Motorbikes, Mid-Autumn Festival, & Much, Much More

This week was incredible, and I'm finally at the point of really liking it here. I have met so many more people that speak English and are willing to help me out, show me around, and just hang out. Here's a little breakdown...

Motorbikes
I finally got the opportunity to ride on one of them! Motorbikes are a form of taxi, but we were told not to accept the drivers' offers. It seems kind of sketchy anyways. There are about four people that we see that work for ELI here and are our main contacts. They help us figure out out where we are supposed to go, how to get there, and answer any other questions we have. One of the girls drove me on her motorbike to the hospital I'll be volunteering at on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. It was a little scary, but pretty exhilarating as well.
Traffic here in general is absolutely nuts. Controlled intersections aren't always actually controlled, and people basically just drive in whatever direction and where ever they so desire. Since crosswalks are treated as merely arbitrary white lines on the street, I've learned that you dodge the taxis and trucks and the motorbikes dodge you. You have to just start crossing the street, despite the perpetual stampedes of motorbikes, gauge which bikes will go in front of you and behind you, and hope it all works out. Again, it's pretty humorous that the motorbike drivers (which is most of the population) bundle up when it's sunny here in the same way that Minnesotans do in October. Although it's breezy while driving, I still can't fathom wearing that much clothing in this heat and humidity.

Mid-Autumn Festival
...is a huge celebration for kids here, and it was my first afternoon at the hospital. Normally I will be playing with the kids that are staying there while receiving chemotherapy, which is what I did on Friday afternoon. However, since Wednesday night was the festival, Bob, the other Vietnamese volunteers, and I helped set up the auditorium for the big celebration the hospital was putting on. There was one girl, probably about six or seven, that looked at me funny, then smiled and said, "hello," right as Bob and I walked in. That seems to be the routine when little kids that may or may not have seen a Caucasian person before see us. She followed us into the auditorium where we began coloring little bunny ears for all the kids. The volunteer next to me struck up a conversation, which made the decorating more enjoyable. Long and Linh were the friendliest, and they spoke English really well. They are freshmen at an international university in which all their classes are in English, and they aren't allowed to speak anything other than English throughout the day. Linh taught me the colors in Vietnamese, so when I practiced at the orphanage the following morning, the kids were impressed. However, I still have a long way to go with my Vietnamese.

Since we had some time in between set-up and the start of the celebration, Long, Linh, and two other Vietnamese volunteers took Bob and I to "Pho 24," the fast food-ish chain that has the traditional Vietnamese noodle, pho. Although it is sold at little shops and carts all over, Long said that they definitely have a meatless option at Pho 24. When my pho arrived, Linh told me which vegetables, sprouts, and sauces to add. The people here love their food spicy, so hot sauce is a necessary addition. As I began eating the noodles with chopsticks with intermittent spoonfuls of the broth, Long interrupted and told me that you have to eat the noodles and broth together! He showed me that I had to hold my chopsticks in my right hand and the soup spoon in my left and take bites with both at the same time. I don't think I had realized before that dining experience that I'm definitely not ambidextrous when it comes to eating. I struggled with the spoon in my left hand, so my bites were far from graceful.
When we got back to the hospital, the auditorium was filled with families, lanterns, and other decorations. The clown that emceed the show was super animated, and the kids seemed to have the time of their lives. There were a couple dance performances, a singing performance by a famous singer here who also apparently got second in the Vietnamese "Dancing With the Stars," an appearance by the famous Moon Princess, a kids' fashion show, a dragon dance and more excitement. It was great to see the kids so happy despite their grim prognoses. At one point, the emcee had all the kids with September birthdays come up to the stage to make birthday wishes and blow out candles on cakes. When asked what he wished for, one of the kids said, "That cancer will be killed and everyone here will fully recover."
Long was nice enough to translate basically the whole show for me, but it was plenty audio-visually entertaining without knowing every word being said. When I thanked him for being my translator, he thanked me because he got to practice his English. All in all, it was an amazing night, and I was glad to have made a couple new Vietnamese friends :)


Much, Much More
The past few days at orphanage have been eventful, and I have developed strong relationships with these kids at this point. Wednesday, Phuong, who is four but looks like she's two, was in the best mood I had seen her in all week. Traci said that the nuns at the orphanage call her "Evil Baby" because she looks evil, but she's actually a sweetheart. The only sounds that come out of her mouth are cries, an occasional grunt, and an even more rare laugh. However, she couldn't stop smiling and laughing the other day, and consequently, I couldn't pull my self away from her. She can barely walk when someone holds her arms, and she crawls very minimally. I had fun, though, holding a ball, making her crawl to me, then running to the opposite end of the room and forcing her to crawl some more in order to get the ball. At one point, I was holding her up while I was laying on my back. Without planning on it, I realized I was working her stabilization muscles. As she stepped on my chest, it was as if my boobs were mini bosu balls which she had to stay balanced on.

One thing that is incredible to see with these kids is the affection and care they show towards each other. One girl's mother came to visit and brought her a little mooncake (a seasonal treat during the mid-autumn festival). After taking a couple bites, she ripped off piece after piece and shared it with everyone in the physical therapy room. Although they get into sporadic tiffs, the kids are usually supportive of one another. The other day Traci was dancing with one of the boys, and once everyone's attention was drawn to them, Phuong motioned to join in and just embraced the boy while he reciprocated. It's awesome to see them each play to their own strengths and help one another where weaknesses lie.

