October 7, 2011

The good and the bad

The good can be good and the bad can be really bad. Shall we play the “Let me top that story” game?

So I heard about this teacher. He went to class drunk. That’s not surprising because many teachers drink before their evening class so it’s likely that some are drunk, right? Well, he was probably drunk enough to slur his consonants and the students couldn’t understand him though he’s pretty incomprehensible anyway. So someone asked, “Teacher, have you been drinking?” or maybe more directly, “Teacher, are you freak’n drunk?”

I guess he was because apparently he slammed his fist down on the desk and continued to rant and rave for the next 30 minutes. In retaliation, he gave the students a hopelessly difficult passage to translate (probably something he wrote himself) and then failed them all. How come nobody got that on a mobile and let it go Lao viral? Or did someone forget to flush?

October 5, 2011

Rocking and Rolling

Can’t say it’s a boring life. Got kicked out of the Teachers Training College. Forbidden to enter their grounds. I’d covered too much of it. They were making threats so I packed and left Savannakhet in two days leaving 3,000 books stashed and $2,600 US paid on rent.

No time to lick my wounds. Schools in Vientiane are lining up for training in signing. Years ago, I was doing dental work, trying to get teachers to work on their “skills”. Now, school directors are fully onboard and students are rockets at the pad.

I visited a school and everyone greeted me in sign language. I was flabbergasted to see a girl practicing signs during the flag raising ceremony. From 50 yards away, I could see her saying “go home, white, mango”. Then they spotted me and we greeted each other though I was three floors up and behind a pane of glass.

The teacher thought it would be easier to gather the 7 and 8 year olds together so here I had more than 100 children. Maybe this was some kind of record. We had a mini rock concert and I didn’t even need a mic. No electric guitar either.