Rainy Season

I’ve spent the last couple days up in Nha Trang, a little beach town which is about a 10-hr bus ride northeast of Ho Chi Minh. It’s a cool little town, although the beach and main road remind me a little too much of Lakeshore Drive in Chicago. Not as posh, not as big, and not as built up, but well on its way. But I’m bored waiting on the bus to head back to Saigon so I’ll ramble a little to you about rain.

Back in Ho Chi Minh the rainy season came a little earlier than expected. What this means is that you can almost count on an afternoon rain that lasts 30 minutes or so. This is ok because you can see it coming from a mile away. The air changes, like it does everywhere, to let you know what’s about to happen.

(The reason I’m telling this story is because this happened to me today, and I received more than fair warning, and I got caught because, well, I was on the beach and I liked being on the beach and I didn’t want to stop being on the beach just because some clouds were demanding that I do so. And then I got poured on, and probaby almost struck by lightning. Not a recommended thought process.)

The inconvenience of it is that you have to plan around it. When the air changes you figure out a way to be indoors in 30 minutes’ time, for at least 30 minutes’ time (notice I’m talking about you, not me, clearly). Or you purchase a poncho. A couple days ago, I woke up to one of the biggest lightening/thunder storms I’ve heard in Saigon. By the time I got out of bed and ready to leave the apartment, I had to wait because the only road out was under a couple centimeters of water. This was all fine a little while later, just had to wait for it.

The beauty of it is that you have to plan around it. There’s nothing in this post that’s unique to Vietnam, I just love that the weather is basically the only thing that nobody anywhere has figured out a way to control. There just aren’t that many things that can change anybody’s plans, no matter how important that anybody is. You know? It’s cool. I mean we have figured out crazy ways to control land and sea and wildlife to suit ourselves, but no one can change when it’s going to rain.

I just like that.

Some Mekong Photos

I know that in the blogging world it’s all about “regular” posting. But what fun is that, really? I’m all about three posts in one day after a month of silence.

I spent a couple of days last week traveling to the Cambodia border via the Mekong River Delta. I was with my roommie Ali and her friend Kelly who’s in from England. They were on their way to Cambodia, I was just riding along to turn around at the border to return to work the next day. But, here’s some more of the Mekong:

I'm sharing this with you not because it's a good photo. Or even because it's actually the worst photo in the whole world. But because count the yellow beaks. There were at least that many live ducks on the back of that motorbike.

Go Vap and This November

There are a lot of things that I don’t know about where I’ll be come September, but I DO know where I’ll be for the month of November. Biking the roads of Vietnam from South to North with 11 (or so) other folks from my school. We’ve set aside the month of November for it, and our ending point is Hanoi.

As much fun as it would be to be doing this just for fun, it’s actually for a cause. Our school, ILA, works with a number of community organizations in town. One is a center for street boys, another is a shelter for girls who have managed to escape sex trafficking, one is a cancer hospital, and one is the place where I’ve spent most Thursday mornings since I’ve been here – Go Vap Orphanage. The ride will be raising money for specific projects or additional staff at each of these organizations. So, cool stuff. I’ll obviously give you lots more details on that as the time approaches. Right now I’m just spending lots of time spinning my wheels, trying to get in shape for this shindig. But, thought this would be a good time to show you some of the world at the orphanage.

Gotta love squishy babies in hammocks

Gotta love squishy naked babies

Gotta love squishy baby snuggle time

Gotta love squishy babies with INSANE hair that ALWAYS looks this way

Gotta love squishy babies and their lovely caretakers

GOTTA LOVE THAT FACE. On two squishy babies at once.

And then there are the older kids. You may have heard that good people don’t have disabled kids in Vietnam. For this reason, many of them end up here. But, aside from just not having enough adults there for all the kids that need them, they can have some good times. What with tickle wars and wheelchair races and all.

This kid may or may not be my favorite. He can't see or say a thing, but somehow manages to crack himself and everyone else up on a regular basis. Rock star this one.

Wheelchair partyyyyy!

Safety rules? What, here?

FLOOD!

So I’m sitting here in my favorite cafe in Saigon, plugging away at some work that I’ve been putting off for too long, sipping on a bubble tea, when the afternoon rain starts. And it’s a heavy rain. One that says you should just figure out a way to stay where you are until it stops. Suddenly some girls from the balcony come running in, notifying the waiter that, oops, the balcony is flooding at a very rapid pace. It seems that there’s a gutter that just feeds right onto this balcony (sensible, right? gutters that channel rain directly into indoor areas?).

In a matter of 30 seconds, the whole room, the size of two average-sized living rooms, is under a good two centimeters of water. We’re taking turns using dust pans to hurl the water over the balcony (and surely onto someone’s head down on the street). I just started going downstairs to try to get a mop only to find that they were all in use. Why? Downstairs is flooded just the same.

I’ll post some photos of this when I get home just because it’s funny. But at times like these there’s only one thing you can say.

“Oh, Vietnam. Why are you so sensible?”

Hurling gutter water onto innocents below

30 seconds later the invasion is complete

And finally, the 1st floor falls