Hijacked at the funeral

TUESDAY, 29th March

9PM....  Oh my goodness, you wouldn’t believe what just happened to me!  I went down to the restaurant round the corner with Sarah for dinner, and on the way home as I was walking past the funeral a group of ladies started talking to me and urged me to sit down. They gave me some tea and a little dish with a fruit, a leaf and something dried (part of the funeral fare) then asked me to go with them. At this stage a young lady walked past and translated that they wanted me to go with them to their house. They were very friendly, so I agreed.

They grabbed hold of my arms, laughing and talking ten to the dozen and we headed off... down the lane that had fascinated me this morning! First we stopped at Dot’s house, went in and had some slivers of sugarcane. I met her 2 adult children who translated a little for us. I thought Dot looked like she had been crying... turns out her husband died only 7 months ago, so I guess funerals are still pretty raw for her. Anyway, she was laughing along with the rest of us at our attempts to communicate (none of them speak a word of English!). I’m not at all sure I have their names right, but it didn’t matter...

This is Laparm,  Dot, and Tang ... how could I resist their invitation!

Next stop down another alleyway was Tang’s house. It is quite beautiful, with quality furniture, obviously wealthy. Her poor husband was watching TV when we burst in, and after saying hello he quickly made himself scarce. These 3 Vietnamese women never stopped talking, trying to make me understand.. I was just parroting back as best I could, much to their delight. We sat there in that lovely house while Tang shouted for her children to come down and meet me, but either they weren’t home or they took no notice... By then they were dead keen to go and sing Karaoke at Laparm’s house, just across the lane. So we trooped over there (with them still wrapped around my arms). Again, the husband was watching TV and rapidly retreated in the face of the onslaught!  They set up the Karaoke and here they are, my gorgeous new Vietnamese friends!

They wanted me to sing too... the songs were Vietnamese so It was pretty funny when I had a go.  When it got to 9 o’clock they all walked me home... arm in arm, laughing and still talking a mile a minute!   Ah, Vietnam!

You know how it says in Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart....  and only yesterday I commented on the lack of physical contact. And lo and behold, God brings along three lovely ladies at a funeral and I was smothered in hugs and hand-holdings and cuddles!.. even kisses on the cheek goodnight.

Unfortunately the funeral music is still blaring unabated... oh well for a while I couldn’t hear it!

A Blackout, a Funeral and a Policeman...

TUESDAY 29^th March

We had a blackout this morning from 7am till now – 3pm.  There’s a housewarming (we think) going on just down the lane and when they were setting up the awning which stretches across the lane, they apparently upset the power-lines... anyway we’re back on line now but so is their PA... oh my goodness, they must all be deaf!  There is a lady singing a song that has been going without pause for at least 15 minutes... it sounds like an epic poem or something, cause the melody is just going round and round and it is so loud they’d be able to hear her in Hanoi!  This is accommodating guests Vietnamese style... just take over the road if there’s no footpath!

  ..neighbours watching.

Since it’s my day off, I was planning to do a load of washing first thing. Even though it’s not sunny, it is not cold today.  I had lunch at our laneway cafe, pointing to a few things not knowing what the yellow things were in the meat section... turned out to be chicken’s feet... Still it lunch cost me 12,000D (60c)!...

...compared to $5.00 for the prawns & cashew stir-fry and melon juice I had at the restaurant at the top of H Tower for lunch yesterday...

This morning I walked to the supermarket that Dave showed me when we first got here, but this time, instead of following the main roads, I took the laneway just near our house. What an amazing place... so many different houses (rich and poor), little shops and cafes, twists and turns. Some of the houses had little gardens, many had dogs, some had bird cages... all behind high gates and glass topped walls. There weren’t a lot of people about since it was in the middle of the day when many have a snooze. Next time I’ll take some photos coz it was so intriguing.

I did however take a picture of this building under construction... now there’s a very resourceful solution to the problem of how to support a lintel while the concrete’s still wet! This brickwork will be plastered over and possibly tiled, too.

You can’t really see it, but the props are Bamboo poles wedged on piles of bricks with a few boards tacked on for bracing!

I also took some pics of this stall selling Chinese Pottery outside the supermarket. What caught my eye were the fabulous crystalline glazes on those huge urns... The white ones were quite extroardinary...  Mountain Ash Pottery eat your heart out!

Well, you just never know what’s going to happen next in the big city... I just went downstairs when the singing changed to a cacophony of noise from some ‘musical’ instruments I don’t recognise...

I stepped outside the gate to take a video, because you’d have to hear it to believe it... and a policeman left the gathering I was filming and invited himself inside!

Turns out he was just being friendly and wanted to invite me over to his house to meet his wife who teaches English at a secondary school nearby! His name is Than and he has a son and a daughter at university in Hanoi who come home for the weekend once a month. He had limited English, but was very friendly. Apparently the ‘celebration’ is not a house-warming but a funeral, and will continue till about 9:30 tonight. Then tomorrow they will move the body to the cemetery. Than was very keen to get me to come over to his house this week, but I have to work in the evenings. He has my phone number and he gave me his and told me to ring him if there is every any trouble.  He lives not far from here, so I do hope we can become friends.

