IT'S SHOW TIME!

So, it is finally the weekend of the musical. Before arriving in Africa I had been emailing back and forth with the teachers at HOPAC involved in the production to arrange costumes.. Thanks to FVHCS, LCS, value village and my MOM :) I compiled almost all of what they needed.. Agnes has been wonderful on this end to do the rest. (see below.. thank God fod Agnes. She has even offered her guest room and tv for the 3 am canucks games)..  3 months ago I remember thinking, "wow.. when it is the weekend of the musical we will have already been in Tanzania for one month."... well, here it is.. it is SHOW TIME, and we have already been here for one month. Time is flying., It has been such a joy after 2 months of emailing from Canada to finally meet the teachers, students, parents, school gardeners and groundskeepers and even headmaster involved in the play. It is entirely a whole community event, I suppose even a global event as myself and another student from the UFV are helping with costumes and lighting.

The play they are doing is called "A Few of My Favorite Things"which they wrote based on both the movie "The Sound of Music" as well as the real life story of the Von Trapp Family singers.. the movie is actually QUITE different from the real story.. They proceeds are going towards paying for a playground that they built at the school.

Tonight was the final dress rehearsal, and tomorrow is the first performance. I am completely exhausted, so excited.. and loving every minute of it. Someone sponsored the school to use a theatre in town called "Little Theatre" which is quite neat, though as I quickly learned, big repellant is a must as mosquites swarm you while you sit and watch, there is a resident bat that likes to do circles above the performers, and there, as well as anywhere in Tanzania, the power can go out at ANYTIME for any LENGTH of time. (Generally we are without power for 6-12 hours a day.. and ofcourse it usually goes out right when it gets PITCH black out..)

Anyways, here are a few photos of the final dress rehearsal tonight.. I should have some more professional group shots in a week or two that were taken tonight from a photographer...