The day gets more exciting!

Thuy just showed up with her sons, Thanh and Hoa (both super cutie), Truong which we just figured out is her brother-in-law, and 2 kids, one deaf- a new one we've never seen before. The woman we think is the owner is up in our room searching our things with Thuy! They are pointing at things and saying stuff to us about our snacks. We have fruit, crackers, and jello- what's up! The other lady said that's what's making us sick...I don't think so! I guess we are having guests for dinner tonight. This is waaaaay beyond my personal bubble space, eeeeek!!!!

Real Life- Thanh Hoa Viet Nam

This woman on her bike with a tin bucket of pig insides came by the school this morning and made a sale! She was totally stoked at having sold most of her bucket and I was totally stoked to get a picture of it :o)
Soooo I'm in bed right now typing away as I listen to the wind howl through the windows and doors of the hotel. It's a pretty strong wind today. No rain yet but at least the wind has made it one of the best days ever- it isn't that hot or humid. Perhaps just about 85 or 90 deg. and a little less of that in humidity. We've been back at the hotel since a little after noon and Scott decided to cancel our afternoon session- here's why!

We are SICK!!! So this one is for the girls- you know who you are and that it goes in the poop chronicles. It all started when we arrived to Thanh Hoa. Scott, Le, Thomas and I were having a tough time pooping the first couple of days. Thomas, Le, and I finally had our turns at the pot but Scott went almost a week- day 4 no poop, day 5 no poop, day 6 no poop??? day 6.5 still no poop??? Meanwhile back at the ranch, Lam had come down with some kind of cold and was having a miserable time. Finally Scott was able to have his turn at the pot by the end of 7th night, whew! We thank the hotel for running out and getting him some kind of potatoes or roots of some kind that is said to help- it did! But now poor Scott was getting his turn at the cold! Thanks a lot LAM!! Then I got the runs!!! I finally said something and it turns out Thomas, Ly, and Le had the runs too- oh great! No wonder I was always having to ask for another roll of toilet paper before the day was over. So here we all are with the shits! Ly was better by this morning but Thomas was still running to/fro. I was handling it but thinking I better lay off the dragon fruit shakes I've been having with my lunch and dinner. I think we got a little careless on the water safety business OR our meals haven't been as 'sanitarily prepared' as we thought.

Whatever the case, by 10am this morning we were taking Ly to the hospital who had severe stomach pains, I had made 4 trips to the school's toilet and had taken 10 green tablets of who-knows-what that Thuy sent someone buy for me, Thomas was at the hotel standing near the toilet, Scott was trying to recover from his cold, and the other 2 were trippin on us and worried they would be sick again. I am soooooo glad I wasn't the one having the stomach pains because I was flipping out as it was, just taking Ly to the hospital!

Just imagine me with one vietnamese speaking driver and 4 deaf people, 2 who communicate more in VSL than anything else, one of them is Ly- and me without my freakin dictionary yelling bac si, di bac si, Ly om, om, dau bung, bac si!!! Thank goodness Scott has been teaching the hotel staff some ASL and I have been teaching them English here and there. The driver got it- so we thought but then he headed to the hotel- BAC SI!!!!!...oh-to pick up some random woman we had never seen before. So then we were on our way to see a doctor. Whoever that woman was, she did all the paying of the examinations and paperwork- whew! We went to some place in the middle of some businesses at first- yiiiikes! There were motorbikes parked inside and stairs to climb. Ly got an ultrasound and some blood drawn in the most unsanitary places ever! I was just FREAKED OUT! The guy doing the ultrasound didn't seem to know what he was doing and told her to roll off the table until they brought the paperwork showing she had paid. There were 3 jugs of water with a few cups for water- you just take a sip and put the cup back so others can use it. When Ly got her blood drawn the woman took the needle off of the syringe, tossed it into an open bottle that was being used as trash, then poured the blood into a tube, all of it exposed to the air and her hands. Ly was flipping out and said this was not what she knew in Hai Phong. After being there for a while we got back into the car and headed to another place- the hospital! TROI DAT OI!

