Christmas In Vietnam

Christmas Eve I went out for dinner with my new friends, John, Hien, Nhan, Ha, Hanh and Huyen. We ordered chicken (almost turkey) and rice (almost mashed potatoes and gravy) in a local restaurant with a Christmas tree.


Afterwards we went to the local Catholic Church for the Christmas Eve service. Nhan and I had dropped by earlier in the afternoon to check out the place. It had a cave with a creche, and several Christmas trees. It looked even better that night in the dark with all the lights.
My wonderful new friends gave me gifts to open tomorrow. I am so lucky to have found such wonderful people over here. It makes this Christmas a very special one. I wish all my friends and family in Canada a Happy Christmas and a Joyous New Year.

Uniterra Meets in Ha Noi

The week of Dec. 12 to 19, I spent in Hanoi. I took the train up with Marilyn, she picked up the train an hour before me in Thanh Hoa, and we arranged to be seated beside each other.

We picked up a reliable cab, but got someone not familiar with our hotel's location. That happens alot here, but we arrived safely and treated ourselves to beer and western sandwiches!!


Saturday started late but got going quickly. We decided to go to the local salon, get on nails and hair done.

A great way to spend a few hours, then it was off to pick up some clothing Marilyn had made for her on an earlier trip.

By then my eye was bothering me again and it was time to see a doctor. For those of you not in this loop, this was my third eye infection in 8 weeks.

This time I got the specialist and you know how they are. Before I knew it, he had stuff an needle around me eye, clamped it open, and was slicing away. Have you ever tried to "not" see when your eyes are wide open??


Needless to say it bruised and I have included an early picture. A friend from Vietnam got me a hard boiled egg, peeled it, and had me rub it over the bruising. His mother told him it would bring out the bruise. I'm not sure it worked, but the heat sure felt good.







We had 2 days of meeting with Uniterra volunteers and staff. It was good to meet everyone, some old friends, some for the first time.

Most of us stayed in the same hotel and went out together for meals and stuff.





On Tuesday, Micheal and his wife, Wusc director here, invited us over for Christmas dinner and songs. It was great.





Some of us went to the Army Museum. What you see are captured American planes from the
Vietnam War. Very simple but effective display. The black and white postcards from that era are extremely powerful.

ESL in Hai Phong

In December I went to Hai Phong to do a one week workshop on ESL. My translator Nhan went with me to help out. A good thing, as the level of English of many of the English teachers was not very good.

On our arrival we checked out the school. The initial room was a room with lots of chairs with attached desks, not what I wanted for group activities. We ended up on the third floor of the administration building, just above the loudspeaker. Breaks were given whenever the loudspeaker decided to play music!!

I had told Mr Long that 30 was a good number for the workshop and had prepared accordingly. But on Monday, we had 34, so scrambled to get matching pictures and words for the first activity.

This workshop was conducted in English and was a real make and take workshop. I taught English songs like BINGO, TEN FINGERS, HOKEY POKEY, OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM, and games like WHAT TIME IS IT MR. WOLF? and we made flashcards, calendars, sentence strips, etc. An action packed week. From what I understand, the teachers told their friends, and we always had new teachers in the workshop.

At the end of thew workshop I invited in a fellow volunteer John to be a guest speaker of English. He was so well received, that he has already been asked to speak at several of the primary schools!!

The school I taught at was only 20 minute walk from the hotel so we rented a motorcycle. The traffic was horrendous and I was glad I wasn't driving.

When we weren't teaching, we walked the streets of the third largest city in "Vietnam". We were only 2 blocks from this park-like avenue that ran for 2 kms through the city. It was green space with flowers, trees, statues, water features including a large pond. An oasis in the city. We also found 2 lovely pagodas, with turtles in the ponds.

Lunch Program at Primary School

I think I've talked a bit about Primary Schools in Vietnam. My workshops are held at the Le Hong Phong Primary School, a school with 600 students from Grades 1 to 5.


Students arrive at the school for 7:30 and stay the whole day. They have recess about 9:00 ( I hear their loud, happy (shrill) voices outside my classroom. I usually have to break at that time as well.

Lunch is at 10:30 and is served at the school. After lunch the children have to sleep for awhile and then they can go out and play. Classes resume at 2:00 and go to 4:00 or 4:30 (haven't figured out which yet).



I checked out lunch last week. The cook and her assistants cook in a room attached to the the school. The food is usually rice, and a soup made of tomatos and some meat. The rice and soup is divided into individual pots for each classroom. The food and dishes are taken to the classrooms and the teacher doles out the food to the students. After lunch, the assistants return and pick up the dirty dishes.


