The Summer English Course for 6 and 7 year old children - Day 5 - The exhibit room and the performance - The 15th of July 2016

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Children seemed to be overexcited and nervous as we rehearsed in the auditorium prior to the actual performance and a lot more when they noticed the photographer had arrived, because that would naturally mean the performance for the public wouldn't take much longer.

Several photos were taken to the panels in the classroom, the artistic works of the children in display and even the maps with the flags some of the children had stuck as in accordance with the origin of the dolls and puppets being exhibited.

Just seconds before the performance one of the boys fell down and hurt his mouth having begun to cry out loud in pain, despite the convincing words from the rest of the group he felt he wouldn't be up to it. Soon after a girl joined in crying out even louder the moment  she realised her mother wasn't  coming to watch her. 

I took some time introducing what the audience would soon be witnessing as I waited for the children to "recover" from  their "malaise". I didn't fully succed though as the two referred children soon "abandoned" the choir.

I don't think they sang as well as they had before, some of the children having become tight in their gestures (as opposed to one of them who decided to over exagerate every single move) but it was nevertheless a very good performance taking into account its difficulty and the unexpected events.

I feel the public aplauded genuinely because they realised what the children had achieved wasn't easy, particularly singing with their backs to the main "support" - the one from the performing author of the book.

   (To be continued)

The latest films I have watched ...

Had I not trusted my instinct and I would have missed a very interesting film, which having been referred to as a comedy (which I very rarely watch), was in fact a biographical film on the life of the producer's father whilst in Iran and later on in France.

Despite the hardships the main character had to go through during his emprisonment in the epoch of the Shah of Iran and the subsequent disappointment throughout the Khomeyni ruling period All three of us provided the viewer with a somewhat rather intelligent approach to one's life path highlighting one's principles and personality traits.

The second film I watched - The Man who knew Infinity was a biography as well and a particularly interesting one, which again highlighted one's resilience and how far one can go regardless of the obstacles one has to overcome.


Set against the outbreak of World War I the true story based film focuses on the friendship between a self-taught Indian mathematics genius (Ramanujan) and a rather eccentric, though brilliant professor G. H. Hardy) at Trinity College, Cambridge - a friendship that forever changed Mathematics.

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"The man who knew infinity stands on its own merit thanks in great measure to Patel and Irons, who give us engaging characters. This is not so much a film about understanding the numbers but understanding the men who made us see thier merit, and the passion that drives each of us to find true meaning in our lives."





Despite being completely different they do have something in common - they are both thought-provoking, particularly in regards to one's life path and what role one can (should) play in it regardless of the prejudices ... and any other obstacles one might have to face along the way.

The Summer English Course for 6 and 7 year old children - Day 4 - The 14th of July 2016

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We had a quiet morning till the break in which I felt really proud of the children and what we had achieved as we worked through rehearsing and doing some new identification exercises. A moment of collective euphoria made me feel unexpectedely disappointed and I must confess I didn't take it lightly and silently showed the children how sad I had suddenly become. 

Classes ended twenty minutes earlier, though I still managed to hand them some pages from a book of puppets and show them a water puppet performance video, so they could identify the difference between the various types of performing puppets. 

Ana and I finally finished decorating the room for the exhibition having displayed some of the dolls from countries I had spoken of during the course not only because of the 3D constructions the boys had made but also the children, whose lives they had become acquainted whilst watching the film on paths to school.

Because I had some puppets like the ones they saw in the pages they had been handed out I also decided to have themon display.

I honestly don't know what the final performance will be like but I'd like to believe they will not let me down ...

(To be continued)