I am pleased to report that International Women`s Day at TVU went off with only minor (okay, major) technical glitches. We were told on Wednesday that our event was being moved from Hall 1 to Hall C, which turned out to be a brand new building tucked away at the far end of campus. I was a little worried that the building would be done on time - the construction crew was still putting up windows on Saturday - but I shouldn't have been. Saturday afternoon, we (the IWD planning committee) organized a run-through of the gender equality game, went to the market for last-minute supplies, and then we were up until 11 pm on Saturday night, to finish decorating the hall and wrapping the prizes for the cooking competition and fashion show. Everyone pitched in to help, the other volunteers even postponed their karaoke night to come help blow balloons and cut paper flowers to decorate the stage. What an awesome gang!
Stage in Hall C. Setting it up was a joint effort!
Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny. I was a little late setting up (technical difficulty #1: balancing a big red bucket on the back of a bicycle) so the cooking competition was well underway by the time we had set up the gender equality game (around 7.30 am). The game - a relay race where the participants had to tie a helmet around their bellies and put on a maternity dress, thus simulating pregnancy and hopefully sparking some meaningful reflections about women's reproductive roles... - was a lot of fun, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, we didn't have many participants - the Vietnamese like to do things en masse, but clearly the masses were congregating around the cooking area - but it turned out to be okay. It made for some pretty funny pictures, anyways!
Then it was off to the hall, where we had a jam-packed schedule of Khmer dancing, speeches, presentations, panel discussions, "ethnic minorities" diversity fashion show, and the all-important prizes. Technical glitch #2: we were informed a few days before that we would have a town-wide blackout on Sunday. Luckily someone managed to secure a generator. Unluckily, the generator power was rather intermittent, so the microphones only worked half the time. We also didn't have the fans going, so the room heated up pretty quickly. At the same time, the students got creative and we had music blasting from a cellphone into a microphone for the fashion show. One of our fabulous Masters of Ceremonies entertained us with some impromptu a capella singing, and we probably had about 200 students in attendance. All in all, a good showing.
TVU students posing after performing a Khmer classical dance
After all that hard work, our Vice-Rector treated us to a nice lunch and we all went home for a nap. Then we went to see the kites again, went out for supper to celebrate a colleague's birthday, and ended up....at the karaoke hall. A perfect ending to a very full weekend.
Flying kites, a traditional thing to do in the dry season.
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