I
arrived safely in Vietnam about four days ago. It was so nice to have a good airport experience since I had
so many problems in Egypt. It is just amazing how poorly the Egypt airport
manages. In Chennai, India it was so nice there were people around guiding you
to the right locations and they were friendly, not grumpy and gruff with you
when you asked questions like they were in Egypt. I am volunteering at the Tho Thrang Childcare Center in Ho
Chi Minh City. It is a Waldorf center for children up to five years old. I felt
like I walked back into Sophia Project. It is a big house; where I am also
living at in a spare room they have for visitors. All the rooms are lightly
painted in different rainbow colors. They have all the Waldorf toys, rainbow
houses, dolls, cloths, wooden blocks, and finger puppets. We have a morning and
an afternoon circle where we sing songs and a story in the afternoons. I am trying to learn some of the Vietnamese
children’s songs. I have started with the Good Morning song and can almost do
it. I sang it last night to my niece, Tes, on skype. Even though she doesn’t
know any better, she thought I did a good job. The children have taken to me
right away. They love Round & Round the garden and Criss Cross Applesauce.
Suong,
the director, is very nice and has given me a very warm welcome. She has done
everything possible to make me comfortable. However,there is one problem, she thinks I am an expert on
Steiner's teachings and wants me to hold a workshop but I have tried to explain
to her that I am not. She has a head teacher, Thoa, that she wants her to learn
English so she is going to start living with me so she can learn in the
evenings. I don't really know where to start. I wish I had some books to help
me. I did find a few things
online. I’ll see if that works. We are trying to have conversations over dinner
but it is a little difficult because I don’t think she always understands what
I am saying.
My first night we went out for Vietnamese pancakes
and that was an adventure in itself. First, was riding on the back of the
scooter in all the traffic is a bit stressful. There are scooters everywhere
and trying to cross lanes or turn is quite an accomplishment. Then they had to
help me with supper, because everything comes out to the table and you do it
yourself. You take a rice paper, put lettuce & vegetables on it then you
have this fried pancake with shrimp, put that in the middle and roll. It is
like an art. I was really afraid I would get sick from eating the lettuce but I
was fine. Then for breakfast, I had a huge bowl of pho soup. Today for snack,
the children help make vegetable sushi with egg. I actually was able to do
that. They really seem to eat a
lot. I can hardly keep up and then this morning Suong said she was worried that
I was starving. I told her that wasn’t possible. Since I am going to be here
for some time and living and hanging out with Thoa I think I am really going to
get a douse of the culture.
