It's Cold Here - Really!

Tell someone that it's cold in Vietnam and most won't believe it. Most Americans who've been to Vietnam remember the oppressively sticky heat of the south. Most weather comments, even from those who live in northern VN, are about how hot it is. So what's with the cold? How cold is it?

Uh, about 58F (14C). OK, OK, stop laughing. Stop. Or I'll laugh next summer when you complain that 90F (32C) and 70% humidity is "sweltering." Ha!

Not only does it feel cold, with the temperature inside the house the same as outside, it's taking a serious toll on this subtropical area that's not geared for a 34-day (and counting) cold spell. And it's way worse in the economically poor mountainous areas, as this picture from the newspaper shows. It was taken in Lao Cai province last week when the winter fog froze to trees and road signs.

How cold is it?

• 50% of the rice crop in the north, and almost as much in the central part of the country has been killed by the cold. It dies when it gets below 15C.
• Over 55,000 cattle have died - mostly calves and young buffaloes in the mountainous provinces.
• A two-year old boy died of hypothermia after riding the family motorbike from Phu Tho to Hai Phong with his parents. He is one of hundreds of the children and elderly who have died because of the cold. http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01MIS130208

The Vietnamese government is planning to come through with financial aid for some of these hard-hit families, but this year ahead will be a hard one for many. What makes these losses worse is that 10% of the Mekong (southern) rice crop has been lost to grasshoppers and disease. Inflation in January drove food prices up another 22%. Pork and beef prices are at U.S. levels or higher. In southern markets, wild tree leaves are being sold because of rising prices and poor vegetable crops. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2008/02/769425/

So keep VN - and us - in your thoughts. Maybe this will have the positive result of helping us all realize that we're not as self-sufficient as we might think.

It's Not Green Bay, But...

Here's a picture of what the sky's looked like for the last month or so. The tall building that's so hard to make out is a little over a mile away. I don't know if it's overcast, cloudy, smoggy, or what, but it's been a long time since the sky has been blue!


If you're curious what winter here feels like, lower your thermostat 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit, run a humidifier to keep the humidity at about 75%, and keep those settings there for a couple months. I know, 60 doesn't sound very cold, but when it's that temperature inside and out, it does make it hard to get out of bed in the morning.

But, on Friday, Nancy and I leave for Chiang Mai, Thailand for physicals, two of weeks of meetings, training, and a couple days off. It will be nice to be warm and see the sun again! (And, hopefully, we'll get to see Josh and Crystal.)

Thầy nào trò ấy means...

..."like teacher, like student."

Last spring when we were thinking about a logo specific to the Vietnam Teaching Fellowship (VTF) as opposed to its older brother, the China Teaching Fellowship (CTF), we thought that this traditional Vietnamese saying might be a nice thing to add. After all, we're not just about teaching, we're about sharing what we've been given.

Which Semester Is It?

Hard to tell. After having a couple of weeks of down time around Christmas and New Year's, I started the spring term with one of my classes (juniors) last week. A second class (sophomores) starts next week.

At the same time, I'm still finishing up finals from the fall semester - one for freshmen International Relations majors last week and another one for Freshmen English majors next week.

One reason the schedule's so complicated is because, at the beginning of the year, the freshmen have mandatory military training (which just looks like a lot of marching around from what we see). That means they go a month later at the end of the term. Another reason is that students have intensive lecture classes on subjects like politics, law and economics that get tacked onto their term as the lecturers are available. The only sure thing is that the term is 15 weeks long, so at least we know how many classes we have to teach.

The funny thing is - funny unusual, not funny ha-ha - is that some of us get just a couple weeks off, some get about a month. Melia finished the end of November (except for some finals) and won't start again till after Tet! But she had 5 writing classes last fall; after all that grading, she earned some rest.

VTF Santas Part 2

Deena was able to go down to Ha Nam province with the CAMA Services staff on December 18 to hand out the gifts we wrapped. I finally got around to putting it on YouTube. What you don't see is the older kids acted out the Christmas story in Vietnamese.