World's Cutest (and perhaps Shortest) Beatles Fans

Last week I stopped by  a local elementary school, SD Muhammadiyah Bangutapan, that provides inclusion for a number of children that also study and play gamelan at Bina Anggita.  I love this school (you may remember some pictures from when I visited last year).  It is the cleanest, brightest, most welcoming place, led by a great principal Pak Heri.  It is not every public school in Indonesia that accepts kids with special needs (there are some laws in place defending every child's right to education but the implementation is not yet really regulated) yet he has made it one of his priorities. 

Anyway, some of the students were rehearsing for an upcoming performance.  They were practicing a song about national pride, but then one of them asked me if I liked the Beatles.  Turns out the sixth grade girls are in the throes of Beatlemania.  I told them about my mother going to see the Beatles at Carnegie hall, getting lost and accidentally walking into their dressing room and meeting them in person (this story turns out to be mostly untrue, or at least, it happened to my mom's friend and not her herself, but I have been telling as fact for years now) and the girls almost fainted.  We then sang "Yesterday" together.

Here is a picture of them looking at their most composed and self-assured.  I only wish the photo did justice to how truly petite they are.