Today I had been asked by Pastor Kakada to speak at a church seminar. I picked up Heng, who has been working for Mark and Jo in their admin office this year, to be translator and headed 8km or so north.
Things very often are not what they seem in Cambodia. The seminar was actually ... as far as I can make out ... the AGM of the church with a couple of teaching slots dropped in. There is more tomorrow, so perhaps the 46-page Khmer AGM report was just part of this morning's program.
Anyway, I did my teaching and Heng had a few 'say that again please ... what was that again??' moments but went pretty well over-all. We sit down and he turns to me and says 'I am scared stiff'. I then discover that this is Heng's first sortee into the world of translation. Poor bloke - I gave him heaps of stick ... told him that I had no idea Cambodians could be scared 'stiff' - thought that only happened to Aussies ...
Heng (left), Pastor Kakada (right) over the lunch table.
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