At the hospital the man who saw Ly said she needed surgery right away- WHOA HELLLLOOO MY FREN!!! Ly jumped off the bed that had only a bamboo sheet-like cover and said she needed to go home or to the hotel and wasn't going to let anyone cut her open. OMG can somebody help us one time! This woman who was with us insisted that Ly stay in the hospital. How could we be sure they weren't going to cut her open? There was no communication going on between the doctor and us, just that one woman, the doctor, and a nurse were discussing what to do with her. It finally hit me- duh! I should call Huong!!! She'll help me or at least tell me what the heck is going on!! So after struggling with Lam to borrow his phone because he didn't think it was necessary to call her, I finally called. Huong spoke with the doctor for a bit and then the phones were disconnected :o( I tried calling back several times but the call wouldn't go through, ugh! The doctor asked me in English what my name was and what kind of people I was- I told him I was from the US and he didn't understand me. California! United States! USA??? AMERICA!!! ohhhh AMERICA he says! OMG where's Thomas when I need him to say "help-o moi" in his attempt to speak Spanish and French! -at least to make me laugh if nothing more :o/

I ran over to Le and asked to borrow her phone to see if I could get through to Huong- yessss! It worked! Huong said Ly's appendix might be infected and she might need surgery but they needed to run more tests. What kind of tests, I asked because the ultrasound and blood test at that funky place downtown didn't help much so I don't know what else they planned to do. Huong said it wasn't up to us, it was up to the doctor and Ly could die if it was her appendix. Yes I knew that but W-T-F, this doctor just wants to cut her open and check, I don't think so! Huong said we needed to convince Ly to stay just to be checked and make sure it wasn't her appendix. Then we needed to contact her parents and let them know if it was so they could come down and be with her....okie dokie then! So I had Le convince Ly that she would be ok and they just needed more testing to make sure she was ok. Alrighty then- everyone back into the car to go to another building that has hospital rooms and beds!

A nurse came with us this time and was just completely in awe at how FAT I WAS!!! (It wasn't like she was so thin herself either, for being Vietnamese anyway) I was in no mood to be rubbed on the belly and this woman was trying hard to do it! I caught her hand two separate times and said no no no! She did it anyway toward the end when I was watching the doctor check Ly. She just slipped past the door and rubbed my stomach- grrrr!!! Then later she took her umbrella and patted my behind while waiting for the elevator- W T F, I'm serious! (I've had my fill already of all the 'fat attention' and I expect it to happen less from professionals, grrr! But does it motivate me to lose weight? OFC not! There is too much to eat around here and I only have a month left, let's be real!). Anyway this hospital area was no different than some highrise apartment building in the US. People came in and out unsupervised with all sorts of items. When we pulled up to the front door we had to wait because someone was being taken off a bed and put into a taxi. On the way out I saw someone being take home on a motorbike with leg injures- I caught that one on film!

We made our way up several floors on a crowded elevator. Le and I covered our faces and signed that most of these people were sick and we were probably going to catch something- OMG!!!! We finally made it to the floor we needed to go to and went down a long hall- the view of from there was spectacular!!! I took some pictures then ran ahead to catch up to the gals and the nurse. There were rooms and rooms and rooms with at least 6 beds in each and with at least 2 people to a bed. The beds are just frames with a bamboo sheet-like cover. OMG! Ly flipped out when the nurse told her to go hop on the bed next to some old lady- so did I! The doctor came right away and Ly refused to get on the bed with the old lady. Everyone else just watched. There had to be at least 12-15 other people in there sharing beds, some with IVs, some with patches on their eyes, heads, etc. WOW!!!! I took a hall photo that was it because I didn't want to be intrusive but I was just shocked! Ly and Le said Hai Phong is nothing like this and they couldn't believe this was a medical facility- neither could I! The doctor finally convinced Ly to share a bed with a guy in the middle of the room. The guy was made to sit up so Ly could lay down and the doctor could examine her. All the other patients just watched us all wondering what was going on I'm sure- a fat malaysian looking woman, a white guy, and 3 deaf vietnamese once again!

