Changes

I quit volunteering at Hanoi Children's Palace this week. Can't say I'm going to miss it. I just couldn't take the lack of organization and the unaddressed behavior problems any more. And when I found out that they hadn't been paying for the food and housing that they were supposed to be covering for me, I decided that I could better spend my volunteer hours somewhere else. Though I will miss some of the kids.

I won't miss trying to teach with this outside the door.

Seriously. I took that standing in front of the classroom door. Yeeesh.

I picked up a class at a language center that's M-F at 8:00 AM. I'm not really enjoying the early alarm clock, but it's a good place and it'll help cover expenses until I can find a few more hours. Once I do I'll be able to spend more time volunteering at Blue Dragon Children's Foundation.

So it was kind of a weird week and I was glad to get to the weekend. And, today I got to ride all over Hanoi with my new friend Ambassador Iroquois Dandelion (not her real name) on our Honda Super Cubs and check out some art galleries.

One place had a photo...

...that reminded me of one I took in Florida a while back.

Though, I went a little crazy with the negative space in mine.

Some of the best stuff was at a gallery where they didn't want people taking pics, but I didn't have that problem at Hanoi Future Art, where I saw this neon sign...
...and made friends with Pip. Whose facebook page was one of the pieces in the exhibit.
We ended our tour by hanging out at a neighborhood bar and trying to solve the world's problems. Her parents are both die hard Communists and their lives were profoundly affected by the American War. We both admitted to feeling some impact from the war on our own lives, even a generation later. Over the past couple of months I keep thinking about the fact that good and noble, self sacrificing people, with pure hearts and the best of intentions, can do horrible things. And I, as a person of faith, can fit that into my worldview. It's a big, hard, ugly truth to wrestle with, and I'm not quite sure how to do it.

But just the fact that the two of us could spend a day together, checking out art galleries and hanging out tells me that even when the wounds of war are deep enough to affect the next generation, there is hope for healing.

Museum of Ethnology

Today, I was treated to a trip to the Museum of Ethnology by a student of my house mate Paul. Ha, and her friend, (also named Ha), showed up at 10:00. Ha, Ha, Paul, and I hopped on a couple of motorbikes, and we fought our way through the crazy Hanoi traffic to the museum that chronicles the history of the 54 distinct indigenous peoples of Vietnam.

The Vietnamese are a fairly slight people in general, especially by my super-sized American standards, but I guess they used to be even smaller. Apparently, they lived in these tiny houses...

And fished from these tiny boats...They were probably around 1 or 2 inches tall. But of course, they use centimeters here, so that's just a rough estimate.

The most formal people of Vietnam are the White Thai people.
The White Thai have a reputation for being a little snobbish, but very, very dapper - especially when donning their traditional top hats and tails.

You may recall from earlier blog entries that they tend to load up motorbikes and bicycles like pack mules here. They really have a talent for it. It's about half art and half sport. This bicycle loaded with baskets was so well stacked that it actually made it into the museum.
(If there are any young children in the room, you may want to cover their eyes for this next part.)

As we walked the grounds we came upon some sort of statue orgy.This one noticed me staring and looked like he wanted to beat me up, or worse. So we moved on pretty quickly. It was a little shocking and uncomfortable.I was also shocked that there were so many things in the museum that you could handle as you walked around. There were full sized stilt houses on the grounds that you could walk through, and displays with artifacts lying out in the open.
Someone's getting an ancient artifact for Christmas...

Motorbike Shopping/Playoffs

I'm looking for a different teaching gig for the evenings, checking out apartments, and meeting people that I want to hang out with. The time has come that I need more than a bicycle, so I started looking at used motorbikes. The first one that I checked out was this...

It's a Minsk. A 125cc, 2-stroke, Soviet made, kick starting, black smoke spewing, little monster. I loved it right away. But I didn't get it. This city is thick with smog already, and this bike gets about the same mileage as my BMW in the States, even though it's about 1/5 the engine size and half the weight. And because it's a 2-stroke, you have to pour oil into the tank each time you get gas, to be burned off as the engine runs. It just seemed like a little more fuel cost, hassle, and environmental damage than necessary.

So I got this...It's a vintage Honda Super Cub. A 50cc "step through". It's taking a little bit of getting used to for me. It's not a regular motorcycle, but it's not an automatic scooter either. It's a 3-speed, and you change gears without a clutch. From neutral, they're all down. You can come to a stop in any gear and leave it running and the engine will just idle. Very weird for me, but it's the way 95% percent of the bikes around here are built.

