soy milk fuels another random conversation

Yesterday I was unlocking my bike from the front of a shop when the guard started up a conversation. I wasn't in a rush (hardly ever am these days...) so we spent a few minutes chatting. The guard seemed keen to do some language practice so he was asking questions in English. I (being an equally oportunistic student) would answer in Khmer. Finally I gave in and asked him in English, "Where did you study English?" He grinned, "I study by myself for one hour every morning before work. I use a children's book."

I had just been working on some Second Grade exercises with a soy bean drink for company. I pulled it out to show him that I too use a kid's book to help me study. We kept chatting in more of a free-flow mixture of Khmer & English when he asked me, "Do you read the bible." I said, "Yes- do you?" The guard told me that he read it sometimes but found it difficult to understand. "Maybe after you finish studying Khmer," he said, "You can teach the bible in our language."

Teaching the bible in Khmer is about a thousand steps from my Second Grade workbook. However, I figured that it was such an unexpected request from someone I'd only just met that it must be worth considering.