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28 Mar 2002

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Who was it said that we all have five minutes of fame? We've just had ours, in a modest sort of way. Once again we have been on Cambodian television as a kind of "extra" in the publicity videos put out by the army. Fortunately we missed seeing the transmissions and can only guess how bad we must have looked. This week saw the end of the four month course at Army HQ, so there was a closing ceremony to mark the occasion. Having known for so long when the course would end, you might have thought it possible to organise the ceremony and let everyone know in advance, but we were only told the day before. Since we had lessons scheduled at Preak Eng only one of us could go and I drew the short straw - Ming got to teach. Thankfully the speeches, mostly in Khmer, only lasted for half an hour or so, and then it was the turn of our students and myself to be presented with certificates by the Head of the Army. Videos whirred and shutters clicked. When it was all over I grabbed the chance to say an informal thank you to the students, who also gave us their own presents - I bet that bit wasn't on the TV.