News

Over last week, MES was visited and helped by several old and new volunteers… and MES would kindly thank you all for your comments.

1. Warren Read from Australia ” A great project. Thanks to the sponsor and the director!”
2. Tricia Feengy from Australia ” Fantastic. Good on you.”
3. Danny Stevens from and his friend the USA “Just walking, excited to see the school.”
4. Katia Lyra  from Brasil “I love music!”
5. Maria from Malaysia and her friend ‘ Dear students have to learn good melody for future.”

Mr. Paul, Ben and one of the volunteer are having a music jam with students on the  activity day.

Showing Katia Lyra around the MES.

 Maria and her friend were showing how to play creative instruments. They had some wooden balls with the ball there is rice inside, wooden spoon and the bones from the cows as the instruments. They made a really nice show.  It was brilliant and fantastic.

Danny Stevens and his friend helping the students play guitar and ukulele

MES has announced Monday and Tuesday as Lesson Days, Thursday as a Preparation Day, before they have a test on Friday, and Wednesday is an ACTIVITY DAY. So every Wednesday, the whole class gathers together playing games, music, and singing along together as it’s been organized, and it doesn’t matter what level they are. Wednesday allows anybody to show his or her talent and special skills with the class and to show that anybody or team can be the winner of the game. By the way, we are looking more and different useful and achievable activities for MES and the students.

We really hope to see MES students being happy and having a lot of fun and a great time at MES, as well with their lessons.

This activity is working on the strings; the teacher says the name of the string and the students have to pick it and if the students picks the wrong string , he or she has to sang a song for the others. It was a bit difficult for the quiet one, but after singing. They just enjoy it.

This is strumming activity;  all the students sit in a circle and get ready to strum as the teacher instructs. The teacher says  “DOUN”

or “UP” any times he’d like and the strumming does not have to be in the patterns, but the students have to listen to the instructions carefully and if student A or B makes a mistake, he/she will have to do either  dancing, singing or show any talent they have to the class.

Matching Activity; This is a competition game and works pretty well with the music theory. The teacher divides the class into teams, as  well as the activity on the whiteboard. The team has to complete the tasks on the board by matching the words in Lao to Music theory in English. The team that finishes the task first will be the winner.

Music James, we donnot only play games on Wednesday, we also sing together and this encourages students  feel more comfortable in the class room and also get to know more about their classmates. The highest level students starts the first song and then everyone must choose one song they’d like to sing with the class, but before they choose the songs they have to makes sure that their friends know the songs and can sing it, otherwise he/she will have to sing it alone. Also before singing they have to introduce the chords and the strumming patterns to their friends.

VOLUNTEERS; During last week, MES was visited by some volunteers, some of them can play some instruments and some cannot. Some are invited from friends and some find out themselves on the MES Brochure, and on they way through MES. 

I am extremely impressed and appreciated with the opportunities that I have been offered, I would like to thank the fund, and the people who are very generous and kind very very much for handing out your pocket money and help Lao country and its people, particularly Luang Prabang community. I may not have this great opportunities without your help. It is my pleasure working for MES, as well as helping my country and its people and especially the young and motivated children who love music. I hope this organization will  have been continued helping many people  and getting greater by the time.

MES would like to THANK Mr. Ben Kassman for his volunteering time at MES and his lately  valuable gift.  He recently brought “TWO WHITE BOARDS AND A BOX OF MARKERS  ” to MES as a donation. Also  he left some comments which  encourages and motivates the MES, and its staffs to keep trying for the better.

Ben: “Something I’ve learned from teaching at MES is that music truly is a universal language. Many of my students speak less than conversational English and yet we can play together and understand music together easily. The arts are of the utmost important wherever you are, which is why I wanted to help out MES. They are doing such a great job furthering arts education in Luang Prabang and admire that a lot. ”

Last but not least, MES would like to  represent this story as a great memory and best regards of MES for the valuable gift.

New Boards

Old One

This festival is not really concerned the MES,  but just want to share it with many people around the world, because it’s one of very interesting and beautiful festivals of Luang Prabang.

The candle light boat festival is called “Ok Pan Sa” which means “the end of the Buddhist Lent” and it’s usually celebrated in November. This festival happens two periods of the year, the first is in the beginning of July and it’s called “Kao Pan Sa” which means “the Beginning of Buddhist Lent”

Why does it happens two times? And Why is it called Kao Pan Sa and Ok Pan Sa?
As I have heard from many novices, monks and other people.
Many years ago monks travelled everywhere to teach dramma to the lay people, but in July is the beginning of the rainy season and it was difficult for them to travel anywhere. And that’s why this is the beginning of the three-month long Buddhist Lent. All monks stoped travelling and stayed at temple for prayer and meditation. It’s also time for ordination of men entering a monkhood.

