In addition to my English classes I was asked to start a local choir probably because I play the guitar. Initially I thought this would be a good idea and when the kids were given the option of joining the class there was an almighty rush. When I had the children assembled for the first class I decided to teach them a simple song and settled on Doh Re Mi from Sound of Music. Funnily enough the kids recognised the tune and some of them knew the basic words. That was the good news! Then came the bad news! They opened their mouths to sing! I had 37 children turn up for this first-class and it sounded like none of them could sing. I was bewildered as to the reason they turned up for the class. Maybe it was the fact that the lessons were going to be free. The Chinese love a good bargain and they have a penchant for enrolling their child in every conceivable class that is on offer. 

The building in which we teach English is some sort of government building called the Children's Palace. There are 6 to 7 floors on which there are up to 5 to 6 classrooms and in which kids are taught how to read and write in Chinese, play ancient Chinese instruments, learn ballroom dancing, Latin American dancing, flute, piano, public speaking, mathematics, ballet, gymnastics, yoga and of course English. In the evenings and on weekends this place is jumping! Kids and parents everywhere! In the time that I have spent in China I have concluded that the children here very rarely get free time. They are hustled and bustled to different classes outside of normal school on weekday nights and certainly all weekend. 

Anyway, I battled through singing classes and added Ole Macdonald as the 2nd song. In that song we decided on 5 farm animals they being a chick chick here, a moo moo there, a quack quack here, an oink oink there and a baa baa here. Simple enough you would think as long as they could all remember the order of the animals……. which they couldn't a lot of the times….and still can’t. When I initially started the classes I had no idea that we would ever have to perform publicly. But as you might have guessed  I was informed two weeks after the classes started that a public exposure of the choir was a distinct possibility and sure enough we were scheduled to perform at a concert to celebrate Children's Day which occurs on June 1 with concerts here in Longfeng on Saturday followed by another in Yixi on Sunday!! We had our first rehearsal at the concert Hall last Saturday and it was an unmitigated disaster probably because the children thought they had to yell instead of sing to be heard in such a vast auditorium. 

 By the way, these concert halls can be found all over China getting very little use, maybe by some kindergarten or school group once a year, and while they appear to be a little rundown they are certainly imposing structures that performing groups in countries like Australia would give their eye teeth for!

The 2nd rehearsal we had was yesterday and it was much improved although we spent 70% of our time training the children to march in, assemble in lines, bow and curtsy and march out again. Sigh! I decided we needed another rehearsal this afternoon and I am ever hopeful that our little performance over the coming weekend will be greeted by warm applause from people other than the parents of the children.