Puts a whole new spin on "Lunch Duty" doesn't it???

Road Less Travelled

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 5 and it has finally stopped raining. Nhan called this morning and suggested a road trip. " Let's go".

We decided to head out towards the old capital Hoa Lu and see some of the flood damage. Along the way we decided to visit a pagoda, Chua Ban Long. This pagoda is off the main road, accessible by a much smaller road just right for a motorcycle. As you can see, the water was up to the roads, and more. Many of the houses had water damage and people were waiting for the water to go down.

At the pagoda we met a 91 year old Buddist monk who had been looking after the pagoda for over 50 years. She said they did not get as many visitors as they used to. I wonder if the building of the new big Bai Dinh pagoda has cut into visitors. It was extremely peaceful here. We were unable to climb to the top of the mountain because the stairs were too slippery due to the flooding.


Once we left the Chua Ban Long we took the main road to Hoa Lu but were stopped by construction. Other motorcyclists were travelling through a huge puddle, slowly and carefully, and all the men gave us instructions on how we should do it. Nhan was not keen, and as we have lots of time to visit, we decided to head somewhere else. We got out the trusty map and saw that Hang Mua was close.


Hang Mua is designed and built as a version of the Great Wall of China. Tourists can see a long wall rising from the floor to the peak of the mountain. Once you climb 486 stone steps, you have a panoramic view of the valley and rice fields on one side, and the mountains and Tam Coc river on the other.

At first I thought the goats were going to collect our entrance fee, but the keeper was down the road looking after her flooded house.



Of course we climbed up. Fortunately today was not hot or sunny. The view ws incredible once we reached the top. We saw lots of little boats on the Tam Coc filled with the tourists who had been stuck in their hotels for days because of the rains. Everyone ws taking advantage of the good weather.

Flooding In Vietnam

As I mentioned in my last blog, there is a lot of rain in Vietnam. Well it hasn't stopped raining and we are suffering from flooding all over Vietnam. Over 60 deaths as of today, winter crops totally destroyed, dikes breaking. The worst is yet to come. Already cost of food has doubled especially in Hanoi. I am including two sites for you to look for more information on the flooding and pictures.

http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn/showarticle.php?num=05SOC051108

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/photogal/2008/11/811399/

Many of the schools are still closed. The Universities are open but the students have to wade to their classrooms. People are fishing in the streets of Hanoi. The backyard ponds have flooded and the fish have escaped to the streets. The owners are trying to reclaim them before they swim away.

Hoi An and Da Nang

Took a few days holiday and went south to the ancient city of Hoi An. It has been designated a Unesco World Heritage site. There are several buildings of historical and cultural significance open to the public, and several streets that do not allow cars. Bicycles and motorcycles are still allowed. You can attend a traditional music show, a handicraft workshop, and old houses. The old houses reminded me of the Chinese movies Eric takes me too--I felt that Jet Li was looking down on me from the balcony on the second floor. One thing Hoi An is famous for is there lanterns. They make them in their shops. You can watch them make one just for you.

We arrived in Hoi An during a flood. The rain has come so strongly and for many days, and the river flooded covering the street beside the river, the bridge, and up to the second street. It was truly something to see. By the next day the water had receded leaving only mud. The clean up is fairly basic, a water hose and a man/woman with a push broom shovel.

We talked to an American who ran a used book store who said the water came up 6 inches an hour for 15 hours. One of the joys of living on a flood plain. The black on the yellow building shows how high the water was this time. We ended up calling over a water taxi to get us across to the other side. We didn't want to go through all the mud again.



Hoi An has many tailors and shoe makers. Marilyn had a pair of sandles made for her, and Amanda, Marilyn and I had clothes made. That was an interesting experience. It is cheaper to have a tailor make your clothes than to buy off the rack.







The rain changed our plans for this trip. We were unable to visit many sites outside the city because of the rain, so we went into Da Nang and stayed at a hotel on the beach. We were the only visitors. In the morning around 5, people from town come to the beach to play badminton, soccer, and exercise for a couple of hours before work. They come again around 4 until dark. We spent some of the non-rainy time on the beach and in the waves. It was great.

End of Workshop 2

Hard to believe the second workshop is over. Both Nhan and I were less stressed for this one. It started as the other one, with speeches from the Department of Education, but they were alot shorter. I'm old news already.

