Paper fall on me

One of my many Korean friends got into an accident last Mon.

R was working *cough*consultant-based*cough* in a paper cup manufacturing factory in a small Western suburb in Sydney owned by another Korean. Ernest and I always always have difficulty in communicating with him because of his severe English language inability. And you wonder how in the world he can stay in Sydney and hold a full-time job for the past 1 year we have known him.

Anyway, he hobbled into church in crutches yesterday and was trying to look brave despite the pain. I was immediately concerned and asked very quickly in English, 'Ohnowhathappened? Youok? Didyougotohospital? Tellmewhathappened!!!'

He looked very confused for a moment and started to explain in simple, sometimes non-syllable sounds with dramatic gestures:

'Paper....100kg...fall...BOOM!...leg...ARHHHH!.....hospital...eeee-ooooo, eee-oooo. This ok (indicating his bandaged leg)....next ah week.....pips (pips?! What's that?)
This leg ok (pointing to the injured left leg again)....this leg (pointing to his fine right leg) good! drive, play drums. [And the next 5 mins in Korean gibberish]'

What he wanting to say was it was God's blessing that the huge paper roll that was used to manufacture the paper cups fell on his left leg instead of his right because he could still drive his car and play the drums for the Sunday service. All he need was to use his right leg to hit the bass drum. And I found out later that by 'pips', he meant the plaster cast. Koreans call that 'pips' for some reason. He will be plaster casted next week because his leg/foot is seriously swollen at the moment and need to be reduce in size by half before the plaster can be casted.

Ken cha na!