Cookout

Last Saturday night our team had an end-of-the-year cookout for the English department at our school. Melia and Scott delivered about 15-20 invitations, but we weren't sure who was going to come or whether anyone would be bringing guests. We planned for the max; 40 kebobs, 40 pieces of chicken, huge pans of baked beans and potato salad, cookies.... We had lots of leftovers!


Finding a small grill and some charcoal wasn't nearly as difficult as getting damp charcoal lighted with no lighter fluid. Paper didn't work. Twigs off a dead branch weren't much more effective. Then I remembered that a worker had left a few strips of dry wood upstairs. Josh was able to get things going with that and we ended up with a good fire. Like most times I try to barbecue, I should have started about 1/2 hour earlier.

But anyway, everything got cooked and our friends seemed to enjoy the American food. It was nice to be able to get together outside of work.

Weekends

Lately there have been so many "little" things going on at the same time that it seems like there's nothing "big" to write about. But, since Easter, there's been something going on every weekend.

First was a trip to Thai Nguyen. It's been a long time since I've been back (and longer for Nancy), so we hopped on the bus Saturday morning to visit a couple of our friends/former students. Aside from the usual "trolling," it was a smooth trip. "Trolling" is what we call it when the bus leaves the station and sloooowly pokes along the road looking for additional passengers to fill the empty seats - and the aisle, and any laps that look like they have room. We trolled almost all the way to the airport, but we had good seats this time so it wasn't bad from where we sat.

We visited with our friends, had lunch at a seafood restaurant, and marveled at the big lobster-like critter in the tank that you could order for $100 US per kilogram. And we were absolutely amazed to see a 4-story shopping center, complete with escalators, standing where the old, open-air central market had been.


Our friend and Nancy have been quite close over the years and she spent most of the day lobbying Nancy to move back up to Thai Nguyen to hang out, practice English, play with her kids, etc. (She has cute kids, but it didn't work.)


In the old days, Nancy taught our friend to bake and she's gotten pretty good at it. But she's been busy with work and family and hasn't had much time for baking. So, after helping her assemble an apple pie and sticking it in the oven, we headed out to catch one of the last buses back to Hanoi.

The following weekend was the big "Miss IIR" contest. IIR is the old name for our school - The Institute for International Relations. (The name was recently changed to The Diplomacy Institute of Vietnam.). The field had been narrowed from the original 25 contestants to 11 and Saturday night was the big competition. It was quite an event, but also quite long. I didn't stick around for all four hours, but I heard that a girl in one of Josh's freshman classes took first place.

It looks like weekends will stay full for a while. On Saturday we're going with the rest of the VTF team to Ha Long Bay to treat our spring fever and the following weekend we're in Beijing for the VTF/CTF team leader summit.

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.