Step Up! Is a sort of welcome festival to the Grade 11 students at the college. I am trying to get my head around it, because so far as I can tell, those students have been here for ages, so why they need to be welcomed now is beyond me, but that’s part of the surreal world of SPA.
Two days ago, I had not known it even existed. I had booked a rehearsal for this afternoon, it had been tentatively arranged for me to visit a school somewhere to publicise R4J. And yesterday I had discovered it was a very big event indeed, with school cancelled for the day, a stage erected in the car park out front, a whole mass of students recruited to sing, dance, recite poetry – including many from the production and from my English class, so of course I wanted to be there. And then I discovered that I was expected to deliver a speech at it. (So why it had not occurred to anyone else that I probably would not be able to visit a school at the same time is… well, see above.)
Fortunately, I was not even slightly fazed by the speech bit. Partly it’s the practice: with virtually no notice I have been required to give a motivational speech to a group of catering students, to the staff at the college, to a couple of schools I have visited. And partly, I suppose, it’s because I am a Drama teacher; one of the things I tell people about why Drama is good for everyone, not just actors, is that it is supposed to prepare people for situations when you might have to talk to a crowd of people. And I did, actually, have about a day to think about it.
I arrived after the time when it was meant to have started, and, of course, they were still hanging balloons, testing out the sound system… About that: the sound system. For just about every event I have attended in Nepal, they really do not think the sound system is doing its job at all if it is not turned up to… well, about twelve. So loud that it was actually painful, that one could not speak to the person right next to you (well, I couldn’t anyway.) I did actually consider returning to my room to collect Val’s noise-cancelling headphones, but realised how ridiculous that would have made me appear.
Eventually, the thing got under way. I had one of the comfy seats in the front row, of course, and had a leaf with “Guest of honour” painted on it attached to my jacket. But I enjoyed the event. Lots of dancing, some singing, some poetry (delivered by my two star students from the English class) and various bits of motivational speech.
And then it was my turn. Saying what a great college SPA was, how it provided all sorts of opportunities (which gave me the opportunity to plug R4J.) And I sang Wonderful World again, only an adapted version. I was quite proud of it, so here it is:
Don’t know much about Dhangadhi. Don’t know much about SPA, Don’t know much about the BHM, Don’t know much about any of them, But I do know that it loves you, And I know that if you love it too, What a wonderful world it could be, What a wonderful world it could be, What a wonderful world… SPA.
I stayed for quite a while, was pretty much the last man sitting on the front row, then wandered around to chat with students, Aparna, the man who maintains the illusion (for comic effect) that he is going to marry Mary and become my son-in-law… and eventually left.
