Vietnam Day 60 (8/7/09)

Today was our last full day in Ben Tre and what a day of food it was. We started the morning with a handover ceremony at the newly built house. The house was so much bigger than I’d ever expected. It was still only one story of course and only three rooms, but the rooms were big with a high vaulted ceiling. Before eating, there were the usual speeches of thanks, but some were more touching than at the road handover, because this project was so much more personal to the family living there. The father of the house spoke of no longer being afraid of wind or rain now that the structure was strong and the mother simply said thank you, her eyes filling with tears as she received our gift (a tea set, bowls, chopsticks, and a clock). The house owner’s brother made a less than diplomatic speech that I found surprising given people’s usual attitude towards the Vietnamese government. The family we built the house for doesn’t have a good “family history” (that is, no relative died fighting Americans during the war), so they don’t normally receive government aid. We’d hoped the People’s Committee would still agree to pay for half the project like they would have if the poor family had a good history – apparently they didn’t since this man expressed his hope that in the future all parties could work together and People’s Committee would help. It was a bold statement to make with a whole table of People’s Committee members sitting next to him. They certainly weren’t pleased, but I admired the man for his unflinching criticism.

After the speeches, the feast came out. Unlike our meal yesterday, every meal here looked delicious – there was curry with taro, lean cuts of beef and pork served with rice noodles, and spring rolls with shrimp and veggies. People kept trying to push the plate of whole prawns on us because it was the most expensive, but I was too busy stuffing my face with the other dishes already on the table. It was positively heavenly. After dinner I got a chance to get to know the family a little better. Two of the older daughters speak superb English and we talked a while about life in Vietnam from our different perspectives. The daughter I got to know the best however was the five-year-old, a gorgeous little girl with pigtails who I played peek-a-boo with for a very long time. I almost couldn’t eat because she kept hugging me from behind as I was sitting. She’s grab my chair and we ‘d rock back and forth as she giggled wildly. Honestly I don’t know how the house group got any work done with this adorable creature running around. I didn’t meet the other daughter, but I witnessed a very touching moment between her and Molly – she walked up to Molly speaking Vietnamese and suddenly her face screwed up as she started bawling, clutching Molly in a fervent embrace. The Vietnamese means of showing gratitude is to give food, but I think her tears were the best thanks I’ve seen yet.

We spent a long time on photoshoots. The whole group took pictures with the family and then the contractors from both the house and school sites went a little crazy with the camera. My usual contractor from the toilet project had shown up a bit earlier and none of us recognized him at first glance. He’d shaved, combed his hair, and was wearing a mimic-Lacoste polo (which amused me to no end). He started the camera craze with his Vogue-like pose by the window then he and all the other contractors wanted pictures with each of us individually. They made us promise repeatedly to send the photos – they don’t have much access to cameras around here so this must be something of a novelty for them. Before leaving, Kendra and I went back to see the “monkey bridge,” nothing more than two sticks no wider than my arm stretched across a creek. The owner of the house proudly claims that his is the only proper monkey bridge in Dinh Thuy because it has a bamboo rail, which was much appreciated as Kendra and I carefully crossed to the other side. Before we went across, someone from the kitchen had shouted in Vietnamese, “be careful, don’t break your heads” and I’m happy to say we made it across with no complications. We said our final goodbyes to the family and the contractor, who got particularly choked up saying to the girls that we were like sisters to him, shaking our hands and patting our faces repeatedly.

We had a couple of hours until it was time for the final closing ceremony so we decided to wait at the cafe. However, it proved to be quite a trial getting there. Hieu’s and my bikes had been gifted to the family so we didn’t exactly have enough to go around. What you must first understand is that the majority of the bikes are old and breaking down – now imagine trying to ride two people on one of these monstrosities. Firstly, I should mention that some of the boys were once again drunk on hospitality so they weren’t exactly coordinated. We played a complicated game of musical bikes, trying to double up so that the drunk people could ride on the back of the limited number of bikes (a difficult task since most of the drunk boys were bigger than the girls). After we’d finally arranged all that, we still didn’t have enough bikes so I ended up riding with Kendra. Kendra turned out to be excellent at riding with an extra person and we had a pretty functional bike so I was pretty pleased with how things turned out. Eventually we all made it safely to the coffee shop (some of us more lucid than others).

We thought we’d said our final goodbyes to the contractor, but soon after we arrived he showed up and came over to sit with us. Alyce translated as he told us again that we were like family and thanked us for coming here to help. He said he didn’t have the proper words to thank us so instead he showed his gratitude by buying us a dozen coconuts, which he had the cafe owner cut open so we could drink the coconut water. It was way too much liquid for us to handle, but he was beaming as he handed us the glasses so we drank up. As if that wasn’t enough, he then went across the street and came back with Double Mint chewing gum, a hilariously random gift – he was doing anything and everything he could think of to thank us. We felt bad that he was spending so much money on us when we have so much already, but his efforts were touching. While we were still at the cafe, we were also joined by the construction manager from the house site, who was much less endearing than my contractor from the school. This guy was actually kind of creepy (and probably still drunk). He kept staring intensely at Kendra, speaking to her as if she understood Vietnamese fluently. He then made her promise to host him in the U.S. and taught her how to say, “I love you very much and will come back to Vietnam.” At last it was time for the closing ceremony so we said a second round of final goodbyes to the contractor.

The closing ceremony was at the People’s Committee Hall, which was filled with the usual upbeat, patriotic music we’ve come to expect at government functions. There were many speeches I didn’t understand and certificates given out for who knows what. Then Alyce came over and said one of us was supposed to make the next speech. No on else was volunteering and I’d made a spur of the moment speech in the beginning so I figured I might as well do this one too. I thanked them for welcoming us and making us part of the family, then said we hoped we’d made as much of a difference in their lives as they have in ours, closing with “we will remember you all with the fondest memories, camon.” It was a speech that should have been given to the kids and locals who worked with on our projects, but the People’s Committee seemed to enjoy it just fine in their place. At the bottom of the steps outside we saw the contractor again, really for the last time – he’d just come by to give us coconut candy, because the coconuts and gum weren’t enough already (we’d tried to convince him earlier not to buy the candy, using the excuse that we couldn’t get it through customs, but I guess he didn’t believe us after all). After the ceremony was finished, the People’s Committee invited us next door for yet more food. This turned out to be another full meal, in which I once again ate mostly curry.

We set off on our last bike ride from Dinh Thuy to MoCay. We slowed down to look at the sights one last time, watching the little river boats drift down the peaceful river with the setting sun reflecting off the water. We were still stuffed when we got back so we pushed dinner to eight. We appropriately ended the day with a lot of food: fries and fried rice for dinner followed by an exorbitant amount of grapefruit, sweetsoup, water coconut, and durian flavored coconut candy for dessert. It’s funny, when I first came to Vietnam I was losing weight, but I have no doubt today alone will send me home heavier than when I left.