We continued to have fun with more ice-breakers and silly games. I played the one I use with my class at UCN to help them remember their fellow classmates names: your name and an adjective that starts with the same letter as your name. I heard participants calling each other the funny names all week. It took 30 minutes but I think I'll continue it for the workshops just because it helps them get to know each other.

This week I decided to use open-ended questions instead of Bloom's Taxonomy. I had run some of this by my friend Lark earlier on and she had spoken of her success with it. That Skype makes people so close!! I don't know if the teachers found open-ended easier but I sure did.










Closing ceremonies were very informal. No one from the Dept of Education was able to attend, so it was just us teachers sitting around looking at pictures of Canadian schools, my friends, and snow. They even stayed and helped us clean-up so we were out in record time.

You'll notice this time all the tall people standing next to me. They think they are the same height as me, until we actually measure or look at the picture. Nhan and I were invited back to Cuc Phong by the male teacher. He lives just outside the park and said he would be our guide. We've got his number and will visit in November.

Cuc Phuong National Park

Cuc Phuong is the oldest national park in Vietnam. Magnificent limestone mountains rise up majestically from the green, rice-terraces and traditional stilt houses of the Muong hill-tribe.
I visited this area Sat. Oct 11 with 5 other Wusc volunteers--3 young women with Students Without Borders, a volunteer from Thanh Hoa and a volunteer who lives in Ninh Binh with me. We rented a van and driver to take us around for the weekend.

Our first stop was the Endangered Primate Rescue Center. This program has around 140 primates in breeding Programs. This is a joint project with Germany and several other countries, not Canada. Our tour included an English speaking biologist/technician. He showed us stick spiders, big spiders, monkeys, and gibbons. We even saw a couple of monkeys in the trees outside the Rescue Center's fence.

Then it was back in the van for the 20 km drive into the Park. Rowena decided to play with the butterflies before we headed out on our 6 km hike to the 1000 year old tree.
The hike was a series of stone and concrete steps, mostly up. These steps get very slippery in the rainy season, so we were not skipping our way. We only saw a variety of spiders, no other animals. They were all smart enough to be asleep somewhere cooler. We made it to the 1000 year old tree, along with all the other tourists.

Imagine doing a hike in your high heels and dress clothes. Happens all the time here.
We decided to complete the circle hike instead of going back the same way. That may have been a mistake, as it was the road less travelled, and both down and up. It seemed alot farther than 3 km. But needless to say, we made it. After a lunch at the park we headed south. The Park offers accommodation in lovely stilt houses. We are thinking of that for a return visit. Then we can do an early morning walk and maybe see some animals.

From there we drove the 20 km into the park..There are several hiking trails available. We decided to hike to the 1000year old tree, a supposed 6 km return hike. It started well, as all hikes do, but the uphill steps, covered with slime and moss, made it slow going. It was beautiful in the park, lots of giant spiders, and beautiful butterflies. We started our hike around 10:30 so any animals were in

Dinner at Nhan's

Yesterday Nhan invited me to dinner. Nhan is my translator from Ha Noi and she has had to rent a room in Ninh Binh. She is as much a stranger here as I am, but she has the advantage of speaking the language.
To prepare for dinner, we first went to the market. Nhan had the list for ingredients for spring rolls. While she was doing her shopping, I was looking around. No pictures of this, not sure of people's reactions yet. We were in the meat, fish section of the market. All the little stalls selling fish, shrimp, crab, mussels, squid had these animals live in little basins with fresh air pumping into the basins. Sort of like a fish tank or a live-well on a boat. People here only want fresh fish and they want to see it swimming or splashing about, as so often happens. The chickens and birds are plucked of their feathers but otherwise intact. The cow and pig are cut up, with all the parts for sale.
Once we had the food, it was back to Nhan's house to clean and prepare the ingredients. Nhan lives in a compound with 6 rooms. They all share a toilet, shower, and small common food prep area that has a cold water tap. The 2 puppies from the landlord came to keep us company in hopes of a little treat.
We cooked rice in a rice cooker, just like the Black and Decker ones from home, boiled water in a little tea kettle, and cooked the spring rolls on a one-burner gas stove.
The power decided to go out in Nhan's room just when we were ready to cook. First the landlady, then the landlord came to try and get it going. I stayed out of the way, especially when I saw the landlord with a syringe like thing in his hand. I had visions of everything blowing up.
But it didn't and half an hour later we were cooking. I can't promise to make springrolls as good as Nhan but I will give it a try when I get home.