My teacher was famous
for saying that. I heard about it before I studied with him. Then it turned out he did say it a lot in class so we all joked about it
while we were in
I remember seeing a
friend lug his laptop to a café in Phnom Penh years ago. I suggested to the visiting Australian that
he might like to just go to an internet cafe and use a computer there. It was
cheaper and easier. No need to carry
your computer in crazy traffic and you only pay a few cents per half hour instead
of having to buy a café drink.
A couple of years
later I went to Australia and noticed many people use the internet on their own
laptops, and they are used to it. His decision had seemed strange to me while
in Cambodia, but when I saw the context he was used to being in it made perfect
sense.
If I, an Aussie get
confused about what’s happening in Australia these days it feels like there is
even a bigger gap for people who live in Australia and want to know what’s
happening in Cambodia. Sometimes there’s moments when I realize people reading
our newsletters are missing so much context but it’s great that they can pray
anyway.
And then it’s quite
overwhelming to think how this applies to me not understanding the Cambodian
context that I live in. And then another huge jump to think about the gap
between Cambodians who have never been to Australia and how they would see me
and all the weird things I do.
