How many Cambodians does it take to change an air filter ?

How many Cambodians does it take to change an air filter ?


Yesterday afternoon the air-con in my office stopped working, or to put it another way, it started screaming screeching banging and generally sounding like it was about to explode. Half an hour after it shuffled off this mortal coil, my boss wandered in, took one look at the large sweaty lump drowning in his own perspiration (that would be me) and asked, ‘’are you warm, shall I put the air-con on?’’ my response was somewhat vitriolic to say the least – it was 45°C yesterday. He then said he would get it fixed !

Today a small army of Khmer repairmen turned up and proceeded to dismantle the unit. 2 stood on a desk and removed the cover, another one stood on a chair and prodded the motor with a large screwdriver, another held the chair and 2 more looked on waiting to be handed things down from the others.

They were then handed the air filter, which they carried outside, one of the ones standing on the desk then went out to join them so the 3 of them then set about cleaning the large plastic mesh filter thingy with more screwdrivers, a bucket of brownish water and the odd poke with a finger.

Meanwhile back at the main unit, the guy standing on a chair was still tapping things with his large screwdriver and generally prodding bits of machinery.

Having determined by acoustic engineering that some thing was wrong with the motor he got down off his chair, wandered out to the rusty skip on wheels he would call lovingly his van and returned with another screwdriver and a hammer.

For the next part, let us just say that he removed the motor with the minimum loss of fingers and blood……….

He, and the remaining workmen, then joined the others out in the car-park to repair the damaged motor with that particular assortment of tools.

It was at this point that I decided that I should just resign myself to working in a sauna for the next couple of years.

With this thought on my mind, I thought it best to take an early, and long, lunch break.

Having returned from lunch, the workmen, the air filter and the motor were nowhere to be seen. My boss came to see me looking very sad. ‘’the air-con it is now dead. I think I will call a company that deals with air-con’’

What for ? To give it the last rites ??

But this tale does have a happy ending, first thing tomorrow morning (that is on a Khmer timescale) someone is coming to fit a brand new A/C unit in the office :-)

Well, maybe….