Virtual-Doug

Update: Trang is Here, and So Am I

Yeah – I know.  Trang and I arrived home on Saturday, August 16th, and I haven’t written a word.  Shame on me!

My life has been filled with bureaucracies lately.  Trang will be in grad school at the University of Texas-Pan American .  For me, it was interesting to navigate through the maze of procedures necessary to enter school.  Though I used to work there, I hadn’t experienced the bureaucracy from the standpoint of a student or parent.  It was (is?) daunting.

Example.  I went to the Payments and Collections Office to pay the tuition.  After waiting in line for an hour, the nice lady behind the glass asked me the account’s balance.  I hadn’t the slightest idea.  It turns out that in order for me to pay, I had to have Trang with me – unless she was a minor.  I should have lied and said she was,  but at least the nice lady told me I could pay online.  I went home, had Trang log on to her account, and I paid.

Some bureaucratic nightmares never go away.  You may remember my rant about my mother’s application for Medicaid.  I thought all was finished when she was accepted last month.

Silly me.

It seems it was retroactive only until March, meaning she still has a bill of over $6,000 at the nursing home. 

It never ends.

I’ve returned from Việt Nam just in time for high school sports to begin – the major source of my photography work.  I’ve been busy shooting sports and writing cutlines.  That is fun work, though.

Finally, some difficult news.  I have two older sisters, the younger of the two recently diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer.  In the back of our minds, we all expect the call in the middle of the night telling us a parent has died – but not a sibling.  I’m trying to digest the fact that my 92 year old mother with advanced Alzheimer’s hangs on to life, while my vigorous sister will be gone in six months or less. 

That’s hard.

The Old Ladies’ Pagoda

My friend Cu is one of those people who quietly does good things for other people.  He takes wedding photos for poor people.  He gives poor folks some money when nobody is watching.  In this case, he took some portraits of very old women who are cared for by Buddhist nuns at a nearby pagoda.  I went along with him when he delivered the photos, all mounted in nice frames.  One of the sisters helped him deliver the gifts to the ladies.

(As always, be sure to click on each photo – you will see a much larger version of the picture.)

The place struck a personal nerve.  I have often posted The Mom Report on this blog – stories about my mother, who has Alzheimer’s and resides in a nursing home.  I saw my mother wherever I looked.

Many women live in this large room, each with her bed and a place to keep a few personal belongings.   The room is very clean, though there is no privacy.  I have come to discover that what we call “privacy” is a western concept that few in Asia worry about.  One of the nuns can be seen at the other end of the room cleaning a woman who cannot control her bodily functions anymore.  These ladies have few belongings – none have families – many never married.  They are alone except for the nuns and each other.  It is obvious they treasure their portraits.  In watching my mother, I know she often does not process things well cognitively, but she knows what love is.  These women also know someone loves them.  They respond as most people respond – they try to love something too, including their new puppy.

One woman had a special hold on me.  I saw the walker beside her bed and thought of the walker my mother uses.  Her thin and frail body reminded me of my mother.  When her portrait was brought to her, she sat up and smiled broadly, but the effort soon wore on her and she lay back down, with the photo near her head so she could touch it.  I was to learn that today is Mother’s Festival, a two day celebration to honor those who gave us life.  One of the nuns gave me a little pink rose to wear on my shirt as an indication my mother is alive.  For those whose mother is departed, they wear a white rose.

Not all the residents are incapacitated.  Those who are able to do light work are made to feel productive by helping in the kitchen.  Neighborhood volunteers such as the smiling woman on the right, come in to prepare the food, most of which has been donated.  It being a Buddhist pagoda, the diet is strictly vegetarian.  Nearby, another volunteer washed banana leaves to be used in wrapping one of the foods.

