Getting up at 5 AM to go walking with the dog. Who knew I would enjoy it this much? It's a lovely time of day, as there's often a bit of a breeze, and things are quiet at that time. Dandy and I watch the neighbourhood wake up while we walk. Sometimes we hear the gongs at the Buddhist temples in the area. The street sweepers are out at that time. They are a brigade of women who use twig brooms to sweep up the garbage, leaves, dirt and grass from the streets and gutters, and put it into their carts. I don't know where they empty them.

Street vendors can be seen setting up for the day. Some sell hot food, and are very popular for quick or leisurely breakfasts. The smell of the charcoal braziers is soothing. Then there are the vendors who sell produce, eggs, bread, meat, and fish. Sometimes I remember to take a bit of cash with me and pick up a few things while we're out. The produce and bread is delivered to the vendors by people on motorbikes. I don't know if the other products are also delivered, or if the vendors raise the products. There's a man near where I live who, early in the morning, can be seen cutting up sides of pork. 

Food, Beautiful Food- Again

Two months ago I moved to Vung Tau, which you know if you've been following at all. This is a smallish resort city whose claim to fame is the more than 80 kilometres of beaches. During the French occupation, it was known as Cap St. Jacques, and during the Vietnam war, it was where many American soldiers spent their R&R time. 

I am enjoying my new life here. I can get almost anywhere I want to go by bicycle without expending too much effort. The sea breezes really calm my soul. And the food! There are so many places to eat that it takes forever to make a decision about where to go. there are probably at least 50 places to eat within walking distance of my apartment! I have decided to go out for lunch every day when I'm not working, and for dinner at least once per week and to a different place each time. So far I've tried a Ukrainian, a Vietnamese/American, a couple more Vietnamese, a pub, a pizza place, and some places that cater to Eastern and Western tastes. And I would go back to every single one of them!

Yesterday I tried the Rhinoceros Inn. I didn't see any rhinos, but I did have a lovely bowl of soup and some fried cuttlefish. The soup called itself cold cucumber soup, but it was more like potato salad soup as it had, along with cukes and potatoes, boiled eggs and ham. Lovely cream and fresh dill, and it was refreshing. The cuttlefish was good as well. I wish they would adopt the Western custom of garnishing fish dishes with a wedge of lemon. 

Today at lunch time it was raining hard, so I waited and went out tonight instead. Now last Sunday I was at Ned Kelly's pub and had what I thought were the world's best onion rings, but I don't know. Tommy's, just up the street a bit, does a pretty good job too. It was a generous serving, and before I was finished I worried that I might not be able to do justice to the sea bass florentine I ordered.  However, I managed.

While I was enjoying my onion rings, a motorbike pulled up in front of the restaurant. One of the servers ran out to it and then ran toward the kitchen clutching a bag of something green. I have a sneaking suspicion that it may have been the spinach for my dinner! It was very good, served with a bit of cream sauce and a lovely bit of salad made of onions, yellow and green peppers, tomato, served on lettuce. The only thing wrong was the overgenerous amount of mayo on the salad. It was also served with the french fries that one sees everywhere here, and that I wish someone would just drop into the sea.

A ka phe sua da finished my dinner nicely, and I sipped it while watching the lights on the bay. Apparently the sea wall is the place to be in the evening, because tonight there were motorbikes and cars lining it all along the street. An altogether pleasant evening. 

2012- An Awesome Year

I am going to put one awesome thing that happened each month this year. check back, I'll be adding every month.


January- Freda came from Canada and we went to Cambodia

February- Said Hello to a new housemate from Canada

March- Said goodbye to two housemates from The USA

April- I'm sure something wonderful happened, I just have to remember it!

May- Was informed that my requested transfer to Vung Tau had been approved

June- Was honoured with a goodbye party by families of four of my students

July- Moved to Vung Tau

August- Started my new teaching assignment in Vung Tau

funerals

Let me make a disclaimer right here at the beginning. I have never been to a funeral in this country. I have never been to a church in this country. I am only giving you my impressions as an outsider.

Most of the people here seem to be Buddhist, and they also worship deceased ancestors and family members. I don't know if that's an aspect of Buddhism or not, but homes and business have shrines, and sometimes have pictures of family members who have passed on. 

