Vietnam Day 47 (7/24/09)

Kendra and I were the first to get to the school today and we were surprised to find the next arrivals were from the house group. Apparently their contractor was sick today so everyone would be working at the school. I could tell from the start it was going to be too many people for the job - we barely even had enough room to park our bikes. There wasn't even much work left for the normal group to do, just some more scrubbing and then laying down a concrete path from the gate to the front door. I've learned from experience that more than two or three people mixing cement can actually reduce efficiency, so a lot of people were left to stand there "supervising."

There wasn't anything more we could have done today, so we left for lunch early and helped the moms set out the food (the carrots were heavenly, an adjective I never thought I'd use to describe a vegetable). Instead of going to the cafe for the break, I decided to stay at the moms' house a little longer and chill on the tiled patio. It's very relaxing there, so open and light. Loan and Hieu were singing next to me as chickens strutted past. I felt the stifling tropical heat penetrating my skin but the next moment a light breeze rolled by and I slipped back into total comfort. This feels like real Vietnamese life - friends are sprawled out around me, napping on the patio and in hammocks. The music has stopped now and I can hear the moms chattering back in the kitchen, the dull hum of motorbikes in the distance, squeaky bike wheels passing the house, and a very sporadic rooster crowing somewhere behind me. This may not be my home, but if I had to choose another this moment, this would be it.

Science class today was one of the first where I really felt effective in sparking the kids' interest in science. We had another space day where the students first learned the names (in both Vietnamese and English) and order of the planets and then marched outside to watch the bottle rocket demonstration. We were teaching the younger kids today and their reactions were priceless. When we took them outside for the demonstration, they formed two lines and the line in front squats down so the row behind can see (like stadium seating) but when the rocket went off many of the children in the front row jumped up in excitement. We set the rocket off four times and with each trial, the whole class counted down in unison, "nam, bon, ba, hai, mot, BOOM," repeating this chant in unison until they got it right. They were so excited that it made the whole teaching experience that much more worthwhile.

We finished before the older classes, so a bunch of us stayed and played outside with the little kids. They seemed to have boundless energy (which sadly I didn't possess to the same extent) - first we kicked around a soccerball, then gave piggy-back rides and raced (the kids made wonderful jockeys). Afterwards I felt tired and disgusting but pretty happy overall. Dinner this evening was extremely entertaining. Van Anh had placed an request for spaghetti, egg rolls, and french fries, a bit of East meets West. The spaghetti was very much like what we eat in America with the same noodles and meat sauce, although the chef added a little Vietnamese twist by throwing in a bit of chopped squid. What I preferred were the Asian noodles, clear rice noodles that we wrapped in lettuce with a small egg roll and dipped in fish sauce - delicious. The Western dish I was happy to see was the plate of french fries, which were actually pretty close to good ones at home (or maybe they just seemed better because I hadn't had any in a while).

After dinner, we made a little excursion to the convenience store around the corner. This place is great - it's a little hole in the wall that doesn't contain much but the things it does have include a magnificent hoard of packaged junk food with everything from Mentos to durian cakes. The women who run the shop are hilarious - they go into a tizzy when we get there, trying to use their limited English and getting overly-excited when we use Vietnamese. As we were walking back, we could have sworn we heard a duck quacking behind us but when we turned around there was only a motorbike. As it passed however, we heard the quacking again and looked to find a bag hanging on the bike's bars carrying two white ducks that were peering out. It's still pretty strange for us to see farm animals anywhere, let alone hanging from a motorbike.