So, it's been awhile since I have written, because I have been crazy busy. This has largely been to two baptism interviews in the last week, one of which I was observing and witnessing, the other I was leading. Despite being a wonderful thing, it is still a bit of a slog. Usually, they take about 4 hours, because of translation and because of the amount we discuss. It seems excessive, but there have been problems before so it was decided to be the best course of action. I made sure we had a lunch break inbetween!
Also, the adding of an extra lesson on two of my weekdays has bolstered my schedule. This is an English grammar lesson, which is still going ahead despite me warning my student that I may well speak English, but I don't know how, sometimes it just feels right and sometimes it feels wrong. So far we have been going through a workbook, I have been telling her what is right and wrong, she asks why and then we Google it.
As I am on the subject of language, my Khmer is coming along slowly. I have started to have lessons with Theung (you may remember her as the girl who was baptised recently) some evenings during the week. At the moment, we are learning the Khmer alphabet. There are 33 consonants and 23 vowels, yes 23! Some sound ridiculously similar and even though each Khmer will pronounce them slightly differently, no matter how many ways a 'bareng' says them it is wrong.
My 'Practical Cambodian Dictionary' impractically tells me the two vowels pictured are pronounced the same.
The difference between English and Khmer is that usually if I say how to pronounce a word, they can mimick and say it correctly, but with Khmer I am not usually putting my tongue in the correct place even if I think I am making the same sound. You have to say a word precisely otherwise you get a confused reaction, context sometimes helps but not usually. When you think about it, it's amazing how flexible English is. I suppose it has to be with so many different accents on a small island. Having said that, I had an interesting time trying to get a class to pronounce 'you fool', 'useful', and 'youthful'. Trying to explain 'figurative', 'metaphorical' and 'simile' is also a challenge!
In other news, Esther left this week. Sad times. For her last day, we went for, what we thought, was a hard days work of harvesting in Kampong Speu Province. Turned out the rice wasn't ready to cut so we ended up chilling for most of the time. Although, I did some traditional threshing, which is beating sheaves of rice against some wood to seperate the kernals from the stalks...for a total of about 10 minutes, much to the amusement of the locals and then got told to go and eat lunch which, I'm sure, was a polite way of saying 'you are more of a hinderance then a help'. We got to hang out with some of the Dormers families who live close together. We went to Samrach's house and Saory's house who live next door to each other and then Vitou's house which is a few doors down. Then onto Dy's house about 10k's away. Saory taught me how to drive the moto, so I drove to Dy's house along dirt roads which was great fun. The only trouble is each time a car or truck comes past you are almost blinded and choked by dust, helpfully Saory put his hands over my mouth each time whilst he buried his face in my shirt and I drove through squints! Next step is to attempt to drive amongst the PP traffic!
Whilst it was a good day, there were a few downsides. One of them was sitting in the back of a crowded tuk-tuk for a couple of hours, the other was trying to politely decline endless coconut. We'd all had enough by 9am so by the time we arrives at Dy's house at about 2, I decided to have a little sleepy and hope the coconut would be gone by the time I awoke. It worked, but I woke up a bit sweaty and dishevelled and one of the Khmer noticed so advised I could have a bath to which I gladly accepted. Turns out 'having a bath' means standing in the garden in a red chequered sarong and pouring water on myself! But once you get used to the situation and everyone has stopped giggling, it's enjoyable just watching the Khmer countryside and letting the sun dry you.
Upon our return to the BEC, we caught up with Dan, who got invited to go to Him and Channa's Province for the harvest and, to our amusement, found out that he had ended up doing a solid days work. Ha!
ឆ្áž„ាញ់ ('tasty' in Khmer script)
God bless,
Simon
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Jonno