Friday Evening

It is 10:30 pm on Friday evening, which makes it 7:30 am in Washington. Tonight I joined Dashal in teaching her English class. She and Nick are both teachers at a small school; they share in the teaching of four different classes. Tonight was Intermediate 2 and Advanced 1. School children in Vietnam are taught English in their schools, so often have vocabulary and grammer, but do not have that many chances in actually speaking it. So these classes are primarily conversation classes. Tonight we played "20 Questions" and I was the subject. Dashal formed 3 questions about me they had to find the answers to: (1) Where do I work? (2) Where did I live when I was 10? (3) What accident happened to me when I was 15. They worked in groups to ask me the "yes" or "no" questions. For the intermediate group, the question about my work was a difficult one. Churches are not very common here; and when they finally got the answer (after a number of clues), they were very surprised that I was a minister (because I am a woman). The second class, which were more advanced and older - most of them are college students, were more able to narrow things down and got the answer rather quickly. The students are a lot of fun, and quite curious. I truly enjoyed myself. They obviously like Dashal and Nick quite a bit.

So what else have we been doing? Walking around Hanoi a lot. Wednesday we were in the Old Quarter, and walked around Hoan Kiem Lake, which is between the Old and French Quarters. It is a famous lake that once was part of the Red River, but when the river shifted (in 1490), it left this lake. The tour book states that it achieved legendary status during the 15th century reign of Le Loi when a giant tortoise seized a sword the emperor had used to oust Chinese occupation forces. The name of the lake means "lake of the restored sword." There is one giant softshell tortoise left that lives in the lake. In the middle of the lake is a small island on which is Ngoc Son ("jade mountain") Temple. It commemorates the temple's three patron saints: Van Xuong, guardian of literature; Quan Vu, master of martial arts; and Lac To, protector of medicinal arts. It also honors a 13th century hero who routed the Mongols, Tran Hung Dao. There is also a preserved and gilded former resident of the lake, a 550 pound giant tortoise. Below are some photos taken at the temple.

This is the gate to the Temple from Huc Bridge

Dashal & me on the bridge


An altar in the temple

I've eaten in quite a few little food cafes. I'm actually not really sure what to call them. The one at the end of Dashal's alley is really just a food stall, with little plastic tables and stools the size we would have for children. The food is cooked over the charcoal burners, and is sitting out for you to pick and choose from. So yesterday we had rice with beef, cabbage, cauliflower, and anchoives. You really have to let go of any concerns about hygiene. Everyone wipes off the chopsticks and spoons with napkins - I suspect that they were probably rinsed since the last person who used them. It is the same for the dishes. The food is not covered. But it is very tasty. Dashal & Nick have rarely gotten sick here. So I am hopeful I will survive this without falling ill! For lunch today, we were slightly more upscale, inside (though everything is open air shops, about 10-12 feet wide, which have only a gate or grill or metal sliding door to close them up at night), with a real size table and stools. Things were slightly cleaner - today's lunch was fried noodles with beef and kale, I think.

I've also taken advantage of their beauticians. Getting a shampoo and cut here is quite the experience. One lays down on a little table to get your hair washed, your head and face massaged. Again, this was in a little shop off one of the alleys. The back room is where I got my hair washed. The ceiling (which was the main view I had) was disconnected from one of the side walls. The paint was cracked and peeling. And there was dust on everything except where I lay. While we were being ministered to, a man walked through and into a room further in, which turned out to be the kitchen, cause he started cooking his meal. I assume the other living spaces were inside there. Then we went out to the outer room to get it dried. I actually had it cut the day before in another shop. Everyone is so amazed at how much Dashal and I look alike. She lives in an area where there are very few other Westerners. In fact, today we did not see any other Westerners until we got to the school. Everyone is also interested in my age. This is because they have to know what to call me. If they are young like the students, they basically call me "old woman" (though I am sure in a very polite way!). If they are close to my age but younger, then they call me "older sister"; if older by a few years, then "younger sister." If the same age as me, then I am called by a term that basically means "friend."

That is enough for tonight. I end with a photo of the main transportation. Nick took me on their motorbike to the Old Quarter yesterday (Dashal followed on a motorbike taxi). It's crazy traffic, but he did a good job. I wasn't nervous at all!