Journey to Peace Village

I had a real unique Thanksgiving. Inviting my students over for dinner, I rounded up a chicken and some of the fixins for a not quite traditional dinner. Chien and Thu tracked down some corn and sweet potatoes. (The sweet potatoes here aren't orange and taste "planatin like.) They also got some fruit and cucumbers.

I set to work on the chicken and dressing. The chicken was a small "Quan ga," a special Vietnamese chicken about five or six pounds. I don't have an oven, so I simmered it in orange juice (from freshly squeezed oranges) and white Dalat wine. I made some dressing from bread, apples, onions, garlic, and seasoned with some thyme I luckily snatched up at the Fivi mart.

The chicken was a huge hit. It turned out juicy and tender and unlike other Thanksgiving, no leftovers. The stuffing was different. It wasn't quite as good as back home, but it generally tasted the same. The Vietnamese were intrigued by it, but preferred the standby of rice. Cucumbers took the place of pickles, and were accented by hot pepper. The fresh corn was delicious and sweet.

All and all we had a great time and the Vietnamese loved Thanksgiving.

Labels: food, Viet Nam and the West

A week ago Saturday I was bitten by a dog. This led me to experience anxiety about an overlooked health problem--rabies.

I'd gotten a wide range of immunizations when I left the United States, but unfortunately rabies wasn't one of them--the shots are quite expensive, and who thinks they're going to get bitten by a dog?

We think of rabies as kind of a joke. Foaming dogs chasing people, people turning into werewolf wannabes, etc. It's not really a laughing matter, especialy in the developing world. Unfortunately, rabies is a serious health issue here in Vietnam--as it is in most developing nations in Asia and Africa. I washed the wound out and went to the doctor. I was lucky--the dog is a neighbor's and is kept inside most of the time. So the dog's health could be monitored just to make sure he didn't have the disease. The only treatment left to me was to get a series of five vaccinations--I've had three already and will complete the treatment next month.

I was still anxious about the whole situation, because if the dog had rabies--well, there's no good way of saying it, the disease is fatal 99% of the time.

So I got educated in a hurry about an overlooked disease. According to the World Health Organization, more than 55,000 people die of rabies every year, most in Asia and Africa. Between 30-60% of deaths occur in children under 15. This is largely due to the fact that dogs are not routinely vaccinated for rabies as they are in the West.

Ten million people per year receive post exposure treatments (I'm one of this lucky group now).

For more info about this overlooked disease:

http://www.worldrabiesday.org/

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs099/en/

Labels: health, Viet Nam and the West

There was extensive coverage of the election even here in Viet Nam. Barack Obama is very much of an "unknown" here, so there have been many articles in the Vietnamese media and on TV giving people basic biographical information.

If anything, there was more of a pro McCain sentiment among the Vietnamese--he's a known figure here. Not only did he spend more than five years in Hoa Lo prison ("the Hanoi Hilton")--he also was a key figure in normalizing relations with Vietnam in the 1990s. Above are pictures from his visit and a memorial built on the spot where his plane was shot down in 1967. Cindy McCain made a visit to Ho Chi Minh City this spring to promote aid for hospitalized children.

This isn't to say people are against Obama, they just don't know much about him. Hilary Clinton was the preferred Democrat during the primaries, she was well known from the Clinton visit to Vietnam.

After initial bafflement, I found participating in the election quite easy. I downloaded a "backup" ballot from the internet and also sent a request to the city of Cudahy. They were remarkably efficient, sending me both a federal and state ballot! So I ended up (following the instructions) sending in three ballots to Cudahy.

The expat community was quite heavily for Obama. There's a real sense of excitement and expectation of change. Meanwhile, local people try to find out more about the next president....

Labels: Viet Nam and the West, Vietnamese culture, Vietnamese history

Photo on Flickr, from "Hanoi Mark"

Last weekend a great flood inundated Hanoi. We received almost 2 feet of rain within 2 days! The streets were flooded, and yet for many of us life went on. My school was located on high ground, as is my neighborhood. Ryan, a young teacher from Australia, and I ended up teaching all the classes Saturday afternoon! We each had more than 50 children! On Sunday, more teachers made it to the school, but I still had to teach eight straight hours, followed by more on Monday night. I was exhausted! When I go through things like that, I'm amazed at my coping skills.

Ironically, my adventures were minor compared to some of my fellow teachers. Kenny was trapped in a school for several hours because the streets were impassable and Phil, after losing water in his apartment, got stuck on a flooded bus. Shelly tried to get to school, but her cab got stuck in waist high water and began "buckling."

Fellow teacher Colm Pierce is an extraordinary photographer. I'm including links below to his website as he took much better photos than I did:

http://colmpiercephoto.com/content/view/25/44/

http://www.colmpiercephoto.com/

(Click "Hanoi underwater" for a fantastic slideshow")

Labels: ecology, education, Ha Noi