Mot, hai, ba, YO!!

Ahh......air conditioning......I'm back in the hotel after two solid weeks living in a tent at camp in the 95 degree/90% humidity.  I tried to be as productive as possible today with my one day off in the last 3 weeks since I've arrived, and it started with 12 hours of sleep.  I guess that was my body's way of telling me that 4-5 hours a night hasn't been working for it.  And though I'm only here for two nights and leaving tomorrow, I just can't say enough about how much I appreciate beds, hot showers, dry clothes, and not having to decide which animal I want to shower with every night (lizards vs. frogs vs. beetles).  I never fully appreciated animal-free showers until now.

After two weeks of training the staff, we had a very amazing first session of camp (picure of our camp banner - "Camp Colors of Love" and the main pavilion above).  It is sort of indescribable how completely awesome it was.  And the kids....wow.....why didn't I know how adorable Vietnamese children are?  Does everyone know about this?  I've been tossing out some things in my bag to make room to bring a couple of them home.  Though I technically don't have a "home" to bring them back to just yet, ET and/or BK- please set aside an air mattress/extra bedroom - they are very small so it shouldn't be a problem.


So yes, the kids had a wonderful time and it's good to know that camp is camp, even in Vietnam.  There are, of course, small differences (i.e. rice at every meal, no one speaks english, children are awake at 5am - oh wait, that's the same).  Well, actually there is one big difference.  In Vietnam there is a HUGE stigma against HIV.  It is not necessarily like this in all countries in this region, but it is really disappointing how uneducated so many of the people here are.  The campers come from orphanages or are being raised by their relatives/family friends in the communities.  Many of them do not know they are HIV positive because their families won't tell them because they are ashamed to talk about it.  If the community finds out that a person living there has HIV, their family will be kicked out of the community.  If a parent of a healthy child finds out that there is a child with HIV in their child's school, they will pull their child out of school to keep them away from the HIV positive children.  It is so sad to see how backwards things are here.


Having said that, the best thing we can do for them is give them as much love and fun as they can handle in a week with their friends in a place where they feel "normal."  That is the wonderful part about this job.  That, and the fact that wigs, dancing around for no reason, and profuse sweating are acceptable and encouraged.  Here is a picture of everyone getting "hosed off" during the water games!

Some more Vietnamese tidbits of infomation to pass along:


Vietnamese children love to take showers.  On the first night of camp there was a lightning storm and we had to change the schedule to cancel pre-dinner rest/shower time.  Well, apparently, this created a disaster situation.  Everyone kept saying:
"But wait- when will the children shower?"
"Can we move dinner back so they can shower?"
"The children! Their showers!"
This was the staff, the doctors, AND the kids (who are 8-10 years old) saying this!
I was like - "They are children.  They don't need showers.  I didn't shower today and I'm just fine"  (That last part didn't exactly help my case.)  So the moral of the story is, Asian children are clean.  And now they think American children are dirty.  (I proudly stand by the dirty children.)


The kids call me "Co Ann" as a sign of respect because I am older.  I call them "em + their name" as a sign of respect and to show that we have a close relationship.  Actually some of kids yell out "Co mer!" whenever I come around ("mer" means American).  The staff also call me "Co Ann."  I later found out, though, that if someone is within about 5 years older or less, then you call them "Chi + name."  Therefore, apparently I am too old to the staff for them to call me "Chi Ann" and so basically they are walking around calling me "old lady Ann."  They tried to convince me that it was a sign of respect and not age discrimination, and then to make me feel better they decided to call me "Chi Ann."  But we can all agree, the damage was done.


Speaking of ages, I found out today that Vietnamese people count their ages from the time they are conceived, not the day they are born.  Therefore, I am disappointed to learn that I've now lost a precious year of my thirties when I was still so proudly balancing near the border of my twenties.  Goodbye youthful innocence.  Thank you Vietnam.


To say cheers before you drink your beer, you have to say "Mot, hai, ba, YO!"


If you want to get a massage, it is very important to set clear expectations with your masseuse.  I thought we'd safeguarded ourselves against potentially "inopportune" situations by asking for directions from our hotel to a good massage place.  But sadly, this was a tough lesson Ryan (who I am working with) and I learned today.  Fortunately for me, I did not have to learn this lesson firsthand.  Unfortunately for Ryan, he did.  We immediately booked it out of the hotel where the massage place was, and went back to our hotel to shower off the shame of having entered a place with such practices.

    

the 4 Americans - Haley, Ryan, me & Aly

driving into Ho Chi Minh City

Tuyet (our camp training coordinator) and I on our night off on the town!

Okay, off to sleep now.  I fear writing this blog post has started me off on the no-sleep regimen for another session of camp.  It's okay, I'll sleep again next weekend.  Or in September when I get home.
N'on Gown!  (Goodnight!)