Into TGL: Funniest Clips From Greenway School

I headed over to Greenway School in Samraong, Cambodia in order to film a cute video of our teaching and construction programs there. I had everything planned – I’d get an interview with the principal, scenes of the children learning English, our participants painting walls and writing on boards… you know, the usual.

What I didn’t realize at the time is how hard it would be to get ONE good scene in my mood board. The children found my camera amusing, as though they hadn’t seen one ever before. And my tripod? That one blew their minds away – they were baffled over the fact that you could compress it into half their body size and in a few seconds expand it into a *machine* much taller than them. The fact that such an object could undergo such a continuous change and that there was a girl with an object that could show them moving images with just a simple click spread across the school grounds. Every single day of mine was spent “battling” the crowds of amused Cambodian children.

After a few hours, I came to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t get scenes I wanted and I let myself enjoy the chaos – I had the time of my life! Who needs a video like that anyway when you can get something so much better?

Needless to say, I ended up with quite a few funny clips that I thought I’d share with you instead of letting them collect dust somewhere in the unorganized black hole that is my hard drive.

Disclaimer: These are not – in any way – meant to be good cinematography. These scenes are unedited and just aimed at making your day a bit brighter 🙂

 1. When you tripod produces fascination among the boys. (plus sweet greetings to you once I told them I was filming)

2. Apparently getting as close as physically possible to a camera is absolutely exhilarating.

3. Sweet kisses from the kindergarteners to y’all!

4. When you want to film a cute scene of the children learning but instead spot a bit of tension going on.

They were friends again by lunch time.

5. I waited half an hour outside the school, tripod and camera ready to get a shot of the kids leaving the school after class, but it didn’t go as planned. Gotta love that cheeky smile at the very end, though!

6. He caught me filming and thought it’d be funny to place a bottle cap on his eye (ok… I have to admit it. It was hilarious).

7. One of the numerous times I couldn’t film because they wanted to get ahold of the camera 😀

8. This one really cracked me up.

When they realized they could see themselves recorded in the camera, they found it amusing to play fight and then come running to see the match on screen. They must’ve done it about 10 different times before the teachers told them to get back to class (oops!)