Second week of competitions and our weekend at the beach

The Friday competitions are great. It is almost like organized chaos at times because we are all so competitive, but we need translators to convey our message to the kids during the competition, so we are never sure how our screaming actually is interpreted.

My orange morning team, despite a tough week of volleyball practice, did pretty well in the competitions. For us that means top three out of four. With only 7 kids, 6 when one misses competition day, and 5 when one hurts his wrist, we give it our best and do it with class.

My orange afternoon team is a little is very sporadic. They either come in first or last in everything is seems. They work hard but take their time, so relays are not our best event. I am not sure where either of my teams stand at the moment, but I will be very happy if we get second place overall.

Academically, we had the highest score on the life skills test (thanks to a near perfect score by one of our team captains Duc). Leadership and team building is more difficult than you would think to teach to kids who have never even heard of such concepts, let alone had to be apart of a sports team.

For our third weekend in Vietnam we went to a beach resort about 4 hours south east of where we stay. The resort was very nice and the beach as quite. The weather was nice and the people were hospitable.




A view of the coast as we leave on our boat toward our semi-private island.



The Vietnamese students and I on the boat. It was about an hour boat ride to the island where we stayed for the day. The island was near the well known Mouse Island, and had a sand bar connecting it an adjacent island. The boat ride was very nice on the way out to the island at about 8am. It was already about 85 degrees and the sun was just coming out from behind a curtain of clouds.
As we move away from the coast we can see our resort hotel. Each one of those little villas is a separate set of rooms, each one with a view of the ocean.

We pulled up to a small fishing island and docked the boat. Here you see a small fishing boat the locals use. To the right is the island we stayed at for the day, and to the left is another island - the two are connected by a giant sandbar where we spent the day swimming. We were able to walk across the sandbar to the other island and have someone climb a tree and get us fresh coconuts. We ate some and drank the fresh coconut milk. I love coconut, but the coconut milk is not my favorite. Regardless is was really cool to hang out and walk around the island. It seemed like only a handful (10) people lived on this island.


There was a family on the island that fed us an amazing seafood feast of a lunch. They had hammocks up all over the place so everyone had a chance to relax and let the sunburns cool down before heading back.

A beautiful ending to an awesome day on a remote island. It was very relaxing, and a perfect getaway from the hectic weekly routine we have had.

After getting back to the center, Graham and I immediately took a taxi with Nghi back to Can Tho city to try on our suit jackets at the tailor. It looks like they are going to be very sharp.

Broken bridges

This week is going smoothly. We are all settling into our roles and it is nice to find a routine. Earlier in the week our director was visiting kids at their homes to talk about the next session of the camp. She was telling us that she had to cross like 10 small bridges to cross rivers or creeks on her way into the forests to find the houses. She said that the bridges were very old and rickety. Well, on the way back from the houses, one of the bridges she was on actually broke and she fell through it into the water. Nghi, the Vietnamese director was with her and when she jump in after her the rest of the bridge collapsed. It seems too crazy to be true, since you really only see that stuff in movies. It just makes you think about what these kids have to go through just to get to school everyday.

Yesterday I went to the local market after work and bought some hooks and fishing line for this weekend. We go to a uninhabited beach and I play to have a go at fishing. Since I do not have a fishing pole, I asked one of the Vietnamese guys that works with us if I could use some bamboo. Today he brought me two 10ft green bamboo poles that he said could handle up to a 2kg fish. Although we may need something stronger for the ocean, these will be quite fun to use this weekend and in the local rivers.

The kids are having fun, as are we, and as we get more comfortable together the harder it will be to say goodbye to everyone next weekend.

Cheers for now!

Kids, Fruit, and weekend in Can Tho

My morning class of rising 7th graders doing a team building exercise where they have to build a 5 level pyramid with tennis balls. Although we did not win, the kids had a blast. My teaching/coaching schedule is laid out like this: Monday-Thursday I teach four Sports and Health classes a day, and coach four volleyball practices a day. In addition I teach a life skills classes like leadership, team building, or higher education. There are morning and afternoon students so I work with two groups a day. I also work with two Vietnamese college students from Can Tho University and one Vietnamese high school student. Every Friday we have competitions and academic tests. My morning orange team took first place twice in the competitions last Friday.



