#farewell sweet COC

[pacey-bunce-loves-joey]

something new doesn’t mean something temporary

happy Snowbaz day one and all 🖤🤍

[carolinesgrandadventure]

Catch up & Chin-Su | trying to recap two weeks in Vietnam

It is to my great surprise that the last time I blogged was a good two weeks ago and in that time I have visited rural Vietnam, visited one of the world wonders, finished five assignments, and left Vietnam (yes, newsflash: I’m already in South Africa!). There’s a lot to catch up on and it hardly seems like I ever have the time to check my email, let alone blog, but here I am– here are many updates and recaps of which I am able to write because I now have a tablet with a keyboard case! What broken laptop, am I right?* Please excuse the quality of and lack of pictures-- there are many obstacles to overcome when blogging internationally.

Lac Village

Last I wrote I was preparing for a 5-day stay in rural Vietnam in Lac Village. Honestly, I was wary to leave Hanoi, but our trip to Lac village was one of my favorite experiences in Vietnam. Also, sometime during this, I visited the Temple of Literature and prayed for good grades.

Lac Village is a village of 150 families and 500 people belonging mostly to the Chai ethnic minority (most Vietnamese are of Kinh ethnicity). The village is at least 33 generations old! All 27 of us stayed in one giant room in a homestay. As it turns out, many of the families in Lac village are in the business of hosting foreigners and urban Vietnamese, a result of having to host Russian scientists back in the 90s (although Soviets first started visiting in the 60s). I enjoyed being together with my classmates since our Hanoi homestays were so far apart and I hadn’t had the opportunity to spend time with everyone as a group outside of the classroom.

During our rural stay, we visited the district preventative health center, the district hospital, a commune health center in Pa Co, Pa Co, and another nearby village, Xam Pa. It was a very full itinerary! Access to healthcare in rural Vietnam is unsurprisingly difficult. The mountain roads are dirt, narrow, and can get extremely muddy. Resources are not plentiful.

I was impressed by the commune health center because its staff of eight was running quite the operation. To monitor the health of eight villages and their 2,865 residents, the staff were on call one day every 8 days and had to take on multiple roles– there was only one real doctor available. Even though they were understaffed, it seemed that they were being as effective as possible; they were reporting relatively good health outcomes and statistics. Apparently, malaria had been eliminated from the area, thanks to the intervention of some Belgians, and the commune had managed to keep it eliminated. They run a community based approach that utilizes village health workers to reach out directly to villagers in these remote, isolated areas. They also have 11 “traditional” healers affiliated with the commune to provide alternative medicinal remedies to villagers. Of course, it was a little concerning that patient privacy is impossible to guarantee (although this didn’t seem to bother the director when asked about it) and that all of the health center’s statistics were kept on an easily erasable white board, which, until my group pointed it out, had a false number written.

As part of the Aging and Care case study group, I had the chance to meet some of the oldest villagers in the area and ask their secrets to longevity. One man my group met was 107 years old and in the best shape a 107 year old could possibly be; he was mobile, fully aware, and so talkative! His secret to a long life was a diet of corn and very little meat. He said he never expected to live so long and that he has some 100 descendants now in the village. Even though he gets great happiness from his grandchildren, he misses his deceased youngest son and wishes sometimes he could just join him in death.

I believe that my stay in Lac Village was the most impactful part of my time in Vietnam. This might sound silly or pretentious, but I don’t think I had ever recognized my privilege as fully as I did there, especially my privilege to outstanding access to health care. I am honestly still processing what I saw and experienced in Lac Village because my biggest question now is how to improve things. How can my skills and future plans fit in?

In Lac Village, my group also hiked some 1200 steps up a very steep mountain to visit a cave. I was reminded how out of shape I now am and how hot and humid Vietnam can be.

Sweaty.

After our stay in Lac Village, my group returned to Hanoi and then we were on our way to Ha Long Bay, designated a UNESCO World Heritage in 1994. Ha Long Bay is known for the views and wow, the views were incredible! Let me tell you about the experience, though:

Ha Long Bay is a major tourist attraction and there are many cruise tours from various tour groups offered. Well, being college students, our group tour was booked by the program on a budget overnight cruise. The itinerary sounded amazing! The real life experience on board was not so much. Our boat was a rickety ol’ thing run by kind of sketchy, unfriendly Vietnamese sailors. The showers spewed out boiling hot water and there was no free bottled water on board. I repeat, no free drinkable water on board. If you ever take a cruise around Ha Long Bay, double check about the water situation– my classmates were dehydrating themselves by refusing to purchase the 25,000 VND water bottles. Fortunately, I had predicted the situation and brought 2.5 L of water for myself in my duffle bag.

Ha Long Bay

The itinerary also turned out to be a bit of a sham. We were shuttled around to Surprise Cave, a beach (watch out for jellyfish), and a canoe stop but did not go to a fishing village as advertised. There was no squid fishing and no karaoke, either. I’ve given you my warning; Golden Bay Cruise is a 2-star experience. Shout out to our guide, Bobby D, though, for being relatively cool and chill. The “D” stands for “drink” in case you were wondering.

While the views at Ha Long Bay are incredible the environment quality is abysmal. Across the water you could see the sheen of oil, and while cruising, you can smell the gasoline of the small boats. It really is sad to see how, even though Ha Long Bay is a World Heritage Site, it is treated like a trash dump.

Sunset in Ha Long Bay

My last week of classes in Vietnam was busy and stressful. I had to complete many readings, essays, and presentations. While nothing on the scale, really, of what I have to do at Duke, I was overwhelmed with trying to be a student and a tourist, a conflict of identities that I am still trying to figure out how to manage. I did manage to enjoy several coconut coffees, a $20 90-minute massage, and more cha ca before I left.

Also interesting of note: I visited one of the few senior nursing homes (Nhan Ai Elderly Care Center) in Hanoi. They are for the rich and are just coming into fashion as children work internationally and are unable to have their parents live with them. I think this marks a rather poignant shift in culture since so much of Vietnamese life is influenced by Confucianism and the importance of taking care of the family unit. The majority of seniors I talked to lived within walking distance or with a child and were heavily integrated in their children’s and grandchildren’s lives, remaining to do cooking, cooking, and cleaning because that is just the norm. With the increase of economic development (#capitalism), how will the Vietnamese mindset change? How do those Confucian values pair with capitalistic ones of independence and the individual? I suppose I need to take a look at China…

Bike riding in Tam Coc

Anyways, for my last Saturday, I took an excursion with some classmates to Ninh Binh province, also known as Ha Long Bay on land. We went to Hoa Lu and Tam Coc. Hoa Lu was once an ancient capital of Vietnam (968-1009 CE) and home to several famous temples, which we visited. In Tam Coc, we rode bikes around the area and then went for a ride on a river. All in all, it was a fairly lovely day to spend with friends.

Temple in Hoa Lu

And then the next two days were a whirlwind! We had a farewell party with our homestay families and then just like that, we were off to the airport flying to South Africa– a new city, a new continent.

My month in Hanoi was amazing, although I’m trying to figure out how a month of my life can be so significant. How can I place permanence on such a short period of my life? Just some thoughts.

I miss Hanoi, already.

About this title: Catch-up. Catsup. Ketchup? Get it? It’s funny because ketchup is a condiment and so is Chin-Su. Chin-Su is a Vietnamese sweet and spicy garlic chili sauce that everyone on program loves. We put Chin-Su on everything. We dipped everything in Chin-Su. We mixed everything with Chin-Su. <3

*I’m still pretty upset my laptop is broken. And that my phone is semi-broken. Oof.