The Bad Guys and The Good Guys

I suppose that there is an alcoholic in everyone's life at some point. The one in mine is a Khmer teacher who will be henceforth referred to as "Kroo SoPiup." There are two different modes in which I usually see this guy. In the morning, he hangs out with me and the other teachers as we wait beneath the trees for morning assembly to be over. He is bleary eyed, and is usually sucking down his first "Luxury" cigarette of the day. He is about my height and sports a black adolescent mustache, but to say he looks unhealthy is a gross understatement. He claims he is twenty nine, but just by looking at his face I would have to put his age at forty something. When morning assembly is over, Kroo SoPiup marches off to class with the rest of us. I usually do not see him until after lunch, and this is when he is just staggeringly drunk. This is the usual conversation I have with him at this hour.

"Kroo SoPiup! Are you drunk?"
"No...I...just drank (hic!) six cans of beer."
"You drank six cans of beer over lunch? How are you still standing?"
"I am...(hic!) very strong! (Laughs) [Cultural note: Cambodians have a formidable connection between drinking large amounts of alcohol and strength]
"How the hell are you going to get through your next class?"
"Maybe I will not teach today...maybe I will go to sleep."
"Kroo SoPiup! If you keep this up you're going to collapse when you're forty!)
"N0! I am too strong to die." (Joey Ramone said the same thing. He died in 2001)

The worst is when he gets a hold of this toy air gun (it is not a real air gun, just a wooden thing with some tubing designed to make a popping noise) that someone brought back from Thailand. He starts strutting around school with it, shouting at people, and singing. You have to remember that he is not dangerous, just extremely annoying.

I keep wanting to find a picture of a diseased liver so I can point out to him everything that he is doing to himself, but I know that would just make him laugh.

Yet, he is not a disgrace as some would call it. He is more like the town fool or the office drunk; someone who makes you laugh and makes you feel less bad about your own vices because theirs are far worse.

In contrast to this guy, my favorite teacher at the school is Kroo Nak. This is a guy who represents the best future of Cambodia. Organized, stern, honest, and productive, he works in the office as an administrator. And I am pretty sure that the schools runs solely because he cares about his work, he does not drink to excess, and because he has a wife and kids.

With the two forces of Kroo Nak and Kroo Sopiup working against each other, I am more than confident that Kroo Nak will triumph and will one day remake the school in his image. At least I hope.