 

This is Than, my friendly neighbourhood policeman!

I was a smashing hit at the local market

MONDAY 28^th March

Now that was a good book... quite engrossing.  In the meanwhile life goes on in Hai Phong.   Let me think back... Bowling was fun, although I was quite pathetic, only scoring 37 in my first game, but I did improve and doubled my score for the second game. And to think I’m so much better at it on the Wii...

Dave had been all aches and pains for a couple of days and he came down with a full blown gastric bug on Saturday night. By Sunday lunchtime he was wretched, so I got him some lemonade and did a load of washing for him and Amie gave him some of her anti-nausea drugs and he slept all arvo. Needless to say, we called off the house-warming party... maybe next Sunday.  This morning he’s looking much better (no longer like death warmed over) and managed to eat some breakfast. I scrubbed the bath upstairs (it was filthy) so he can have a long hot soak and rest up for today. He doesn’t have any classes till tomorrow night.

He patted me on the shoulder to say thanks and it made me realise that I haven’t had any human contact since I left home... no hugs, nothing but the occasional handshake!  And it’ll probably be like that till I get home – really appreciating family and friends!

The most exciting thing that’s happened in the last few days was at the local market.  Not far from school there’s a small market down a lane off the road I walk down every day. Up till yesterday, I hadn’t gone down to have a look, since on the way to school I’ve usually got no time and on the way home it’s shut.  So last night I finished teaching at 5pm and the market was still open. It’s pretty much like a grotty version of the markets elsewhere... in the laneway people sitting behind little piles of produce... fruit, vegies, eggs, noodles, chunks of meat, cooked  or whatever... Invariably I get pointed at and often laughed at, but other people smile and say hello.

I wandered into the undercover part where the stalls are bigger... food, clothing, kitchenware, shoes, chickens and ducks... all sorts of stuff. It was the end of the day, so it wasn’t busy. The walkway was probably about 3m wide. Then about 5m in front of me this man suddenly started up his motorbike and gunned it towards me. I don’t know if the throttle was sticky or if  he saw me and was shocked... either way, he came careening towards me with a startled look on his face. I managed to step out of his way and he only knocked my finger as he accelerated past, but by then he was wobbling wildly (still accelerating!). He just clipped a table loaded with crockery and smashed into a steel column. How embarrassing! As he shamefacedly started crawling out from under the bike he gave me the dirtiest look!! Like it was my fault he was an idiot!  People from all over were gathering to see what had happened and all eyes were on him, so I just kept walking. There were plenty there to help him and I couldn’t defend myself if he decided to try and say that I had caused the accident!

After that, my wander through a half closed market was a bit tame! As I stepped out into the laneway, a man grabbed me by the arm and pointed excitedly at some meat. He picked up a piece and waved it at me, obviously wanting me to buy it. Apart from the fact that I wasn’t shopping for meat, it looked like it had been sitting on the slab all day, and I didn’t recognise the kind of meat (and I didn’t really want to know). So I just smiled and said ‘No thank you!’ and kept on moving.

I stopped off at my Pho place and had fried rice for dinner... delicious. Then came home. Dave was on the improve so I made him some vegemite toast, then I settled into bed and finished reading House Rules.

Today is again overcast and cold. The forecast is for this weather to continue for another week. Oh well, it’ll be too hot before we know it. This week I have Tuesday and Saturday off, and only 14 hours teaching. The roster is always changing and seems to be all over the place. I would hate to always work like this. I sympathise with our hospital staff back home. I understand they have to put up with ad hoc rostering all the time. How on earth could you ever plan ahead? Surely a more efficient system could be designed, even if it was 2-3 weeks in rotation?

‘Teacher, you have to do this..'

THURSDAY, 24th March

My students have a great sense of humour. Last night my beginner adults class were struggling with the th sound as in this, that, these and  those, so I was demonstrating that you have to put your tongue between your teeth so I could see it the beginning of the word. Several times during the lesson I went round each one trying to get them to say the words correctly. Anyway, towards the end of the class we were playing ‘What’s this?’ and I pulled out a Vietnamese English dictionary. Just to help them realise that It’s just as difficult for me to pronounce their words as it is for them to pronounce mine, I tried a few phrases... much to their delight. I was trying to say ‘xin loi’ when one wag (Terry) called out ‘Teacher, you have to do this...!’ and showed his tongue in an exaggerated position for making the L sound. The whole class cracked up. They are a lot of fun!

