Christmas can be weird here too.

The newspaper article quoted below is about Ho Chi Minh City, but it's similar in Hanoi - if you take out the religious part because about the only thing you see up here are lights, trees and Santas. It's kind of depressing.

The festivities climax on Christmas Eve, when it seems that half the city's 9 million residents take to the streets for something akin to a holiday rave. Churches overflow for midnight Mass while Vietnamese outside drink beer and spray each other with fake snow. It can take two hours to travel a few miles in District One as everything comes to a virtual standstill.

"Vietnamese want to integrate the country with the international society," said Che Huyen Bao Vy, wearing reindeer antlers and angel wings at a holiday display outside another shopping center in District One. The 21-year-old college student, along with two other reindeer angels, stood next to a blue Santa.

"I don't practice the religion, but I enjoy the Western culture a lot," she said. "Christmas Day, the Christmas spirit, is happy. It's a Christmas-spirit thing."

from "Vietnam Catches the Christmas Spirit."

100 Things

This really has nothing to do with teaching EFL but the prospect of moving to a new house, combined with a recent newspaper article, got me thinking again about living simply. Ever since reading Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger more than 30 years ago, the idea of living simply has really appealed to me. That's not to say I didn't poke at the iTouch at Best Buy this summer or spend time online to find out if you can read a Kindle in the dark (you can't). But, it has made me think more about my stewardship of the other 90%. As my family tires of hearing me say, "You can only spend it once." Living simply allows me the freedom (or maybe it's the pleasure) of deciding the best way to spend it. I like that.

Chasing links from the newspaper article, I found a 2-year-old Time magazine item about people trying to cut their personal possessions down to one hundred things. (The article, How to Live With Just 100 Things, doesn't actually tell you how.) It seems to have originated with a guy named Dave Bruno. It would be tough for me to whittle things down to 100; in America I easily had more than 100 tools! But, once we get moved I think I may do an inventory and see what I can live without. Maybe I can get to five or six hundred?

Rules

The sign says, "No parking area"

Vietnam has a decidedly un-American approach to rules. I've been in the USA for a couple weeks now and I've already noticed that - from turn lanes to grocery lines - most Americans are sticklers about rules. Admit it, have you ever counted the items in the cart in front of you at the express checkout lane?

In Vietnam, most rules are followed if 1) they are convenient and 2) they make sense.

But even that general rule is subject to change. For example, the city of Hanoi has been (sporadically) enforcing a rule to keep sidewalk vendors off the sidewalk for the last year or so. That's inconvenient for anyone who's used to buying food from the vendors and it doesn't make sense to take a source of income from vendors in a society where unemployment and underemployment is so high. Personally, I think the vendors gives Hanoi much of its character.

Rules are different even within the same country; elementary students in NY aren't expected to use "Ma'am" and "Sir" like they are in the South. Being able to adapt is important. It's what Paul said about becoming "all things to all men."

Locks of Love, Long Bien Style

About 3 years ago, padlocks began mysteriously showing up on the fence on Long Bien bridge. Most of them belong to young couples and were placed there as symbols of their love.

First, the couple finds a good location. Some have been known to measure the fence so they can be sure to buy locks that fit. Then they return with their steel locks, intertwine them, and snap them onto the fence. The last step is to throw away the keys as a sign of their commitment to each other. The couples believe the locks will bless their love and keep it alive.

Some locks have saved relationships. A 21-year-old student said that she and her boyfriend put their locks on the bridge two months ago. After a big fight, they were ready to break up,

"But then we went back to the bridge and saw our locks there. Through all the scorching sun and pouring rain of Hanoi, they are still holding onto each other. We immediately found a way to solve our problem. It's better then therapy."

from Vietnam News Service, 23 March 2010.

Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor

Part of the curriculum for my reading classes is the US Declaration of Independence. The document ends with the signers fully committing themselves to the cause. Last week I told the students to write an essay explaining what they are committed to. I thought I'd share with you one of the more articulate answers I received.

