Khlong Toey Music Program
Motoom plays the ukulele and melodica, and wants to starts singing more, too. She says that, “At home, there is not a lot to do,” so her mother encourages her to head to the music school to play. Motoom’s family sees how happy she is, and through that encouragement she feels she has the courage to perform and do well.
Before attending the school, her father had purchased a keyboard for her birthday but she never learned to play it; now she is proud to be learning music. She feels that music helps to train her mind to memorize easily, it has also taught her “to be less selfish and how to fight less with others.” Motoom used to have a difficult time with her peers sometimes, and felt that they wouldn’t want to play with her but now that she has an outlet, her friends enjoy being around her. Her goal is to teach people, she wants to earn a degree and get a good job.
“It gives value to my free time, it makes me concentrate on something and I’m really happy with it. I like when we play music and don’t fight with each other. I like that we can form a band. I also like the art lesson with the foreign teachers. Sometimes we use our hands to communicate, because [the visiting teachers] cannot speak Thai well but they usually understand.”
