In View of Others: August 2008

Tobias looks over the supporters of HT.

This is my report on the 2008 Fund Raiser for Human Translation. It was a great event, but not without its own little drama.

We got there about 4:30, and the event was supposed to begin at 5. The day was beautiful, clear sky, not too hot. We were still some of the first people to get there. It was at Clos Pegase Winery, and I'm including some pictures here so that you’ll see what it looked like.

The vineyards at the winery.

They had set up the tables, and the event was to be sold out. It’s a beautiful setting with wine caves dug into the hill behind the winery.

Tables set for supporters.

Judith and I scouted out the caves, and found Megan (Blaire’s sister) getting ready for the opera concert, along with the three other singers. The caves are not what one might normally picture in one’s mind: They are like Hobbit Holes built into the hills, plastered in stucco and painted, with little alcoves containing Grecco-Roman sculptures, and then barrels mounted on skids that can be moved about with forklift trucks. They’re about 20 feet wide and 20 feet tall, and they have a wonderful echo effect.

The wine caves.

Megan and her friends were dressed in formal attire and they all looked beautiful. The stage was at one end of one of the farthest caves with a grand piano, and was jammed with folding chairs. I wished the singers good luck, and thanked them for their support. I told them about the staff back in Cambodia, and how I wished you could attend to see their performances. They said they were proud to be a part of the fund raiser for Human Translation because they knew that what HT was doing was making a real importance to the families and artists and children of Cambodia.

The performers.

As people started to come into the caves, there was a mounting sense of excitement. Such a magical place to hold a concert! People had dressed up for the occasion, and came in holding glasses of champaign – also donated to HT’s fund raiser. It’s hard to imagine how many people have contributed to this event. Volunteers, donors, and just old valley friends – many of whom I had not seen in years, and some who – though I knew them by sight – I had never met. As Judith and I were separately introduced, we individually thanked as many as we could. But there were so many. Some asked if we were proud of Tobias, and I said “Of course!” But I also said that HT team was what was really important, back in Cambodia and here in St. Helena.

Megan and supporter of HT.

And then I told them a little about what I had seen in our recent trip. It’s hard for them to imagine Siem Reap and Balangk – especially in the opulent setting of the winery.

A child back in Balangk, Cambodia

But they listened, intent, and some said they’d been attracted to the event by the newspaper articles that had recently appeared, and some said they had heard of the event through word of mouth.

The concert was packed.

The concert cave was soon crammed with the audience, and each concert piece was introduced by Robin Shay – the son of Susan Shay who is a key board member, and Megan Scheibal’s boyfriend. The four singers each had a couple of solos and then a couple of duets and then a couple of foursome pieces. One performer, Justin, sang “Old Man River” with such beauty that we were all transfixed. (And this comes from a non-opera buff!) The concert ran for about an hour, with one brief intermission. The volunteers literally came out of the woodwork, as they leaned forward between the barrel racks to listen from the wings. It was a wonderful concert, too wonderful to really describe. The group received standing ovations, and were called back for encores. Wow! You have no idea how impressive these HT supporters were by donating their talents with this concert. They had flown in from New York City, 3000 miles, just to perform at this concert, for free.

The encore.

After the concert the audience made its way back out through the caves to the courtyard where each person was pre-assigned a seat. The tables were laid out beautifully with sparkling wine glasses and red tablecloths and lots of bottles of wine. The sun was just starting to set, and the air was starting to cool down. Everyone seemed ecstatic about the concert, and then the food was served.

The dinner.

The food had been donated and prepared by the master chef, Ron Golden. It was lovely, came in multiple courses, and was served family style. As I was sitting there watching the food being served, I was reminded of Metsin (or was it Mitsen) and the little lunch we had under the tree on the mats with Somet and Tobias and Chai.

Lunch beside the water gate with Somet and Met Sin and grandchildren.

The contrast was right up front for me, and I told some of the people at the table about that experience

After people had gotten through most of their meal, Phil (another HT board member) stepped up to the lectern with a mic and introduced Dick Grace. Dick is a local philanthropist who has been instrumental mentoring Tobias in the development of HT over the last four years. He had never given any money to HT in the first years, waiting to see if Tobias was serious, but last year he donated generously, leading the rest of the auction in that successful event. So having Dick talk about HT was important to this group because it showed them that he was still very much a supporter.

Dick Grace

Dick then introduced Tobias, who was dressed in slacks (thank god he wasn’t wearing those jeans) and a simple blue shirt. Tobias thanked everyone for coming, and thanked them for last year’s contribution, and congratulated them on supporting the successful building of the reservoir.

The water gate and the reservoir construction, thanks to HT supporters.

He told them that without their support none of what had been accomplished would have been possible. Then he talked about what needed to be done now: The installation of water filters, and the development of the educational program. It was a short talk, and he said that he had prepared a film to give them an idea of what the projects had been about and what was needed still. So the lights were dimmed as the night grew dark, and the wide screen TVs lit up.

Tobias introduces the video.

And then the technical glitches started. Oh my gawd! How to describe them!

Technology run amok.

As a background, Tobias later told me that they had spent lots of money to hire a professional company to bring in the audio-video equipment. But the crew had messed up, bringing the wrong equipment and not enough wide screen tvs. As the concert was going on, they were still trying to get things to work, and had been forced to go from Plan A, to Plan B, and finally to Plan C before they had things working. Now they were on Plan C, which was a back-up DVD that Tobias had burned the same morning with the final revisions. But then the AV crew had left! They had gone off without doing a complete run-through. And now Tobias and his volunteers were forced to do it by themselves.