The pagoda itself is fairly new – the date on one of the buildings reads 1996.  Much of the support money comes from Switzerland.  The grounds and buildings are beautiful and very carefully tended.  The main worship building is fronted by many potted plants and flowers.  As would be expected in a Buddhist retreat, there is a feeling of peace and harmony.  At 10:30, a bell rang and the nuns, along with their young disciples, went to prayer time.  I listened to the chanting of the women’s voices and made a favorable comparison to the old chants of my Christian faith.  There is also a strong similarity to the lives led by Catholic nuns and the Buddhist nuns.  Each group radiates a joy coming from living simply and helping others.

Once again I am reminded of the similarities between the peoples of the world – not their differences.    I believe all people have two very strong needs:  they need to be loved and they need to love.  In this place, I saw both.

(Yes – I know I said the last post was my last from Viet Nam, but this was too good to wait until I got home. )

The Goodbye Party

Though I was invited, I was not (and did not want to be) the guest of honor at an afternoon party.  That title rightfully belonged to Trang.  Her very closest relatives and friends (I thought over a hundred, but Trang said fewer) came to her parent’s home north of Hue to wish her well.  Her’s is a traditional countryside home in a small village about a kilometer away from Route 1. As we rode into the courtyard, I saw people and food everywhere, including under a canopy erected for the occasion.  This was gonna be some kind of party.

And so it was.  Their oldest child was going off to America, and Trang’s family wanted to send her off in proper fashion.  An important part of sending her off was informing the spirits of the ancestors that Trang was leaving.  Trang’s father, her grandfather, and her grandfather’s brother all donned their formal ao dai (say ow yie).  It made me wish I had brought mine, but I was very flattered to be included in the photo of these three family elders.  That’s Loi, Trang’s father, next to me, and his father behind him.  After the photo op, the three men performed various ceremonies to the ancestors, both in front of the family altar and a table of food.  Some of the food was placed behind the altar for the ancestors.

And food – there was so much of it.  Tables were laden with food:  shrimp, grilled pork, chicken, mushrooms, squid, tomatoes, bread, sticky rice – and more.  I don’t know the names of all the dishes – I just know everything was delicious.  The nuoc mam (fish sauce) was nice and spicy, but I’m not man enough to eat the small red peppers.  This is just one of the many tables packed with food, with lots more that hadn’t been put on the tables yet.  This was a feast!

And it was all for Trang.  I was impressed by the people who came to wish her well.  When Trang was still working on her undergraduate degree at Dai Hoc Su Pham Hue (Hue College of Education), she did her teaching internship at Quoc Hoc (say quock hopp) High School, one of the most prestigious schools in the country.  Four of her former students traveled to see Trang and wish her well.  I was truly impressed they would do that for an intern teacher they’d had over two years ago.

We made a round of the tables so there would be a photographic record of the party.  There was many a “mot, hai, ba – yo!”  (one two three, yo!) as the beer glasses were hoisted.  To Trang’s left is her mother, Huong.

The young lady was sent off in style, though I left with the proceedings still in high gear.  I was a bit leery about being on busy Highway 1 with truck traffic after dark, so I opted to leave at 5:30.

This will my last post from Viet Nam on this short trip.  I’ll see you back Stateside soon.

This and That (in Viet Nam)

There I am – sitting in the Mandarin Café with my friend Mr. Cu.  At a nearby table sat two non-Asian couples with young babies.  Cu mentioned they were Vietnamese children, so I assumed these were adoptive parents – but not from America.  (The agreement between the US and Viet Nam expires soon because some idiot State Department official made some deprecatory remarks about baby trafficking in a report, and the Vietnamese rightfully took umbrage.)   Cu asked them where they were from – and they said they were Americans.  It seems they were not only Americans, but I had an association with them.  Awhile back, they had read this blog and found out I used to live in Hue.  One of them dropped me an email to ask information about the city and the orphanage.  Now, we were sitting in Cu’s restaurant, enjoying the bonding of new parents with their children.  Blessings on them all! (Mr. Cu owes me a commission – they found his restaurant through this blog.)

