Ross's visit

Hey all,

So this is going to be a shorter blog post than usual. I am going through the stages of packing/freaking out, so I’ve been pretty busy. This is going to be the second-to-last post I send to you from Ben Tre, I leave Ben Tre for Hanoi on Tuesday May 28^th! So, it’s only a short time until my time here in Vietnam is over. It’s pretty crazy to be writing to you about leaving Ben Tre, but let’s leave that sappy stuff for the next post.

In the meantime, why don’t I tell you about my last week in Ben Tre? This was a particularly fun week, because Ross came to visit! Ross was my roommate in the UChicago London program, and we traveled together to Amsterdam and Dublin. Ross recently wrapped up a Boren Fellowship in Nigeria, and he is going to Tanzania in the fall, so he is a seasoned third-world traveler.

Ross!

Ross arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, and I went up to meet him on Friday. We spent the weekend exploring Ho Chi Minh City, seeing the Jamail Mosque, going to Cholon to see Chinese pagodas and to the Ho Chi Minh City Museum to learn more about the city’s history. Along the way I also did my best to introduce Ross to the many delicious foods and drinks of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Jamail Mosque in Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City

Beautiful architecture so different from the surrounding pagodas

Pagoda entrance

Quan Am pagoda

Ross in the courtyard

Through the gate

Dragon dance masks for sale

The opposite side of the pagoda, with a giant green pool

Tiny turtle pagoda!

Outside Quan Am Pagoda

Inside Quan Am 

One of the entertaining things about having people from out-of-country visit me has been seeing their reactions to Vietnam. Typical reactions include,

“Oh my god it is so hot.”

“The traffic here is crazy!”

“Why won’t people stop trying to sell me things?”

“This is delicious.”

Ross’s reactions were a little different. They were more along the lines of,

“Wow, these roads are paved!”

“You have streetlights?”

“So you’re saying the electricity doesn’t shut off after 6 pm every day?”

“Sweet, air conditioners!”

“This is delicious.”

I’m beginning to get an idea what Nigeria is like.

Spotted in the market. Man vs. physics

The church in Cholon 

After exploring Ho Chi Minh City Ross and I headed back to Ben Tre. Ross was going to help teach my students and explore my province!

Ross in the courtyard of Ben Tre College

Ross got to help me teach my classes on Monday and Tuesday, which also happened to be my last classes in Ben Tre College. They were with the first-year students, and at first I was worried about them understanding Ross. However I gave Ross a game to play with the students and it went very well! Ross spoke very slowly and clearly and the students all participated. I was really glad my students did so well, and I was really proud of them.

Ross leading a game I learned from Andrew

 

Asking the students questions

Answering a question

My first year students with Ross and I

Ross was a big hit with the students, who definitely enjoyed talking with him. His clothing was a subject of discussion, because Ross wears a leather cowboy hat wherever he travels. The hat was a staple in London, and it was a huge hit in Vietnam as well. My students and teachers decided that Ross was a cowboy, or an actor who played cowboys in Hollywood films. For the next couple days the words “actor” and “Hollywood” were jokingly thrown around whenever Ross was around.

Ross with Mr. Tuan

Mr. Tuan with my sunglasses and Ross's hat

Ross with Mr. Tuan

Ross with Ms. Tuyen

Ross with Mr. Luan and Mr. Vu Hung and I

In the courtyard, ready for more adventures

Monday evening we were invited to dinner with the teacher’s English Club, where Ross and I “helped cook” several delicious dishes.

Stir-frying meat

Ross stir-frying noodles

Cutting vegetables. Our cooking skills were under constant critique

Finished meal!

Ross with Ms. Tien and Mr. Luan

The food was amazing, as usual, and spending time with the teacher’s English Club is always a lot of fun. The dinner was spent alternating between stuffing our faces full of delicious food and joking with each other.

The table

Mr. Vu Hung, Mr. Luan and Ross

It was a deeply surreal experience watching Ross go through the steps of being “hazed” as a foreigner in Vietnam—being given too much food, attempts to set him up with various single female members of the club—while understanding most of the Vietnamese that was being spoken. It wasn’t so long ago that I was in Ross’s position, and to watch it as no longer quite a foreigner felt very strange.

On Tuesday Ross helped me teach my final English class, and we had a big farewell lunch with the English teachers. Ross got to experience a Vietnamese restaurant meal, complete with repeated shots of rice wine and more food than you can eat. #culturalimmersion

Lunch with all the English Teachers!

