October 1 – Back to school day for children across Cambodia. First day of school as a teacher for me. Well, first day AT the school in that capacity. In reality, there was no actual school - no classes that is – just one big, very long ceremony this morning. I showed up to the school, as requested, at 6:45. Now, I am much more of a morning person here in Cambodia than I am stateside, but having to actually get up and moving at 5:30 is something new. Having to dress up in a sampot and try to ride my mountain bike in that long skirt was something of a challenge. Of course as I rode along the main road towards school, I passed herds of students headed in the same direction, just waiting to witness the awkward barang trying to ride a bike. I arrived, parked my bike in what seemed like an appropriate place, and ran into one of the English teachers I had met earlier. I asked where I should be going, and he motioned me into the school director’s office. There, I was plopped into a plastic chair where I proceeded to sit for the better part of an hour while preparations were going on around me. The head English teacher found me there and explained that I should wait a bit longer because in just a short while, the students would all come sit down to listen to the Prime Minister’s address. “Oh.” I thought, “Ok, I guess the Prime Minister must give some sort of radio address to the school children of Cambodia on the first day of school.” After all, our high school is named after the prime minister, as are many of the high schools in Cambodia. And, if I’m not mistaken, the largest single part of Cambodia’s national budget goes to education. I started to get suspicious, though. Security guards and fancy cars started showing up. The frenzy to stop the microphone feedback heightened. I started to wonder...is the Prime Minister coming to our school? Maybe he visits one school each year, and it just happens to be this one? Peace Corps Volunteers past have many stories of being left out of the loop, but is this something I could have missed? Oh crap. I’m all wrinkly from my bike ride. I only took 15 minutes to write my speech. Oh CRAP!
As it turned out, the ‘Prime Minister’ who was addressing the students was not the Prime Minister at all, but the district governor. The ceremony involved me sitting in front of, oh, I guessed about 800 of my school’s 1400 students who all squatted obediently in the dirt in their school uniforms. I got a plastic chair up on the school office terrace, the makeshift stage for the day’s events, next to some of the school officials. Then we had to stand up to listen to the national anthem. Trust me, if you are the only barang for miles and you are standing in front of 800 Khmer school children and you are so much taller than all of the other teachers that you look like a giant, 800 Khmer school children will laugh at you. And you will have nothing to do but laugh at yourself too. After that, it won’t seem so bad that you have to give a 15-sentence speech in broken Khmer. At least all the students will listen to you, which they certainly won’t when the not-actually-the-Prime-Minister gives a speech lasting more than an hour.*
Afterwards, I did actually get to talk to some of the students, which was exciting. For one, it was exciting that they were actually brave enough to talk to me in English. As we all quickly learned during our practicum teaching week, this is no small feat for a Khmer student. Two, the 5-odd students I talked to could actually speak some English! I mean, a little. And they were 12th graders are probably some of the best students in the school, if I had to guess. But hey, it’s a start. I guess that’s where I come in...
*No I’m serious. More than an hour.
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