Prior to finally meeting Trang’s parents, I had been quite nervous about our first encounter.  Sunday afternoon, we all met at one of my favorite places in Hue – Vy Da Xua (say vee yah soo ah), an exquisite coffee house in the part of town where the Mystery Guest Blogger and I used to live.  What delightful people!  Know I know why Trang is such a solid young person.  Though they speak no English, and I speak no Vietnamese, we didn’t need Trang’s translations to know we liked each other.  I look forward to the time when the MGB can meet them too.

When I lived here, my students, like young people everywhere, wanted to go to the big cities of Saigon and Hanoi.  They said that “Hue was for old people.”  My reply was that they were correct – I am old, and I love Hue.   Now it is with great displeasure that I see yet another encroachment into “the real Viet Nam.”  I didn’t mind it when it came to the big cities, but now Kentucky Fried Chicken has come to Hue.

But all change is not bad.  One landmark is being rebuilt.  The St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the downtown area is getting a much needed facelift.  We have attended Mass there a number of times, and I’m happy to see the renovations.  There is an American connection to the church – it once owned the school across the street, and it was on those school grounds that Marine Sergeant Freddy Gonzalez was killed in the Tet Offensive of 1968, and for his actions, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.  Freddy is a local hero in Deep South Texas when the MGB and I now live.

My days are spent seeing people – students, friends, colleagues.  The only downside is that I have really been drinking a lot of coffee.

No Gucci Here: The Countryside of Viet Nam

The city of Hue (say whey) is in the central part of Viet Nam, inland from the South China Sea.  East of Hue is a sandy barrier island where folks either fish or farm for a living.  While wealth has come to the cities of Viet Nam, little has come to the countryside.  Nobody starves anymore, but the peasants live a hard life.    Almost all of them have concrete houses, electricity, televisions, and a motorbike, but life is much harder for them than the city dwellers.

As in most exotic countries, the village market is the center of social life – at least for the women.   With no refrigerators, frequent trips are made to the market – often twice a day.   A little haggling over the price of pork enlivens things a bit.  City ladies would buy their pork neatly wrapped in cellophane just as their American counterparts would buy it – from the refrigerated meat counter.

(Be sure to click on each photo to see a larger version.)

Besides buying life’s necessities, the village market gives everyone a chance to stay current on the latest gossip (um, well – news.)  A bowl of noodles adds to the social atmosphere.

Meanwhile, others are out catching fish, or, in this case, setting the nets to catch some.  As the lady guides the boat, the men are in the water pulling the nets into position for capturing anything that swims through the narrow channel.  Notice the boat – it is made of aluminum, beautifully crafted with flush rivets.  A long time ago, it was one half of an external fuel tank on an American military jet.

The area around Hue has a significant minority population of Catholics.  The first Vietnamese Catholic congregation was organized in 1680 by French Jesuit priests.  Towards the southern end of the barrier island, there are a number of Catholic villages.  As I visited with Father Paul, the priest at the local church (organized in 1885), I noticed a venerable old gentleman walking by.  He was once the parish priest, and he guided his flock through the extremely perilous times following the reunification of the country in 1975. Today, he is loved and cared for by those he once shepherded.

I wonder what will happen to this little girl.  She will be educated to read and write, but will she be able to move beyond being a peasant wife?  Will she be able to study at a good university and help herself and her family to a better life?  My guess is that she will.  There has been such tremendous progress in Viet Nam during the past 15-20 years that it will be hard to stop the juggernaut now.  The real question will be whether she will be able to bring some of the country’s new found wealth to the countryside.

If she succeeds, I wonder if she’ll shop at Gucci.

Not Your Veteran’s Vietnam

Next month, the Mystery Guest Blogger and I will be in Memphis for a reunion of men who served with Company C, 2nd Battalion 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam.  The reunion organizer has asked us to make a presentation to the men and their wives.  We’ll call it “Traveling in Viet Nam:  Not Your Husband’s Vietnam.”

