Surving the Rest of the Lunar New Year

In less than a couple of weeks or so, the Year of the Tiger will end and the Year of the Cat will begin. In Vietnam, the celebration of the Lunar New Year is called Tet and is the biggest holiday here. I will be in Vietnam for the first two days of Tet and then will spend some of my vacation time in China. I went to China in 2008, and I'm looking forward to seeing my old friends there. I'm also looking forward to celebrating Tet here in Vietnam.

But right now I'm sick with diarrhea, stomach flu, and a mild fever so I'm spending this week sleeping, going to the bathroom, sleeping, watching Ricky Gervais stand-up on youtube, and sleeping. So before I need to rush off to the bathroom again or lay down because of stomach cramps, here's what's been going on in this last leg of the Year of the Tiger:

I visited Ha Tinh province, which is in the central part of Vietnam, with my host brother and host mom. We went to celebrate my host mom's death anniversary. My host mom's sister is a hairdresser, so I also got a free hair cut out of the trip.

Yesterday, I called back for another shoot for the TV show I had appeared on before. The scene was an opening ceremony so I had to wear a suit. However, I don't have a suit here so someone on the film crew called up their friend who works at a wedding photography studio. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it), the only suit they had that was my size was a tacky pink suit. So while everyone else in this scene are wearing dark suits, I'm in a full pink suit, pants and all. The scene was pretty much just of the French shuttlecock team mingling with the various other shuttlecock teams. Which means for most of the time, I was really actually mingling with people. Since this is TV, most of the people there were rather good looking. Mingling with a lot of young attractive Vietnamese women in a pink suit was not a bad way to spend the morning. Unfortunately, I got sick later that day.

But no worries, I think I'm beginning to get better. Hopefully it will be gone before Tet.

Another Story for One of MCC's Projects

The rain has stopped falling in Huong Non Commune but a mist still lingers over the fields of rice and maize and around the surrounding mountains. Hoang Van Thanh lives in a house overlooking the rice fields and banana trees. Despite the picturesque view, Hoang Van Thanh's living situation is very difficult. He is 65 years old and disabled in one leg. His wife died a while ago and his first son died last year in a work related accident. He is currently trying to buy a new house for his first son's wife and children and is being given support from different resources. His other son, 30 year old Hoang Van Hao, is in the process of building a latrine which MCC Vietnam is helping support. They already have one cement and brick outhouse but it is too close to the neighbor's property. Unlike their old outhouse, their new latrine will feature a double pit. The new latrine is still in it's initial stages of being built.

Houng Non Commune is located in Tam Nong District, Phu Tho Province. MCC Vietnam gives loans to 30 families in this commune for sanitation structures such as latrines and toilets. MCC loans two million dong, the equivalent of about 100 dollars, to each family for these projects. Some people use this money to hire builders. However, other families build the sanitation structures themselves. There are eight villages within the commune that MCC supports. In the village of Hoang Van Thnah, 15 families receive support from MCC.

Farther up into the mountain, Nguyen Van Hau lives with his wife Nguyen Thi Thong. He is very sick but he still must work to support himself. He farms and also catches and sells birds. When he was a youth, he volunteered in the the Voluntary Youth organization which helped in war efforts. He and his wife did very hard work for this organization and because of this, Nguyen Van Hau became sick. He now receives benefits from the Fatherland Front. Nguyen Van Hau's latrine is farther along in its process of being built than Hoang Van Hao's. Despite his illness, Nguyen Van Hau is currently building the latrine himself.

Living in the mountains also presents hardships. Another family, living in a nearby village, says that they used to live up in the hills. However, the terrain made it difficult to transport their crop. Sometimes they would have to park their motorbike or cart and carry the heavy loads themselves. Therefore, they have moved to the foot of the hill. There are currently building their new home there. MCC is also helping this family with building their latrine.

This family's well has water, however, water shortage is a problem in the surround area. In some places, villagers have dug over 5 meters in depth and still haven't struck water. Because of this, MCC promotes the use of double pit latrines over flush toilets. Because of lack of water in the area, flush toilets don't make sense within the circumstances. With a two pit latrine, families can use one pit and keep the other as a backup. Once the first pit is filled, it can be covered and let sit to be later used at fertilizer. Using this manure as fertilizer for their crops reduces the use of chemical fertilization and in doing so, helps protect the environment.

For these two aforementioned villages, there are three wells which are used as backup water sources during the dry season. Many villagers have to travel long distances to get to the wells. They must pay 150,000 dong per cubic meter. During the dry season, they usually are able to get enough water for eating and drinking but not enough for washing. These wells have always been reliable in the past, however, they are also very old. The villagers wish to protect and sustain the wells and are currently proposing that MCC gives support. MCC Vietnam is still discussing the supporting of this project. For the families in Huong Non Commune, hopefully the support they have already received will help make their lives healthier and easier.

