Vietnam Day 56 (8/3/09)

5:10 my alarm went off and I had little motivation to get out of bed because I knew all that was waiting for me was a 3K. Still, it's a good cause and I really do want to push myself to run the whole thing - after all, it's not even two miles right? We started out at the Youth Union hall where we were greeted by very patriotic music. However, there were very few people there to hear it. There were less than ten kids there, making our hundred and fifty numbered t-shirts seem even more excessive than it did last night when we were putting the numbers on them. While we waited for more participants to show up, I walked over to the chain-link fence to watch the volleyball game going on in the courtyard next door. It wasn't a serious game, just a small group of people (mostly senior citizens) playing with a huge orange bouncy ball. It looked like a lot of fun so when they motioned me over to play, I grabbed Molly and Kendra and we joined the game. Kendra went on the side that had been winning before and used her superior height to help increase their lead while Molly and I mostly helped keep our team's score low, though I must say we were making some impressive hits there at the end.

When enough runners had arrived, Van Anh blew her plastic green whistle and called us back over to start the opening ceremony. Hieu was MC (no surprise there) and cheerfully greeted everyone in Vietnamese. We then handed out the free shirts to the contestants, most of whom were younger than me - the shirt was way too big for some of them, especially Thien (an adorable little boy that Molly may stow in her suitcase when we head back) who had a difficult time trying to tuck the tent-like shirt into his pants (it was absolutely adorable). The whole group then marched through the market, even more conspicuous with the tall yellow pennants some of us were carrying - somehow I got stuck carrying one of these flags, which almost turned disastrous when I nearly smacked into a low-hanging powerline with the pole. When we reached the starting line, we were pleasantly surprised to find even more yellow-shirted runners waiting for us (among them mother number nine who I couldn't believe was running at all).

We were delayed for a minute while a procession of vans and cars passed (an unusual sight in Mo Cay), the last one adorned with flowers and bearing a bride dressed in a traditional red audoi and disk-shaped hat. Once everyone was set, Alex blew the start whistle and all the kids took off at a sprint. I and the other DukeEngage students running in the back so we wouldn't be trampled by tiny feet. The kids of course couldn't keep up that pace so we soon caught up to them, though I got left behind by the other Americans in the process because I'm really out of shape and couldn't quite handle the tropical Vietnamese sun. Instead I set my own pace and took my time (occasionally taking some shaky photos along the way). About halfway through, I heard someone calling my name. I looked behind me to see Linh (the thirteen year-old girl in the class with the younger kids) with Yen (Ha's sister) on the back of her bike pulling up alongside me. They proceeded to ride next to me for the rest of the way. For the first stretch together, Yen held my hand and then Linh took over (riding one-handed). It was absolutely adorable and they kept me smiling and laughing the whole time (probably a good thing because there were cameras and cheering onlookers standing on the sidelines the whole way). The last quarter-mile was really hard for me - I was exhausted and on the verge of collapsing, but I refused to give up. At long last I saw Hieu up ahead waving a yellow pennant at the finish line - I wouldn't call it a sprint but I definitely sped up at the end and finally finished.

I was so excited, I couldn't (and still can't) believe I ran the whole way when I came into this expecting I would walk part of it. I was really proud of myself for pushing through the heat and humidity and coming out with my weak muscles still in tact. A lot of people finished ahead of me, but I took some comfort in the fact that a lot of those were younger kids who'd hitched rides on motorbikes most of the way. I might have done well, but Phil and Alex did even better - they finished sixth and ninth respectively, just behind a bunch of scrawny teenage boys who looked like a high school track team, the first place winner completing the entire race in only nine minutes, barefooted no less. For being in the top ten, each runner received ten notebooks, a gift that only seemed appropriate for the little kids so Phil and Alex gave theirs to our students. There were also five students (including Nhi and Thien) who were presented with scholarships and school uniforms. We were really confused why only these five received the scholarships since there were supposed to be almost eighty students getting them. Alice explained that these were the only ones who could come today since the rest were probably busy working in the fields (a rather sad thought) and would come by later to get their scholarships. Their absence was far more effective than their presence in driving home the purpose of this event. When we finished up at the closing ceremony, everyone felt ready to go back to the hotel, eat lunch, and take a long nap - that is until we realized it was only eight o'clock in the morning.

I couldn't believe how much of the day was left - it really goes to show you how much you can accomplish in a day if you get up at the crack of dawn. Since it was still so early, it seemed like a waste to just go right back to sleep. Instead, we accepted an invitation from one of the older school girls to go fishing.We went down a dirt path to her uncle's house and collected our own fishing supplies. A young boy of about twelve stirred up the earth with a machete while My, Phat, and I dug around in the dirt , pulling out tiny worms and placing them in an empty yogurt cup (a lot of them were miniscule so it was always really exciting to find a fat juicy one). I then made my own fishing pole out of a stalk of bamboo. Holding the stalk upright in front of me, I whacked off the leaves with swift downward swipes of the machete. After the bamboo was smoothed out, we tied strings and hooks to the end and walked a few feet to a little stream, which was even smaller than usual because it was low tide. We were fishing for tiny mudskippers, little fish with bug-eyes that hang out in the mud on the shore. To fish these little guys out, you cast your line into the mud on the edge of the water waiting for the fish to scuttle over to the bait. That's the easy part - the difficult part is getting them into the bucket. Apparently, these are more expensive in the market than other fish because they're really hard to catch. These fish are too smart for my own good - as soon as I have them in the air moving toward the bucket, they open their mouths and flop back to the ground. A couple of the bigger ones are even smarter than that and just take little nibbles off the worm without grabbing on. As a result, the only catch to my name was mostly to Ming's credit - I lured teh fish up to my line then Ming lunged at it with the bucket, scooping up a huge chunk of mud with the fish, but it was still a success. No one caught many, but Van did the best catching two minnows and a mudfish. We certainly didn't have much in comparison to the family's full bucket of mudskippers, but I think we did pretty well for our first time.