During the past couple days I played with some local kids who were on the way home from school. Two days ago their teacher saw me playing with her students with balloons and spoke with us… Yesterday she came to the Ashram and asked to buy some balloons for her sister’s birthday (later that evening)… Of course I made her a bunch of things and let her ride off on her motorcycle with the balloons tied to her. We also agreed that I’d do a show for the school kids today
(Sunday – they only get Saturday’s off from school) at 1pm.
We woke up for the daily 6am cheating, then netti nose cleansing, the yoga (all yoga sessions are 90 minutes). The teacher asked Annie to lead the class in an Ashtanga series (a different style of yoga than they teach here). This is Annie’s Forte. She’s been impressing them all week with her flexibility and strength… but this gave her a stage to really let go. She WOW’ed them with a great job.
This week she’s led the group in a kid’s fairy-tale yoga session, a meditative yoga session, a group-get-to-know-eachother session, helped coach a number of yoga students so they could find alternate poses or “fine-tune” issues they were having, and now this – she should run her own Ashram!
During breakfast one of the other guests here said there was woman downstairs who frantically looking for me. I saw it was the teacher, Jennifer. She said the school needed me to come now rather than at 1pm. So Annie and I ran downstairs…. I grabbed my knapsack with balloons and Annie grabbed her iPhone…. Jennifer said, “hop on!” Annie and I looked at her motorcycle. We’ve seen families of 3 and 4 on motorcycles but never thought we’d be on one. These dirt roads are rocking… I didn’t think Annie would do it….. but we got on and drove to the school.
We left the motorcycle and walked to this school, looking in the classes (pre-K to 10th).
We met the Principal and then I began preparing my show in the outside courtyard. 400+ kids came and sat on the ground. Jennifer introduced me having them chant: “Goowin’s Balloowins” over and over. She had a young teacher or an older student (I couldn’t tell) help translate as I did Snow White and the Little People. Annie helped me select Jennifer to play Snow White. The whole experience was so charming.
Afterwards Jennifer and the Principal took us to a little building next to the school where a woman and her older daughter (maybe about 20 years old) were preparing lunch for all the kids and the teachers. We sat having some samosas, lemon tea, and noodles with veggies. Jennifer said she didn’t realize how much her students loved her until they all came up to her after the show. That was so sweet.
It was a happy moment, but sad to leave Jennifer and the school. We bonded so quickly and they were so appreciative. It’s groups like hers that I’ve always had dreams of doing more shows for.