Then after that we rented a motorbike. Ross and I wanted to go explore the province, parts of which I had seen but had never explored myself. We successfully found a place that would let us rent motorbikes, then set off down the road.

There was only one tiny, tiny problem. I am pretty proficient by this point at driving an automatic motorbike. But this motorbike was manual. I had no idea what I was doing.

Our (semi-)trusted vehicle

After several eventful starts and stops, and a fair amount of cursing/prayer on both our parts, we finally started to figure it out. Ross knew how to drive a stick-shift car, so between our two skill sets we should be able to figure out how to drive a manual motorbike, right?

Actually, it ended up working. Ross and I were soon speeding down the country roads, heading out into groves of coconut trees and rice paddies.

"Hey, where are we?"

"No idea."

"Cool."

We biked for three hours around the countryside, stopping once for a refreshment break. As we headed back the sun gleamed through thin clouds, casting bright white light into our eyes over a flooded rice paddy. I had to remember that this will not be a common sight when I return to the U.S.

That night we were unexpectedly invited to drink with the mechanics. That was fun, as always. Highlights include the question “why did you go out to the countryside? There's nothing there!” and Ross gaining an additional hat.

Ross was given an additional hat due to concerns that the heat would be too much. I, not having any hats, protested that I should get a hat in vain. 

Ross with Mr. Dat and Mr. Le

The whole group: Mr. Hoang, Mr. Duc, Mrs. Ut, Mr. Man and Ross

On Wednesday Ross and I spent a relaxing morning, then he got back on a bus to Ho Chi Minh City. He was heading to China, and I would be in Ben Tre for a little while longer. Before he left, though, I showed him how to cut open a coconut. 

Ross and I outside the gate of Ben Tre College

Cutting the coconut

RUN AWAY!!!

While Ross was here, I had the opportunity to introduce him to a game called đá cầu, or shuttlecock. The game is played with a feathered shuttlecock, and the object of the game is to keep the shuttlecock in the air as long as possible. It plays like a Vietnamese version of hackeysack, with everyone trying to keep the shuttlecock in the air.

Ross playing đá cầu with my students

The shuttlecock is very light and aerodynamic, so the slightest touch is enough to propel it through the air. It drops quickly, though, and come come from many different angles so you have to judge the trajectory perfectly. You can kick it, hit it with your knees, even use your hands (although better players don't do this). No one keeps score, and there are only two objectives in this game.

1. Keep the shuttlecock in the air
2. Do it with style

The best players use the sides of their feet, their shins, they leap in the air and twist as they send the shuttlecock flying through the air. They let the shuttlecock fly over their head, then lean forward and kick back with their foot, blindly hitting the shuttlecock with the sole of their foot and sending it flying forward. They use their shoulders, their heads, their elbows, the back of their knees. I've seen players send a shuttlecock flying just by hitting it with the inside of their elbow, straightening their arms and popping the shuttlecock into the air.

And eventually, despite all these heroics, the shuttlecock falls to the ground. Everyone laughs, and maybe points a finger at the player who made a mistake. But then they keep playing.


This game for me seems a perfect illustration of life as a foreigner in Vietnam. You're thrown in the midst of it, and at first you just struggle to keep things up. You flail wildly, trying desperately to keep the shuttlecock off the ground, and failing most of the time. You feel slow and clumsy, ham-handed and graceless. Simply keeping everything together evades you. You have been exposed as a clueless foreigner, and you feel the urge to hang your head in shame.

But then you start to ease into it. Keeping the shuttlecock in the air gets easier and easier, and soon you begin showing off. You start trying new and intimidating feats, some of which succeed, some of which don't. You pull off moves that you had no idea you were capable of, and you learn them faster than seems possible. Eventually, you stumble upon the truth of the game.

It's not about keeping the shuttlecock in the air forever. Nobody can do that. Failure is inevitable, and placing perfect success as a goal is unrealistic and ultimately crushing. No, it's about trying new things, about pushing yourself. About embracing your failure and continually trying new and more difficult things. About having the courage to try and backheel the shuttlecock into the air, to leap and scorpion kick it, to try and hit it with the side of your neck because why not? Eventually you find yourselves capable of things you never thought possible.

And when you do fail? Laugh at yourself, pick up the shuttlecock and just keep playing.



Can't believe I'm leaving Ben Tre tomorrow. AAAAAAAGH?!?!?! So many feelings. Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more!

Peace,
Jefferson

Ben Tre sunset