The end is close

Recently, a lot of things have happened in a very short time. 

Firstly, since Kelly left Vietnam about a week ago, I had to find a new place to stay ( for the 3rd time). The hefty search first lead me to a local guy, who seemed very odd from the beginning. The first night he got my number he sent me numerous text messages about all the wonderful places (beaches) we could visit together and how much fun we'd have. I was open to those ideas so I went along with the exhilaration. The next day, when we were supposed to meet on the street,  he sent me messages like this:

"... I wait u. motorbike is red. ah u have hetmex"

"oh my god. huhu. what are u doing. "

"i see u kaka"

and my personal favorite: 

"blue t shit??? are u "

Once all the text messaging was over and we had happily found each other, me, Kelly and he (named Quang) sat down at a cafe. He started talking about all the places me and he (note: excluding Kelly) could visit and how much fun we'd have. He also introduced the possibility of staying over night at his university dorm with 3 other guys. When I asked how it would be possible for Kelly to join in on the tourism, he simply answered that "you can take motorbike with me, Kelly can take bus". As if that weren't bad to begin with, he also told me that the only way he could host me is if I come to his hometown for a week. Then I felt I was being pressured too much into spending time in little private rooms with him, so I canceled everything. 

The second host I found was much nicer and much less awkward though. She lives in a 3-story house with her family and this has been a good way to plug myself into the local culture. The first thing I had to do when I arrived here was I had to eat crab with the family and drink rice wine with the father. Rice wine is actually rather good, it tastes like cognac, but doesn't have a high alcohol percentage. After the lunch, everybody proceeded to sing karaoke in the living room. Karaoke sets are very popular here in Vietnam and karaoke in Asia as a whole is prime entertainment. 

The next day I discovered my stomach was behaving funny. The day after that even more. And it continued like this for 3 days with occasional fevers, a weight loss and innumerable visits to the bathroom. Something very wicked got into my guts, but luckily it passed. It's funny that every foreigner I know here has had numerous problems with their stomach and some couldn't even live a week without diarrhea. The locals are fine though, I guess their immune system has already met all the food-borne problem makers. 

The host's dogs

Secondly, we've already had 2 workshops in the past week and more are coming this week. We are having them  in English clubs – places where the youth gathers to practice English and meet foreigners. Our workshop plan consists of a 30-minute presentation and a 35-minute debate followed by a discussion. The topic of debate is "HIV-positive people should / should not be discrminated against."
The first workshop we had was with Korean AIESECers and some locals. The Koreans were almost illiterate (in English, of course) and therefore hopeless in the debate.

First workshop  

The second workshop was with Vietnamese students who were terrific in English, debated like veterans. In the Q&A round I was particularly amused by a guy who, when he had to answer, employed the style of speaking something for the whole 3 minutes without saying anything. I’d say his inspiration came from (some) politicians. I got a motorbike ride home that evening by a workshop attendant who called himself the Monster of the Roads. Definitely a positive guy to be on the motorbike with, given how common accidents are here in traffic. I asked him to slow down a bit, so, being a nice and polite guy he gently cruised around with 60km/h for me, whereas he usually goes with 80…100 km/h. Having seen all his scars from past accidents, I happily jumped off the bike once I reached home base. Nice to meet you.

The second workshop

    Besides the workshops, I took charge of a photo exhibition a few weeks ago that’s gonna be held in October. The name of the exhibition is going to be  "Living with HIV" .

The poster for the exhibition 

    Once I get all the pictures made, I’ll upload them into my blog. To top up my last week’s experience here in Vietnam I made a lot of plans to visit several orphanages, faith groups and a clinic to get the pictures so I’ll have a busy period ahead. It seems that I’m gonna have to do this all running and directly hop on the plane next Sunday. I already feel nostalgic about leaving Vietnam.

    Some additional shots of everyday life in Vietnam:

I see this salesman every day on the bus that I take home. He is incredibly
persistent and hard-working. 

Jade Emperor Pagoda

Jade Emperor Pagoda 

Sipping on Ca Phe Sua Da - a traditional mix of Vietnamese coffee, condensed milk and ice.
It tastes strong, very sweet and.. perfect. 

A motortaxi driver

The Banh Bao are essentially buns that are filled up with minced meat and duck eggs. There are much
more elaborate versions available though, with other kinds of fillings

This selection of fruits is a standard among the Vietnamese fruit stalls. Right now I'm eating some of these fruits like
crazy because I don't know if I'll ever see them again. 

A market woman posing with two carrots -hehe. Everybody surrounding this scene laughed
their asses off :P

A scene your eyes are probably never going to witness again

Why only grill parts of the pork, when you can just use the whole thing ? In a way this is more rational than
cutting the pig into pieces and then using only some of them for food, because here they really use every part
- even the skin

A daily dosage of propaganda in the centre of town 

Uncle Ho (the man on the left) is sort of everywhere here

This man came on the bus and offered everyone a concert. He seemed to be blind. The music was really good.
I like the local music because the Vietnamese language (which is a tonal language) gives it a special sound.
Otherwise the traditional songs have a very mellow synth background, some guitar play and drums.
Here is an example of a Vietnamese song:
http://mp3.zing.vn/bai-hat/Diem-Xua-Elvis-Phuong/ZWZCC888.html

The places where you can get fresh fruit juice