mother nature

It was a beautiful afternoon for the beach, but Stuart wasn't feeling well and decided to stay home. So Audrey, Dung (my co-teacher), Ettie and Becky (the British teachers), and I headed off to Sam Son without him.

The beach was more crowded that I had seen before, full of umbrellas, kite sellers and people of all ages. We set up our spot randomly and I hung back to watch our stuff (a good excuse for 'fat girl syndrome'). I ended up moving twice as the tide came in, licking at our bags before I noticed its approach.

The others played while I read and a couple of hours passed fairly quickly before I noticed the sky darken a bit. Then I saw the sky behind us and the enormous cloud that looked more like something out of "Independence Day" than a natural formation. I checked the time and notice that Stuart had called. Three times.

Maternal instinct kicked in and I knew something was wrong, so I immediately called him. The phone rang and rang and rang, my panic increasing with each unanswered ring. Finally he picked up. "What's up, buddy?" I asked, but before he could answer I could hear the thunder behind him. He was caught in middle of a massive thunderstorm, alone.

I assured him we'd be home soon, piling our stuff together as we spoke. "Come back soon." The lifeguard had signaled with his red warning flag and whistle that everyone was to get out of the water. Now. As we put shoes on and began our sprint off the beach, it was impossible to ignore the sudden darkness and the ominous clouds that were covering us at breakneck speed.

I snapped one more photo and we headed for the taxi, but realized as we got closer that it was simply a white car, not a taxi after all. So here we stood in the pouring rain, wind whipping and not a taxi to be seen. In fact, the streets, sidewalk and beach had been instantaneously deserted. We tried to phone the taxi, but my mobile wouldn't work. So Dung did what one does here, I suppose, she started flagging down cars.

Maybe it was our sorry looking state, but the third car that came by took sympathy on us and we quickly piled in to his SUV (in Vietnam?). Come to find out, the driver is a friend of the University president. What luck! We drove home, watching with more than a little worry in my head and heart as the lightning bolts ran from as far up as we could see, all the way to the ground. Strike after strike, followed each time by the deep roar of thunder.

By the time we reached the campus, the worst of the storm was over, evidenced by the limbs strewn about and the enormous puddles we trudged through to get upstairs to our room, where Stuart sat, safe and sound, eating instant noodles and watching Spongebob on DVD.