Laum created an agenda for the closing ceremony day which included a staff meeting at 8:00 a.m. and the ceremony was to begin at 9:10. Naturally, that's not what happened. at 7:30, they began testing the 8 enormous speakers which had been set up for the occasion, and this caused a power outage for a while. There was no staff meeting. I wandered around what appeared to be general chaos and decided my best option was to retire to my bedroom until I was summoned. Laum called me at 8:30 and said, "Kerri, we are waiting."
Shockingly, everyone not only arrived on time, but they were early, so we began the ceremony. Even Gogo had already taken up his place upon the stage in front of us and right next to Mr. E. Long, the Governor of the Province. A bunch of local dignitaries sat on the opposite side of the stage and spent most of the time playing on their phones. A small army of soldiers milled around the gate to make sure that the Governor was not attacked by a cow or something.
Four of our girls performed a traditional Khmer dance to welcome the guests. Then, the speeches began. Out of the eight, Cynthia's was the best. She thanked everyone for their kindness and generosity. She included a lovely analogy by saying, "Hans planted a seed that blossomed into a beautiful lotus, and the students are the jewels that surround the lotus." She concluded by expressing upon the student their responsibility to take their knowledge and use it to help improve Cambodia. The other speeches were incredibly boring. The Governor spoke for 30 minutes in a monotone, not once looking up from his notes (which he had been furiously writing during all the other speeches.) Thank God they didn't bother to translate that into English too. The students were getting restless, and so were Cynthia and I, so we amused ourselves by crafting a speech for Gogo. It went something like this: "Good morning everyone. Thank you for letting me live at your school. I really like it here because you drop food on the floor during breakfast and lunch. The pork and chicken are fabulous, but I must admit the boiled fish makes me vomit on Cynthia's bed. I'd like to give a special thanks to our kind neighbor. Sorry about the chicken incident. I couldn't help myself, and I can't make any promises that it won't happen again.
At the conclusion, the 9th graders received their diploma, and the top two students at each grade level also received a special certificate and gift (3 notebooks, pencils, and an eraser.) After the ceremony, there was a feast and some of the students performed a play for entertainment. I sat at a table with 3 of the 11th grade girls from my Teacher Training class, Hans, Rob, Cynthia, and a couple 9th graders. Hans found out that Thida, one of the 9th graders wanted to be a lawyer, so he began this really long lecture about the type of law she should practice. Being the polite Cambodian girl, she stopped eating and listened politely. My 3 girls and I were watching this take place and giggling. I decided to put an end to this and said, "Hans, I'm sorry to interrupt, but can you take a picture of me and Sareoun?" He did, ad then I said, "Now, quit talking this girl's ear off, and let her eat." At that, my three girls about fell over in hysterics. They love to see a woman speak her mind so freely.
Some of the 9th grade girls and Chanrong invited us to come into a classroom, so they could sing us a couple songs. During, "Let it Go," I started crying. Hans said to me, "Will you stop already?" But, he has tears in his eyes too. When they began singing "My Heart Will Go On," (the theme song from Titanic), we all joined in and belted out, "Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that the heart does go on. Once more, you open the door, and you're here in my heart, and my heart will go on and on."
These words sum up my feelings about everyone I came to know and love in Cambodia.
I was given a multitude of present and hugs from students, parents, teachers, and people I didn't even know. It was really touching. Socheata told me that he had a gift for me and tried to explain it with his limited English. He was motioning to his pants. I said, "Pants?" He said, "No," and showed me they were shorter. I said, "Shorts?" No, that wasn't right either. He said, "They are not second hand. I hope you like it." I was wondering how he managed to find me a pair of pants that would actually fit my big barang butt in Mongkol Borei. When I opened his gift later, I burst out laughing. Along with a pair of sunglasses, and a couple other items, there was a pair of blue panties! Now, I understood why he told me they weren't secondhand. (It ended up being the perfect presents because the ten pair of panties that I brought with me were raggedy and forming holes. Also, the next day, I somehow lost my sunglasses.)
I couldn't wait to tease him about this, and luckily I found him standing around a bunch of the other teachers, so I tucked them in my bra and ran over there. I exclaimed, "Socheata, I want to thank you so much for your gift. I love them!" Then, I whipped them out of my bra and displayed them for everyone to see. Socheata was sheepish, but he laughed along with it. His wife seemed even more embarrassed, and she explained that she had picked them out, and they were really from her. I chose to ignore this and continued to razz Socheata. (Over the course of the year, I had been joking around with Socheata that I wanted to be his girlfriend, but I couldn't because his wife would punch me if she found out. This would always make him blush, especially when there were other people around. He would protest and say that we were only friends, and I would say, "Ot-day, K'nyom chong dee-ut. Som?" (No, I want more. Please?)
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