Then & Now

I made it to Hanoi. I’m staying in a super-fancy place that levied an unexpected additional $46 per day charge for Internet bundled with services I don’t need. Like I get three pieces of clothes ironed a day. I don’t have three pieces of clothes here, unless you count my underwear. But I crumpled what I have and took it down to the front desk, just to get my money’s worth. I’m also entitled to five printed pages from my computer each day, so I printed some things and then threw them out.

Did I forget to tell you about the graves here? You know how I love grave-ish stuff. If I did forget, please remind me. It’s quite interesting.

I’m exhausted and have to sleep. Am going to try to hit the Old Quarter tomorrow morning to seek Vietnamese treasures; they have silk, lacquer and haunting embroidered paintings; also, vintage propaganda posters. Then I have to go be professional at the conference, where my role is entirely different from what it has been the last two weeks: from teacher trainer to college admissions adviser.  Then I’m hoping I won’t be too wiped out to see the Vietnamese water puppets. I wish I could buy one for Adi.

Four of my youngest students cornered me yesterday, with a plan: they wanted to cut class on Monday and take me to Cu Chi Tunnels, because they knew I really wanted to go. I was tempted, but of course I couldn’t. Instead, I proposed we go Sunday, after I fly back from Hanoi. They seemed thrilled at the idea, and even offered to pick me up at the airport and make all the arrangements. Just now I got this e-mail from Vy (pronounced Vee), following up. [BTW, HCMC is Ho Chi Minh City.]

Hi, Ms. Ginna. This is our trip plan:

12:00: Start from airport
1:30: Come to Cu Chi, visit the tunnels
2:30: Visit Ben Duoc Temple
3:00: Enjoy speciality of Cu Chi: heifer
4:00: Visit fruit garden to gather and enjoy fresh fruits
5:00: Come back HCMC
6:30: Visit my home to enjoy Pho (traditional food of VN)
7:00: We will take you back to your hotel
7:30: You will be at your hotel ^^

If there is no trouble during this trip, we will end the trip at 7:30 pm. We hope that it will be a lucky day^^ (no rain). As  mention earlier, we will wait for you in front of the Terminal 1 at 12:00 noon on Sunday.

It’s very difficult for this Westerner to get used to the Eastern way. My first thought is “how sweet,” followed instantly by “I don’t have enough time to spend all day with these guys, and I just want to be alone.” And also, “They want me to eat heifer??” But how could I say no? I’m such a jerk.

Not only that, last night I had a Vietnamese feast with the best friend of one of my students at Foothill: an intense, earnest young woman. When we parted, she asked how much longer I’d be here. “I have only Monday.” “What do you want to do?” she asked me. I told her I still want to go to the War Remnants Museum, to see the Vietnamese perspective on the American War. “I’ll go with you,” she offered. Before I could protest, she continued, “Oh, and we can go see the Presidential Palace, and I’ll pick you up on my motorbike at 9:00. Would that work?” This ain’t Kansas. I kick myself for being suspicious of ulterior motives, but most (not all) of the time there are none; it’s just a different culture.

It could be quite cathartic, as Eleni likes to say, to see the war atrocities with someone whose family was affected.

Throughout this trip I’ve been haunted every day by double-vision. I see very clearly the old street vendors balancing a pair of buckets of fruit across their shoulders, and acres of brilliant rice paddies, and water buffalo sunk up to their knees in muck, and women in pointed hats bent double tending to their watery crops, and jungles threaded with brown waterways. But then it all goes fuzzy and I start to see craters and flames and screaming people running from bombs: the same place, and just as clearly, only forty years ago. And when I look at people’s faces, the first thought I have is: did they experience the war, or were they born after? What have they seen that I’ve read about? How can they be so kind to me?