I have seen many funeral processions pass by me. The deceased is carried an an elaborately decorated vehicle, and there are usually people all dressed in white in the vehicle too. The family wears white, I am not sure if all the mourners do, but I think so. I have most often seen these processions in the morning, and this morning I heard one before it was quite daylight. Sometimes there are more vehicles carrying more mourners, and the vehicles also have drums that the mourners are beating. There is loud music that is not at all what I think of as funeral music, with brass instruments and drums, and sometimes singing too. Some people are buried in cemeteries, others on land near the family home. Sometimes people are not buried, but put into a stone coffin? mausoleum? that sits above ground. Remember that this are is at or below sea level, and this is probably to keep the grave safe from flooding. 

On the anniversary of a death, the family comes together to celebrate the life that has gone before. I'm sure there are many other rituals, but as I say, I am an outside observer. Perhaps someday I'll have an opportunity to give you my first hand experience.

Right Place, Right Time

We often hear , and use , the phrase "...in the right place at the right time." I've always thought that things happen the way they are supposed to, whether or not we understand why it's just the way it should be. As I was getting ready to move from Binh Duong to Vung Tau a few weeks ago it struck me that this had happened in my life again.

If I back up a couple of years, we can take a look at what was happening in my life. I had just lost my job and been dumped my the fellow I had been seeing for a few months. Life was spiraling down, to the point that I lost my home. I heard about a young woman, daughter of a very dear friend, who was going to Korea to teach. I asked her mom how she found out about the job, and she gave me info on a website. I got busy and to make a long story short, came to Vietnam to teach.

The community I lived in was about 25 kilometres outside of Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam, but it might as well have been 2500 kilometres away. No hustle and bustle there! I fell into a routine, and was quite happy living and working in the area. I could walk to work in 10 minutes, there were a few good restaurants nearby, and I could take the bus into the city on the weekends for very little money.

Life rolled along pretty quietly until last January, when my friend Freda from Alberta came to visit. We spent a couple of days in Vung Tau, and my life was changed. I felt as though I'd come home to a place I'd never been before, to take a line from John Denver. I loved the place! The fact that it is a city built on the water was the biggest draw. The (mostly) clean appearance, wide streets and sidewalks, and low traffic flow didn't hurt either. As soon as I returned home I started working on being transferred to the school that my company operates in Vung Tau. The transfer came through, and here I am!

When I think about it, I believe that I spent two years in Binh Duong in order to acclimatize myself to the ways of the people around me, and to get back into the swing of teaching again. I had been out of the classroom for ten years, and didn't think I would ever be back! In that school I developed many close friendships, and I worked with the best principal I've ever had. I think that once I had experienced living and working in a quiet community for a time, I am now ready to live and work where the pace is a little faster.

This year I will take my motorbike or bicycle to work, as it is about two kilometres from home. Sure I could walk it, but it would be terribly hot by the time I got home. It would be hot in the mornings too, and who wants to come to work all sweaty and smelly?  I think I am ready to take on this new challenge. I'll let you know as things develop!

Prayerful Crafting

This post will be a little off the beaten track, unless you're one of the people who know me well. For those who know me, you know I have a love for crafting with fibre. And those who really really know me, you know I also have a love for my God. What better than to unify these two loves?

Several years ago I began knitting prayer shawls. these are any style of shawl that the crafter wants to make, with the blessings knitted into each stitch. The first shawls I made were in the Trinity pattern, which I thought was appropriate since the church I belong to is Trinity United  Church. It has a repeat of three knit, then three purl stitches. When I knit I say"God Is Love", and when I purl I say "God Loves You. Sometimes I change it up a bit by using other three syllable phrases, but you get the idea. The finished shawls are taken to the church where they are blessed by the minister and then given to someone who is deemed to be in need of one. The recipient never knows who the knitter is. A few years ago I was given one when I was bedridden after having surgery on my foot. It was a pattern I've never knit, and I don't know who made it, but every time I pull it around me I feel like I'm getting a big warm hug from the knitter, my church family, and God! And truthfully, I don't care who made it. I'm grateful for the fact that it was gifted to me.