If you read the Declaration carefully, you will not forget the last sentence, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." In this occasion of 1776, 56 signers of the Declaration committed to devote their lives, their fortunes and their honor to fight for their country's independence. At this time, if asked to give my life, my fortune and my sacred honor, I would give them to my family - the closest and meaningful thing to me. If there were no family, I would not be in the world. In addition, my family has given me everything, from materials to spirit. It is always my support when happy or sad. As regard with 56 signers of the Declaration, fighting for their country, emancipation it from the oppression of Britain is getting freedom for their family and themselves. I was born when our country was independent, as for me, at this time, my family is the most important and most sacred thing in my life. What I give to my family is to repay what my family has been giving for me. When I contribute my life, my fortune and my honor to build my family, I make contribution of my life, my fortune and my honor to my country as well, because the prosperity of each country is built by one of each family. It is also the way I seek to my own independence and happiness. Because, when you know what you would give your life, fortune and honor to and know about give and take, you are really grow up and it is time you achieve your own independence.

Long Bien Art Festival

Sometimes you get to do things you never expected. This weekend, the famous Long Bien Bridge across the Red River was closed to traffic for a two-day festival of arts. Nancy and I were able to walk across without getting run over or choked by exhaust. In fact, the breeze off the water was quite cool.

The bridge is a historical landmark in Hanoi. Designed by Alexandre Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame), it was built in 1898 and originally named the Doumer Bridge after Paul Doumer, who was president of France during Vietnam's colonial period. During the American-Vietnam War, it was repeatedly hit by American bombs and repeatedly, and rapidly, rebuilt by Vietnamese youth.

Most of the art consisted of paintings of the bridge. White banners were stretched along the bridge so people could add their comments and graffiti.

A few sketch artists and calligraphy artists had set up shop along the side of the road.

 

I'm grateful to the student who told me about the festival. It was a great afternoon to be out and about down by the river.

Where the Buffalo Came From

According to Vietnamese legend, after God created the world and before he created people, he sent an angel to plant rice so that humans would have something to eat. But the angel got drunk, fell asleep, and never completed his task. When he woke up, grass had grown everywhere and God was mad.

To punish the angel, God turned him into a buffalo and sentenced him to helping mankind till the earth.

(This photo was take by Nancy in Bac Giang province six years ago.)

Tet Viet Nam

After six years, Nancy and I finally managed to be in Vietnam together for Tet Viet Nam (Vietnamese New Year). In the past, we'd only been around for the last few days of this four-day holiday and I was here for New Year's Eve in 2007 when Nancy was in the US for a few weeks, so I was excited to share it with her this year.

Around 11 PM we locked up the house and walked down to Ngoc Khanh lake, one of the fireworks sites the city had set up. Everyone was in a good mood, ready to welcome the year of the buffalo (for the Chinese, it's the year of the ox).

Precisely at midnight, the fireworks erupted. It was an impressive show and we got a pretty good view through the trees near the edge of the lake. We walked home, shoulder to shoulder with a few thousand other people. Along the way, the sugar cane sellers were doing a brisk business. It's good luck to have a live plant or branch on your ancestral altar at Tet and a lot of young people climb trees to break off a branch. To discourage that habit, the government has encouraged the use of sugar canes. It's one of the few times you can buy them whole in the city, from root to leaves.

Nancy posted more photos at her Picasa site.

For the last few days we've been packing up between visits and lunch dates with friends. On Friday night we head for the US. We've known this was coming since last Thursday, but being back in Hanoi makes it feel worse. When we drove past the school this morning and I looked out at the pond that I've seen so many times from the teacher's room, it was all I could do to keep from crying. Funny how all the problems with the city (noise, pollution, cost of living...) fade away when you have to say goodbye to it all.

Custas

The Diplomacy Academy of Vietnam's turn to Ring the Golden Bell (a game show for college students) has come and gone for another year.

