school where the festival was taking place at almost 5pm. So we arrived and I was in most desperate need for a shower that wasn't to come. We were hussled into a big hall which we soon realised was full of Americans. We had no idea there was going to be peace corps volunteers there let alone that it would be organised by them. We sat in a circle with them all and got told the plan for the weekend. Essentially, on Saturday, in pairs, the volunteers would teach a topic to groups of students and the students would go around all the different classes. And of course, we were expected to join in. I was not expecting this at all. I was to do pronunciation and speech with Josh. He was a 20 something American who has been living in the south of Thailand for a year with another year to go.

So on the Friday night, we played games with all the students. There were about 150 from schools around Thailand. Then at about 9.30 we were finally shown to our room and showers. The school we were staying in was actually a boarding school so there were plenty of beds and unlike our Bangkok trip we didn't have to sleep on the floor. There was about 40 bunk beds per room and 2 rooms per floor in the building we were in. I assume there were more bed in the other building. And there were lots of showers so I took the first opportunity and ran into the shower as fast as I could. It was so good.

The next morning, even though breakfast wasn't actually served until after 7, a loud school bell went off (like the one at heriots) at 5am! All the students got out of bed and turned the lights on. But I refused to wake up and forced myself back to sleep until 6.30. one thing i don't get about thai people is their obsession with getting up extremely early for no good reason.

After breakfast, we launched straight into the rotations. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing but thankfully Josh was really nice about it and did most of the lessons.

Then at the end of the day, a few more group games and then the students got a couple of hours to practice their plays for the next day. And if I may say so, my students were amazing and I couldn't wait to see them perform the next day. They did not disappoint. They were absolutely amazing and everyone was coming up to us afterwards saying how fantastic it was. I felt so proud J and it made up for the 4 am wake up they forced on me that morning. Who needs to 4 hours to get ready? Seriously?

Afterwards, we headed to sukothai to see the ancient ruins which meant we can tick that off our list of things to do during travelling. Then we headed to the national park that we were going to stay the night in. after a quick trip to swim in a waterfall we went to the huts. They were so amazing!! And the beds so comfortable!! And a proper duvet instead of blankets and sheet! And even a hot shower!! It was like heaven. I went to the market with Nanta and returned with two huge watermelons. Now I really was I heaven. I watched the students cut it all up wondering when it would be respectable to start eating it. They tasted so good J we also bought about 10 kilo's of mango. Here they eat the mangos before they are ripe so they are still green and hard and often quite sour. They are really good. J

Anyway, we all ate dinner together outside. And nanta and the students did a round of speeches. It was so cute. And about 5 of the students started crying at some point. One boy started bawling it during his speech. It was so adorable. In Thailand, absolutely no one cries. Not even at funerals. They just get really embarrassed when someone does cry. So to see so many of the kids crying and getting upset made it all the more touching. I could just about understand what they were saying. That everyone in tyt was their friends and made the feel welcome etc. It was brilliant. After the round, we all ate some purple rice from this stick thing which meant that we would all be friends forever J

Then all the banter started. One guy, called jiriwat, nickname auk, was sooooo funny. It was brilliant. Everyone was teasing him saying that he liked men, and he was gay which he adamantly denied with "No! I like girls!" However, in his confused English, he accidentally said "I like boys". Bless him. Eventually he gave up and said he wanted to sell his body on the walking street in pattaya (prostitute town). I was laughing so hard. It was brilliant talking to the students. Every now and then they would turn to nanta to get an accurate translation of what they were trying to say but we mostly managed ok.

Then we played dominoes for about two hours. Was full of banter. I was playing with an elastic band and I subconsciously tied it round my finger so that it started cutting off my blood circulation. One of the students got really concerned and said "blood, stop walking" which I loved. The saying the come out with are brilliant. One of my favourites is "stop your mouth" instead of "shut up".

Anyway, I had a really really good night. Then off to bed as we were warned of another 4 am wake up so we could watch the sunrise 2 hours later!! they are so obsessed with getting up early, it kills me.

The next day we made a rush trip home in the back of the truck again. I pretty much slept the entire way, and I slept so damn well. I lay in the middle of the trunk and was completely out for the count. Lots of the students were sleeping on top of each other again.

When we arrived back in loeng nokta we said goodbye to the students and that was it. The end of a beautiful weekend.

The next day, on Tuesday, we were at nanta's using the internet and Dream (one of the tyt students) came up just to say "I miss you". And we go travelling in less than a week!! My life is good.