So I'm not sure what all went down in the room after the nurse came by and rubbed my stomach because I got so upset I took off down the hall. The next thing I knew, Ly and Le were rushing away telling Scott, Lam, and I to hurry up and catch the elevator down to the bottom to go back to the hotel. We got stopped at the elevator by the nurse and this anonymous woman paying Ly's bills- Le argued with her a bit and then we hopped on the elevator. The nurse held it open (that's when she patted my rear with her umbrella) and wouldn't let the elevator go down. She was waiting for the woman to double check if we had permission to leave I guess. I kept hearing "khong this and khong that, khong, khong, khong" from the both of them but we left downstairs anyway. Ly said she was not going to stay and that her pain would pass if she could just get some rest at the hotel. So we finally got out of that building and made a run for the car only to discover Chung our driver had disappeared! FANTABULOUS! It's ok it was only in the upper 80s today so we were peachy. We waited a about 10min til he finally showed up. I hollered for him a few times and just got stared at by people sitting around. My group didn't hear me of course! Chung took us back to the hotel where we found Thomas sitting at the dining table alone with all of the food, hahaha.

Thomas had had his own adventures this morning! He had 6 visits, 2 were for cleaning the room and the other was this woman (we think she's the hotel owner but we don't know for sure) who came to check up on him over n over bringing him water, medicine (apparently the same kind I was given), and then making him go downstairs to eat. I guess Thuy called the hotel and told them they better not be buying food for our meals from the street vendors and better be going to the market because we were all sick. We think Ly had some bad milk this morning at breakfast but who knows. She is still in pain but she slept a good chunk and is up and around again. All I know is she better not die on my clock and in this room with me!! I told her if it's her appendix she can die! She isn't having anyone tell her what to do or how to do it so- here I am. Since I've been typing I've gone to the restroom 3 times. Those pills helped me for about 2hrs is all and all it did was stall what was coming anyway :o/

I packed oatmeal, peanut butter and malt-o-meal for this trip...looks like that's what I'm having for dinner!

The lobby of the first medical place we went to.

The main hospital building

The hallway leading to the hospital rooms with tons of patients- There's even 1 on the floor if you look closely past the girls.

This guy got released and was getting taken home by mo-to!

PS-

If you click on the individual pictures you should be able to get a better view of the details- like the farmwork or the cows. Ok happy Monday to everyone, goodnight!

Until next time and goodnight :o)

At the corner street of our hotel in Thanh Hoa. Across from this is a home that roasts ducks in plain sight. We haven't seen these ducks for a few days now but we've seen some roasting so we think that's where they went.

The back of Thuy's school. Those are banana trees against the back wall there.

This was somewhere on the way to Thanh Hoa City

On the way to Sam Son Beach

Ha Noi's famous water puppet show. It was pretty cool to watch even though it was all in Vietnamese after the introduction in Vietnamese, French, and English.

Some more pictures

Rush hour traffic in Ha Noi on a Saturday Night

What we saw one day this past week when we arrived back to the hotel for lunch- talk about fresh chicken!!


My current view from the hotel room.

DRAGONFRUIT!!! Isn't it beautiful?!?

Look closely, the boy has a crab on a string. This reminded me of the stories my mother told me about having beetles as kites.

A few pictures before I go to bed....

Sam Son beach this past Thursday morning- young and old enjoy the beach at all hours

People working in the late afternoon. The bigger green spots are the bunches of rice plants tied together.

On Friday we had a camera crew show up at Thuy's school to interview Scott and film the students working on learning language and making these frames.

A typical day in the week on the way to our school site- cows letting us share the road with them.

Sunday was a blur!

I spent my one whole day off sleeping with the ac full blast- oh what a wonderful day! Now it's around 2am Monday morning and I can't get back to sleep. This past week felt like a month with all of the changes in schedule, meetings, and adventures in the heat and rain we had. I tried to post messages a couple of times but either the internet was down or the government is on my tail already- it just wouldn't work.