Even though it's been repainted this nice royal blue, all the locals think it's ugly. To westerners, it looks cool and retro, to Vietnamese people it looks like a pinto. This is the Hyundai motorbikes. (But, if you drove a Hyundai here, you'd be some kind of big shot. Go figure.) There are still a bunch of them on the streets, Honda has actually cranked out over 60 million Cubs since they started making them a half-century ago. But now Vietnamese folks are into newer bikes that have paint jobs taken directly from the spandex pants of 80's hair band lead guitarists, and pseudo-futuristic designs with way too much plastic. Bikes that I would be a little embarrassed to ride. It's funny how culture affects something like this.


In addition to being pretty, it gets great mileage. Unfortunately, like a lot of things here, it makes me look like a giant. It's just fast enough that so I've been able to evade all the pitchfork and torch wielding villagers who fear that I might swallow their pigs and children. And probably the best feature is that it's a nice Cubby blue. Just in time for the playoffs. I found a matching helmet that's made in the USA, with a flag sticker and all. It's nice to see the home country exporting something in this day and age. And it's probably the best commercially available helmet in the country.
I took the cubs sticker from my laptop and turned it into a batting helmet. With the way they're playing, they could call me up at any time.I've been getting up at 4:30 or 6:00 or whatever ridiculous time to watch the Cubs play on ESPN Star, which is carried by VTV here. But the schedule on the website is a mess. Yesterday it said that they were showing 2 American League games live. I don't know how they were planning to do that when there was only one American League game being played. The games start on the hour, but the network has them scheduled for the half-hour. The schedule is for Vietnam, but seems to be on Bejing time...

I know I'm really only complaining because the Cubs aren't winning. I even started watching the White Sox in the hopes of seeing a Chicago win, but that just made it worse. But I'm pretty sure the Cubs will win the next three and go on to win the Series. Yeah. Pretty sure...

Snake Village

Thanks to some friends, I finally got a chance to get out of town for a little while on Sunday. I was ready to go check out a new church, the same one I didn't go to last week, when my housemate, Paul, asked if I wanted to go to Snake Village. Well, of course I want to go to Snake Village - whatever that is.

We met up with Paul's friend from work, Ben, his room mate, and one of his students. This was our ride for the day...
Snake Village turned out to not really be a village, so much as a part of town on the other side of the Red River that has restaurants that specialize in snake. This guy helped us pick out a nice cobra.
They weigh it, then they slit it open and pour it's blood into a beaker with vodka.
The bile from the liver is also squirted into a bottle of vodka to make a refreshing green aperitif.
After that it seemed like the snake dishes just kept coming. There was snake soup, fried snake meat, snake organs with star fruit, snake skin fried like pork rinds, snake bones mixed with seeds and served on crispy flat bread, more snake soup... It was really amazing. I was very surprised not to see the snake's head again.A good time was had by all.Someone ordered french fries for me. After my seafood diner experience, I was more than happy with my fries and a coke.Now, when you eat snake like this, it's customary for someone to swallow the snake's heart. While it's still beating...

Paul gave it a try...

And he did manage to get it in...

He tried again, but never actually swallowed it. He swears that he's really going to do it next time.

And then we all went for a little ride around the countryside. I even got a new hat, and Paul took care of everything as a late birthday present. He may not be much for swallowing snake hearts, but he's a really nice guy.

Trees

You hear all over the place that Vietnam's economy is rapidly growing. People here seem very interested in working hard and getting ahead. Some people work two or three jobs. And, even some of the trees here have jobs.

This one has a gig as a shrine of some sort...
This tree earns its keep by helping out with the laundry.
This one has a full-time job as a barber shop. There are actually quite a few of these. I hesitate to get my hair cut at one of them, because I can clearly see that they have no means of sanitation. I don't want to get lice, or something from a razor that's been dragged across a few hundred faces and carried a little DNA from each one. But there's something so Winnie the Pooh about it that it's kind of tempting.
And this one is probably the most successful of all. It has an interest in this Bun Cha stand. It's wired with an electrical outlet so that it can keep the customers cool with that fan you see there, and it moonlights as a photography studio backdrop. What a work ethic!

Random Observations

- A lot of the toilets are made so that you stand with your feet on either side of the bowl and squat. I haven't had the pleasure of using one yet. Should be a treat.


- I just realized yesterday that there are none of those stupid chirping nextel walkie-talkies in Hanoi. That alone makes moving here worth consideration.

- This country is full of beautiful women... beautiful women that I can't talk to.

- I've learned to love bats and lizards. Every night they come out and start eating the mosquitoes that would otherwise give me malaria, or ebola, or the croup or whatever, and I say, "Go get 'em little guys!"


- The ice cream here sucks. Granted, I haven't eaten it all yet, but so far - bleh.

- The coke is great. Real sugar instead of corn syrup. Delicious.

- The coke floats? They're ok.


- You know why Asian people are thin? Because they don't eat so damn much.

- In the US, little kids have shoes that light up with flashing red lights. Here, they have something similar, but instead of flashing lights they squeek like little dog toys with each step. If you put a jack russell terrier in the right preschool playground, you might actual get to watch its brain melt and dribble out its ears.

