Club Sandwich

Big day yesterday - the first English club day in the history of Taing Kork Hung Sen High School. High schools in Cambodia don't really do clubs, so it really was something bizarre. I had mentioned the possibility of starting one to a co-teacher in passing conversation on my second day at school. Since then, I've been getting When? Where? What? from students every day. For a week and a half , I conducted interviews for anybody interested in joining, about 120 kids in all. Some students couldn't even write their names in English. The most advanced 5-10 students understood all of my hardest questions (things like 'What is the weather like today?' and 'What will you do after school today?'). Given the range and the number of interested parties, I was...excited. You could possibly say I was freaked out. Just a little bit. But excited too.

Anyway, about 80 or 90 of the students had free time Thursday afternoon, so I decided on 1:30 Thursdays for club time. Since I can't even buy a snut of jake (bunch of bananas) without the entire town knowing, I figured I could rely on word of mouth to get things around. I told a few of my classes and maybe a few dozen students who asked me, hoping I wouldn't be TOO inundated.

Convinced there would be 150 men, women, and small babies showing up to gawk at my little experiment, I went to school half an hour early to be ready...

1:05 - Ok. Breathe. I'm on time. Planned activities? Check. Extra bag full of books and supplies to allow for spontaneous lesson changes should my planned activities sink like a can of Anchor in a rice paddy? Check.

1:18 - Whew. Nice, I've been able to meticulously write my entire lesson on the board as neatly as possible in peace and quiet without anybody staring at me.

1:22 - Ah, nothing like some good old PC-camaraderie texting to get the mind off what is sure to be this impending clusterbumble.

1:25 - Hmm, only five minutes until class, I guess I should look outside and let people know it's ok to come in.

1:29 - Huh? Hello??

1:33 - CRAP. I hate EVERYTHING.

1:36 - 'Hi Cher!' 'Hi Cher!' 'How are you Cher?' 'Did you eat rice yet Cher?' A line of 20 students files into the room from out of nowhere, all at once. 15 more kids soon join them. What's this? A manageable class size? Students eager to participate? They can actually speak some English? And they understand me?!

You could have knocked me over with a feather.