Hard at work on the pyramid.


My evening orange team (The Orange Sky Dragons). Slogan, "Train your body for sports, train your mind for school", and "Doi cam vo dich (Team Orange is the champion)."


The fruit here is so different than back in the U.S. There are miniature bananas and watermelon, and then some dragon fruit, and I forgot the names of the other fruit, but as you can see it is very colorful and it tastes pretty good as well.


We went to a floating market, which is a market on a river. We had to get there at 5:30am, and Nghi (our Vietnamese program director) told us that the locals get there at 3am to buy food to bring back to their villages. In the above picture we are eating a fruit pronounced mit yet I do not think that is how it is spelled. It actually tastes just like yellow laffy taffy, and even has a similar consistency.


Here you can see one of the vendors at the floating market. The giant bamboo stick holding produce is how the vendor displays what he is selling. Some boast sell only one item while others sell a wide range of vegetables and fruit. There are even boats described as coffee shops that offer you coffee, soft drinks, and small snacks while you shop. Were were escorted around by a boat as well.


On our way to the Hoa An research center where we stay, we stopped for a Mekong River tour. The Mekong is actually a huge river and this is just one of the smaller rivers running through one of its islands. We actually all were given those hats you see, but there is no way I am posting that picture on the Internet, those you want to see how funny we looked will have to wait.

Right now I am at a hotel in Can Tho city. We have spent a few days here and yesterday I was did some shopping at the local markets. Graham, a Duke alumni that also played soccer, and I made the effort to get tailored suits made. We first went to the market and bought some fabric we liked (color and quality/feel) and then brought it to a tailor. We chose the style of pant and jacket and he took measurements. The full suit will only cost about $50, and what I have heard they turn out really nice.

I also ate some more interesting food since I last posted. I had frog legs and snake at dinner Friday night, and was able to eat pure sugar can freshly chopped down from the yard at the center where we stay. They snake was not very tasty, but everything else has been fine. I am not sure if I already mentioned this, but I tried the partially developed chicken and duck eggs. They are eggs that have a recognizable embryo in them. They taste good but it is a little weird to eat them. Last, I had dog. I will not ever eat dog again, but I had to try it. Just to let everyone they usually do not just kill their pet dogs, but they buy the dog meat from the market that comes from wild dogs. Anyway, it has all been an experience.

First week: coaching, teaching, learning

We left Ho Chi Minh city on Saturday morning, and after a tour of the Mekong river, we arrived in Hoa An around dinner time. The tour of the Mekong was pretty neat, I opened a coconut with a machete and drank snake wine. The snake wine is different than snake blood. Snake wine is very strong wine that has cobra and other snakes in it for taste. Ours even had a dead raven. We all took a shot of it, and it was horrendous, but an experience nontheless. We also got to hold a giant python and a rack of about a 100,000 bees. After that we listened to some tradition Mekong vietnamese music and tasted queen bee honey, which is the special honey designated just for the queen bee.

We are staying in a Hoa An research center for biodiversity in rural Vietnam, which is right down the road from the middle school we teach/coach at. I am teaching health sciences (sport and health/ the thao va suc khoe) and coaching volleyball.

I even was able to eat some sugar cane right after they chopped it down from the field outside where we stay.

I love it.

Pictures to come soon.

Cheers!

The CAT MANDU burger

Dad and Ian, you guys won't believe what I had for lunch at the BLACK CAT today.



Above is the menu from this semi-american restaurant that serves some awesome burgers. They had this chicken burger called the CAT MANDU and it was awesome. For those who do not understand why that is cool, you can ask my dad or just don't worry about it.




Here are the snails I had for dinner last night while the slimy things were still in the shell....

...and here are the empty shells.

Also, I found out that the pork balls were not actually pig testicles. When I told Thai that I thought I was eating pig testicles he got a good laugh in. As you can see I am preparing myself mentally for the food as well, so this sort of thing is just preparation for what is to come. Thats what four years of division one sports will do.