On Thursday, one of the nurses called me in the little procedure room to help with a sinus drain she and another nurse needed to perform on one of the kids with a lung disease. At first, I thought the kids that I was working with couldn't do a whole lot for themselves. However, I went upstairs for the first time and discovered a room of about 30 kids that were either sitting in high-chair-like chairs or lying on cots, just blankly staring at the white walls and ceiling, making an occasional grunt or moan while drooling onto their bibs. Three of them have this lung disease, which the nurse couldn't completely explain to me because she doesn't speak that much English, and I obviously don't speak that much Vietnamese. If you don't want to read about the details of the sinus drain, skip the next two paragraphs...

As I walked into the procedure room, the nurse told me to hold down the girl's arms and legs while she inserted a suction tube into her mouth. The other nurse, standing at the head of the bed, plugged one of the girls nostrils with one of her fingers, put the water-filled syringe into the other nostril, and began the rinse. Almost immediately, the girl began squirming and wailing. It was hard to keep her still as she tried with all her might to escape the discomfort. After about four 12-mL syringe-fulls of water, we turned the girl over, and the nurse hit her back like an exaggerated burping of a baby for a couple minutes. Then we would do it all again three or four more times. Although it was devastating to hear her cry and watch the tears fall down the side of her cheeks, the rinse actually went smoother when she screamed because the nurse could get the suction tube further in her mouth. All I could do to calm her was to stroke the back of her hands with her thumbs as I held her firmly in my grip.

Before I even stepped foot in the physical therapy room at the orphanage on Friday, the main nurse motioned me to get the same lung-diseased girl from upstairs. As I carried her in my arms, I tried to say calming things, although I knew she couldn't understand a single English word I said. Furthermore, it was clear that she knew what was coming, and she began to squirm in my arms. I placed her on the bed in the procedure room, and the nurse turned on the suction. However, the second nurse wasn't in the room. The main nurse put the full syringe in my hand and motioned me to go to the head of the bed. I had to do the rinse. It was emotionally painful knowing I was causing the poor girl so much physical discomfort. I didn't have a choice in the matter, though, so I continued to perform the rinse. After bringing her back upstairs, the nun up there motioned for me to take another kid down. I did the same thing with two other kids with the same lung disease. I thought it would get easier each time I pushed the fluid out of the syringe, but the last girl was not having it. As a result, she unintentionally sprayed my face and arms with the watery snot that would project out of her nose every time she coughed, hiccuped, or resisted in any way. I missed playing with the kids in physical therapy that day, but it was definitely a day I won't forget. You can imagine how good that mid-day shower felt.

In addition to pho, I also tried a couple other Vietnamese foods. I had a little piece of a banana-coconut mooncake the other day at the hospital. It was delicious even though I thought I didn't like coconut. I also tried my first dragon fruit, which definitely looks better than it tastes. It's about the size of a softball, only more of an oval than a circle. It's bright pink with green leaf-like projections that you peel to reveal the edible part inside, which is white speckled with black seeds. The consistency is like an airier honeydew, and it's way more bland than I expected. I still have to try durian, the fruit that smells rancid but apparently tastes wonderful. I don't know exactly how that can work out, but I guess I'll have to see for myself.

On Thursday, Dao, the main ELI person here, put me in contact with a woman named Thanh who works for UNESCO. She asked me, and I agreed, to teach English at a language school out in one of the provinces. The gig is teaching four 45-minute classes every other Thursday night. As teachers of every sort have experienced, stepping into a classroom for the first time is intimidating. However, the kids were so cute and well-behaved. The teachers were super welcoming as well, which made for a truly enjoyable experience. It was fun to hear them say "Miss Shira" after I introduced myself, and even more adorable to hear the English names that they introduced themselves as. I was given the workbooks for each class, so I just went through the activities in the book. When I was about to play the CD for the dialogue part in one of the classes, a few of the kids said, "No, we want you to read it!" In the last class, they took up the first 20 minutes or so asking me every question from where I'm from to if I have a boyfriend. The kids stand up when the teacher enters the room, yet in another sense, the classroom is run in a more informal manner than those in the US. It was about an hour drive to and from the school, but Tanh had a driver take me there and back. Moreover, I had such a great time even though the kids laughed at a lot of what I said and did. I'm pretty sure the giggles were more out of excitement from listening to a native English speaker than actually making fun of me. At least I hope that was the case...

Last night, Traci and I just walked around the Ben Tanh Market area and had dinner at one of the stands. They were more than willing to prepare a dish without meat for me, and I finally tried the local beer. Beer here is cheaper than juice or tea at about 80 cents! The city was filled with energy, and the park was filled with couples cuddling on motorbikes.

I've gained a higher level of comfort and confidence here, and I'm excited for the full weeks and weekends to come. This weekend I'm just relaxing; I've been finishing my PA application essays and putting this together at coffee shops all day. Tomorrow I might go to one or two of the museums with Bob. I'm going to pick-up ultimate tomorrow afternoon, and I can't wait to run around. Next weekend Traci and I are planning on going to the white, sandy beaches and sand dunes in Mui Ne, which we're pretty excited about. We're also planning on taking a three-day trip to Cambodia in the coming weeks.

It's great hearing from so many of you! Remember, I can't get onto facebook, but e-mail is definitely open (shira.klane@gmail.com). I'm halfway around the globe, so any gossip is pretty safe with me :)