This week we are teaching Monday and Tuesday then heading to Hai Phong on Wednesday for that conference that everyone here has been buzzing about. We plan to stay in Hai Phong the rest of the week, hoping to take a trip to Ha Long Bay for a night or two before returning to Thanh Hoa to continue teaching.

Thomas won't be returning with us to Thanh Hoa since he will be going home on the 7th of July. We figured it isn't worth it for him to travel back and forth so many times if he is leaving at that time so he will be staying in Hai Phong and flying out to Ho Chi Minh City on the 6th to fly home. I'll miss Thomas. We have been each other's sidekick this whole time.

Thomas when I showed him my passport and told him that I had gotten mine back and didn't know why he didn't get his back. (I was actually given all 3 of them back but I wanted to have a little fun). He searched everywhere thinking he had gotten it back but couldn't remember where he had put it.

That's my diaper he's wearing! Don't ask, just enjoy the show hahaha!

We bought face masks and had some fun sporting them on the way home. There isn't much to do in Thanh Hoa when we aren't teaching.

Jello hanging out of his mouth after I had my turn playing with mine. We don't have much to do when we are back at the hotel for the night so we get creative!

Deaf goldmine!

We were taken to the goldmine of the Thanh Hoa Deaf on Tuesday only to be left crushed! Wednesday we were allowed to take up teaching with these students and by the end of the day we were told we were done. We don't really know for sure why but there are rumors among the staff and students that a teacher complained to administration that our style of teaching was not ok. We had all of the students sit on the floor in a half a circle (although they were so excited it was hard to keep them in place) instead of at their desks in rows. You deaf educators know what I'm talking about and why that's important. We had lots of interaction, communication, and learning taking place alllll day! The student's were just so motivated and eager to learn learn learn. 

Anyway long story longer, someone apparently wasn't ok with our style and decided to report us to the big boss...We are still wondering why, if that was an issue, we weren't just asked to change it and then continue. What I gather is that the students were having too much fun learning and that's not what education is about I guess. That doesn't only happen here- I've seen it in classes across the city, in San Jose and in the central valley. Some educators just feel that education should be a grueling task and situation. I've been hated on directly for engaging students in whatever I'm teaching- oh shame on me for teaching in a way that reaches someone :o( So Wednesday was a precious moment being among so many deaf students who were so eager to communicate with us. All of those students live at the school and come from extremely poor families who aren't able to care for them. There was a new gal there who was still trying to adjust- I can't imagine how these students must feel at first when they are taken from their families not knowing much about what's going on and moving away from what is familiar to them to a place with letters and numbers and strict rules to live by- I found out this gal still cries a lot and 1 of the aides there who is deaf tries to comfort her and explain to her that she is going to be ok. Do you think it's too late to get a bus and jack the kids from the school??? I have been wondering who benefits more from these students' works and how much do these students actually receive? Are they being exploited in exchange for a place to sleep and food to eat? What we heard over and over again was that these students were going to have a hard time learning and were going to be afraid of us. I guess since the faculty and admin. didn't get the reaction they expected they had to figure something out fast- so sitting on the floor is cause for termination :o( 

Wednesday was a super emotional day to say the least- super excited to arrive at the school and begin teaching and totally crushed at being told no more just 1 day. 

Thursday we were back at Thuy's and she had more students for us. This group is adorable and the set up is super flexible. Every moment is a teaching moment so even on our breaks we are having discussions and gesturing for the ones who don't read, write, hear, and/or speak. Thanh is still my favorite and Thuy (his mother) is still pushing for me to "bring him to america" to feed and educate him. Tomorrow is Friday (well in a few minutes actually) and we are going with Thuy's group to Sam Son to spend the morning at the beach. We leave here at 7am and that's about all I know. Our plans change every little while. Like on Tuesday for example, we were on our way back to Thuy's after lunch and our car made a U-turn in the parking lot and took off. Our students just stared and waved at us very confused and we too were very confused. That was the day we were taken to the deaf school to prepare for the next day. Nobody told us we were going to do that. I'm learning we have to just go with the flow around here. So someone just came knocking at our door a few minutes ago to tell us to be ready at 6:30 and that we will be teaching after lunch. Originally we were told we would teach in the morning at the beach and then play in the afternoon....just go with the flow self, just go with the flow.

