On Tuesday, I taught another extra class for the smart kids in the morning, which was so much fun because they're so enthusiastic and they like me a lot, which is always nice. And then Mrs. Thanh, who I teach with on Wednesdays as well as during the special classes, took me to her home for lunch. It looked like her family had more money than Mrs. Binh's family, but it was still a small place on a dirty street. She had prepared these spring roll things ahead of time, she just needed to fry them and whatnot, so I met her children and tried to speak to them for about an hour while she got everything ready. I had really enjoyed speaking to Mrs. Binh's son, but Mrs. Thanh's children, a daughter that's 12 and a son that's 15, didn't seem really interested in attempting to talk to me. I'm guessing it's just something their mother forced them to do.
She served a really, really good meal – fried pork spring rolls and rice noodles, with a little bowl of sauce that you dip everything into. So good. And then afterwards, she took about an hour to try to tell me how to make it, so that I could make it for my family when I got home. We had some trouble trying to translate the names of some ingredients, but I think it'll all work out. She even gave me some rice paper and this sort of fungus to use, so I'll be smuggling those into the US. Hopefully she hasn't given me some illegal kind of shrooms. I swear, officer, I thought they were Vietnamese spring roll tree fungus!
She was plying me with fruit all the while, and I tasted jackfruit, as well as this melon kind of thing, and she gave me some melons to take back to Peace House, as well as a dragon fruit, which is the coolest looking thing ever, even if it doesn't taste like much. I had a wonderful afternoon – I loved spending time in a real Vietnamese home and getting to know this woman outside of the school setting. She's so warm and welcoming and lovely – as are so many Vietnamese people I've come to know.
Today, during lunch, a student teacher who's been working in our class invited me to her house for lunch. Three homes in three days – I'm not doing so badly for myself. She took me to her apartment where she lives with her husband, her baby, her mother-in-law, who takes care of the baby while she's working, and her brother. It's on the fourth floor, and it's very small, with sparse furniture. Vietnamese beds don't really seem to have mattresses. The baby played on a sort of straw mat on the floor in the bedroom, the same straw mat where we ate. There was a small kitchen and another small bedroom.
I hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to insult these people by describing their homes. I'm just trying to give an accurate picture of what they were like. It was very difficult for me to be there because I'm constantly aware of the difference in our situations – just the fact that I can go to Vietnam to work without pay shows that I have much more money than they'll ever have. I take for granted so many things that they can't afford, or will never experience. And yet they are the kindest, most welcoming, most generous people. You don't find people like that in New York. Always so incredibly giving.
We played with the adorable baby while her mother in law made lunch, and then we ate. Chicken on the bone cut into chopstickable size, tofu, some kind of sprout vegetable, rice. The idea is you eat out of a small bowl that you just keep refilling until you're done. I couldn't quite master eating chicken off the bone with chopsticks, and eventually just gave up and used my hands. Babies, I was told, learn how to use chopsticks when they're two years old.
After lunch, she had to take care of the baby so she told me to lie down on the bed and sleep. I read for a little while, and then took a nap. Mmm.
When I was leaving the school for the day today, Mrs. Thanh asked me if I could maybe look over some English practice her son was doing and do some of the exercises he couldn't for him. After some initial confusion – I thought she was asking me to do his homework for him, and I have never done someone's elses homework for them and don't intend to start now – I figured out that it was practice outside of school, and agreed to do it. It took me no time at all, and it's the least I can do, after how kind she's been. I'm leaving to go to Hue tomorrow night, so I'll have to buy them all some presents to thank them for everything.
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1 comments:
It's Becca, again.
It's so exciting that you're really experiencing the Vietnamese culture, and meeting people and talking with them. You probably talked about this in earlier posts, but do you find the language barrier to be very intense? Does it make it hard to talk to people there? Or is it always possible if you try? In Ecuador, we also helped some kids with their English homework, which was a really cool experience.
The food sounds AWESOME. we all should get together and make some vietnamese foods when you get back!!
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