Happy Teacher's Day

Today is Teacher's Day in Vietnam, a fact I was ignorant of until this morning. I woke up to several nice emails from my students in Thanh Hoa, wish me health and happiness. It was the perfect way to start my day. I'm so grateful for all the students and what they have taught me and I'm so glad that I have made some impact on them. That they haven't forgotten me or my love for them, makes me happy.

The kids and I are currently pondering ways that we can do more. It was an amazing experience to live in Vietnam and to feel like we were making some sort of difference. For me and Stuart, being here leaves us feeling a bit empty and lost. We're trying to figure out a way to do more without more money. Heck, I can't even pay my meager rent these days, I surely can't be handing out money. But, maybe there's something we can do. Any ideas?

mm, mm, good~

I've been madly depressed lately and can't quite seem to shake it. Until this afternoon when I decided to spend my last few dollars on Vietnamese food for lunch. I headed over to Fubonn, our Asian mall in Portland, picked up some spring roll wrapper, Choco Pie and some instant Chinese noodles. There happened to be a Vietnamese restaurant outside the grocery, so I checked out the menu. Typical fare: Cha gio, goi cuon, banh xeo, bun ba Hue, then, there it was.... Bún Chả Hà Nội!

I have looked for months for this lovely meal, first introduced to me by Keith on Hang Manh street in Ha Noi on my second night in the country. That restaurant made bun cha like it's supposed to be made, and try as I might I couldn't find anyone that even made it in a similar style (pork patties, noodles, veggies, nuoc mam). Until today.

May good luck fall upon the fine folks at Bánh Cuốn Tân Dịnh. The food was wonderful, service great. I asked about ché and sure enough, they have it on Sundays. Looking through the cooler, I queried each item until I heard "homemade yoghurt" at which time I squealed with delight and pulled out my cash. Oh, how I've yearned for VNese yoghurt. And here it was!

I am happy, so happy, with my belly full of bún chả and yoghurt.

Bánh Cuốn Tân Dịnh: 2850 SE 82nd Ave; Suite 11; Portland, Oregon

taxi ride

We returned to Thanh Hoa on Sunday night, smack in the middle of an incredible thunderstorm. It had been visible from the train and as we pulled into our local train station, it was clear that this was the epicenter. The rain poured down like someone had opened the floodgates and in the 20m (or so) dash to the taxi we got completely soaked. The taxi driver was kind and pulled out a warm towel for us to dry our arms and face off and turned on the air-con. The rain continued to pour and as we drove out toward the main streets, we could see that it had been raining for a while; the streets were flooding up from the gutter and over the curb.

As we drove toward the big Le Loi statue in the center of town, the driver took a right unexpectedly and I gave him the big "I'm confused. What are you doing?" look. He replied in Vietnamese, of course, and all I got out of it was nuoc (water) and mua (rain), so we did some pantomiming and figured out that the water was too high on the road for us to take it. But so was the next street and the next and a few more after that. He ended up pulling next to a bike that had stalled out to ask the woman if she knew the best way to Hong Duc (as least this is what we pieced together from the words Audrey could pick out). She pointed us further along the street we were on, so off we went.

Finally there was a road that wasn't flooded over, but as he turned he didn't see the concrete heap lying in the middle of the road. I did, but all I could do was make some gutteral yelps and it wasn't enough. We bumped into it. By this time, we're feeling a bit sorry for the chap, out here in the rain, having to drive all over town, banging up the car, etc.

We managed to wind our way around and suddenly I knew where we were again, heading straight up Le Lai toward the university. Stuart and I discussed the need for a tip for this guy, debating the numbers. As we got nearer, I used the easy-to-understand hand signals to show him how to get us around the back of the school where we could actually enter.

Our total was 41,000VND, about 10,000 more due to the circuitous route. We'd decided he deserved more than the 9,000VND tip that a 50,000VND bill would have left him, so I handed him a 100,000VND bill and waved off the change. He didn't quite understand, but with some more pointing between the meter, the money and him, he understood. The other almost 60,000VND was for him.

Forever I will prize the look of realization on his face. He was so happy he crossed cultural boundaries and gave me--clearly someone of the opposite sex--a big hug, then reached back to shake Stuart's hand. Then said the only thing in English we'd heard all night: "Thank you."

We all floated on a cushion of happiness for him for the next while and I'm still so happy I could help out. In the States, I'm so poor and can rarely help others out, even when I really want to. Usually I'm on the end of being helped and while I'm always grateful for the aid of others, it's so nice to be the one to offer it instead.

multicultural

One of the most astonishing things for us to learn here has been how isolated we are in America. It's rare when you hear someone speaking a language that is not your own. It's English, all day every day with nary an accent to be heard. Opportunities are scarce to meet Germans, Russians, Swedes, Thai or any other nationality, save Canadian and Mexican.

Then we compare that experience to Viet Nam where we have met people of those nationalities and many more. It's common to be in a room with three or more countries represented, often speaking the same language: English. It's a trippy experience for three novice travelers.

And then I look at the "visitor map" on my stats page and I see this; for some reason, it makes me terribly happy.
Even my blog is multicultural. Yea! Thanks everyone! I'm in awe that so many read it on a repeat basis. Could my life be that interesting? I can scarcely to get family to look at it but once a month and yet, there are all these other people keeping up with it all. Leaves me a little speechless (though not completely, as my classes would tell you--I can't seem to shut up most of the time!). Thanks. Really.

Cám ơn!

I am often awestruck by the generosity of others. When I express this amazement that people will so freely give money to help others, some will tell me how my children and I have been generous, as well. But I feel like volunteering my time and effort is so easy, so simple. I've never had enough money to donate much (though I've done what I could, when I could). I feel frustrated by my lack of helping financially, so I asked for help and you, my dear readers, have answered.

I set a goal of reaching $500 in donations before heading back down to Tam Ky and I'm quite happy to say that we are almost there. I'm incredibly grateful for all the gifts--the $5 contribution and the $200. Now that we are close to the goal, we've decided to come up with a shopping list. Audrey's started one, including hole-free blankets, diaper cream, jackets with zippers that work, new kitchen toys, etc. It's been fun thinking about all the things we can give them... thanks to your generosity. We'll also be giving cash to the volunteer coordinator to buy fruit for the orphans, every day for a month.

Our travel plans are to head to Ha Noi this weekend and celebrate my birthday by shopping for the orphans, then bringing the loot back to Thanh Hoa. We will head down to Tam Ky the next weekend. I'll have to take one day off; it's a 15-hour train ride each way so we can't possibly go down on Saturday and come back on Sunday.

I cannot wait to see the orphans again. I miss those kids so much, their laughs, singing and silly antics. The countdown is on and I'm so incredibly grateful for all your help. If you want to donate cash to the orphanage fund or donate items to the orphanage itself, please feel free to contact me [donateATteresaandkidsDOTcom]. You can also donate to Children of Vietnam, a US-based non-profit that helps kids twice a year in the central Viet Nam area, including the Tam Ky orphans.