Cheers

Snails, Pork Balls, and Vietnamese Pancakes

Dinner was great. I had some real Vietnamese cuisine. The snails came in a coconut cream sauce and I had about 20-30 of them to suck out of the shell. They were pretty difficult to chew, but the sauce was tasty and the snails were not bad themselves. I also had pork balls which I am pretty sure were like sliced pig testicles with some noodles. They were actually the best part of the meal and kind of tasted like meat loaf. Finally I had some good old deep fried pork ribs and a Vietnamese pancake, which is a thin crepe-like patty with pork, beef, and shrimp that you put into a lettuce wrap and dip in this orange sauce. It was a very interesting night out for dinner, but well worth the $9. We were three, the dutchman, his friend, and I, so there was a combination of dutch, english, and vietnamese being spoken at all times. Tomorrow I leave the hostel and head to a very nice hotel with the rest of the group as they arrive throughout the day. We will stay for only one night before we head out into the more rural areas of Vietnam for the start of the program.

Day two and three in Saigon City

I am not sure why my text is underlined and I can't seem to turn it off so I will just carry on.

FYI Saigon City is the older name for Ho Chi Minh City before the government changed it. Since my program does not start until Saturday and I finished in SA last Saturday, I chose to spend part of the week in SA and part here in Vietnam.

For my second day here I went on a tour to the Cao Dai Temples and to the Cu Chi Tunnels, the ones used by the Vietnamese Guerrillas in the Vietnam War. Below is our tour guide Hai with an American tank that was destroyed by a delay mine in the war. It is very strange hearing about the war from their perspective, tons of propoganda. They even say that soilders were awarded medals and thought of as war heros because they "killed many many Americans," very strange.



On the way out there we stopped at this war veterans art store, where they made beautiful art out of crushed egg shells (oh look at that the underlining has stopped, brilliant!). Anyway, they would condition the wood or stone and press the eggshells into it using knives and then paint a picture over it using the eggshells as texture. Pretty cool, I had to grab some memerobilia.


At the tour of the Guerrilla Tunnels I got to shoot an M60 rambo-like rifle that pretty much blew my ears off. A guy from Argentina and I were the only ones to do it and it was quite an experience.


This is a picture from inside the Cao Dai Temple. The Cao Dai religion is a mixture of Buddism, Confusianism, and strict Cao Dai religion. It is stange how they just throw around thei religions here, but I guess that is how it goes.



Me outside the Temple.


This is a bar right outside my hostel. The guy who owns it is married to the Vietnamese Prime Minister's daughter. He is also an ex-marine that probably faught in the Vietnam war, not sure how that all works out but oh well.


I met this guy Lennard from Holland and we went to the Saigon City Zoo. The animals were pretty cool, but I think the locals were more fascinated with us than the animals. This little kid came over to me and just stared at me for a while them we taught him how to hi-five.

We are heading out to dinner now, so I will hopefully get to try some of the traditional dog they serve here. Until next time, Ciao!

Ho Chi Minh City

I have finally arrived in Vietnam. Malaysia airlines took me from Cape Town to Johannesburg and then to Kuala Lumpur before arriving in Ho Chi Minh City. Since I arrived a few days before the rest of the group I get to hang out in the city until everyone else arrives of Friday. Thai greeted me at the airport and hooked me up with a nice hostel in the city center. Its called Madam Cuc and it has free wifi and serves two meals a day with coffee and bananas served all day long. I am not allowed to wear my shoes up to my room and the shower is just right in the middle of the bathroom with no divider so everything gets soaked when you use it. Everyone rides motorbikes here and drives on the right side of the road, as opposed to in SA where everyone drove mini cars and drove on the left. It is hot as anything here and humid too. I told Thai I wanted to eat some traditional Vietnamese food and he asked if I had ever eaten dog. I said that's fine as long as its cooked i'll eat anything.

My first impression....blasting music I can't understand in the hostel lobby, motorbikes, shoeless walk around the hostel, eating dog, and a less developed city....I love the rhythm of the music so it looks like I am going to have one heck of a July!

P.S. It seems like the crime rate is exponentially lower in this place compared to many of the places in Cape Town and its suburbs so that is a huge plus.

Until next time