Ok it happened. He finally hit me up for money.

He contacted me about a month ago, seemingly in a panic because his "phone no good", and he wanted $216 usd. Ever since I succumbed to letting him have my Facebook back in December, I knew this would happen eventually. I'd basically allocated him about $100 for him as a going away present. So I offered to pay for half of it, figuring he could probably hit up some other barang for the rest.

I'm in no way angry with the poor wretched bastard. But still, I felt disappointed, perhaps because I'd kind of vaguely hoped I could buy him a term of English lessons with it (if I could persuade him to take them). That seems much more meaningful than just buying him a new toy. Though to be fair, a smartphone would be an extremely valuable and important tool if you're a money boy, which would explain to why he seemed to be in a panic.

Knowing his smartphone was a Samsung, and that those things are pretty robust, I suggested, via Google Translate that it could be fixed. Next thing I know, he stopped asking me for the money, and returned to just messaging me emoji hugs and kisses. Go figure.

Two weeks later, he hit me up for money again. This time, the gist seemed to be that he'd somehow got a plot of land somewhere (plausible, I know he grew up on a farm). He needed money for fertilizer, and wanted me to "invest" $300 over three months. He swore he'd pay me back, plus interest. Again, because I can't afford to adopt any Cambodians, I offered to give him $100 as a one off. No need to repay it. He began said OK.

After that, my plan was to put his Messenger profile permanently on mute, and never look at it again.

I kept asking him, both in English and via Google Translate, how do I send the send the money? He just kept replying "ACLEDA Bank Plc", occasionally adding his phone number.

I know from Google that ACLEDA is a Cambodian bank. But that doesn't tell me how to send the money. I told him he needs an account number. I can't just wire money to a bank without specifying who it's for, can I? This is very difficult to get across via the very shaky Google translations, so I have no idea if he understood. But he just relief "Yes. Yes."

Go figure.

That was about a week ago, haven't heard from him since. Could it be that the process of getting a bank account was too complicated for him, so he just gave up on getting money out of me? Or maybe something has been lost in translation? I might never know.

I have thought about asking him, but I think it could be dangerous to give him the impression that I actually want to give him money - possibly because part of me does. There's a school in Siem Reap that provides flexible, part time, beginner English lessons for air $100 per term. Maybe, if it is the case that he just can't get it together enough to open a bank account, I could persuade him to take English lessons.