Monday, August 15, 2005
Toi Yeu Viet Nam!
That means "I love Vietnam!" and its the slogan for some Honda sponsored safety ads. I do indeed love Viet Nam and I am going to miss it when I leave. It's hard to beleve this is my last week of teaching at Peace Village. I have been giving the students various souvenirs. Today, little Phu left the school and I gave him the harmonica. Phu is the kid who was biting the other students. The harmonica helped him quite a bit and now he's reciting numbers and saying "hello" and "good morning" almost as well as a native English speaker! I gave Huy, the 18 year old in a wheelchair, a book on "Zachary Beaver" and some baseball patches I had when I was kid. Thi received my beloved Packer shirt.
Over the weekend I went to Ha Long Bay with the Trieus daughter, Cha. It was absolutely beautiful. I spent the entire day and the night as well cruising this "World Heritage Site" on a small boat. The bay is filled with rocky, jagged islands and spotted with mysterious caves. We toured several of the caves by foot and by a small boat. I can't even describe it--I'm trying to write some poetry about the experience and I took a ton of pictures.
So I have very mixed feelings as I get ready to depart. On the one hand I'm anxious to get home, but there's many people I have made friends with here and will miss. The people here are unbelievably generous. Yesterday I went to my student, Huy's, home for dinner. We had a fun time playing kacho and I taught Huy and his little brother a few riffs on the guitar. Huy's mom gave me a beautiful blue bracelet and a dan torin, in English a xylophone. Today I had lunch at Anh Quyet's home and he and his wife and family gave me an absolute feast: egg rolls, spring rolls, noodles, rice, french fries, duck, etc. I am surprised I could get out the door.
Of course, the Trieus stuff me every night. They also make sure I get hot water to keep clean and various treats such as seven up and orange juice. So indeed although I am glad to come home I am also sad to leave this, my other home.
Over the weekend I went to Ha Long Bay with the Trieus daughter, Cha. It was absolutely beautiful. I spent the entire day and the night as well cruising this "World Heritage Site" on a small boat. The bay is filled with rocky, jagged islands and spotted with mysterious caves. We toured several of the caves by foot and by a small boat. I can't even describe it--I'm trying to write some poetry about the experience and I took a ton of pictures.
So I have very mixed feelings as I get ready to depart. On the one hand I'm anxious to get home, but there's many people I have made friends with here and will miss. The people here are unbelievably generous. Yesterday I went to my student, Huy's, home for dinner. We had a fun time playing kacho and I taught Huy and his little brother a few riffs on the guitar. Huy's mom gave me a beautiful blue bracelet and a dan torin, in English a xylophone. Today I had lunch at Anh Quyet's home and he and his wife and family gave me an absolute feast: egg rolls, spring rolls, noodles, rice, french fries, duck, etc. I am surprised I could get out the door.
Of course, the Trieus stuff me every night. They also make sure I get hot water to keep clean and various treats such as seven up and orange juice. So indeed although I am glad to come home I am also sad to leave this, my other home.