The format has changed from last year. Gone are the graduation robes, sitting on the floor, and the opposing team. Now students compete to see how far they can get before giving a wrong answer. The winners get a cash prize.

More interesting this year than the game itself was the Custas commercial from the show's sponsor. Custas are a popular snack cake around here. Though the commercial is probably a "you had to see it" kind of thing, I'll try to describe it anyway.

Opening scene: A little girl, about 5-6 years old is fishing in a green plastic bucket.

Next scene: A mom comes home with a bag of groceries that has a box of Custas poking out of the top.

Next scene: The little girl is fishing with her grandfather at a small pond, sitting next to the same green plastic bucket. They are laughing. The grandpa hands her a Custas.

Next scene: Back in the kitchen the mom calls to her daughter, who shouts with excitement when she sees the box. She grabs it and runs off shouting, "Ong oi! Ong oi!" ("Grandpa! Grandpa!")

Final scene: The little girl places the box of cakes on the family altar in front of the picture of her deceased grandpa.

Very touching. Very sad.

(Click here for an explanation of the family altar written by one of Doug Young's students back in 2005.)

Where's Your Flag?

That's what a rather eccentric old woman asked me when I got home from a meeting at the Academy yesterday afternoon. September 2 is Vietnam's "Fourth of July" -- the anniversary of the day back in 1945 when Ho Chi Minh read Vietnam's declaration of independence from France. As on all the other national holidays, most of our neighbors fly the flag.

"Tell your landlord to get you a flag!"

I didn't call the landlord, but the conversation did shed a little light on one of those still-unanswered questions I've had: Should I display a flag on holidays to show respect or would it be too weird since I'm an "outsider"?

Nhập gia tùy tục is a proverb which has pretty much the same meaning as the English, "When in Rome...."

Maybe I should get a flag.

The National Pediatrics Hospital

On Thursday we found out that a friend and former student had to take her 4-month old daughter to the hospital in Hanoi. She had already had a CT scan and chest X-ray at the hospital in the provincial capital where they live, but the hospital said the problem was beyond them and suggested she bring her to Hanoi. We got a call saying they were at the National Pediatrics Hospital (Benh Vien Nhi Truong Uong)and started trying to figure out how to visit.

No Yellow Pages Here.

The most complicated part is finding the hospital since Benh Vien Nhi Truong Uong is listed as Bao ve Suc Khoe Tre em on the map. But our friend had given us the name of the street so it was just a matter of narrowing it down. I figured it would make the most sense to start asking near the place called Bao ve Suc Khoe Tre em, since "Tre em" means "child." On my way home from the Chinese Embassy (picking up visas for our April meetings), I pulled over and asked a bicycle repairman who had set up shop by the side of the road. He was eager to help; I had only gotten "Benh Vien Nhi" out of my mouth when he pointed down the road and told me to go straight ahead, through the intersection and turn left after about 200 meters. Turns out it's only about 1/2 mile from our house. I had ridden up to the gate last week when I was looking for a shortcut; I just hadn't paid attention to the sign.

So that's how, on Friday afternoon, Nancy and I found ourselves in the middle of a sprawling medical complex, wondering where we could find our friend and her baby.

The Hospital

The Pediatrics Hospital was full of kids - and parents, aunts and uncles. Because medical staff only takes care of medical matters, a trip to the hospital is a family event. Non-medical stuff, like bathing and changing diapers is the responsibility of the family. Food is up to the patient too - you buy it from the carts that are wheeled around the hospital or bring it in yourself. Visiting hours are scheduled around meals (6-7 AM, 11 AM - 1 PM, and 4 - 8 PM).

For less than $1/day, you get a spot in an 8-bed ward. Our friend is well-off enough that she could afford the quieter $20/day semi-private room (2 beds, a bathroom and sink - no hot water).

