Weekend of 10-10-10

Orphanage
After a rough start to the week last week, I've had a fun-filled five days. Last Wednesday, a group of about 30 or so Singaporean university freshman came to the orphanage. It was overwhelming at first to have so many people around, and it was hard to keep the kids focused on PT, but it's always great having visitors. Between letting the kids use their cameras and lending them some accessories, there was a bit of spoiling going on. I talked to a few of the students and teachers for a while and learned a little bit about Singapore. This particular group had come to Vietnam on a two week service trip in which they helped build houses in a northern province, and they were visiting the orphanage before heading home the following morning. One of the teachers was telling me that Singapore is primarily made up of Chinese, Indian, and Malay people. Apparently, there have been a lot of Europeans and Australians making the move there lately, though. When I asked one of the teachers, who was originally from Indonesia, if visiting Singapore would be a worthwhile trip to make, she shrugged her shoulders and basically said, "Eh, it's just another big city." Nevertheless, the demographic make-up seems interesting, especially as compared to the fairly homogeneous Vietnamese population. The school also donated a few padded helmets, clothes, and some treats to the kids. In addition to using them as boxing gear, the helmets will be great for the boys who tend to hit their head on the tile floors and walls pretty often like Thuan and Thai.

I only had to do a few sinus rinses at the end of last week, so I wasn't as emotionally drained as when I do the rinses the entire time I spend at the orphanage. Although I'm getting a little more used to it every time, it almost gets worse for the kids. It's hard to see the fear in their eyes and hear them start to cry when they see me coming towards them to bring them downstairs. One girl throws up every time we do it, and another got a bloody nose on Thursday. I don't really see an improvement on a daily basis, but hopefully it's doing good in the long term.

Teaching
On Thursday, Vi, one of the girls who works for ELI (the organization I'm here through), gave me a short Vietnamese lesson, which was fun. Hopefully I'll learn a few phrases every week and be able to actually have a conversation in Vietnamese by the time I leave.

That evening, I went to go teach at the language school in a province, which I'll do every other Thursday and an occasional Saturday. I absolutely love it! I had lesson plans for all four 45-min periods I was scheduled to teach, but I only taught out of the books for two of the classes. The other two were so excited to have an "English language foreigner" in the class that their questions took up the whole periods. My last class was the more advanced level with just seven students ranging from 14-20. As a result of the high level of English proficiency and small class size, we ended up basically having a big conversation. They were asking me questions about life in the US, and I asked them about their lives as well. They were so curious about what I think of Vietnam, and similarities between Vietnamese and American culture.

Everyone here, regardless of age, when asked "How are you?" responds with, "I'm fine, thanks." While that's an adequate response, it seemed a bit awkward to hear that response from one of my classes of enthusiastic 11 and 12-year olds jumping out of their seats. I tried to explain to them that if they have that much energy, they should instead respond with, "I'm great, thanks!" After I exited, re-entered, and greeted the class again and again, they finally understood what I was getting at by my fourth entrance.

A family friend of Traci's came to visit a few weeks ago, and brought with him tons and tons of silly bands. Traci told her mom to send a few packs for the orphanage, but she sent far more than necessary for the kids at Thien Phuoc. Traci generously gave me a few packs to me to bring to the school. I gave each kid either a classic Disney character, Disney princess, or Disney fairy at the end of every class, and they were extremely appreciative but a little puzz. I told them that everyone has them in the US- kids and adults alike- so the teachers, of course, had to have them, too. I'm not quite sure if the younger kids understood my explanation of trading, but I'm sure they'll figure it out.

Hospital
I had a blast at the hospital last week. On Wednesday, we spent the whole time making designs on either square, circle, hexagon, or heart-shaped plates with beads and then ironing them. Does anyone know if there is actually a name for that activity? I thoroughly enjoyed doing ones myself, and it was a good activity to do with the kids wthout the need to talk all that much. Hopefully I'll pick up more Vietnamese words every week so I can communicate with them better. On Friday we just colored, and a few of the kids had fun doing a photo-shoot with my camera (right). The kids there are absolutely gorgeous; it's hard to believe that something so ugly is going through their blood. I can't help but flirt profusely with one of the adorable boys that has been there for the past couple weeks (left).

Night Out!
A fairly eclectic group of us went to dinner on Friday and then out to a couple bars. It was Bob's last night in HCMC, and I had talked to Ellen (the teacher from Wisconsin) about going out, too, so it ended up being Traci, Bob, Ellen, Ellen's "friend" Brian, the fifth grade teacher at Ellen's school, her boyfriend, and me. Although Ellen was the binding thread between us all, she managed to show up about a half an hour after everyone else. While we were waiting at BBQ Garden, we inevitably began asking each other where we were from, what we were doing here, etc. Brian is a pilot who is on a two-year contract with Vietnam Airlines. I kind of felt like I was having dinner with a celebrity because he showed a striking resemblance in personality and demeanor, in addition to his profession, to The Bachelor, Jake Pavelka. Unlike Jake, though, he grew up in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, about an hour from Milwaukee. When I told him I have family in Chicago, went to school in Madison, and am from Minneapolis, he proceeded to tell me his parents grew up in Minneapolis. His grandma still lives on 11th Ave off of Highway 7 in Hopkins! The dinner itself was cool, too, because it was interactive, which Traci and I love. They brought out skewers of raw meat, seafood, and vegetables, and we cooked them on two small, circular grills in the middle of our table.

After dinner, we headed to the Acoustic Cafe where a cover band played a bunch of Bon Jovi, Jewel, and other random American music. We met up with Kuong, the Australian-English-speaking guy from the frisbee club, who brought us to another bar, Apocalypse Now, after a while. It was filled with foreigners, but there were a lot of locals there as well. Ironically, we ran into Tibor, the Hungarian guy who plays frisbee, and his two friends who came to Vung Tao with us the weekend before! We danced up a storm and had a ton of fun throughout the night.