How the wealthy expats live

THURSDAY 24^th March

Yesterday was Ladies Lunch at the Texas BBQ  again.  With Sarah still in Hanoi, Amie and I went along. This time we sat next to a lady from Denmark who was visiting her son and his family, and Lorraine, a lady from Britain, whose husband is here overseeing construction of a plastics factory. She has lived for years in Malaysia and loved it, but hasn’t connected with Hai Phong. She’s looking forward to going home in a couple of weeks to meet her new grandchild and may not come back.

Like most of the Wednesday ladies, she lives in a gated community which consists of a couple of apartment blocks with a big courtyard and modern western apartments (@ $60 US a night...). She invited Amie and I over and gave us a couple of novels she’s finished with (books in English are like hen’s teeth around here). This is her place...

Check out the sofa! I haven’t sat on a sofa since I left home!  Amie and I reckon we should drop in to visit her again then we can sit on the sofa and have a cuppa!

She has a balcony on both sides, too.

She’s up on the third floor and when I looked over the balcony we could see somebody’s  cooks preparing chicken for dinner:

I started reading one of the books Lorraine gave us last night – House Rules by Jodi Picoult.  It about an 18 year old boy who has Asperges who is accused of murder.  It’s going to be a great read.

We thought we probably wouldn’t get to see Lorraine again because we were off to the wedding next Wednesday and she would be gone by the next one... but last night Ann called Amie, Sarah and I into the office and told us we couldn’t go to the wedding because she was worried that if there was a traffic jam or something and the bus didn’t get back in time then classes would have to be cancelled... we weren’t too impressed!  But like she pointed out it’s not like we know Oscar really well and several of the Vietnamese staff who do cannot go either... Apparently the issue is that it’s on a Wednesday and out of town....   Blah blah blah... excuses, excuses!  But we can still put money in an envelope and it will be given to the Bride and groom!

Sarah came back from Hanoi yesterday with a new tattoo – a phoenix that covers the top of her left foot. She’s delighted with it.  Eathen came back from Hanoi with a haircut.

Last night was pizza night, so Dave and I caught a taxi home after the last class and we had Wedges and pizza for dinner at 10 o’clock...

We are hosting a house-warming party come Trivia night on Sunday (Dave knows lots of other teachers and locals) so I have been delegated to go to the supermarket and get party supplies since it’s my day off today. The weather has turned cold and bleak again, so I won’t go exploring Hai Phong today... I’ll curl up and read my book when I get back... if only we had a sofa!

I wore my new pants to work last night... the ones with the crutch halfway down to my knees and the waistband up to my armpits... and as I walked they rode up my legs till my red walking shoes were fully on display like a pair of clown boots!!! Needless to say, Sun and I are going back to the tailor tomorrow to see what she can do to try and fix them.

I just had a text message from Sarah... we Aussies are bowling against Europe this arvo at the local bowling alley, so I'll join in and then shop after that :)

And so life goes on in Hai Phong...

Yea! I worked out how to upload videos!!

This is a video I took out of the bus window as we headed out of Hai Phong for Hanoi. It's very typical of the streetscape around here. This next video is too...

Little darlings...

TUESDAY 22^nd March

Wouldn’t you know it? I taught that hideous teenage class again tonight and they were co-operative and sweet and we had a great class...! Yukito, the girl I had the stand up confrontation with on Friday even asked me at the end of the lesson if she and her friend could come and visit me at my house!!!

And I got a wedding invitation! Oscar (one of the Vietnamese teachers) is getting married next week and we’ve all been invited.  It’s a morning thing at the bride’s village, so we are to meet at the school at 6:30am to catch a bus at 7!! Dave tells me that Vietnamese weddings are simply a gathering of people to eat and drink, then go – no ceremony or anything. Ann was saying the bus will return to the school at 4:30, but perhaps those rostered with classes that night shouldn’t go as they’ll be too tired. I wasn’t sure quite how to take that, since I usually teach 2 classes on Wednesdays. I certainly wouldn’t consider it if I can’t get prepared on Tuesday. But bottom line is , it will probably be the only Vietnamese wedding I will be invited to so I don’t want to miss it! This is my invitation:

Over here the wedding photos are all taken in the weeks before the wedding. They hire lots of different outfits, and the albums are finished ready for display on the day of the wedding. Here are a couple of Oscar and Ngoc Anh's wedding photos

I  only had one class tonight so I walked home with Dave and we stopped off for dinner at the place just near us where I stumbled in late and the father cooked me chips. Tonight, however, we were not late and shared a delicious plate of mực xào cần tỏi (stir fry squid and vegies), Vietnamese mint and rice. I thought of taking a photo way too late... it was nearly all gone... sorry.

Today the weather has been lovely... quite balmy and no sign of the 100% humidity we had yesterday. That’s right, the weather forecast was actually for 100% humidity!  I even got a load of washing done and dry!

It’s one month today since I left home and so much has happened! I wonder what tomorrow will bring? I will go to the ladies lunch at the Texas BarBQ and see what that leads to ... and I have 2 classes tomorrow night to prepare for. Since it’s only 10 o’clock and I’m all showered I think I’ll just watch a movie!