- But, there aren't any crazy, annoying, wound-up little dogs here. There are little dogs, but they are all very mellow and sweet. I guess they know that there is a direct correlation between how annoying they are and how tasty they look. (Actually, I think the people make a distinction between pet dogs and edible dogs, but I'm not sure how that works.)

-The Vietnamese wear helmets when riding motorbikes, but I see someone crash about once a week, and none of them manage to keep their helmets on. In fact, I've seen them fly off in the wind.

- We have the idea in the west that capitalism means freedom, and communism means the opposite. True, you don't get to vote for your leaders here unless you're a party member, and the government can spy on you (Actually, since Bush that's true in the US too.) but you can smoke a Cuban cigar in a bar, you can skateboard in the park (Go ahead, do a sick kick-flip. Comrade Lenin doesn't mind!)...


...and you can eat french fries with chopsticks.


And you can do this...

Ist Day of School

The first day of school is kind of a big thing in the US, but in Vietnam, the first day of school is a HUGE FREAKIN' DEAL! The school that's situated right behind the building I live in has been practicing their first day of school performances for weeks. I wake up every morning to either a drum squad or some kind of singing and/or marching. They do this at schools all over the city and country, along with hanging banners and building stages and setting up sound systems.

I was invited to be one of the guests for an opening ceremony at a brand new school in a district just west of me. It was at 7:00 AM, and I almost begged off, but I was glad I didn't. There was singing and dancing and drumming and marching and speeches... I was actually told that they wanted me to give a speech just after I arrived. They had written something for me. Then I was told that they had forgotten to bring it and I should make something up. The teacher who invited me had to leave a little early, so I was handed over to another teacher who would be my interpreter. Here's a little clip of the show...

Ok. So the kinds look a little bored in this clip. But for the most part they were pretty excited. I was sitting and watching and making a couple of comments to my new interpreter/friend and writing my speech in my head while I waited. But, it turns out we went a little long. And I got bumped by the local supermarket chain that donated a bunch of supplies and scholarships for kids that needed it. The poor kids were paraded onto the stage and each given a sack of supplies. More speeches, a final musical number, and there was nothing left but to wait for the reviews.

I was actually a little disappointed that I didn't get to give my little speech. Even though I'd only been told about it a couple of hours earlier. But then we visited one of the classrooms and the kids practiced saying hello, and asking me how old I was, and then they all wanted to have their pictures taken with me.

Yesterday was the opening ceremony at the kindergarten where I teach a couple of days a week. It was a much smaller production, but just as much fun. Here are the ten little Indians about to go on in their meticulously true-to-period traditional construction paper skirts...
I had been helping work on the big ABC number for a couple of weeks. Here's a shot of that...

Unfortunately, the timing was all off and let's face it, some of these kids don't take direction well. I didn't want to say anything in front of the parents, but little heads will roll when I get back on Tuesday. Oh yes they will...

And last night I was invited to dinner by the schools director along with all of the other teachers. Now, as a general rule, I don't eat meat of any kind. But, I hadn't told them I was a vegetarian because I wouldn't want them to make any special arrangements for me and there is almost always something I can eat even if it's just a bowl of rice. But it turns out that there was no rice and the only non-meat items were french fries and some sort of vegetable that I don't know. So I never would have gotten away with just eating the garnish. Also, you don't really just order or take what you want. The stuff sort of gets portioned out. On top of it all, I'm like a toddler in this situation and I had to have someone show me how to eat this stuff. For example, when you get a great big prawn, you eat it's head but not it's legs. Oh heaven's no. That would be gross.

So I had 2 kinds of muscles (I think), something that was deep fried (which was the easiest thing to eat because even deep fried hair would probably taste ok), a few big shrimp faces...

The final course was eel. It was served dead and sliced from head to tail like a loaf of bread. You put it in the boiling water, and 5 minutes later, out comes bowls full of eely goodness.
They also served what looks to me like some kind of packing material, and it all gets washed down with red bull. This was the first time I actually enjoyed the taste of red bull. So today I feel like I've got a sack of wet cement in my gut.

Now, all that said, I'm still not going to turn down any dinner invitations. It's not like this stuff is going to kill me (I hope) and these people went out of their way to make sure that I was included in what was for them a special, delicious dinner. It's so easy to feel like an outsider when you're new in town and you don't speak the language and don't know what's going on half the time. And a lot of time I feel like I'm just there to fulfill some requirement, like a contractor or something - not really part of the operation. But this meal was for staff. It was for the people who are really part of the school, and even though I've been there less than a month they decided that that included me. They served me a 5 or 6 course meal and probably would have chewed it for me if I needed it. So my stomach is feeling a little taxed, but it did my heart good.