Vietnam Day 38 (7/15/09)

I woke up today with the terrifying knowledge that I'd have to get back on the bike for the first time since my wipeout yesterday (yes I know, I still can't believe I'm afraid of a bicycle). I got a reprieve however because my bike was still at the school being fixed so I was "forced" to ride with Van Anh. We made it to the school without incident, though I've noticed a trend where I and anyone towing me are always the last to arrive (guess I'm heavier than I thought). I went straight around the bakc to check on our tin structure (we propped up a couple sheets of metal like a roof to protect the hole against rain), which was still standing (shocking given the storm yesterday) though it only helped so much as the hole had still turned entirely to mud.

Nevertheless, a little mud was not about to stop me from jumping in and digging. It was a little more difficult at first but that was primarily because my feet felt so heavy in the mud. The mud was like clay and I could hardly see any of my boots beneath all the mud caked up on them. I soon followed the locals, taking off my shoes entirely. It was a little more dangerous using shovels with bare feet, but we were careful. I found a great system for leveraging the shovel with only my upper body, which took a little more effort but I didn't have to press on it with my foot. the other Americans were eventually convinced to take off their shoes as well, though I think they were still nervous about the "burrowing maggots" we'd been warned of before coming (the way I see it, if they're going to get you, it will happen so why waste time worrying about it). By the time we finished the hole, we'd dug so far down that we were standing ankle deep in river water and we'd apparently made the perimeter about a meter longer than necessary - now that's commitment. We then moved on to trying to flatten out the dirt (well now mud) path we'd made from the door to the toilet using the dirt from the hole.

Alex, Kendra, and Wen had all come out to help because, after having almost no volunteers in the beginning, the toilet project has turned out to be the most popular. We also had help from the three little local girls we teach in the afternoon, Nhi (the same girl who's been helping us the past couple days) and her friends Ha and Yen. They helped us move bags of dirt from the hole to the path like yesterday (although Yen, dressed in a frilly white polk-a-dot outfit and pink pearls, daintily moved one grapefruit-sized chunk of mud at a time so she wouldn't get dirty) and alter started to help us flatten the path with our feet. They were a big help at first, but suddenly became a huge distraction by starting a mud fight. It started with them wiping mud on our feet and dashing away laughing as we did it back to them. It eventually escalated to them rubbing mud all over our arms and legs until we'd developed a second skin of slightly crusty mud. When they were finally tired of playing, they took me over to a bucket of river water to wash my hands and arms. We'd been told before coming that along with the burrowing maggots, the water here can "make you itchy" (for some unknown, no doubt disgusting reason), so we were all reluctant to wash up. However, the girls kept pressuring me so I decided to go for it then rinse off a little with bottled water afterwards. Apparently it gained me some brownie points with the girls who went over to Kendra and Alex and called them lazy for not washing their hands.

Before we could start building the foundation for the toilet, we had to wait for the tide to go down so we could get rid of all the water in the hole. In the meantime, a shipment of building supplies came in. The little wooden river boat just pulled up alongside the school and the men on board started rapidly unloading piles of bricks, cement sand and gravel all around our hole. The local men helping us build wouldn't let any of us except Wen mix the cement (which was rather annoying of them), but they did let me shovel gravel, which was pretty hard work (I mean this only in the most positive sense). We're not supposed to help at all on the actual brick laying portion of the foundation. They don't want us to hurt ourselves or lay the bricks crooked (in which case they'd have to rebuild it) - essentially the don't trust us, especially the girls. One of them said that if he had a daughter he wouldn't let her do the Green Summer Campaign because it's too hard. I rather resented this chauvinist attitude (a common one in Vietnam I'm afraid). I may be small but I was strong enough to dig out chunks of dirt just as big as the ones the guys were shoveling out - I can hack it. I understand for right now he's laying the foundation, which I want him to do so we can make sure the base of the building is perfect, but I watched him lay the bricks and I feel like we could manage it. Tomorrow I'm just going to have to assert myself and jump in there no matter what crack they may make about girls. When there was nothing more to do, we played with some adorable puppies at the little cafe next door and then helped the school group apply crappy primer that was mostly water and just made the walls look dirty when it went on (applied with brushes made from straw). It was fun in its own way, but I still hold that the toilet is the most fun.

Since my bike was fixed and waiting at the school, I had no choice but to ride it back on my own. The ride was fine, though I was still swerving a lot but the point is I made it safely to lunch. When I got there I went behind the mother's house to rinse off my legs since they were covered in mud. One of the daughters in law helped by pouring water from a bowl onto my legs while I scrubbed dried mud off until I was presentable. That afternoon at the cafe, Nhi and a bunch of other kids showed up. They were all completely adorable, tickle-attacking me, Molly, and Kendra (a little more dangerous in Kendra's case since she was tilting precariously in a hammock), then all gathering around us as they took turns writing their names and drawing pictures in Kendra's journal.

We were scheduled to teach two science classes today with the younger kids from the first day. We started off again with the Mentos and soda demonstration but with mixed results. We'd bought a Vietnamese brand of soda instead of the Seven-up like last time (because it was cheaper), but when we did the experiment, the soda bubbled over but didn't shoot up like like it's meant to because the Vietnamese soda wasn't carbonated enough. For the next class Ming ran across the street to get Seven-up so we had a much more impressive demonstration. In both classes, we hit a wall with the science lesson because once Van Anh explained her kaleidoscope assignment we had nothing else to teach so Kendra and I started teaching them new English songs like "Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes." It was a little embarrassing but they liked it and it was definitely fun. We also taught some conversational English, going around asking "how are you?" I find it really hard to approach the kids because I don't know Vietnamese, not to mention I feel bad for singling them out to speak in front of the class since I always hated that when I was little.

I was one of the last people out when we were leaving the school and through some horrible mix up, I was left to get back to the hotel by myself. For a few minutes, I was freaking out. I was pretty confident in my ability to figure out the way back on my own, but I'm still the worst bike rider in the group. The mental picture of myself sprawled out on the side of the road, tangled in the twisted metal of my bike spokes was not an appealing one. I tried calling everyone in the group up ahead of me, but no one picked up so I had no choice but to carry on the best I could. I must say I did very well and even had the energy to stop in the market on the way to get one of those amazing bananas in sticky rice that I had the other day. I considered it my reward for getting back without dying.