Thursday, October 19, 2017

It's either time or it's not

A couple of weeks ago I called my principal and a couple of the teachers that I will be working with.  I wanted to introduce myself before the beginning of the school year and make myself available for any meetings or events that might be happening in the interim.  Everyone seemed happy to meet me and looked excited to be having an experienced teacher help them improve their English and their teaching techniques.  I asked them all to please let me know when to report for work.  I even asked if there would be any meetings that happen before the official first day of school.  I was told that I should report on November 1st.  That would be the official first day.

Last Sunday night, however, I got a call from the principal to let me know that there would be a meeting on Monday morning at 7 a.m.   Two hours later, I was woken up by one of my counterpart teachers to let me know that he would be a the school the next morning and asking if I'd like to meet him there.  I informed him of the meeting that the principal had invited me to and he said he didn't know about it.  I told him it would be at 7 a.m. and we agreed to see each other there.  On Monday morning, I got another call from another one of my counterpart teachers, letting me know that there would be a meeting that same morning.  I told him I was informed (in fact, I was dressed and ready to go) and that I would see him there at 7 like the principal had said.

Of course, I showed up at 6:50 because that's who I am.  I wouldn't want to be late on my first day and I needed to find a good place to park my bike and to find my way around the school, to find the meeting, etc.  When I arrived, the principal was there and I was the only other person.  He was opening up the classrooms and asked me to wait for him at the office.  I waited for 30 minutes and no other teachers were arriving.  The walls of the office are covered in photos of school officials and students getting recognition, certificates and awards. There are pictures of when Michelle Obama and the first lady of Cambodia visited the school.  There are pictures of students in scout uniforms and many pictures of people giving speeches.

After 7:30, I was glad to see one of my counterparts who came into the office and started talking with me.  I asked him about the meeting, and he said the meeting was this morning but he wasn't sure about the time.  He said it should start soon.  Around 7:45 we went to the room that had been set up for the meeting.  It was a large classroom which had been set up auditorium style, with rows of folding aluminum chairs.  There were enough chairs for the entire faculty of almost 100 teachers.  At the front of the room there was a long table covered in a pink plastic table cloth and a centerpiece basket of plastic flowers in the middle.  The principal was seated in the middle and the two assistant principals were seated to each side of him.

Mr. Sin in the middle and the two Asst. Principals one on each side.

I took my shoes off at the door, like everybody else and took a seat with the other English teachers.  While we were waiting for the meeting to start, the principal said that I should sit at the front of the room.  So we all moved to the front left of the room.  Other teachers were slowly arriving.  Everyone seemed to have patience while waiting for the meeting to start.  Some teachers brought their own children with them.  Everyone was dressed professionally.

Mr. Sin (the principal) announced that we would wait 7-8 more minutes before starting the meeting to allow other teachers to arrive.  There seems to be a lot of patience for time here.  It was almost 8 a.m. and only half of the seats were occupied by teachers.

The meeting started with a low key speech from Mr. Sin.  With my very limited Khmer I understood that he was welcoming teachers to the new school year.  After 25 minutes of talking, one of the assistant principals talked for another 20 minutes. I think he was reviewing the performance scores of students from the standardized tests.

Mr. Sin made a point to welcome me, as a volunteer, coming to help with English instruction.  He asked me to introduce myself to the group.  Fortunately, this was not a surprise and I came prepared with my introductory speech.  I stood up and with my notes, I was able to say something meaningful in Khmer to the group.  I got an applause.  The English teachers told me that what I said was understood (yay!).  After my speech, Mr. Sin complimented me and said something about the fact that I was dressed professionally.  Yes, I was wearing a sanpot skirt and a button down shirt with a collar, which is what female teachers are expected to wear.

Next, it was the turn of the second assistant principal to speak.  His job was to deploy the teacher leaders with class schedules and list of students so that they could inform students.  Teachers picked up their class assignments and the list of students they are in charge of and proceeded to read the list on a microphone.  Students, in uniform, had gathered at the school on this day to listen for their names to be called and find out what class they are in.  Given that I only found out about the meeting the night before, I wondered how these students knew to show up on this day!

As it turns out, in the spring, before the school year came to an end, Mr. Sin told students to show up on the 5th, 15th and 25th of the month of October.  Students who want to find out information will show up and wait until their name is called.  My counterpart teacher, Mr. Yong, called the list of 31 students he was given.  After calling the students, he told them to meet at a certain spot on the school grounds where they will get more information.  Once gathered in front of that spot, students who were present were asked to inform those who were not there.  Out of the 31 students in Mr. Yong's class, there were 18 present.  The rest of them would need to be informed by their peers.  This was repeated 38 times for the 38 class sections in the school.

Students in class 9C waiting for information.

Mr. Yong, informing students of their
schedule and responsibilities.

The information presented was that they need to come to school every morning from now until November 1st to help get the environment ready for the school year.  Students will be sweeping, weeding, cleaning up, and getting the classrooms and grounds ready.  Attendance will be taken and students who don't show up to help will be punished.  This is an expectation, even though the official school year starts on November 1st.

By the way, November 1st is a welcoming day.  November 2 - 4 are holidays (Water Festival), so don't expect school to start until the following week (Nov. 6).   The school year is starting to unfold and one of the reasons I am here is getting closer.  In the meantime, I will experience a definition of time and an interpretation of commitment which is different than the one I arrived with.

2 comments:

  1. Me imagino que después del tiempo que pasaste en España lo de la impuntualidad no te sorprenda...jeje
    That the students clean the school is a good idea
    Besos

    ReplyDelete
  2. I’m so excited for you! I look forward to following your adventure. Samnang la’ah!

    ReplyDelete