More Partying?

    On our last night of English instruction our students expressed a desire to have a little party and drink some beer.  Well Victor and I thought that was a grand idea.  We got some snacks and some beer and wine and yee haw!  Party thyme! (spicy eh)

       The cameras came out and these folks had just as much fun as the kids at the AO group home!
                                             ....and the icing was flowing like.....icing.

                                                                    I see you.                

                Our little bug eating friends have there own idea about partying.  Believe me, you want these guys around to keep the mosquito population under control.

      After the party everybody went to the 17 Club where it is very loud.  The old guy went to bed.
Next vacation party with a lizard in beautiful Viet Nam
Hen gap lai
An

Thinking about Bill Wilcox

    Our last AO home visit was two families in a farming community out in Hoa Vang district.  We were not far from the Flowers Waterfalls you saw in a previous entry.  One of the families had all homemade furniture from materials they had or could grow, including the ubiquitous bamboo (now I'm happy, I got to use the word ubiquitous).  The funny part was, he had all of this great handmade stuff around, and a little modern solar light out front.

                 Its like the Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the other one......"

                                 The bed was made with the tools you see here using bamboo slats.

                                          Yes, its a bed, and a very nice handmade one at that!
                  Vietnamese people can sleep on concrete (seen 'em do it) this is soft by comparison.
                         Just roll a bamboo mat out on this bad boy and you are ready for some zzzs.

          This place reminded me of my father in-law Bill Wilcox and this entry is dedicated to him.  If Bill was Vietnamese this could be his place.  If this guy needed something he made it.  If HE couldn't make, well then I recon ya' really don't need it.
     The rice crop is starting to turn.  It changes from green to yellow as it ripens.  Some fields were being planted as we arrived in January.  They get two harvests a year, sometimes three in the Me Kong delta area.
This next group of pictures is all rice paddys.

         As it gets ripe on the stalk it gets heavy and falls over.  This field is probably a couple weeks from being harvested.  I did this close up cause I was curious and I thought y'all might be too.

                                                           That's a lot of rice!

                                                        Me and my water buffalo.

   "Right now only 15% of the rice harvested in the Me Kong River delta is mechanized.   The Party, The Fatherland Front and the Vietnamese Government have set the goal to be a modern industrial country by 2020.  They are working on the issue of mechanizing the harvest of very large areas of rice paddy.  They have also started to build Nuclear and Wind power plants along with biogas and biomass projects.  They are a member of the World Trade Organization and are well on the way to their 2020 goals.  I know all of this because of the research I did for my  politics paper.  Its not necessary to do this but I will anyway (Lachman 2012)."  If I quote myself will I sound smarter?  Nah it ain't published nohow.
Next vacation eat rice in beautiful Viet Nam
Hen gap lai
An

Party Time!

    Our last visit with the kids at the Agent Orange group home was our farewell party.  As has been the custom during this semester in Viet Nam, Victor and I had absolutely no clue how this  was suppose to go.  We arrived carrying two boxes which as it turns out were the party supplies.  They were waiting for us.  As we walked in they cheered and hugged and touched us.  We came in and then set about supplying them with soda and snacks and then had to go around opening the snack bags.  They took great delight in feeding us the little shrimp flavored snack chips.  Bernie, you would have loved to be here for this!  The first crisis was we ran out of soda.  They loved the soda.  The second crisis was there was only one digital camera...mine.  I attempted to step off to the side and get a picture...not happenin’ I was spotted.  After that the posing began and for a while I had no control over where the camera/phone was.  So this entry is dedicated to the AO group home party.  These kids may be living with the affects of Agent Orange on their lives and yet they enjoy life.  BTW nice haircut My Hoa.

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                                 Yo! great snacks man, thanks!

                                 The posing was intense!

                                  My Hoa's haircut was perfectly timed for the hot weather!
                                  There is a bunch more below.

      Some of these pictures are blurry because the camera was not absolutely still but, well you get the picture (pun intended) this bunch was having a great time.  My Hoa said all we really needed was a lot of soda and a digital camera!  I will miss our brief connection with the lives of these young people.  They have the intense curiosity of all Vietnamese without the shyness.  During our visits with these kids I always felt as though I was the one who benefited the most.  Actually Victor said the same thing.
Next vacation party in beautiful Viet Nam
Hen gap lai
An
 

My Son the Valley of the Temples

     Once upon a time in central Viet Nam (its gotta be good when it starts like that!) there was a group of people known as the Cham. The Champa Kingdom flourished from the 4th century BCE to the 14th century CE when they were defeated by the Viet people from the north and absorbed into the Kingdom of Viet Nam.  The Cham were and are a Hindu people and had an amazing culture.  The valley of My Son (pronounced me son) had 70 temples built to Shiva and other Hindu gods.  There are a few temples still standing.  Many more would be in great condition if not for the gift that keeps on giving to the Vietnamese people called the American War.  Sometimes I don't like us very much.
   I have several pictures of the temples to share.  Google My Son Viet Nam and see what you get.  It is a UNSECO site and the Italians are funding a major restoration here because the Americans wouldn't dream of fixing half the shit we tore up here.  Opps there I go again, sorry.  Enjoy the pictures.

                   Some of these structures are amazing given there age and the things that happened here.

                                                                        Sanskrit

                                                                     Yoni

 Braman

     Nga waiting for us tourists to be done so we can all stop in Quang Nam for lunch and some of the best Mi Quang anywhere on the planet.
    I still have more stuff to catch you up on and I hope to git-r-done now that all my papers are written
Next Vacation visit beautiful Viet Nam
Hen gap lai
An