Proud

Today I had my last class at a course in a school in Eppendorf (Hamburg) with a group of primary school students.
After a semester full of good experiences with particularly brilliant kids,  I´ve decided to try my "new toy" and tell one story with a shadow theatre. After I´ve done it, the group has refused to leave their places and asked for another one. And so I did.
After that they have asked me whether I would explain them how the whole thing works. No more than five minutes were needed till I got some precise instructions that I should give them ten minutes on their own so that they would find out a story and present it to me.
Leaving the room I couldn´t control my growing expectation towards what was to come.
When I got back inside the room, they've ordered me to lay on the fluffy carpet of the library so that I would see the story on the ceiling, just as they have done before during my presentations.
This was the result:

For those who don't speak german here goes a brief summary: this was a normal city where a thief has always waited for midnight to rob people´s houses and shops. But there was a sleepwalking lady who has managed to get him and took him to the town´s judge who has made him ask for sorry.
More than the story in itself, it was the wonderful humour of the whole presentation which made me feel proud and tremendously happy to see it.
In the beginning they start presenting some of the people who lived in the city, starting by the President Lady and the President Man, as women should always come first ( as I was latter told).
There´s a moment where the kids didn´t know where they have put the puppet they needed so they have just decided to put an airplane flying around as it is always something nice to see. From the school it is always possible to see airplanes preparing to land at Hamburg´s airport.
Another one is how the sleepwalking lady suddenly changes her clothes as soon as she wakes up and gets the robber, because everyone know that it is silly to walk around in pijamas, or so  have they told me in the end of the story.
I have to admit that after ten years telling stories in the most different contexts, it is moments like this that make me keep on. Thanks kids for making me smile and believe in the power of stories!!

Last, but not the least, I have to confess my admiration for Jeff Gere´s work, which has arisen my curiosity and fascination for this way of telling stories. Thanks Jeff!!!