Happy 100th International Women's Rights Day! To commemorate this occasion as well as Peace Corps 50th Anniversary, (which provided the funding for the project) another volunteer and I decided to hold a show featuring performing arts that expressed how the students feel about women's rights and issues in their community.
We first instructed them to write a play (in English) that somehow addresses women's rights. My school decided to do a play about a good family and a bad family. I really did not help them with anything (just a little grammar). They put together such a great story and dialogue! I could not have been happier. A month of hard work paid off.
Some pictures of rehearsal:
On March 8th, 24 students, my co-teacher, and I crammed into a van and took the 3 hour drive to Memot. Good thing I brought a Justin Bieber DVD! We got to the school and met with the other students. Lindsay (Memot PCV) and her co-teacher prepared a lecture on the history and importance of women's rights. Her school director also spoke, which was nice.
The students had a chance to rehearse on the stage before lunch. I think they ended up just having a dance party. Our students got along really well. We even had dueling Korean dance-offs.
Dress Rehearsal and getting to know each other
Dance Party
The students were also given a chance to express how they felt about women's rights through other performing and visual art mediums like poetry, song, traditional and modern dance, instrumental performance, traditional short stories, essays, and paintings.
Performance
Creativity was through the roof with these kids. Both schools put in so much work and were happy with the final results. They slept most of the way home, then sang Khmer songs the rest of the way. Kids are the same in every country.
This is really the best thing I could have ever done with my students. I had tried to do some role-plays with them in the past and it really didn't work. I think taking ownership over the project, working together, and talking about something that has personal meaning to them really opened the door to their confidence. Before this project the students were quiet most of the time. To be honest, I had a hard time remembering their names because they showed so little personality. I would have never believe that this group of kids would be excited to perform in front of over a hundred people. They had a great time! I remember all of their names and I finally saw that each has a wildly different personality. They rose above and beyond my expectations. They were charismatic and I now think they could all be stars! I will really miss this group when they go off to college.
I definitely could not have done this without my two partners, Lindsay(volunteer in Memot) and my co-teacher. Next year we hope to add guest speakers, invite more schools, and just make it bigger and better!
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