On Sunday, May 11, 2014, the two piano teachers, Artas and Indhuon with their 21 students of Yamaha Music School set up a piano charity concert in Bangkok. The proceeds go for 300 school uniform shoes for children at Sarnelli House for the new school year. Their generous thought invites us to go down and join them.
Fr Ole and Bro Keng pick up a small troop of 6 little girls from House of Hope - Ninate, Nancy, Hippo, Ploi, Oop-Ip and Maggie join the adventure. Along with Ms Teng to help care for them. it was a great choice. Luckily all the kids were on school holiday so the trip could be a little bit longer and it was great opportunity to inspire the kids who knew nothing about a piano or even what it looked like.
The journey started on Saturday afternoon after the 50th anniversary celebration of Fr Mike Shea's priesthood in Udonthani. They girls were so excited and energized for the whole trip – they played, chatted, ate and peed (the van had to stop 10 times) and teased each other. After 10 hours drive Bangkok was reached at 10.30 pm and everyone hit the sack!
Next morning they attended morning mass and were able to meet the Srikranont family who set up the concert and raised funds for Sarnelli House on their birthday concert last year. These people have never visited Sarnelli House but are so generous. Thank you very much!
The piano concert started on Sunday at 5 pm. The venue was changed to the Ruamrudee International School due to political unrest in downtown of Bangkok. The 21-student performance was superb. There were primary students up to high school students who played. After each song they got a big round of applause. The teachers, parents and the performers should be very proud of all the hard work these young people have done. The Sarnelli girls had a performance as well - to dance for one song. The little ones did a fabulous dance and the audience was clapping through the whole song. Each child received a doll and a rose as a prize. They keep their new dolls next to their pillow every night and Maggie even bought hers to meals. The concert raised enough money to buy 300 pairs of school shoes and 30 dozen pairs of socks as well as 274,000 baht left over in cash. It was so much beyond what we expected. A big thank you to all the donors!
On Monday the girls had a long, fun day. In the morning they visited the Ruamrudee International School and met the teachers and students who came to Sarnelli House for a camp in April. It was a happy reunion. They spent one and a half hours with the kids, played in the playground and bought them drinks, ice cream and sweets. Then the van headed east to Chonburi to visit Fr Ole’s parents and have lunch with them. The trip went on to visit Khoa Sam Muuk, a famous hill by the sea in Chonburi. This hill is the town of monkey. There are hundreds of monkeys living naturally there. The children were able to see, take pictures and feed the monkeys. Nancy’s basket was grasped by a big monkey - she screamed for her life! Then the van stopped at Bang San Beach. Ninate found a lot of dead fish by the shore. The kids enjoyed watching people riding banana boats and jet skis.
After this it was back to Bangkok to go swimming at the pool in the school, the girls had bought their swimming gear and played and screamed like they had never been in the pool before. The noise was like 20 people yelling at once.
Time to go home! The gang was ready early the next morning. Bro Keng and Bro King were their chauffeurs for the day. They lined up to get on the van with their dolls in one hand and the rose in another. All of them eagerly asked Fr Ole “when will we come back to Bangkok again?” he said “for the next concert.” Fr Ole asked them “Did you like it?” and with big smiles and missing teeth they replied “YES!”
We would like to say a big, big thank to everybody involved in the concert especially Khun Indhuon and family.
Fr Ole