Can Gio Island
Traci and I got up bright and early Saturday morning to head to Can Gio, or better known as Monkey Island. We went with a tour group of about 15 people, including an older couple from Australia, a Korean-American couple from San Francisco, a few Cambodian guys, and a Korean couple. On the way to the ferry boat, we stopped for some sugarcane juice. It's cool how they push the sugar cane through a roller to extract the juice. I like a few sips of it, but it's too concentrated and sweet to enjoy a whole glass. I had never taken a ferry before, and it was funny to watch the bus, other cars, motorbikes, and people all just pile onto the boat.

Since it was raining, we ate lunch and chilled at a resort before seeing the army base and monkeys. It was incredible to see the army base in the middle of a swamp, basically. We were driven there by motorboat, and every structure was made of rickety branches strung together by whatever plants were strong enough to do the job. I believe the tour guide said about 860-something out of 10,000 soldiers died there throughout the "American War" from crocodiles and malaria alone. Living and fighting in such conditions must have been horrendous, and I can't imagine doing it for so many years either. Their fresh water source was rain, it was probably just as buggy, hot, and muggy, as it was on Saturday, and the water under them was inhabited by crocodiles.

Finally, we got to see the monkeys, and we were able to feed them, too. It was clear that they were used to humans walking through their terrain because they would just run past us or jump over us without really taking notice. When we would hold our food-filled palms open for them, they would timidly approach, making sure they weren't competing against the king monkey. Then, they would use both hands to grab the pieces as fast as possible. They seemed friendly, but our guide told us that they won't cause any harm unless we closed our fists and withdrew the food. Not surprisingly, the mothers were super protective over their young as well. There were a bunch in trees throughout the island, which looked like a real-life version of the book, Caps for Sale. We made our way to the river with crocodiles just chilling, and our tour guide fed them a snake-like fish. He dangled it over the water, and at first it was as if the crocs didn't care. All of a sudden, though, a croc would quickly splash out of the water and get its snack.

After the two hour drive back to HCMC, Traci and I were exhausted and decided to make it an early night. It's great having internet at our house now, so we don't have to go to a coffee shop every time we want to go online.

Reunification/Independence/Norodom Palace
We all like to believe that the US has learned its fair share of lessons from the Vietnam War. However, after hearing the anti-gay remarks made by a candidate for governor and seeing the Nazi uniforms worn and reenactments carried out by a House candidate, I think that tolerance has yet to be learned, internalized, and actively practiced by many Americans, including the people we elect to run our government. War is brutal, yet childhood bullying is as well. Not agreeing with the way others live their lives is one thing, but public condemnation certainly should not be coming from potential congresspeople and governors. Kids have taken their own lives because leaders of this country and actual laws have told them that they didn't have a place in society because the way they were living their lives was wrong. I learned so much at the Reunification Palace about the "War of American Agression," and it's hard to ignore the correlation between the anti-communist sentiments and unnecessary meddling in others' business that fueled that war and some of the rhetoric that is being espoused by many of the Tea Party and other political candidates, as well as circulating throughout the general public, today.

It felt eerie to stand on the roof of the palace, imagining the Liberation (North) tanks plowing through the gates, as illustrated in pictures throughout the museum, preceding President Minh's surrender in 1975. It's clear to see causes A, B, and C for a war or historical event and the corresponding results X, Y, and Z, in hindsight. Why, then, are we so reluctant to see the parallels between current events and cause B, for example, from historical event #5? I'm not saying that a war like the Vietnam War/American War is brewing. We do, however, need to evaluate the values and ideas that are permeating through American society and actively decide who we want making decisions in Washington in order to minimize the practice of intolerance and maximize the exercise of tolerance. In other words, do your research and place an educated vote!

Despite my mixed emotions, I was still able to admire the beauty of the artwork and furniture in the palace and appreciate the preserved integrity of the maps, radios, and other objects from the past. Furthermore, it was interesting to learn about how and why the name of the palace has changed.

The rain greeted us as we exited the palace, but we stuck to our original plan of doing a little souvenir shopping at the big Ben Tanh Market a few blocks away. We sat down at a "restaurant" (plastic tables and chairs under a tent) outside the market for a traditional Vietnamese dinner, and I finally tried Ben Xao (ben say-oh). Traci's family calls it a yellow pancake because it's kind of a mix between an omelette and a crepe. I was excited to try it because it's one of the few things that usually comes vegetarian. Another one of those anomalies is an order of salad rolls, which consist of vegetables and noodles wrapped in rice paper and accompanied by various dipping sauces. Yum!

On our bus ride home, we saw the immediate effects of the downpour: intersections were flooded, water was spilling into shops, and the water level came upto mid-calves of those on motorbikes. As a result, the bus driver took a detour. A guy sitting behind us noticed our puzzled looks and tone, so he asked us where we were going and kindly translated it to the bus tender. We actually got off at the same stop, so in the manner of most English-speaking Vietnamese people we encounter, he asked us what we were doing here. We talked for a bit and exchanged numbers. He is studying finance and business at an international university and was super excited to be able to converse with native English speakers. After we exchanged the classic, "Ok, bye...see you later...we'll be in touch," he flamboyantly squeaked out, "I love English!" right before we parted ways. I turned to Traci and laughed as we came home to end a jam-packed weekend in and around HCMC.

If you're looking for more reading material to occupy your time through your lectures, workday, or free time, here's the link to my roommate, Traci's blog: http://lilmisssaigon.tumblr.com/