Barney Stinson...

Yesterday was Thursday, and you know what that means: tutor day! My student Roat (Row-aught) came over and studied the finer points of verb usage, followed by an intellectual stroll through his latest weekly essay. He is of an average height for a Cambodian, meaning, four-foot two-inches. He has dark curly hair, a wispy black mustache, and bronze skin. Last week it was awesome because he wanted to know how much I liked Michael Jackson. I couldn’t tell him the truth—he’s a huge fan; it would break his heart—so I said, “Oh, all Americans are huge fans. He’s like pop star number one; America’s musician extraordinaire. In fact, my Dad has a Michael Jackson autographed white glove he picked up on his trip to Neverland just last year.”

This week his essay question was: If you could change anything about your hometown what would you change and why? (I get the sample questions from a TEFOL book). Well, he understood hometown to mean Cambodia, and “what would you change” to mean systemic reconstruction—what can I say, the man has vision. He wrote: “When I am Prime Minister I will fix the Education System. I will pattern it after European systems. It will be the best Education System in Southeast Asia. When I do this there will be no more poverty and corruption, and Cambodia will never again repeat the living hell of the late seventies.” Dang! Roat isn’t messing around, so I did what any self-respecting teacher would do: I gave him my English Grammar Spark Note flash cards—study hard baby, cause you gots a whole lotta work to do. He was stoked. He stood up at the kitchen table, bowed, and shook my hand with both of his.

In other news, apparently Andrea and Regan (and Sophie too) made it home safely. I know this because they briefly turned the internet on yesterday at NPIC, and then, following a quick reading of my email, they turned the power off. One hour later when the power came back on, the internet was still off. I am writing this in Word with the hope that I can post it at some point in the near future.

I miss you all, and can’t wait to see you.

Ben

Missing wife/baby meter: today I made the bed (Andrea will understand).