I should be sleeping

Ok it is going on 12am and I really should be sleeping but Scott let me borrow his laptop and we were able to connect to the internet here. Where is here??? Well we are staying in the capital of Thanh Hoa Province which is Thanh Hoa City. We are somewhere in the middle of town I think because there is a really busy street at the corner and that is the street we took to get into town.

Sunday afternoon we took a bus, that held the 12 of us, down to Thanh Hoa from Ha Noi. It was a loooooong hot drive but very scenic. There were lots of ponds, lakes, and rivers along the way. I saw REAL banana trees with bananas! What do you know!!! That was exciting, for me anyway. I saw jackfruit trees as well. Who knew those giant things grew on trees, as heavy as they look. Plenty of rice paddies lined the bodies of water we passed. I was able to snap a few pictures of people working in the early evening- bent over plucking out stem-looking plants ever so gently and tying them up into bunches. What a task! So it makes you wonder- Why is rice so cheap??? Scott and I agree that it's because of where it comes from and who the laborers are- I bet if a place like France were growing and harvesting rice we would be paying top dollar for each little grain!

I know I may seem a bit pointed in my writings but really- what's going on here? Let's not dance around and pretend! I'm just making observations and from what I see, there seems to be a lot going on that isn't fair....but I'm just sayin...

Anyway so when we arrived on Sunday evening we drove right through the town and kept on driving. We ended up at the edge of the land, hee hee. Sam Son! We were at a beach town that was just crawling with life! Beautiful bright colored kites stretched out allll along the beach as far as the eye could see. There were people swimming in the lukewarm water, street vendors with lots of shells and toys for sale, bicycles everywhere, restaurant huts set up all along the sand, carnival rides, carnival games, music, what sounded like karaoke, vendors at the waters edge selling peanuts and these large rice paper looking snacks, sand sculpture artists and their works on display, and not one foreigner to be seen- until we arrived! People were very curious about us. Here we were a group of characters never before seen, it seemed like- deaf hands signing in the air, white skinned men, a fat almost-asian-looking woman... Nevermind how amazed we were with the town- WE were a sight to see! Kids followed us and watched from every angle. Vendors tried to make a sale but no one heard them except for me and I wasn't sure what they were saying. It was fun times! We were all so excited to not be sitting down anymore in that hot van and to have the seabreeze cool us off- ah big sigh!

We spent a few hours there taking in the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the area. People from Ha Noi who were friends with some of the educators of Thanh Hoa drove down to have dinner with us- it was a feast! Lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun figuring out communication between English, Vietnamese, Vietnamese Sign Language, and American Sign Language- GOOD TIMES!

On Sunday more people came to meet us from Thanh Hoa and we spent most of the day having meetings, finalizing our work schedule, and getting ready to be left alone to work- No more Anh and no more Huong (I was spelling her name wrong, sorry). They returned to Ha Noi on Sunday afternoon and then it was me, the hearing one, and 5 deaf people left to find our way with the hotel services and work- I have to say our first day alone was great! No major problems except for Lam, one of the deaf aides can be a bit overprotective of us at times and come off as rude to others. We are working on that. I had to tell him we survived just fine without him for a whole week prior to him joining us- the gals just laughed and agreed. He is just so eager to help. Not to worry there are plenty of students he can help ;o)

So our work schedule is Monday through Saturday. We leave the hotel at 730am and come back for a 3hr rest/lunch in the middle of the day, go back to work and end at 430pm- although today no one came to pick us up until 5ish. We were told there are 2 locations where we will have classes but we only toured 1 place on Sunday. We are also alternating locations between the days except for tomorrow- we go back to the same place we went to today.

