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Mamma Mia - How Can We Forget You?

‘Donna’ and ‘Sam’ perform Mamma Mia.

Mark Beales

If there was a single foot that wasn’t tapping in the main hall, we couldn’t see it.

As the sounds of Mamma Mia filled the hall at Garden International School (GIS) in Ban Chang, Rayong, the audience was up out of their seats and dancing along with the students to the final number. From November 23-25, students staged their version of Mamma Mia, the musical based on the music of Abba.

Vanessa Vanderpoel took on the role of Donna, a middle-aged women whose daughter Sophie is about to get married. Sophie, played by Praw Brander, secretly invites three men to the wedding. This trio all had a fling with Donna 21 years ago, and Sophie now wants her father at her wedding; the only trouble is she doesn’t know which of the men it is.

Some of the stars of Garden’s latest production.

Vanessa was superb as the troubled mum who is looking for love but just doesn’t know it. Helped by Christina Traister and Daniela Escobar as her sidekicks, the three girls took on some of Abba’s biggest hits - and nailed each and every one.

Not only was their singing as powerful as it was pitch-perfect, the choreography added some impressive and often comic touches - best seen in the hilarious Chiquitita.

The three men invited to the wedding were played wonderfully by Rohit Ghosh (Sam), Ben Bartlett (Bill) and Jason Tang (Harry). The show, just like the musical, was peppered with classic Abba tracks, from Dancing Queen and Voulez Vouz to Super Trouper and Does Your Mother Know, the latter performed wonderfully by Christina, aided by a stunning dance troupe. By the end of the show, the audience responded to the students’ obvious enthusiasm by dancing along to Mamma Mia to mark the end of another spectacular success.

Dancing kings from Garden.

Many thanks go to the companies who generously agreed to sponsor the show. The gold sponsors were Rosie O’Gradys Pub and Restaurant in Pattaya, Camel Pub and Restaurant in Ban Chang, the Gunn family and Usana Health Sciences. The silver sponsors were U Smile, Indian by Nature, Pala Lagoon Project Land & House, Praw Street Dance and Modeling Studio, PM Valve and Viking Power Systems. And the bronze sponsors were Eastern Star, the Lyubchevskaya family and Khun May’s Restaurant and Cafe.

Thanks also go to the cast, crew, band and choir and to director Ken Lund, assistant director Jenn Blais, producer Ben Liversidge, musical director Paul Shiells, assistant musical director Michelle Peralta, choreographer Hannah Sumalee Inthararat, set designers Andrew Gordon and Jane Vincent, costume designer Martine Morris, additional performance coach Kasia Grisdale, music support from Alan Aquino and catering from Patsy Smith.

DVDs, posters and T-shirts are still on sale at 250 baht each. If you’re interested, email dramadept@ gardenrayong.com. The deadline for buying T shirts is December 7. There is no deadline for the other two items.

Students perform Abba’s hit ‘Does Your Mother Know?’

‘Sophie’ prepares to marry in the musical’s climax.

Garden’s singing stars belt out ‘Waterloo’.


GIS Christmas Fair promises to be biggest and best ever

Mark Beales

This year’s Christmas Fair at Garden International School promises to be the biggest and best ever.

The fair will be held at the school on Saturday, December 10 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and all money raised will go help buy even more resources for the school, based in Ban Chang, Rayong.

The raffle is a huge part of the fair and there are some great prizes available, including bicycles, fridges, a golf round for four - and a giant teddy bear!

There are two ways to help out - by donating prizes and by buying tickets. Students are busy selling tickets at the moment, and there is a prize for whoever manages to sell the most.

The fair itself will have a range of games and activities organised by teachers and staff.

Foundation will be doing face painting and other events, while primary activities will include bottle fishing, pick a straw, ‘guess how many sweets are in the jar’, magic cards, tin can alley, ring toss and a ‘make your own banana split’ stall.

Secondary teachers will be having several fun games too, including a raffle, a soak the teacher stall, Santa’s penalty shootout, pin the nose on the Rudolph, mysterious island, and table tennis challenge.

