Tara, the work, heat, lunch (in that order)

Sad news. Tara Redding had to fly home. She received email last night that her grandfather passed. Tara wasn't part of the grant group and was paying her own way on the trip, but she'll be missed regardless. If you know her, you should consider sending her some support. She took the flight from Hue to Saigon this morning and is currently waiting in Saigon airport to board her late evening flight to Tokyo, then on to DFW and home. It's a long journey, and I can't imagine what it must be like to receive such news on the other side of the globe.

Now down to seven, we drove into the central highland mountains today. I assumed that the mountains would be cooler, but really it just means you're closer to the sun. (More on the heat in a minute.) Our first two stops were rural special ed. schools supported by the OGCDC. These are VERY humble one-room school houses out in the country, but the education and dignity they provide these young people is immeasurable. Matt and I are getting pretty good at grab-and-go video, trading off shooting, looking for good shot and sound opportunities, and generally covering each other's mistakes. The new HD camera is a dream to shoot with. You could point it at a pile of dirt and get some nice footage. I mean that literally...I've done it.

After lunch (again, below), we visited a family who is being considered for one of the OGCDC microloans. They have a beautiful and spunky 9 month old daughter who has a heart valve problem. If left unoperated on, it will probably be fatal within a few years. The surgery only costs around $660 USD, but the family is incredibly poor. They live in a dirt floor shanty, and the father only earns around $1.25 a day. They have been able to raise around a third of the money from family and friends, but they need the microloan for the remaining amount. Incidentally, it's worth pointing out that the OGCDC microloans have a three year term and are interest free.

Now, on to less intense matters. Let's start with the heat. Hue is so hot...(How hot IS it?!)...It's so hot that today I drank two litres of water and only went to the bathroom once. Every so often I wish I had a thermometer to check, but then again I probably don't want to know. It's dryer in Hue than in Hanoi, but that's small comfort when you find yourself panting like a dog every waking second of the day. And remember, it's not even close to high summer here. Oh, and then there's the air conditioning in the hotel room. The AC works fine, but the hotel insists you turn off a master power switch to the whole room when you leave. This is an admirable power-saving trick, but it means the AC isn't on unless you're in the room. It also means the fridge gets shut off, which in turn means your drinks aren't cold when you get back from a long day of schlepping a camera and tripod through the mountains. If this sounds pretty cheap, I should point out that our hotel in Hanoi did the same thing. I'm pretty sure it's standard except in the most luxurious hotels.

Now, about that lunch. Unforgettable. Really. The way a nasty stomach flu is unforgettable. Up in the mountains we stopped at a small "cafe." This was a locals-only type of place where they probably get about two westerners a month on average. The food was authentic Vietnamese provincial, which I can't recommend. It was a series of dishes served family style: fried fish with bananas, sauteed beef in a bed of clover (seriously), the chewiest squid on planet earth, eggplants that looked like dead eels, and, le coup de grace, chopped chicken, again on clover. Now, you'd think chopped chicken would be pretty inocuous, right? Wrong. You know how you can buy a "whole fryer" chicken down at the Food Lion? "Whole," my foot! THIS was a whole chicken. We saw feet. We saw a neck. And we saw something that looked distinctly testicular at first but upon further examination was probably "only" the kidneys. And I'm lucky I had the beer, because the non-bottled drink selection was novel as well, including something called "Bird's Nest White Fungus," a canned drink with the hue of ginger ale but without the carbonation and WITH flecks of...something...suspended in it. I can only assume that was the fungus. Then, insult to injury, we were charged 57,000 Dong each for this abomination. That's only about $3.50 USD, but it placed it among the more expensive meals we've eaten since arriving. Vietnam is making me VERY cheap.

One last funny bit before signing off. You may have noticed that the Dong is so inflated that you basically can't pay for anything in increments less than 1000. Well, I've been keeping a small note pad in my pocket to keep track of expenses. After a day or two, I got tired of writing three zeros after each number and switched to the common abbreviation, "k." Then, last night, Matt and I had a good laugh when we realize that "48kD", for example, reads, "forty eight kilodong." I think I'll start using the term "kilodong" in the cafes, just to see how people react.

Best,

Stu