Title Change Again

So I was wrong. This current lunar year is the Year of the Tiger. Next year is Year of the Cat. However, the Lunar New Year is at the beginning of February. At that time I will be starting up another blog titled Year of the Cat. Cheers!

And a Vietnamese Movie Star is Born...

I got a call last week about being an extra in a film shoot here in Hanoi. An MCC colleague's husband teaches film here, and his colleague called me. They were looking for foreigners to be in the film shoot. She asked me to bring along any foreign friends I had. The film shoot was on Wednesday from 1:30pm to around 4:00pm. That day and ex-SALTer visited The Gioi.  He had nothing to do in the afternoon so I invited him to come along to the film shoot.

I later learned that what was being filmed was a scene for an upcoming TV show. The show is about a girl who is gifted at playing shuttlecock. She wants to drop out of school and pursue shuttlecock despite her parent's wishes. The shoot was at a gym at the Hanoi Medical University. Equipment included lights and a camera on a tripod and another on a crane. The director gave directions through a megaphone. Hanoi film students were used as extras, acting as Vietnamese fans. Carl (the ex-SALTer) and I were French shuttlecock players along with two other foreigners. Luckily, I didn't have to play shuttlecock. All I did was sit on the bench and watch my teammate play and then react when he scored a point or lost a point.

All in all, it was a fairly easy and interesting gig. I talked with the lady who had contacted me for a bit. I told her that I also used to be a film student and had studied sound design. She said that she would keep me in mind for other projects. Later, she texted me and said that the director had liked my acting and would be interested in having me in a more important acting role in the future. We will see what happens with that.

"Trái tim kiêu hãnh" or "Proud Heart" premieres next year. If you happen to catch the one episode I am in (amidst the 40+ episodes in the series) I am the French shuttlecock player on the left. Sometimes I pull my hair in anticipation, sometimes I thud my fellow teammate on the back. It is definitely a "Golden Lotus" (Vietnam's equivalent of an Oscar) worthy performance.

Chúc Giáng Sinh Vui Vẻ!

That means Merry Christmas in Vietnam although at this point it is two days after Christmas. Around the middle of December it got pretty cold here in Vietnam. I had to break out my winter coat. However, weather here in Hanoi is fickle. At the time I jokingly told Bryn that in a week we'd be in short sleeves again. I was wrong. It only took one day for it to again be warm.

By Christmas Eve it was even warmer.  That night I met up with Trinh, a Vietnamese girl that I met at an art gallery a while back.  We had been meeting every so often to teach each other our respective languages. I picked her up from the art gallery around 8:00pm and we went to have Pho, which is a very popular type of noodle soup (it's actually a little strange for me at this point to believe that four months ago I had never even heard of Pho). Trinh is Catholic and wanted to check out the nativity scene at the nearby cathedral. So we went there and then walked around Hoan Kiem Lake (all of this is located near Hanoi's Old Quarter).

There were tons of people out. Christmas is celebrated in Hanoi but not many people really celebrates it. Mostly young people just like wearing Santa hats and getting their picture taken next to fake Christmas trees. I'm not the biggest Christmas person, but it was a little sad that the only Christmas festivities (despite the nativity scene I suppose) were extremely commercial in nature. I also really miss egg nog.   

However, despite this, I had a good time on Christmas Eve. Earlier that week MCC threw a Christmas party. I invited my host brother and some of his friends to come along:

Also, earlier on Christmas Eve I made salsa (it's like the only food I know how to make) which actually turned out well. I couldn't find corn chips but I did end up finding tortillas and so I made my own corn chips. I think my family liked it. Either that or they humored me.

On Christmas day a friend of mine invited me to her birthday party. I went with her and her friends to sing karaoke. Unless someone slipped something into my egg nog in a past Christmas that I don't remember, that is probably the first time I've sung Vietnamese pop songs on Christmas. It also got cold again on Christmas day. I think because of the great temperature change, I caught a cold. Despite this, yesterday I visited my colleague Anh's house for the first time and hung out with her husband and two young sons.  I also Skyped with my family earlier that day.

All in all it was a good week. It doesn't feel at all like Christmas/New Years but I'm glad I could see family and friends.

Updates!

It has been awhile since I've updated my blog. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what to write about. A lot has happened since my last blog entry but I've been too busy (and too lazy) to share the stories online. A while ago, I visited Tam Dao, which is located a couple hours from Hanoi. I went with an MCC colleague and a outdoor group he is apart of. These pictures are courtesy of him:

We climbed one of the three mountains. It was extremely steep in certain parts. These three good looking guys were the first ones up.