The Thai department will have an egg scooping event and lucky tree, library staff will have second-hand books for sale and the music department will provide some festive songs.

If you’d like to have your own stall at the fair, email [email protected], phone us on 038-880360-3 / 081-8596460 or fax: 038- 030 805.


Young Marines Pattaya participate in Sattahip’s Mini-Marathon

Sattahip’s Mini-Marathon Walk-Run Young Marines Pattaya participants, left to right: Jim Coomes, Rad Mays, Pvt. Bret Mays, Nok Mays and Joe Ferral.

Rad Mays

A Mini-Marathon Walk-Run was held in Sattahip on Sunday, Nov. 27 in honor of His Majesty the King’s birthday. Admiral Thira Haochareun, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Navy, presided over the opening ceremony.

The walk-run competition supports the government’s policy to promote physical fitness in local communities. The Young Marines Pattaya Unit participated in the event’s five kilometer health walk. The Unit’s participants were Jim Coomes, Joe Ferral and Bret, Nok and Rad Mays. The Unit had planned to walk the 10.5k mini-marathon, but due to event restrictions were unable to do so. All the Unit’s participants enjoyed the event, got some exercise and had a great time.

Komed Wasawaphan, a student at the Chumphon Naval Academy, was the winner of the 10.5 kilometer mini-marathon.

If you know someone that would like to become a Young Marine, please contact Rad Mays at 083 115 8694 or email to [email protected]

At the starting line, Young Marines from Pattaya and other participants in Sattahip’s Mini-Marathon.


Friends of Youth, Pattaya City take kids fishing

Nathan Russo -
Friends of Youth

Saturday following Thanksgiving, Friends of Youth, Pattaya City entertained about 40 kids from Banglamung Boys Home and Mabprachan Jr School to a day of fishing at Pattaya Barra Fishing Park. The park specializes in fishing for Baramundi known as Pra Kapong on Thai menus - a tasty meaty fish.

The kids arrived early in the morning and only stopped fishing long enough for a great lunch served up by the fishing park. In addition to food provided by the park, GP Foods, owned by Boonlai Kaebaimai, delivered a great assortment of minced pies, apple pies and Cornish pastries that everyone enjoyed. Boonlai said the pies are sold at WWMCO (formerly known as Western Beef) Villa and Friendship supermarkets.

A friend of one of the owner’s of the park also volunteered her time to do face painting which the kids really enjoyed.

To learn more about how you can get involved with this very worthwhile organization contact Jerry Dean at 083-115-8475.


Satit School helping flood victims

Satit students and staff present the donations to Sorrayut Sutatsanajinda, Pitohayatan Janput (Nong Bright) and comedian Jaraenpon Onlamai (Gho-tee).

On Thursday 1st December, staff and student representatives of Satit Udomseuksa School, Pattaya went up to the Bangkok Channel 3 television station to donate 460 aid bags for the victims of the recent floods in Thailand.

Parents, students and staff helped raise money and donated items for the younger victims that included milk, bottles, pampers, towels and more.

Students and staff of Satit presented the donations to Channel 3 reporter Sorrayut Sutatsanajinda, Pitohayatan Janput (Nong Bright) and comedian Jaraenpon Onlamai (Gho-tee).


‘Living with the Tiger’ screening at the Regent’s School

Mike Thomas and Bla share information about the film.

Joonas Neelov

Last Monday, movie star Khun Bla and film director Mike Thomas visited Regent’s as part of their tour with the documentary “Living with the Tiger”. Khun Bla and Mike are both lively HIV/AIDS activists and the screening in The Globe Theatre was part of the Regent’s World AIDS Day 2011 programme.

The movie gives an insight into the lives of HIV/AIDS affected children in Thailand and the difficulties they face living within Thai society. Filmed by its director Mike Thomas, Khun Bla plays a major role in the documentary as the film crew follows his life for three years, from the Thai countryside all the way to a Bangkok opera stage.

