Patience

I awoke to the sound of my cellphone ringing, followed by unintelligible rapid-fire speech from Mr. Luan and a click. It was 7am and I was supposed to be at the gate at 730. So why was I being presumably told to hurry up? A few minutes later I got another phone call, saying be at the gate in seven minutes, ten minutes. Ok, ten minutes would be enough time. A few minutes after that phone call, I got yet another. This time Mr. Luan had given his phone to Morena, and she was telling me that they were waiting for me at the gate (and that he had just woken her up as well). It turned out that even though in his email he had told us to be at the gate at 730, he meant 710, and that when he said 7 minutes 10 minutes he meant 7:10.

It was a rocky start, and to be honest it didn't get much better. The reason we had to be up and out so early was to go to the opening ceremony of a computer lab in a school in another district, Ba Tri. I still have no idea why we were invited. We sat and listened to Vietnamese speeches, and then stood around when the schoolchildren were ushered into the computer lab to be photographed while they surfed the internet. I had an exciting moment when, as we left, I realized that I could read a banner on the school gate. I thought I knew one word, but then I saw that I knew the next and the next and so on. It urged people not to drink and drive.

Leaving the first school

Next, we went to another school for the 'promotion ceremony', which I thought was a graduation but didn't seem like one. Two men took turns making speeches for two hours, and handed out a few framed certificates, one to an elderly monk. Then about eight students came on stage and received a packet of notebooks. It was hard not to keep thinking that I could have still been in bed instead of struggling against nodding off in a hard chair.

After the very ceremonious ceremonies we had lunch. One dish included pig's ears, another was a pork curry, and another was a beef stew. The first two were fine and the latter would have been really good, except that it was super fatty. Moreover, I was told that people here prefer fat to meat, and they kept serving me chunks of fat. Eventually I just had to claim that I was full, because I couldn't stomach any more. The highlight of it all was when I discovered that the woman next to me spoke Russian, and we had a brief chat. Funnily enough, I was struggling to not accidentally speak Vietnamese.

The beginnings of lunch. Beef stew not pictured.

Morena and I thought we would be going back home after lunch, but instead we went to a temple honoring the town's founders. I wandered away from our small group, and I had a few moments to myself. It was a very serene place, and I released a few exhales and gained a little more patience before I was found and shepherded back to where everyone else was. I then discovered that our female companion, the one with whom I had spoken Russian, was a member of the family to whom the temple was dedicated. Moreover, her father was Huỳnh Tấn Phát, former Vice President of South Vietnam.

At the entrance. This wall is supposed to keep ghosts out.

Altar in honor of Mr. Huỳnh

Me and a 100+ year old tree

I had a few hours to myself when I got back, and then Ms. Mỹ picked me up to go get my altered aó dài. I thought that it was just going to be a quick errand, but then she took me to eat (at 330?). We had bún riêu, something I had tried early on with Ms. Trang. For some reason, this is a very contentious dish here, in that many people don't like it, so people are always super surprised to hear that I like it. I hadn't had it since that first time, and after all this talk about how unpleasant it is I wondered if my original perception would hold up. It did. Not only is it fine, it's kind of unmemorable to me, so it surprises me that people feel so strongly about it. I thought perhaps now we would go home, but no. We were to go to Mr. Luan's house. As you may recall, he is the one who provided my wake up call this morning. He is also my supervisor on Tuesdays, with whom I have a hard time communicating. I was not too excited about this turn of events.

Bún riêu

However, his home was lovely, with an incredible yard full of all kinds of fruit trees. I ended up meeting his wife and son, his parents, who live next door, and several of his six sisters who are also his neighbors. I was offered an inconceivable amount of fruit. Luckily, a few nights ago I learned the word for full, and today I made frequent use of it. One of the issues with some of my Vietnamese outings is that it can sometimes feel like I've been taken captive. I am subject to the whims of my ride; I don't know where I'm going or how long I'll be there. Sometimes the dread of the interminable interferes with my ability to appreciate the moment.

I was kind of obsessed with the color scheme of his house

Papaya, papaya flowers, and snail

Another snail. I didn't actually see the other one until I saw the picture on my computer.

Ms. Mỹ is on my right. She is wearing 2" heels.
Also note my height in relation to everyone else in the picture.

Despite what might sound like a griping tone, today was a good day. Perhaps the best part was a realization that came near the end. After my low point a few weeks ago I have been feeling much better. I have been wondering whether I have finally hit my stride, or whether it has been a temporary high before the next low. However, I can confidently say that two weeks ago, today would have been way too much for me. Today, it was intense, somewhat draining, but ok overall. I didn't return to my room in the evening, feeling physically or emotionally exhausted. I didn't cry. I just sat down to write.