I also celebrated my 23rd birthday on December 9th. The night before my parents made hot pot and the next night I went out with my host brother, his friends, and Bryn. We ended the night singing karaoke.

Bryn and I also went out quite a bit with Shane, an Australian colleague from The Gioi, and his friends that he made here in Vietnam. Although quite a bit older than Bryn and I, Shane was a great Westerner to hang with. He really showed a deep appreciation for the Vietnamese culture and had some great insights. Through him, I met some pretty cool Vietnamese people. Unfortunately, he left for Australia this week.

A couple days ago, I went with colleagues from The Gioi to check out pagodas in Bac Ninh province. It was a fun excursion although our bus driver had to pull over and ask for directions at least ten times. I kind of wish I had took pictures of each person we pulled over to ask because they all seemed to be doing a different tasks. Some were washing motorbikes, some were running stalls, some were smoking out of huge pipes. Fun times. 

Well there you go. It's the Christmas season but it doesn't really feel like it over here. Most Christmas decorations are in stores and coffee shops. On Tuesday we will have a Christmas party at MCC. Bryn is going to Cambodia on Christmas but I will be here in Vietnam. I've been invited to spend Christmas with some people I've met here in Vietnam, but we will see if anything materializes. To everyone reading this: Chúc Giáng Sinh Vui Vẻ!

MCC in Yen Lap Commune

This week has been super busy: birthdays, trips, teaching English, meeting new people, not mention a lot more work at The Gioi. I'm also having to write stories about MCC Vietnam's other projects.  Instead of rehashing my outing with MCC last week I decided to kill two birds with one stone and just post the story that I had to write anyway:

Yen Lap commune is located in Vinh Tuong district, Vinh Phuc province. It is the poorest commune in Vinh Tuong district. The commune includes one preschool, one primary school, and one secondary school. Its preschool is split into three locations and only one of these locations has a lunch program. At this location there are 119 students with 104 participating in the lunch program. Even though the building only has two classrooms, the students are split up into four classes. As 10:30 rolls around, the children eagerly wait for the dishes to be served. They pass around a damp wash cloth to clean their hands. Each day there is a different dish with today’s menu being rice with eggs and pork. Towards the end of their meal they will get soup to pour into their bowls.

There are 104 children registered in Yen Lap commune’s preschool lunch program. However, only 80 to 90 students regularly eat at school. 5 year old Nguyen Le Hoai Nam is one of these students. His mother, Le Thi Nu, is too busy taking care of her shop and raising birds to make lunch on time for her son. She also has a hard time making him take a nap at home. However, she says that at school he willingly joins the other children in the after-lunch nap. Le Thi Nu wants to send her youngest daughter to the preschool next year and enroll her in the lunch program. However, the school only has a limited amount of space and therefore they are not able to admit every child. Le Thi Nu will have to wait to see whether or not her request will be granted.

Because there are not enough classrooms, the preschool has classes spread out in three different locations. Even though Le Thi Nu lives near Phu Yen, one of the preschool’s three locations, she sends her son to the location near the primary school instead. Out of all three locations, it is the only location large enough to support a lunch program.

Each meal costs 5,500 Vietnam dong. Parents also pay 30,000 dong per month to compensate for teachers’ time and effort. She only makes 100,000 dong a day. Her family of five brings in just 3 million dong per month altogether. MCC Vietnam provides 1,000 dong for each meal. MCC also gives support for cooking facilities and items such as rice cookers. At the beginning of each school year, the staff talks with the parents about the lunch program and the assistance of MCC.

Lunch at school is important for many reasons. One problem the preschool faces is that students that go home for lunch don’t come back in the afternoon. Also, the rate of malnutrition is 13.2% for all preschool children and 13.7% for all the children of the commune. The rate of malnutrition for those in the lunch program is 14.4% due to the fact that many of the children in the program do not get fed enough at home.

The school started their lunch program in the 2006-2007 school year and MCC has supported since this school year (at the beginning of September 2010). In its first year, only 35 students were enrolled in the program. Now there are 104. Every quarter, the preschool conducts a health check. Out of the 95 children that were checked early this school year, 85 have gained weight. However, the school still needs to provide lunch for more children. Yen Lap commune has the lowest rate of students having lunch at school in the district. The required rate is 70% but the preschool has a rate of only 31.5%. There are 382 children from ages 3-5 and 288 from ages 3 and under. Out of those 670 students, only 330 go to preschool. Although many of the children that go to school cry for their parents at first, most all the students eventually enjoy coming to school. 4-year-old Khong Thi Thy Phuong says that the school is fun and that the food here is better than at home. One young mother says that during the weekend her son counts the days until he can go back to school.