Walking a Tightrope

This week started out tenuous at best. I began the week by Skyping with my parents. At the beginning of the call it was obvious that my wifi couldn’t support a Skype call so I tried to use my Ethernet connection and the cord wasn’t working and let’s just say I had a tine-tiny meltdown.  In that moment all I wanted was to see my parents and hear their voices, just a little comfort from home. After pulling myself back together my host and I found the college internet guru and it was fixed. I had a wonderful hour-and-a-half long call with my parents. At moments I was near tears and when we hung up I let out one huge sob. I am not sad here and feel rather blessed, but things are very different (more different then I predicted) and it’s hard being the only foreigner, frustrating to communicate and when most of the simple daily tasks are a struggle you begin to miss the rhythms and cultural simplicity of home.

After the call I felt bucked up and ready to tackle the week. Unlike my Monday morning the week went much better. This week I got my working schedule for September and my schedule for the entire placement. For this semester (next week through Tet Holiday) I will have 5 classes (2 for teachers, 3 for students) of 30 students taught Monday through Friday with 3 hours for each class (15 total teaching hours a week). I will have 1 hour of Vietnamese lessons on Monday and Thursday morning. Then on 3 Saturday mornings a month I have an English Speaking Club (ESC) in addition to 1 soft skills seminar and 1 movie night a month on Saturdays. I usually get Sundays off and 1 Sunday morning a month I have a picnic with some college staff in various locations around Dong Thap province so I can see the province. I also found out that at the end of this month 2 volunteers (either British or Australian) will arrive and teach the conversational English classes for the other two faculties at the college. More native English speakers! Yeah!

I also met my co-teacher who will be in the classroom with me and help me translate, make photocopies and run the classes. She just returned to Vietnam from Australia where she completed her Masters degree in English at La Trobe University about an hour outside of Melbourne. To quote Disney it is a small world after all! Next week her and I will be giving the oral entrance examination for my classes.

This weekend was rather interesting as well. To start on Friday I talked with Michelle, one of the other ETAs and we shared our stories, both the good and the bad. We laughed and reconnected. It felt really good to talk with one of the Fulbright Family again. On Saturday I went to my host’s housewarming party. He just finished building a beautiful three-story home for him, his wife and daughter, his mother-in-law, brother and nephew. The party was massive; I counted close to 100 chairs. They served a 7-course meal. I skipped the snail course but I did try pig stomach. It tasted like what I imagined stomach to taste like and it was rather chewy and leathery. Not my favorite but at least I gave it a try. Later that night I Skyped with Koua and Trevor, two of the other ETAs and we talked about our issues, made jokes, reminisced and had many good laughs. It was just what I needed.

Today (Sunday) I spent the morning Skyping with my parents…no tears this time! Then I met Qyunh and we went to the local pagoda. I thought it would be a quiet kinda day to take some photos. NOPE! There was a huge festival for children to celebrate and honor their parents. After parking my bike I entered a sea of shoulder high and traditionally dressed Vietnamese. I got more then a few looks. I took pictures of the pagoda (Buddhist) and then we went inside. Everybody was so nice they were smiling and bowing. Qyunh and I stayed near the edge and then we came to the part of the ceremony where group participation is involved…and I was roped in. I was given a very colorful box, which I carried on top of my head and we all marched in a line around the pagoda. People thought this was hilarious and it was. A 6’ tall, white boy with a camera around his neck, Fulbright bag around one arm and camera bag around the other with a box on his head...smiling and nodding. Such a tourist. I would've paid to see myself do that walk again. After finishing the walk and kneeling in the middle of the pagoda the community had a feast. Not surprisingly an elderly women took Qyunh and me under her arm and invited us to the feast! I understood nothing that was said but the food was good and everybody was smiling.  After parting from the celebration Qyunh took me to a pastry shop that has awesome creampuffs and we got some sweets and had them by the lake.

The pagoda gates.

The main prayer space inside the pagoda. Also the end point for the head box procession thing.

The main section of the pagoda.

One of the smaller structures.

Really great roof carvings and detail work. Plus pretty clouds.

More of the pagoda.

One of the flowers in the fishpond.

Later that day I went back to the lake to meet another friend and we talked for 2 hours and just sat and watched the world pass us by. On my way out to get back home I said hello to a group of ladies sitting by the library and one of them asked me my name. This made me stop in my tracks. Most people say hello and I say hello back, wave and then they say goodbye. So the fact that there was a follow up question was enough to make me stop. I got to talking with her. As it turns out her husband is Scottish (so I’m not the only foreigner around here) and she served as the interpreter between her friends and me. They bought me orange juice and gave me 2 loaves of bread (it was French baguette with honey and sesame seeds) and I answered her friend’s questions. It was during this conversation that I discovered a new way to communicate. The iPod Touch! Since I lack the Vietnamese to describe my home, family and life in the US I wiped out my iPod and showed them pictures of my life and travels. It was great and one of the ladies has a cat! So we bonded in broken English and Vietnamese about our kitties, our love for them and their general disdain and contempt for us.

It’s in these moments when I realize that walking the tightrope is so worth it. Those moments when I want to give up, when I miss the ease and familiarity of home and when the lump develops in my throat are some of my lowest. What counters those lonely moments are the highs that are just stratospheric. Meeting new people, taking part in local customs even if slightly lost in translation, being welcomed into homes and families and sharing the events and people of my life is what Fulbright was set out to do...and (dare I write it) what it seems I am doing! I hope I can make these connections with my students in a weeks' time. Fingers crossed!

One more thing. I found out perhaps a week ago that I have an interview with a medical school!!!!!! Yippie! I have pushed it off to around February when I can be home to attend the interview. Let's hope more come rollin on in.

Have a great week readers. Take some time to really connect with somebody this week…with or without an iPod touch!

NOTE: The author has received nothing from Apple for the product placement in this blog post. If Apple would like to contribute to the Tyler Fleming Medical School Fund it would be greatly appreciated!