This place we are using for class is Thuy's place. She runs an organization that helps disabled and orphaned children survive. The children make all sorts of artwork to sell and keep the organization running. The works I've seen around the place are just amazing! They are extremely talented children :o) Thuy says she majored in agriculture but after seeing so many children in the streets she dropped that and started helping them by teaching them skills and helping them survive. We met her parents today- they are very supportive. We have made them part of our class and so they are our ong ba ngoai- our grandparents. Thanh, the lil guy in the picture that I posted earlier, is Thuy's son as I learned this afternoon. He is such a bright kid and very loving. You can feel the love and care from Thuy's family- they love the work they do and they do it whole heartedly. Thanh- I'm going to steal him in my backpack and bring him to America. His family said I could if I am willing to feed him and get him through school- I just need to figure out how to get past security. Thomas has a point- those machines are going to detect Thanh's skeletal frame once I throw my backpack on that conveyor belt. I need to work on a better plan....

Ok the gals are falling asleep and I must get to bed too. It's lights out and then definitely a race to the shower in the morning. We were all running a little late this morning- our driver showed up and we were still having breakfast. Ok goodnight. Hope all is well in America! Enjoy the dry heat- it's the best kind of heat you can have for summer even if it's over 100degrees- trust me!

First day of School

Today is our first day of school- more details to come later. Right now we have to hurry and rush back because our break ends at 2pm. We have a mixture of students (young, old, deaf, hearing but disabled, etc) and only 15 today. We will gradually build up to having 60 but transportation is still an issue so we must be patient. The students we have today are Phuong, Anh, Thanh, Hoa, Ha, Mai, Duc, and others that I cant remember right now. We are working on learning the alphabet and creating name signs for everyone. I think this lil guy is going to be my favorite... muy listo and absolutely adorable!!

Thanh Hoa City

We made it to Thanh Hoa City in Thanh Hoa Province on Sunday evening. The area isn't as rural as we had expected. The way others had talked about the area we expected to see cows roaming the streets and have a hole-in-the-ground toilet or something! oh wait.....

Saturday- Goodbye Ha Noi

Ok I am down to the final hour in Ha Noi and I decided to post as much as I can then run up and gather my things to make the trip to Thanh Hoa City- a 4hr drive through some mountains I heard.

So Scott and Thomas arrived early on Thursday and we spent the day touring the city by foot and catching up on our flights over here. Later Anh and Hung arrived and we had a short meeting- 2hrs is short :o/ We finalized our plan for Thanh Hoa and then said our goodbyes to the women. The 3 of us, Scott, Thomas, and I headed over to see the infamous water puppet show :o) I've got pics I'll be posting later.

We ended the night with some fruit shakes and a light dinner. That morning before Scott and Thomas arrived I walked the lake alone at 5am- I have to tell you it was amazing to see all the groups that gathered to exercise. But mostly I wanted to share, 2 women walked by me, approached me, stared me down and then said FAAAAAT, while they rubbed their stomachs!! OMG! I don't know the word for fat in Vietnamese but I'm sure that is what they said- phonetically it sounded like 'caaaw'. I laughed and said yes then they continued walking... hahaha. What else could I do? For a minute I thought I was back home visiting my family where especially my grandpa and his wife love to call me fat! I'm glad somebody notices because I was living life with noooo freakin idea whatsoever, haha...

Anyway back to my week, on Friday we walked around the lake at 5am and enjoyed watching the exercising again. We don't just stand around and watch of course. We walk around the lake which takes about 30min. We had some delicious breakfast at the hotel and headed out to visit some museums. We went to the Prison where McCain was once held- lots of interesting stories about the Vietnamese political prisoners of war. Immediately you can see that the US prisoners were more like at a hotel than a prison compared to how the Viet prisoners were treated. More pictures on that to come later- hopefully.

