Milos the MOLO

They say a picture paints a thousand words, well in this case that’s so true. Particularly, when you know the background. It was one of those occasions when a guy with a camera was in the right place at the right time and clicked at the perfect moment.

This guy is a Serbian military officer, his name is Milos Kolundzic and he was a military liaison officer stationed at Camp General Stefanic in Famagusta, Cyprus. His English was excellent and he was very proud of it. He was always looking to extend his vocabulary and every day he would come to me with a new word he was after learning. The longer the word and the more complicated it was, the more he liked it.

He would regularly come up to me and ask me if it was ok to say this or if his pronunciation was right or if he was using the word in the right context. He always wanted to improve.

The day this photo was taken we were on an operation in the Buffer Zone. This is an area separating the southern side of Cyprus and the mostly Turkish populated area of northern Cyprus. It is a neutral area that runs from the east of the island to the west and is controlled by military and police components under the auspices of the United Nations.

At some point during the day Milos approached a group of us and he made a statement in English and asked me if it was ok. It was total gibberish so I corrected him and advised how to say it properly. He decided that I was wrong because he had read it in a book and he was convinced that he was right. Some of the other guys were telling him to listen to the native speaker and take the advice offered. It was all good humoured slagging.

Milos was so certain of himself that he sent his driver to get his text book and to bring it to him. When the driver returned he called me with a triumphant air while he thumbed through the pages to find the particular phrase he was looking for. He started to read out loud and then he went quiet. All I heard was “Shit”.

The photograph was taken by the driver at the exact moment he realised that he was wrong. There were others standing around that are not in the photograph and everyone was in hysterics. For me this photograph just makes me laugh every time I see it. I’m not sure if this will mean anything to anyone else and maybe it’s one of those things that you just had to be there to appreciate. But I love it.