English Camp and Stupid Trillanes' Coup d' Etat

I was under-time at the office today today just to make it at home and take Tita Gay, Sandra and Renz to the Muntinlupa Sports Center in time for the English Camp presentations.

And yes, we arrived there before 6pm, the announced time. Here's a blurry Renz and Sandra trying to kill time at the still empty gym.


DH was just coming home at that time and worried she might not see the presentation numbers. Boy, were we wrong! At about 6:30pm, the Math teacher says we'll start at 7pm without any explanation for the delay.

There was grumbling from the bleachers. Well, this things happen, I thought. Maybe there were some technical problems of some sort.




But you gotta wonder, this is a Speech Choir. I don't think the presentation numbers won't have any special sound or lighting requirements.

7pm came around and... nothing - no further announcements. The English teachers were just milling around the front, chatting with each other and talking over cellphones. Then I saw this.


A couple of the judges seats on the left side of the table were empty. I thought the teachers must still be waiting for the two judges. They already had 3 or 4 judges there.

At around 7:20pm, I decided this was enough. Originally, I had wanted to speak over the mic and make my complaint heard by everyone. But I thought better and just planned on speaking with an English teacher instead.

I got down from the bleachers and upon seeing one English teacher, I gave my "what IS this?" gesture. Upon seeing me approach her with a not-so-friendly look on my face, she advanced to meet me.

I wasn't sure if people were staring at us, but I sure felt like it. The gym was noisy and her voice was not loud enough and this is what I remembered:

Me: How much longer do you want us to wait???
ET: Yes, we're sorry for the delay.
Me: Delay? We've been here since 6pm!
ET: Yes, you see we're waiting for 2 more judges.
Me: Are you saying their time is far more important than ours?
ET: No, but please try to understand.
Me: Well, you have your other judges here! Do you know what time it is? Is this the discipline we teach our children?
ET: Sir, I'm also an English Teacher.
Me: You tell the students and parents that program starts at 6pm. My goodness it's almost 7:30pm already!
ET: Yes, we'll start. We'll start now. We'll start now.
Me: Please!
(I then motioned to an emcee who was looking at us, to start by pointing at my watch.)




As I got back to my seat, she glanced towards me at the bleachers to see where (or who?) I was. Again I pointed at my watch to show I was serious. And good thing I did all that.

The program started at 7:25pm and everyone in the bleachers was relieved. There was the usual parade of colors, the hymns and the speeches.

Guess what, one judge arrived at 7:45pm and the other? 8:00pm! By that time, the program was well underway.

In hindsight, the contest organizers should've taken the microphone during the entire delay and tried to assuage the growing impatience in the audience. They should've given some idea of what was going on.

Ya know, sometimes I wonder why nowadays I always muster the strength and get the urge to speak out, especially when I feel I'm "called" for it.

And I could only thank (or is that blame?) my training as a Toastmaster. As a Toastmaster, speaking out just comes naturally I suppose. You're trained to compose a "mini-speech" prior to speaking as in Prepared Speeches and Table Topics.

Anyway, after a few number from 1st year and 2nd year, Karen's class Euler came and their speech is "The Congo". Here are a few shots.




Che's class Fermi gave the speech "Man with the Hoe".




Before 10pm, we planned on buying dinner for the two but with Trillanes' stupid adventurism (again!), there was horrendous traffic everywhere even at the SLEX, shops closed (even at SLT) because of the sudden curfew and there was nothing to buy.

We should've listened to Renz who was practically begging us to go home while we were engrossed with the nice presentations. At the introduction of judges segment which was only done prior to the 4th year level, Renz said "huwag na po natin silang kilalanin!"



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