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Published: July 18th 2013
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It was nearly midnight July 8th when we arrived in Hanoi. Experiences so far have been pretty low key, with some highlights. Early Tuesday we went downtown Hanoi from the outskirts where Wellspring School is. There are 7 others in
WorldTeach.orgin Vietnam. Hanoi has many parks, its own traffic style: some circles but almost no stop signs or red lights. The advice is to look car and scooter drivers in the eye and go, fearlessly. Not sure how I survived unscathed. We saw a 1000-year old palace. There generals had a bunker to direct the North in the Vietnam War. Tuesday out in the countryside we went to the first palace, built 2-300 years before Jesus.
On campus we live on the 4
th floor of building without elevators. Daily workout built-in. Rooms are large and new, with private bath (yeah!) and a common room with fridge, hot plates, flat screen satellite TV. Furniture is sparse. Bathroom has tiny sink and nowhere for toiletries. The shower ledge to keep water off the floor has a small gap so I flooded the floor the first night. It is on purpose to push water to drain after mopping. For a year in Senegal
I did cold water bucket baths so this is not bad, and the hot water kicked in after a while. There is a high tech washing machine then clothes are to dry on rack in the balcony, and I have wifi.
One morning a group went walking before 7. Taxis being washed, people exercising, and buying at the market. There it is like many countries with vendors, mostly women, squatting by fruits and vegetables, live ducks, chickens, birds, fish, crabs, frogs tied by the legs, water on the ground, sticks holding up thatched roofs, and lots of stares for foreigners. The market is below my window where I can see the tin sheets of the roofing.
For the first 3 weeks orientation is daily 8AM-5PM and assignments after that. The first day of Vietnamese language had my head spinning. My mouth does not work right and the effort was taxing. It sounds like Chinese in tones where the voice rises or falls for different words. There are many short words, just 1 or 2 syllables. The writing is with the same alphabet we use but often 2 or 3 accents on some letters.
Most of our meals
are at a “canteen” where students also eat. Food OK and chopsticks and spoons are used. For weekends we had to make other arrangements. The easiest was to go to Big C (the local WalMart type) and get prepared food at the deli counters. The store has plenty more, from yogurt to live turtles and eels to sheets and cell phones. Most things seem a good price (diet Coke about 50₵). It is easy to feel rich. I changed $100 and was given over 2 million in Vietnamese currency.
Being from South Florida has been perfect preparation for the weather here in rainy season. It is hot, with very high humidity early in the day, showers occasionally. Almost feels like home.
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Martha
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Fascinating to see you in a group in Vietnam. Seems like last week when we were in a group in Rwanda - two such different cultures. While I envy you the opportunity to explore and reflect, I am daunted by the thought of the language learning. I still have PTSD dreams about being unable to communicate when we first moved to Japan! Feels like an amazing life experience to know the country that had such an impact on our own -- especially for our generation. I follow you with great interest and warm wishes.