Apart from screening the movie to many members and friends of Regent’s, Khun Bla and Mike Thomas also got to know the Regent’s a bit better. The pair had some quality time in Primary, where they talked about their movie and HIV/AIDS. They also carried out some fundraising by selling DVDs and T-shirts of the movie during lunch times. The T-shirts will also be sold at the coming Christmas Bazaar! Everyone can find out more about the movie and Baan Gerda on http://www. livingwiththetiger.com/.

After the evening screening of the movie on Tuesday and a long question and answer session, we said our thanks to Khun Bla and Mr. Mike Thomas for sharing their moving story with us. Bla and Mike headed off to prepare for the next showing of the movie in NIST in Bangkok.


Blind School gears up for annual sports competition, thanks to generous PSC donation

William Macey, charity chairman of the Pattaya Sports Club, presents sports equipment to Aurora Sribuaphan, Principal of the School for the Blind.

William Macey, charity chairman of the Pattaya Sports Club, recently presented much needed sports equipment to the Pattaya School for the Blind.

Like school children around the world the blind students enjoy participating in competitive sports events. Sports such as goalball were devised especially for the blind, and this game is now an official sport at the Paralympics.

Thanks to the Pattaya Sports Club, Aurora Sribuaphan, Principal of the School for the Blind, accepted several goalballs and soccer balls, all of which have a small bell inside so that the students can hear where the ball is as opposed to being able to see it.

Professional spiked sprinting training shoes were also donated which will hopefully give the students an advantage at future athletics competitions.

The annual sports competition at the School for the Blind will take place on January 26th. All visitors are welcome to attend this event at the School which is located on Soi 16 Naklua Road.


Asian U student researches education in Iraq

The best learning results come up when students share a computer, instead of working alone.

Freek Olaf de Groot

With more international students studying at Asian University, contributions to the local community have now reached an international level. In addition to contributing to the development of the local community around Asian University, international students are applying their international learning experience at Asian University to actively contribute to development of education in their home countries.

One of these students is Ahmed Falih Rabeea, an Iraqi secondary school English teacher from Basra in southern Iraq. Ahmed joined the Master of Education programme in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) last year with the goal of applying his learning experience to contribute to the educational system in his hometown. As part of his thesis he has started a project to introduce the use of E-learning at local schools in the south of Iraq.

This is how a normal learning environment looks like in Iraq.

During his studies on the M.Ed. TESOL programme Ahmed was introduced to the principles of E-learning in English language education and decided to explore the opportunities for a pilot project in Iraq. This proved to be easier said than done in a country in which education suffered from two decades of war. Innovations in education such as E-learning are a rarity in Iraq. However, with limited internet access and only a couple of hours of electricity a day, Ahmed decided to take up the challenge. In order to run the experiment successfully he rented 20 computers and two generators to power the computers during the practicum.

His experiment aims at investigating the effect of interactive learning materials on students’ English language proficiency levels. One group of students is now receiving 2 hours of interactive computer-based instruction per week and 2 hours of normal textbook-based instruction. Another group is following the standard programme of four hours of textbook-based classes a week without the interactive learning materials.

The first results are hopeful and showed zero absentees during the first 8 weeks of instruction, a much more positive attitude toward learning English and more motivated students.

Ahmed said, “Some shy students told me that they learn English with much more confidence and excitement than before. As to the school teachers, they expressed their admiration to see that the Basra Education Directorate and the school administration have paid much more attention to this development and lend support to this project. They would like to adopt such a method in their way of teaching.”

The final results will be expected in late December when he finishes his experiment.


HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]

Mamma Mia - How Can We Forget You?

GIS Christmas Fair promises to be biggest and best ever

Young Marines Pattaya participate in Sattahip’s Mini-Marathon

Friends of Youth, Pattaya City take kids fishing

Satit School helping flood victims

‘Living with the Tiger’ screening at the Regent’s School

Blind School gears up for annual sports competition, thanks to generous PSC donation

Asian U student researches education in Iraq
 

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