Was it thu nam or lam?

Meeting the students on our first day teaching at Tuong Lai

The teachers watching us and wondering what our plans were.

Students reacting to us- they liked us! Whew!

Catching up on posting!!! It's working so far!!!

Today is Thursday July 5th early evening and I know I have been absent for a few days so I have a lot of catching up to do. First I will tell you about the Deaf School in Da Nang then I will tell you all the craze that took place before I actually arrived to Da Nang.

Tuesday morning at 7:45am we got a call to our hotel room that there was a teacher waiting for us downstairs. Scott and I were planning to walk to work since on the map it showed we were only about a mile or less away. Oh Viet Nam!!! Never a dull moment and never a set schedule :o) We went downstairs to find this unknown person and find out what the plan was. We met a nice woman, whose name fails me at the moment, all dressed up in a dress, nylons, short heels, etc. Oh, are we underdressed, I asked Scott? It's hot n humid in Viet Nam and we aren't about to wear nylons! Besides I bet people have a better chance convincing Scott to wear a dress than convincing me!!! Scott brushed off the dressing up idea and so I followed- eh fuck it!

Side note- in Cao Bang back in 2009 two from our group were asked to wear a little more clothes so this is why I was checking in. It hasn't been a problem so far though so I think we're good :o)

We told the teacher we would walk and meet her there and her eyes bulged out! "too far!!!!!" she said. I told her were fine and we could manage since we had already looked at a map. She insisted it would be too far so Scott suggested we take a taxi for the first day and then walk later. Sounded like a plan! We hopped into a taxi n offered the teacher a ride. She pointed at her moto and told the taxi to follow us- okie dokie, let's go around the corner!

We took off, following the teacher as she went straight ahead. Whoa wait a minute, we missed our right turn!! She kept on and turned left at a major intersection. I told Scott we weren't going to where we thought we were! We looked out the windows and watched for landmarks and street names so we could know where to walk after work or in the morning...1 block...2 blocks...3 blocks...4 blocks...more blocks...more turns...I lost count and lost my sense of direction! Crap! This IS far! No wonder the teacher looked worried, ha!!

20 minutes later we arrived to a construction site, huh? Oh, it was the school!!! Beyond the construction was a group of moving blue uniforms- the kiddies!!!!

We paid the taxi driver and followed the teacher into a room on the first floor. There we met a man who asked if we brought an interpreter or if we knew Vietnamese. Uh oh! You know Scott had juuuuust mentioned that, saying what if we get there and there's no one who knows English and we don't know enough Vietnamese? I had an idea! We could call Ms. Minh and Tony- the ones who booked everything for us! I gave the teacher their business card and she dialed the number. Ms. Minh was out of the office but Tony was back from Europe, whew! I spoke to Tony and he was more interested in talking about the drama in Ha Noi and whether we wanted to hang out in Hai Phong with him before we left to Hoa Ky at the end of the month. I laughed and told him we could talk about that later but for now we had a situation- we couldn't communicate with the hearing people on campus! I needed him to explain to this man (who said he was in charge of the school but not a principal and not a signer or knowledgeable about the deaf) who we were and why we were there.

The principal of the school, Ms. Thuy, is currently in San Jose visiting family and planning on visiting the Deaf Education program where Scott works. So while she's at his school, we're at hers. We have never met each other and have only been connected via email through Tony and Ms. Minh.

We managed to explain to the teacher and this man that we were there to do an exchange of English/ASL with Vietnamese/VSL. By 8:20 am we were off to meet the students and a group of teachers. There were 22 of students and about five teachers. This was only half of what we had been told. The range of ages were from 8-18yrs old. Cool! This mysterious man did a quick introduction while one of the teachers interpreted in VSL. Then we were up- we introduced ourselves and asked for all of the students to do the same. What a quick bunch! The teachers looked cautiously at us while the students fully embraced us immediately. I'd do the same! The teachers really don't know what we're up to until we arrive and start teaching so of course I think they'd feel protective! By the end of the hour the teachers were talking amongst themselves, copying the English/Vietnamese from the board, and smiling at us- yay! I'd call that a success!

The students were all very eager to communicate with us and find out what we were all about as well. I'd say our first day went as perfect as it could've gone....except that we were so far away from where we thought we would be and that would be an extra 10$/day in expenses...remember I told you I was already stressing on my budget.

When we returned to our hotel, I emailed Ms. Minh to ask if she could find us anything closer. Scott n I decided we should move closer to walk to work everyday or at least lower the taxi cost. I was up for renting a moto to work everyday but Scott wouldn't do it.

Wednesday went well and we had some choices of hotels too. We toldMs. Minh we would do some investigating and research then let her know which hotel we preferred. After work that day we walked over to the nearest hotel and checked it out. It was about half the price of where we are now and the wifi was great. We negotiated back and forth and were able to include breakfast as well. We checked out the room and then told the hotel staff we would move in on Thursday morning. When we arrived to our hotel Scott thought we should reevaluate... I agreed. We looked at the costs again and the amenities and location. That hotel was way out in the middle of nowhere and the room was dark, there was no window view, no one else seemed to be there, and there were not many restaurants around.

So for now I think we are good to stay where we are and enjoy the area in the evenings.