Happy Birthday Dear Nobody

I was told that we were going to celebrate Hans' birthday with a cake and party during lunch time.  Laum also cancelled all the afternoon classes in honor of this occasion.  Celebrating the birthday of someone who is not actually present might seem weird...unless you are in Cambodia, and Laum in your principal.  Laum strolled into school during 2nd hour and told me he wanted to Skype with Hans.  He asked me what time it would be in California during our lunch.  I told him 10 or 11 p.m.  He looked surprised and said, "Oh, I ring the bell now."  I guess he didn't realize there would be such a big a time difference, and he decided to start the party early.  All my students looked so confused when the bell rang.  We had only been in there for about 15 minutes.  I just rolled my eyes and shrugged.

Laum really should have been a party planner.  He had the cake, the party hats, the silly string, and a special lunch for the students and teachers. 

 

Technology is not one of Laum's areas of expertize, and we tried several times to Skype with Hans.  The conversation went like this.  "Hello."  "Hello?"  "Can you hear me?"  Silence.  I'm not sure whether Hans was able to hear the children singing Happy Birthday or not.  Our wifi is not the most efficient, nor is the user.

After the anti-climactic birthday celebration, the Cambodian teachers took the cake to our table in front of the office.  MeaLea picked up a knife and smeared off Hans' name.  We all started giggling, and the girls removed the 80 candle.  They replaced it with five regular candles which they lit and blew out.  I could see that MeaLea was really taking pleasure in this.  She gets angry like me, but we have different ways of showing it.  I yell, throw things, and plot revenge.  She's a tad more subtle.  Cynthia was also entertaining herself.  After walking around with party hat cones on her breasts (Madonna style), and eating a piece of cake, she went up to all the men and asked, "Do you want my cherry?"  Luckily, they were not familiar with this euphemism. 

After the party, the students played for a while, and it became apparent that there would be no more classes for the rest of the day.  I ended up teaching for a grand total of 1 hour today.  I was o.k. with that.