These people can count – they know the last American troops left in March 1973 (over 35 years ago) and the war itself ended in 1975.  What they don’t know is what the country is like today.

Most of them probably know Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City – but don’t know it is called both names with regularity.  The police won’t come knocking if you call it Saigon rather than HCMC.  Most know the country is ruled by the Communist Party, but don’t know today’s Viet Nam is wildly entrepreneurial and capitalistic.  Most know there must be automobiles in Viet Nam by now, but don’t know that Toyota, Ford, and Honda all have manufacturing facilities in Viet Nam.

This post will be a mini-preview of our presentation – some of the ways that today’s Viet Nam is not the Vietnam of the 1960s and 70s.

The automobile is now common throughout the country.  In Saigon, there are a lot of very wealthy Vietnamese, such as this gentleman getting into his BMW.  This is one of the main streets in downtown Saigon – notice the area is well tended.  Street cleaners are at work most of the day, not just at night.

(As always, click on the photo – you’ll see a larger version.)

Of course, if you have money, you must show it off with the things you can buy.   Some veterans will remember the infamous Tu Do Street, home to cheap bars and other (ahem) “institutions. “  Today it is called Dong Khoi Street, and this is where you can do a little shopping at Gucci.  If you don’t find what you want, the Louis Vuitton store might have it.  The Mercedes in this photo had just pulled away from the Calvin Klein store I was standing in front of.  If all that shopping wears you out, you can stop for a quiet bite to eat at the Caravelle Hotel.  The tourist walking by is looking at two Vietnamese women – and these women are not tourists.  I doubt if I could afford a cup of coffee in there, though the bar on the top floor offers a great view of the city.

Walking a few blocks down Dong Khoi brings you to the dock area on the Saigon River.  Did I say cruise ships?  They are no longer unusual in Saigon, Danang, or Haiphong.  Viet Nam’s tourism industry is booming, helped along by the fact that it is a close “exotic” place for Australians and a warm place in the winter for Europeans.  With virtually no violent crime, and little property crime (the occasional pickpocket is about as bad as it gets), it is a safe and secure destination.  When the MGB and I first came back to Viet Nam in 2002, Saigon was cheap – but no longer.   The rest of Viet Nam is still reasonable, but not the two big cities.

Tom wanted me to show the hydrofoils – boats like this travel to the wonderful coastal city of Vung Tau.   (I’m sorry I couldn’t get a shot of a boat at speed showing it up on its wings, but the weather was bad.)  A round trip costs about $20.  With the tide, the outbound trip is 1 ½ hours long, and the return takes about 2 hours.  It’s comfortable – and air conditioned.  The hydrofoil brings you into a gorgeous terminal building - complete with KFC restaurant.  Vung Tau has some foreign visitors, but it is primarily a weekend escape for Vietnamese city dwellers.

Way back in the ‘70s, Vung Tau was a place where no battles were fought.  Obviously, there were no agreements signed, but the Communist forces left Americans alone, and the Americans used Vung Tau as an R&R facility.  One of the more notorious haunts was the Palace Hotel, shown in this old photo taken by a vet.  I doubt seriously if it’s the same building, but the Palace is still in business, albeit in a more wholesome manner.

Vung Tau is one of the cleanest cities I’ve seen in Viet Nam.  It has a laid back atmosphere, lacks the noise of Saigon, and the facilities are top shelf. Surrounded by the sea on three sides, the ocean breezes keep it cool.

I don’t want anyone to think Viet Nam has no problems, or that all Vietnamese drive expensive imported automobiles.  Furthermore, I know Saigon is not the “real Viet Nam.”

But, it’s not the veteran’s Vietnam either.

Back in Viet Nam

The trip was the usual 30+ hours of butt-numbing boredom, but no problems.  After a good night's sleep, a quick conversation with Trang, and my first bowl of pho, I am ready to ride the hydrofoil to Vung Tau tomorrow.

I'll post something quasi meaningful soon - with photos.