This New Years Eve was a very different one for me, normally there is a bit of Champagne being drank by me, well maybe a bit more then a bit…Anyway this year was, again very different but maybe one of the best years so far. The planning began a few days before hand. All of the kids were practicing dance moves, songs and painting posters and signs to hang for the party. The Monks all get together and buy a bunch of things that the kids need and some things that they know they want and they give them gift throughout the evening. I decided that I was going to make brownies for everyone. This also started 2 days in advance with all of the shopping and getting the recipes translated into Thai so they could all be part of this too.
We made 500 chocolate-peanut brownies and 500 white-chocolate dried cherry blondies, they were so good but I am all good not to eat another brownie for a long time…Food was being donated by some locals that come to the Temple and the food was amazing and things that the kids usually don’t get to eat. Tables and chairs were borrowed from the village community center and the kids helped all day to set them up. It was great since they normally sit on the floor for all meals, now they were eating family-style and at tables and chairs just like at a restaurant. There was a different feeling in the air that night, they really felt so special and I was so happy to be part of it. By the time they were done eating they were so drunk from sugar, with the brownies and soda, TONS of soda, it was quite funny.
Then the performances began, starting with the little girls, all dressed up their make-up caked on. There were about 25 different shows with different groups of girls and boys. They danced, they sang, they screamed and after each performance they were all given a 20 Baht note, some cookies and soap or shampoo or clothes hangers, whichever they wanted or needed. Some of the performances were Tribal and some were Thai Karaoke, some good and some well let’s just say pretty funny. This went on for about 3 hours, all the while the Monks were taking care of the lights and music. Chatree, one of the older boys and some of the time I helped to give out the prizes, really, really fun.
I took about 300 pictures that night and I will post a few but we so happy to have pictures taken in every pose imaginable and in different groups. Some of the kids were so tired by this time they had to go to bed, passed out in thier chairs and even 2 of the kids fell a sleep on my friend Greg. We then found out that there was going to be even more karaoke ans as you can imagine, 3 hours was good enough for me. I headed out to Chiang Mai to the roof top of a hotel to watch the fire works. Since there is no need for a permit, they were everywhere, even at the hotel and I almost caught on fire, they were really close. I had my glass of champagne and a beer and called it a night. It was really fun but I was wiped out the next day and it took all day for us to clean everything to get this place back to normal. Well semi-normal anyway. Take a look at the pictures, they are fun…Happy New Year!