The video started out just fine, and then it started to skip, echoing out a terrible screech as the feedback kicked in. They halted the video, and started it again, and once again the system crashed. Poor Tobias. He’d been working daily on this video for the entire two or three weeks since he’d been home, working as long as 10 hours a day uploading, and cataloging, and editing the hundreds of hours of video he’d taken back at the project. He finally halted the video and tried to speak to the audience, to recover the moment. But then the microphone didn’t work either, so his voice was drowned out by the commotion within the audience. What a catastrophe. What a mess. He stumbled and fumbled and finally – as the microphone finally came back on line – turned the proceedings over to the auctioneer.

The people at the table where we sat were very understanding. They were sympathetic to Tobias’ plight. One said to tell him that the message had been received, even if the video hadn’t been seen. Judith was obviously sad as well.

I got up and found Tobias in the shadows, being hugged by Blaire. I gave him a big hug, and told him what others had said. “The message had been received. Everyone understood.”

But he was devastated, I could tell. He was looking back at the courtyard, where all those people had been assembled, where they had been waiting to understand a little more of the tremendous success that HT had accomplished …. People had flown in from all over the world to support Human Translation at this fund raiser, and here – after weeks of preparation – Tobias' set-piece film had failed.

But he swallowed his pride and said “I think we’re gonna be okay.” The auction had started, but the audience was a bit distracted. The first auction items had started to be bid, but there wasn’t much activity from the guests.

Then Dick Grace got up and spoke again. He reminded people briefly about why this event had been mounted. And he said that Tobias should try to show the video one more time.

There are times when one wonders how the universe is constructed, how its gears and cogs can sometimes slip and scrape and bring things to a halt. Or how a stray electron can short out a circuit board one moment and bring things to a raucous end. Sometimes I think that what happened to Cambodia in the 1970s was an incident like that: Things collapsing, and the wrong people taking over, and then terrible, chaotic things happening that spun out of control. People forced to escape carrying their kids, crossing rivers and mountains and suffering terrible losses to get somewhere safe.

And then there are times when somebody says, “Remember why we are here. Let’s try it again.” And I don’t understand why, in the midst of all that, suddenly the gears mesh or the electrons suddenly pop and behave themselves, and the wondrous universe starts to make sense again. For some reason, the thing that failed once, or twice, or three times adjusts itself, and begins to work properly, as if nothing had ever happened.

And that was what happened that night.

The video ran the third time without a hitch. People saw a bit of what I had seen: What HT was doing on the ground, tens of thousands of miles away, in a place not much different than where we were sitting now – in a rural place, surrounded by lush countryside, in small communities, peopled by individuals of good will. The construction of the water gate, the clearing of mines, the grassing of the embankment, the faces of the hundreds of people there, in Balangk, who were changing their lives with a little help from Human Translation. The video talked about why Tobias had come to Cambodia, and how he had become involved, and what the steps were that HT was taking to help. It was a good video. It was personal, and honest, and it was asking for more help from these people in this valley. And as it ended, everyone applauded – and I hope you heard that applause, even though you’re so far away.

This is the video that everyone finally saw:

The auction begins.

And so the auction began in earnest. There were quite a few items – trips to Paris or Maine, wine, lots of stuff. There’s something about a charity auction that is unique, in that people will bid well above the value of an item because they want to really support an organization. At the same time, they’ll bid more than they normally would give outright because they feel they want to get some value for their money. I don’t pretend to understand it, but that’s human psychology I guess.

But the real trick at a charity auction is to leverage that basic human dynamic to get more out of the audience. And the auctioneer HT had at this event was an expert. About half-way through the auction he stopped it and said “And now, ladies and gentleman, we come to the part that we’ve all been waiting for: A time to pledge support for Tobias and Human Translation’s project. We’ll start the pledges at 10 thousand dollars, and then lower them step by step until everyone has had a opportunity to pledge. So now, who will pledge 10 thousand dollars for Human Translation?” And Dick Grace raised his paddle.

The pledging of support for HT begins.

“And who will pledge nine thousand dollars” and two more people raised their paddles. “And five thousand dollars” and four or five more people raised their paddles. And so it went, four, then three, then two, then one, then five hundred, then three hundred, then two, then one. And when the pledging was over, in ten minutes, the auctioneer said “Give yourselves a hand. You’ve just pledged nearly 85 thousand dollars for Human Translation.”

And the people did applaud, and they applauded very loudly, and if they couldn’t hear them back in Siem Reap, I swear they must be deaf!

Tobias after the pledge drive.

The auction then continued for more than an hour, with things like a pasta making machine going for several thousand dollars, and on and on. You have no idea of the pandemonium that was taking place.

Happy supporter of HT.

It was crazy. Absolutely crazy. People were pouring wine and in tears. And when it was over, Tobias thanked everyone, and people left happy, if somewhat lighter in their wallets, and it was about ten o’clock at night, cold and clear, with stars shining down on this strange little valley where people seemed to have more money than common sense. Everyone was in good spirits, even Tobias, at how well HT had done.

Tom and Judith

Special thanks go to all the loyal board members of Human Translation, who brought this wonderful event to fruition. And to the hundreds of community members who donated time and resources and so much more. There are too many to mention. And to the Engineers Without Borders, who devoted so much time and energy in the design and the construction of the water gate. And of course to performers who donated their special talents for this occassion, for the benefit of the people of Cambodia.

If you want to learn more about Human Translation - and maybe even make a small donation - go the http://www.humantranslation.org .