Well in addition to knitting, I like to crochet granny squares. I can't let any scrap of fibre go to waste- when I don't have enough yarn for a project, I use it to make multicoloured granny squares. the ones I make start with a chain of 6, then they are joined and 12 double crochets are made into the ring. then there is a pattern on each subsequent row of three double crochets, one chain, three double crochets all the way around, for as many rounds as you want to make. I usually do 6. (Those of you who don't speak the lingo, bear with me here. I'll soon be to the neat part.)

Well look at the numbers here: everything builds on the Trinity of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I start with 6 chains, a multiple of 3. I make 12 DC's. I work in a pattern of 3 DC and a chain.I do this for 6 rounds. Are you seeing it? Of course you are, it's so obvious.

As I was working away this morning, I found that my stitches were falling into a rhythm: as I pulled the hook through the two loops of the first DC, I was saying "Fa-ther" on the two parts of the stitch. On the second stitch I was saying "Son and" and on the third I increased it to "Ho-ly Spir-it".HO was when I looped the yarn over the hook to draw it back through, LY  was as I drew the first loop through the two loops,SPIR was the loop being drawn through the  second set of two loops, and IT was when I made the single chain stitch. It all came together and felt so natural! I will try to post pictures of each step.

So now I can be prayerful when I am knitting and making granny squares. I have found that I can knit blessings into any knitted shawl pattern I care to make. Sometimes it's necessary to make the phrase longer or shorter. The important thing is that I work carefully and prayerfully, and continue to make these hugs for those who need them.

Playing Tourist

I have finally gotten to do some sigh-seeing in my adopted country. On a recent break from school a friend and I spent a few days in Vung Tau, a resort town a couple of hours from here. We booked a hotel before we left, but because we didn't know the area, we booked a little further from the beaches than we wanted to be. We traveled to Vung Tau on a hydrofoil which makes several trips each day. It took a little over an hour to get there, but sadly, we could not see out of the windows very well. I must admit that I slept most of the way there, waking up shortly before we pulled in to the boat landing.

The entire town is pretty well a tourist resort area. I had heard that there were three beaches, but truthfully, there were many more than that. Our hotel was within walking distance from the boat landing several restaurants, some tourist attractions, and Front Beach. We took a taxi to the hotel and rested, then went out for a walk of discovery. The most interesting thing we found was cable cars that would take passengers to a small resort on top of one of the mountains in the town. We did not take advantage of this as I am unable to ride in cable cars. We did find Tommy's Bar and Grill, where we had lunch and dinner the first day. The food was okay, but my biggest problem was in getting them to bring me a large glass of unsweetened milk. And if the food was okay, the margaritas were wonderful.

The nest day we went walking again after breakfast at Tommy's. We walked for a couple of hours, and saw fishers emptying their nets at Front Beach. This is not a beach where I would want to swim, because of all the boats that are in the area. There is a lovely park beside the beach that we strolled through. We found a lovely little bakery/ bistro for lunch, and in the afternoon hired a car and driver to take us to Long Hai Beach, about 15 km away. this was a much better beach. We rented chairs and I promptly fell asleep for most of the afternoon, not having slept well the night before. the bed I was sleeping in was not good for my poor back.

On our last day, we booked a car and driver for the afternoon and he showed us the sights around Vung Tau.At this point I was so tired from another sleepless night that all I really wanted to do was sleep. He took us to Giant Jesus, the second tallest statue of Jesus in the world. It stands on top of a mountain, and you can climb the 139 steps inside and walk out on Jesus' arms for a panoramic look at the area. My friend Freda climbed up to the statue but I didn't. You can look on You Tube to see what it looks like from Jesus' arms. We also saw some other beaches and the Vung Tau market, which is much bigger than it appears. This is a place that I will be going back to from time to time when I need to feed my soul, as it seemed to me as soon as I arrived there that I had come home to a place I'd never been to before.

Fashion

Fashion in Vietnam. It runs the gamut. For dressy occasions, many women wear outfits that would be called "trashy" in the west. The skirts are very short, and the necklines are very deep. Asian women are petite, and the dresses cling to their every curve, but too often they expose too much.

