SONGKRAN al’ Italiana!
You’ll never know what people are capable of until you throw them a challenge, along with an incentive! The children and women of the Emergency Home rose to the occasion, when we celebrated Songkran al’ Italiana – the party which we hosted to show off the cumulative efforts of our creative art therapy classes. For the last three weeks, we’ve focused on designs made from recycled materials. So for the party, we had all the participants sashay down the catwalk. They all did very well, stepping out of their normally-shy nature, and showed off their outfits with smiles, laughs – making them a joy to watch! The judges gave them all 100% for effort, while they were also judged on creativity and presentation. Even when it came down to whether they were picked as winners, the general consensus was echoed by one of the contestants who was asked who she thought would win. She said: “ It doesn’t matter if I win or not, it was all fun getting to this point. We enjoyed making, creating and doing all this. “ Yes, they were all winners, but the eventual designs which received awards were those which creatively used things that we normally just throw away! In the children’s section – the first prize winner had a cute design made from newspapers! Second prize went to an imaginative outfit which featured a skirt made from plastic bags. Third prize was for an outfit enhanced by the use of tinsel. In the women’s section: The First prize went to an outfit dressed up with tinsel, straws, foil and garden netting; while a close second featured similar materials plus some foil from chip bags, along with stringed-up footwear. Third prize was an outfit almost totally made with black garden netting, with some tinsel for color. One of the consolation prize winners had an outfit enhanced with foil from snack bags. All the prize winners were rewarded with cash prizes donated by the Italian Women’s Association. The Teens were not left out of this special occasion as they choreographed and performed a dance. They were pleasantly surprised when Simona also handed them little red packets of a small cash gift. As these residents of the home have no access to any income, they were most thankful for the small gifts of cash they received, which they will be able to spend on needs or desires of their hearts. Our party started off with a serving of chocolate yummies (prepared by Simona’s six-year-old son, Jacopo), some cakes and crunchies provided by Simona, along with refreshing Cremo ice-cream from Chomthana! While they enjoyed their morning snack, Khun Pano, from the Bangkok Wing Chun school demonstrated some basic self-defence – an introduction to a course that he will be starting after Songkran, at the Shelter. This will be a great course for all the residents, to increase their confidence and ability to handle any acts of aggression and violation against them. Thank you, Pano and team! The major highlight of Songkran al’ Italiana, besides the fashion show, was undoubtedly, the ITALIAN food!!! Thanks to the Ingavat and Chamachot families, there was a generous spread of PIZZAs, chicken nuggets, fresh salad, pasta , breads, ice-cream, drinks ….wow! It was a real treat! They were hosting the lunch to celebrate Narudee Ingavat’s birthday. It was definitely a birthday to remember as Nadee was one of the judges for our most unusual fashion show! She also presented the prizes to the women. Her sister, Ply was on hand to give out the prizes for the children Their mother, Mrs Ingavat, also later handed out a small cash gift to all the children. Simona added to the lunch with her homemade Italian tomato salad – yum! It was just sooooo amazing how everything worked out, how the lunch-hosting families so kindly provided an Italian-style lunch to fit our occasion. Teamwork! It was also great to meet Nadee and Ply – and I’m sure we’ll be working with you sometime soon in the future! We also had a couple of guests from Hongkong, Rachel and Tina, who brought with them 30 pairs of slippers for the children. That was really sweet of them to do that – they came to help with games for the kids but we eventually only had time for one game, which we played after lunch. For Songkran water play, we prepared some water balloons – once we had that in the hands of the teams, they went for it! Starting off close, they stepped back further and further till they were tossing the balloons quite a distance! Every balloon that broke with a splash of water brought on more laughs as everyone was focused on Fun more than winning! Ultimately, from 10 teams, we got our winners. They won a yoyo and a packet of Pocky! Special note of thanks here to Tamrerk, our website designer and IT expert, who stepped into the unfamiliar role of playing MC – especially for a fashion show! Ha! You did a great job! Thanks so much!
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