In November is the end of the rainy season, and started to travel again. This day marks the end of Buddhist Lent. The first day of the Buddhist Lent, many people go to the temple in the morning and  the second day in the evening there is lighting of candles in and around the temples and people’s houses, as well as the lovely ceremony of Lai Hua Fai or fireboats, where small “boats” made of sections of banana tree trunks decorated with flowers, and lit candles are floated down the nearest river. It is believed these small boats will take away any bad luck and bring good luck.

Candles lighting in a temple
This is the day that the Naga (mythical water spirit) is supposed to send fireballs into the sky from the Mekong and its tributaries has become a big attraction for many people who flock to the river banks to try to sight these elusive fireballs. Hope you enjoy enjoy reading it!

  CANDLES AT MES

I HEART MESOTHER PHOTOS FROM THE FESTIVAL

NOT ONLY THE FIRE BOATS WERE FLOW BUT THE LANTERNS WERE BURNT UP IN THE SKY

This was my first time creating drum pads, as well as Paul who came up all the ideas and donated all the materials that were needed. To get all the drum pads done were more difficult than we expected. The drum pads are created for the students to practice so they can really feel the bouncing when they beat. How did we make it,  we collected the old inner tubes of motorbikes from several garages in town and get some nice and cheap wood from the shop. Before putting the rubber on the wood or the wood together, we needed to sand to make make sure the wood is to rough. We use a 20 cm-sized plank to placed several pieces of rubbers on the top where is supposed to  be beaten and that was the most difficult part, because we need two students to help us to pull.  Finally, we ended up by completing it. We hope the drum pads can be useful for the students to have an extra practice when there are more drum students in the future and instead of sitting and waiting for their queues  they can keep beating  with the simple drum pads.

Another week with Paul and Ben; Paul is a great drummer, though teaching music it’s his first time at MES he has given a wonderful lessons, he spent two or three hours from Monday-Friday at MES, sometimes even longer. His plan was to leave Luang Prabang last week, but after volunteered at MES and taught some English for monks and novices in town, he decided to stay longer.
Ben is a wonderful musician and actor as he’s back in the state. He loves singing, as well as playing musical instruments. He can play several instruments, guitar, ukulele and piano, and he can explain about the music theory very well. To Play music and act is what he  does for a living, and in his free time. He enjoys answering all the questions about the music. He is a volunteer on GVI program, he is now available only one hour for MES. However he comes Monday through Friday and last week, he taught students how to sing a song by practicing it on the keyboard, then they practice singing and playing on guitar. MES hope he will share more time at MES in the future as he’s comfortable. He is going stay in Luang Prang for about 2-3 more months.
MES is lucky to have two of them in a company, the students can learn more new thing  for themselves, and as soon as the higher level students are interested in other instruments they can talk to them.

Thanks a lot Paul for volunteering @ MES. Paul has volunteered for a week and decided to stay more for a few days for MES. Last week, we had two friends Mr. Ben Kassman from the USA and Mr. Matt Taylor from Australia. They visited the MES for the first time and they were showed around and told  about MES. They were both really happy to see music being taught in Luang Prabang, also it is fantastic institution, and love  the work being done at MES.  They both can play music and they decided to volunteer at MES to give the students some guitar and ukulele lessons. I am the director and MES students are really appreciated.

Last week, MES was visited by Mr. Paul Provenzano from the USA. He came to Luang Prabang on vacation for a couple of weeks. He loves volunteering, he first did not know about MES, but as soon as he met the director, he was invited to visit MES. There he helped to set up the drum and donated a carpet  for the band room. The carpet is used  to stand  the drums and the kick drum, without the carpet it can be sliding away while you are play. He also give a suggestion how to stop the echo.  MES is very proud of his gift and really appreciated.

ANOTHER GIFT

MES was not only received the first entry and his gift, we also received  a  keyboard from GVI people in Luang Prabang. Tricia  and Greg are working for GVI program in Luang Prabang, they have known the director for quite a long time, and they were also told about the MES. As they knew MES has opened they offered a second hand keyboard for MES students to practice. MES thanks you a lot for your kindness and wish you all the best.