Vietnam Day 51 (7/28/09)

There wasn't a whole lot of work again today after we mixed the first batch of cement. Still, I got a little variety when I was asked to paint the doors for the toilet. We're using this Duke blue paint that is made with gasoline (which the ten-year old Nhi purchased for us) and gives off noxious fumes that can theoretically make you high if you breathe in too much. I avoided that by wearing a carpenter's mask and breathing through my mouth but every time I accidentally took a whiff I started gagging. It was a bit awkward to paint the doors propped up against the front gate because more photographers and reporters showed up again today. I don't know how there can be this many publications in a town this small but there seems to be an endless supply of photographers taking artsy shots of us painting.

Now that I'm done painting, there's nothing to do again for a while as we wait for the contractor to finish laying bricks so we can cement the outside. It feels like we have a long way to go because we still need to put in the actual toilets and pipes, the doors, and the roof and I'm not sure how long all of that will take. The school group on the other hand just finished and will be starting work on a small road tomorrow. I do feel a sense of accomplishment with the school being done - I wasn't technically on the team but I ended up coming around so many times to help when there was nothing to do with the toilet, so I think I contributed something. I just hope the toilet doesn't take too much longer because it will be quite lonely here after the school group leaves.

We didn't have time to do the cement siding so I left with the school group to check out the road I will soon be joining them on (with any luck). It was just off the road we usually take to the school except this one is even more curvy and narrow. I only just got used to the other road and now we're stepping up the difficulty level again. The road we're building is currently a dirt path and we'll be laying cement over the top of it. We walked down the path to scope it out, but it just kept going. At every turn I expected it to end but it never did. Finally we reached the bridge that marked the end. The workers who will be helping us were already there starting to lay concrete. They were all very nice but they were skeptical at first as to whether we were capable of mixing the concrete, but Loan assured them that we'd done it before. The people whose house lies next to the road was so considerate - when they heard we were coming they made us way too much of a delicious cake that's a Ben Tre specialty. It's not so much a cake as a pile of leaves (unique to the region) that have been battered in dough and boiled and are served with warm coconut milk (which is thick and sweet like cream). It was very good but we had to go to lunch at the moms' house right after so all five of us together only finished about one out of three plates of the cake. Hopefully they weren't offended because it really was a nice gesture.

We tried just relaxing again at the house during our break but the kids wasted no time in finding us so we just went to the cafe so we could at least get our caffeine fix. And did we ever - after our coffees we all felt rejuvenated. As Molly said, it's like a drug, and a necessary one to since class was a little rough today. The experiment was certainly interesting enough (Khang made a paper bowl, then put water in it and held it over a flame and the paper neither disintegrated nor burned) but a lot of the kids were being "naughty" and we were struggling to stretch the classes out for the full time. It was worse in the second class because the students from the first had already spoiled the surprise and told them about the experiment. As a result, they were bored and even more unruly. I find it difficult to discipline kids here not only because of the language barrier but also because I can't always tell what behavior is and isn't acceptable in a different culture. Still, we made it through (though we had to let the second class out a little early) and spent some time afterwards playing with them outside.