October Holy Cow I'm So Glad It's Break

     Bliss.  It is Saturday night, and I have the whole week off!  Nemo is the Saturday night movie on Disney Playhouse.  We just finished a dinner not nearly Charles Waugh quality, and it is officially time for the evening cocktail.  Charles, by the way, is most likely at a Cambodian Wedding with our friend Joel Conkle in Phnom Penh at this moment.  He left this morning to have a couple of days to explore and live an adult life.  He deserves it.  Joel lives and works in public health there, and is one of Charles' favorite people to argue with.  Has the makings for a great weekend for him.

     One of my favorite stories of the week was about Charles' trip to the Cambodian Consulate when he went to get a visa for his trip.  When he went to the pay window, they told him the cost of his visa, and everyone in the room laughed.  They explained that he could pay $10.00 less if he did not want to "expedite" his visa and wanted to come back later to pick it up.  

     We have felt this a lot lately - our "special price" because of the color of our skin.  Charles has taken  joy in playing hard nose in any flexible paying situation, walking away, paying for Xeom rides (motorbike) up front, and walking away from deals completely.  Quite honestly, our price is always at least twice that of the Vietnamese.

     I had my own trip to the American Embassy last week to get a document notarized.  To be sure, I idealized what I though a trip to an American Embassy abroad would be like.  You know, stately, refined people speaking in dignified whispers and cozy wing tip chairs in which to wait. Quite honestly if I had closed my eyes, I could have been at the DMV on Decker Avenue in Columbia, SC.  How do they do that?  How do they create that "Everybody's the same and everybody's stupid" DMV feeling half way around the world?  The guy who was pissed off and started threatening to give up his U.S. citizenship got to go before me even thought it wasn't his number.  How does that happen?

     I get to go to Hong Kong at the end of the week for a leadership conference.  Added an extra day for SHOPPING!  I am hoping to complete most of my Christmas shopping in one day.  Here, it is so hard to find things, and when you do, they are in 15 different stores.  The conference sounds like a good one too, incidentally.  :  )

     Maeve made my week when she said, out of the blue and while she was coloring,  "I used to be afraid of moving, but now I like it.  Know I know I can be happy moving anywhere. " It's amazing how kids let you know things that you want to know at just the right moment...

     Maeve's world of literacy is exploding.  She is beginning to read early texts, and her favorite thing to do in my classroom after school is create elaborate picture stories on the board.

Here is one of her most recent, involving a giant bird, a giant flower, and Sophie saving the day with her sword.

When she was done with it she said "Daddy, write And they live happily ever after... at the bottom.  He started, and she said "No Dad, in Chinese!" and proceeded to create a caption of what looked like Chinese characters.  "What does it say?"  Charles asked.  We didn't understand her answer.

   One cartoon on our one kids channel Playhouse Disney has made a particular impression on Sophie.  It is called Safety Patrol.  Charles hates it.  The kids stop the story line to say things like "Uh Oh, can you point out the safety violation here?" when a kid is walking up a playground slide the wrong way.  Then Charles says louder "Make sure you do what you want to!"  Anyway, the other night I was waiting in Sophie's bed for her to go to the bathroom before we read books.  Sophie came in, held up her finger and said "Uh oh.  Safety violation.  I forgot to wipe!"  (A divergent attitude from her sister who says "I always wipe.")

     We are proud owners of a safe.  I have to admit it makes you feel  like you have bucks, even when it holds only dollars that belong to my school to pay for my Hong Kong conference and our passports.  We have been advised again and again to have one.  With workmen and maintenance workers in and out, all who make probably $6000 US Dollars a year, some people in apartments have problems.  There is also the running out of Dong factor.  Most people go to the bank for their big black bag of Dong (See last week's post.) and stock their safes with a month's cash.

     Charles and Sophie made it to the Vietnamese History Museum to see the water puppets.  (Traditional Vietnamese puppet show in water.)  Can't help you visualize-haven't seen it yet.  Made a huge impression on Sophie.  Maeve and I are looking forward to going back with her this week.  Charles said they watched the show with an Irish tour group.  When he walked into the room, he laughed.  "Everyone looked like you." he said.  I think it struck him much in the way that I feel like I look like most of the women in the room when I go into a restaurant in Michigan in the summer.  And yet heightened.  We spend our days amidst tight, skinny, small Asian bodies.  Yes, we have lost a few pounds.  The girls are looking svelte and angular.  But by no means do we blend into the crowd.

     Last week was a tough one at school. With parent conferences and other extras, it was stressful.  This week ushered in the bottom of the pile!  I am hopeful that it is the beginning of a new comfort.  I can feel my real teaching "chops" coming back.  It is a good feeling. The lower school unanimously and emphatically said they would like to have books instead of basal readers this week.  The curriculum director asked my opinion about the matter just once, and after a passionate half hour soliloquy , I am not sure she is happy she did.  Even though it wasn't mine, the decision felt like a victory.

     One of the things I am beginning to accept, is that nothing is the same in Vietnam.  And I don't mean that it is not the same as the States.  It is not the same here.  If you find a good product at the store, you may not be able to get it again, even in the same afternoon.  If you know a restaurant or shop, it will move or close.  If you figure out how to do something, procedures change.  I have already mentioned the continuous construction everywhere.  It changes the physical landscape in ways that make you wonder if you have gone the right way... Charles said the theory goes that as a culture, the Vietnamese don't place an importance on consistency and live in the moment in ways we may not understand, mainly because of their continuous experience with war.  This country has lived in a state of uncertainty for as long as they can remember. They can't count on what is going to happen tomorrow.

     I had a couple of wonderful finds at our corner grocery store this week.  The first is a Vietnamese alphabet puzzle:

I was aware of all of the multiple sounds from the same letters because Vietnamese is a tonal language.  I was not aware of the missing letters like f, j, x, and y.  I wonder why the Vietnamese alphabet does not have these letters?

     These last find are the pieces des resistances...   I don't know what questions to ask. (?!?)

  

         More photos next time.  Hey - drop us an email sometime.  We miss hearing from people.  And when we miss events like the wedding of wonderful people like Alan and Joni, I get a little misty.  Enjoy your celebration you guys.  I know it will be one of the best parties on earth. We love you and will be there in our dreams....