We then went to the Vietnamese Women's Museum- was this my favorite you ask? well how did you know! The best part was the 3rd floor where a new research project posted its findings on a recent study about street vendors and the apparent new legislation that just past July 2008. This project included 1000 interviews of women street vendors from Ha Noi to gather their histories. I can't even do it justice to describe this- over 100 of the women's stories were posted all along the walls of this room with photos. It was just so overwhelming to learn about all of these women and their struggle to survive, keep their families surviving, and help their husbands bring in income for those who had husbands. So many stories of hardship, travelling from far outside the city to sell goods they made or harvested, trying to find places to stay for cheap if the profit wasn't enough to get them back home, etc etc. Just amazing women of strong will and resistence. You have to come and see the museum for youself but also come and visit those women in real life here on the streets trying to make a sale that brings in pennies so they can survive one day at a time.

That said I have to tell you during my time wandering the streets alone I met several vendors whom I stopped to chat with. The problem with trying to practice your Vietnamese is that the reaction I get is fluent Vietnamese spoken back to me and then I'm in trouble! Nevertheless I enjoyed chatting however haphazardly as I could trying to understand them and learn a little about who they were. I met Hoa, an elderly woman selling fans and bracelets on my way to the market. Later that day I ran into her at the lake where we were buying ice cream for 3.VND which is about 5 cents. I said "chao!" and she laughed at me for remembering her then walked off pointing to me and telling her friends something. Another time I met another woman named Toai- the spelling is all phonetic, sorry- she was selling toys and fans. I talked to her a bit and bought a few things from her. Last night I ran into her again and she called me back. I told her it was my last night in Ha Noi and I would be leaving to Thanh Hoa to work. She was very sweet. I would say she was at least 70yrs old. I bought some fans from her and told her I might see her today before I left. I don't think I have time for that.

At the lake I met another woman named Wei and her grandson Bop. He was just so full of energy! Wei asked me to take him home with me because she was so tired hahaha. We chatted a bit and then she ran off because Bop had run off into the crowd.

Meeting these women was all before I went to the museum and I already had such great admiration for them and the work they do. I know how it is in the Mexican community where people have to do the same to survive. I also know that even those who aren't street vendors but struggling to survive still have to find similar ways to survive. I remember my mother staying up plenty of nights burning out her eyes to sew "monitos" to sell in order to make ends meet or baking cakes and cheesecakes half the night or selling avon. Women are just courageous but often go by unseen. These women here that I met were amazing. Even though we may not fully understand each other with words, there was an understanding. These women are just so amazing- you have to come and meet them for yourself. The loads they carry- both figuratively and literally!

Well, folks it looks like our ride has arrived early :o( so Scott is rushing me to check out of the room. I'll have to catch up with you next time. There is just soooooo much I wish I could tell you- I am inspired in every way, even by anger at times for the injustices that I see. Well off I go. 4hrs of driving and hope we have some ac and internet wherever we go....til next time... hopefully before I take off ;o) xin chao ban cua toi, em yeu!!!

City life and landscape in Ha Noi

The lake I mentioned earlier

Several trees along the lake grow out sideways like this with roots exposed. BEAUTIFUL!


At the northern end of the lake where several streets meet and traffic is wild!


A bridge at the lake that takes you to the middle where you can learn more about the history of Ha Noi and the story of the golden turtle. It is believed that a giant tortoise still lives in the lake today.


Is this freakin awesome or what??? The vegetation here is just amazing!

Street Market

These pictures are from the a 1mile radius around the hotel. I have to tell you some more about this when I get a chance.

Trai Cay mmmmm

Fresh fruit I bought at the market in the Old Quarter







10minutes later, hee hee hee

The Hotel: Bao Khanh

This was my room the 1st three nights. Turns out my AC was broken and I thought it was just a fan so I kept quiet. My shared room with Scott and Thomas works like an icebox. OMG was I missing out! I took it as a lesson to prepare for what might come in Thanh Hoa. It does feel good to get some real sleep and not be sweating on all night now. OH also the hotel gives free breakfast and I had nooo idea! I'm not just talkin bagels either- what is that around here anyway :oP I'm talkin lots of fresh fruit, soups, different "cakes", an assortment of drinks, etc. Not to worry my frens- I definitely made up for the 3 missing days these past few days ;o)