The best one to date, and thus the one I will start this series with is how I went around for an entire year, being introduced to the most important people in the villages in the Raja Ampat archipelago, and greeting them as the "Village Coconut"!
You see, kelapa (coconut) and kepala (head) were easily interchanged in my brain, got mixed up early on, and took a long time to sort out! So the head of the village became...
"I'm so honoured to be here, Mr. Head Coconut"
"Pleased to meet you, Sir Village Coconut"...
What baffles me is, A) that no one ever let on that anything was amiss... no one cracked so much as a smile!? and B) that they let me go on saying that for AN ENTIRE YEAR without tactfully letting me know!?!
"Oh isn't that nice, little Johnny, so when you grow up you want to follow in your dad's footsteps and be the Village Coconut, too!?!"
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