Vietnam's communal culture showed up even in the hallway of the neurology ward where adults and kids seemed to interact like one big extended family. Not surprisingly, everyone noticed Nancy and I as we walked through the hall. Surprisingly, no one said anything. We had a short visit, got to look at the films from the CT scan and X-ray (they were tucked under the mattress for safekeeping), and came back that evening with some pizza and fried rice Nancy bought from a local restaurant.

We were back several times over the next few days to pray, try to encourage, and help out wherever we could. Our little friend was back to her happy little self on Saturday and discharged on Sunday. The whole experience left me feeling overwhelmed at the huge number of kids there and wishing I could do something to help.

Thai Nguyen Wedding

Wednesday morning Huyen called to invite me to her brother's wedding. Short notice is pretty normal (the wedding was Thursday*) but she had told me before Christmas that he was getting married soon after the New Year. Fortunately, I've not started up with the second semester yet, so I went downtown, bought a card and went to bed early.

The ride up was sunny but cold. Since the family is well-connected in the steel business, the house was pretty crowded. The first face I recognized was Huyen's little cousin (who is not so little any more!) She greeted me with an enthusiastic, "Hi, David!" quickly followed by, "Where's Nancy?" She was Nancy's cultural guide in the fish-eye story and they've spent quite a bit of time together over the years.

This was the most elaborate Vietnamese wedding I've been to so far. Live traditional folk music, tea tables separate from the banquet tables, an improvised kitchen 3 times the size of my classrooms...

The customs, of course, were the same. Guests visit and eat as the groom and his family move from table to table to greet them. At the appointed time, the groom goes off with some of the older members of his family and a few close friends to get the bride and bring her back to his house. Then they go inside and the families have a short ceremony at the ancestral altar. More and more couples are doing the western wedding cake bit afterwards and these guys had a huge cake.

Weddings aren’t my favorite event because, the longer they last, the drunker some of the guests get. Then, one after another, they come by your table wanting to drink with you. The organization I work for has a no drinking policy, and I don’t drink anyway, so it’s always a pain. Even sipping doesn’t count – “Mot tram phan tram” is the standard ( “One hundred percent!”).

Still, this wedding was one I didn’t want to miss. And it was fun, for the most part. I was able to slip away to a quieter place in the house and chat with some uncles, cousins and grandkids before going in to the banquet. I'm so grateful for the chance to have learned some Vietnamese last year so I can talk with people now! It was a good chance to see some of my old students, friends, and to continue to cultivate small seeds among those who are still far from the master gardener.

* Two VTF teachers were invited to go to
Ha Long Bay today; the invitation came
at midnight last night.

Helmet Law

BEFORE: Nobody likes helmets. Hot. Ugly. Messes up your hair. Like wearing a rice cooker on your head. So, nobody wore them. Well, almost nobody. There's one in this photo from August '06. A couple years earlier, the government tried a helmet law on, but people gave them so much feedback that they limited it to a requirement to wear a helmet only on the major highways between cities.


AFTER: Nobody likes helmets. Hot. Ugly. Messes up your hair. Like wearing a rice cooker on your head. But, tired of the traumatic head injuries (and bodies) piling up, the VN government passed a law this year that requires everyone everywhere to wear one - drivers and passengers. It went into effect yesterday (15 December). I was interested to see what compliance was going to be like Saturday morning when I woke up. Much to my surprise, nearly everyone had a "mu bao hiem" on their head! I had to ride about 4 km to a meeting and could have counted the number of helmet-less drivers on the fingers of one hand - till I decided I needed both hands (and eyes) to drive.

Cops were out in force. The traffic cops even recruited help from district police, security police and a few good men from the army. Every major intersection had police standing ready to crack down on scofflaws. But I also heard a rumor that in Saigon some enterprising folks had set up helmet rental booths near the intersections of one of the main roads. If you didn't have a helmet you could pull over, rent one for a few cents and return it to another booth on the other side of the traffic stop. (Just a rumor, I'm sure.)

Enforcement is going to be strong for a few weeks at least. It will be interesting to see how long those helmets stay on.