Casual wear for men and women is similar to what you would see in the west. Jeans and hoodies and t-shirts are common, but there's one big difference: it seems that graffiti on the clothing is desirable. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or not, as long as there is writing. I have seen t-shirts that have the word "preety" across the front. Misspellings are common. One hoodie I recently saw  said "5" an one line, and "love" on the next line. Huh? What could that possibly mean? But I think I've discovered what happens to the t-shirts and hoodies from the west that have mistakes printed on them: they ship them over here. Sports team names on clothing are popular too. Every I look I see someone wear ing clothing saying Manchester United.

Older folks, male and female, sometimes wear outfits that look like pyjamas. These are worn on the street, and the gaudier the print, the more popular the clothes. Older people especially don't seem to care about wearing stripes with prints, or colours that some might not wear together. And Asian men are not scared to wear pink shirts.

Brides usually wear western wear, white dressed with big billowy skirts. It's common for the bridal couple to get dressed up in all their wedding finery and have professional photos taken before the big day, and then the photos are displayed at the wedding reception. I haven't been to a wedding ceremony here, but  I did go to a reception. Both the bride and groom changed their clothes during the event, which is common.

Work wear depends on where one works. Dress can go from what I consider inappropriate, "trashy" clothing, to casual to business suits. Most workers wear clothing similar to what would be worn in the west. Many businesses have uniforms for their employees to wear.

Of course I couldn't talk about fashion without mentioning shoes. Flip flops and sandals are de rigeur for most people, old ,young, male, and female. They are called slippers, and many people have a pair that are called their "house slippers". Apparently Chinese superstition dictates that people wear slippers inside, otherwise bad spirits will sneak into your body through your feet. Everywhere on the streets one can see sandals and flip flops that have fallen off when the owner was on a motorbike. Many people wear socks with their sandals, and the socks are made with a split between the first two toes, much the same way that a mitten has a separate spot for the thumb. 

One custom that makes me laugh cynically is the way that women dress for outdoors. This is a tropical country, with hot sun almost every day. The women wear gloves that go to their shoulders, if they happen to be wearing a t-shirt, or a hoodie or sweater and short gloves. Hoods and hats are used to keep the sun off their faces. Some wear shorts or a skirt with thigh length stockings, and I don't mean panty hose weight. Every effort is made to stay out of the sun, and sadly, skin whitening cosmetics are common. It has nothing to do with avoiding skin cancer, and everything to do with no having brown skin. It's a holdover from times when peasants and poor people who laboured outside became tanned. The whiter the skin, the more beautiful a woman was thought to be. It made me very sad a few weeks ago when I complimented one of my colleagues on her beautiful complexion. Her response? Her skin wasn't white enough. White enough for what? Why can we never be happy with who we are?

Sunday Driving

Vietnam has hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of motorbikes. And sometimes they are all on the street where I want to be.

There are cars in VN, but they are a luxury many cannot afford. The sales tax on cars is 100% of the car's sale price. In other words, whatever you pay for your car, you will double the price by the time you pay the taxes.  If a person has the means to buy a car, they often will employ a driver. Many companies offer some key employees a vehicle and a driver. Most people, however,get around by motorbike. The motorbikes here are not the big chrome trimmed gas guzzling noise making machines we see on the roads in the western world, but instead little machines that have around 100 cc motors. i have been driving one since just after I got here, and recently bought my own rather than continuing to rent one. I drive very fast- maybe as much as 60 kph! Speed limits for bikes are usually around 50, and many people like to drive more slowly than that.

Two and three wheel vehicles are given a special lane on the extreme right of the road. This is true on the highways and on some streets, but not everywhere. That doesn't mean that only two and three wheeled vechiles use these lanes. Other vehicles, including big trucks, often pull into that lane before making a right turn. The thing that bothers me most is when I'm walking on the sidewalk and a motorcycle comes toward me, going the wrong way on the SIDEWALK, and the driver beeps for ME to get out of the way!!

There are no stop signs or yield signs anywhere that I have been in this country. Some places have lights, and most drivers pay attention to them, but you still have to look out for the crazies who don't.

Today I bought a bicycle. Believe me, bicycles here are nothing like the ones in North America. They have one speed- yours. my new bike is pink and says Queen on the frame. I think the dealer was waiting for me to come along. At about $75 it was one of the most expensive models in the shop. When riding, it feels like my feet are going very fast. I think adjusting the seat may help with that. Anyway I'm hoping that driving my bike instead of my motorbike sometimes may help with my age old weight issue. We'll see how it goes.