many cures for an ill

After my post talking about hyperchondria, I've got myself a bit of a cold. And as a husky voice and crackly cough are indisguisable, I'm getting advice and treatment everywhere i go....

• In ex-pat / backpacker Hoi An - it's bronchitis, I need antibiotics, paracetamol and rest.
• At the beach - I shouldn't eat chicken (In general or just today? Any other advice other than avoiding poultry?)
• On the phone from Hanoi - it's because of the heat, I should eat black beans boiled with a lot of sugar.
• In Vinh Dien - it's because i've been on a business trip which involved getting in and out of air conditioned taxis. I shouldn't eat chilli, ginger or Japanese rice crackers (you can't even buy them here??) I should have accupuncture, with electrical current pulsed through the needles.
• In Dien Tho village - it's because of the weather. I had ginger rubbed all over my neck and face, and was told not to drink anything before meals, only after. My interpreter offered to do me a treatment which consists of inserting coins into boiled eggs and rubbing them on your face. Or maybe we still have some work to do on the interpretation thing...?
• In Dien An village - I've got a cough. I should rest and drink hot lemon juice.

I gratefully accepted the advice and hot lemon juice from Chi Thong in Dien An. She's like a second mother. She was very happy when I told her that my mum would do exactly the same.

my lai (this one's not in any way amusing)

Those of you reading this who are old enough to remember coverage of the American / Vietnam war, or who have read anything about it, will probably have heard of the 'my lai massacre'. I recently spent a weekend visiting the area, where a museum and war memorial have been built. It was impossible to align the quiet peace and beauty of the place with the horrifying carnage that was wreaked there just over 40 years ago.

Although what happened here is very disturbing, i feel everyone should know something about it.

"In the absence of light, darkness prevails"

(I heard this quote in a trailer for the movie Hellboy, and apparently it's an adaption of a Buddhist saying, but I can't find out what. Anyone know?)

We humans have such potential for good, and yet, if we don't actively cultivate this good in ourselves, and if we don't actively encourage (and insist on it) from others, atrocities like this show what can happen. The dark stuff - the abuse of power, the inhumanity, the greed, the hotheadedness, the arrogance - is still going on, now, all over the world.

Strangely, the day after putting this post up, I read a chapter in Martin Bell's book 'Through Gates of Fire' where he discussed how "good things happen because people make them happen and bad things happen because people let them happen"....

A scary statistic he quotes is that in WW1, 90% of casualties were soldiers; in recent wars, 90% are civilians.  

Amnesty international is a good place to start for more information and campaigns against war crimes.

The My Lai / My Khe massacre

Early one morning in March 1968, American troops landed helicopters in rice fields, and over four hours systematically killed between 400-500 unarmed villagers in a small area in central Vietnam. The majority of those killed were women, children, and elderly people.

It's bizarre and disturbing that an American army photographer captured the carnage quite calmly, and that the photographs were kept and made available. The troops appear detached, unconcerned with what they were doing, some smiling.

Copies of reports from American troops are chilling in their disregard for human life.

Looking at the photographs of the piles of bodies was gut-wrenching and emotional. I kept thinking about the families and children I'm working with - every lunchtime we lie around on the mats all sprawled out. The families slaughtered would have been people just like the them. The homes burnt down were just the same as the homes where I visit colleagues and friends.

The museum was deeply chilling and fascinating, but also incredibly, admirably, balanced.  Whilst it doesn't hold back on showing the evil, the inhumanity and the devastating loss of life, the curators have also been very careful to highlight the actions of three American soldiers (Thompson, Andreotta and Colburn) who risked their lives to intervene in the carnage. When they saw what was happening, they landed their helicopter between a troop of soldiers and some fleeing villagers, and turned their weapons to face their countrymen. They then airlifted a boy to hospital. 

There is a big section showing how the area is regenerating (pictures of the school choir, the district badminton team, the newly built hospital etc)

And right next to the large plaque commemorating the villagers killed, is an equally large painting depicting the world-wide demonstrations against the war.

A powerful lesson in forgiveness, not dwelling too much in the past, and looking for the good in situations, ourselves, and other people.

Am I sick???

I've been feeling a bit hyperchondriac-ally anxious for the past couple of weeks.

Aching legs. Slow and lethargic on my bike. Out of breath as I go over the rise of the bridge.....

What could it be????? Tropical fatigue? Some kind of low grade infection? Something horrible and squirmy in my belly??? Should i go visit a doctor??


You'd think three years of triathlon would teach me to check my brakes aren't rubbing......
:o)

the daily commute

Before you get any further, if you are already feeling in any way resentful of a joy-sapping, time-wasting, soul-eroding commute, then stop now. I don't want to make things any worse.

Here's my journey.

At around 7am I set off along the main road through my 'town'; Vietnam's Highway 1. This is not a lovely road. It's a trucking, honking, dust-flying, rule-breaking, life-threatening assault of a wake-up call. Thankfully, after about 800m I turn off, into rural Vietnamese heaven.

I could probably do the journey in around 40minutes, but I take an hour to meander along. Every single day I'm astounded by the scenery, and I only wish my pictures would do it justice.

Every turn brings a vibrant splash of colour in the sea of green

The buildings themselves are painted in rainbow colours - blues, turquoises, purples, pinks. The harvests drying outside are a natural aesthetic touch - corn, chillies, peanuts. Everywhere you turn there are colours to lift the spirit and brighten the day.

I don't need to write too much about all this, the pictures speak for themselves.

I'm one very lucky girl

What's happening to me???

Vietnam's changing me. 


I'm taking the stairs sedately, one at a time (no more clattering up 2 or 3 at a time).

I'm riding slowly and carefully, on a 'sit-up-and-beg' bicycle with a basket and a bell (a million miles from the clumsy filthy mountain-biking BRAT you once knew?).

I'm eating small mouthfuls from chopsticks, and taking small sips of green tea from tiny glasses (OK I'm lying on this one, I still love my food and eat like a pig - join me for Mi Quang one morning and you'll see..!)

I've stopped cursing or complaining (except on the all-too-frequent frequent days when it hits 40 degrees and there's no power (so no fans). Then I do join the other sweaty bodies on the floor, napping and mutterering "nong qua!" - "too hot!")

I'm wearing earrings.

I'm brushing my hair (here, the 'tousled' look is simply taken as what it actually is - extreme laziness).

I'm going to the market every week for a pedicure and a hairwash (I'll dedicate a whole new post to this fabulous way of spending an hour and 30p).

 I'm wearing a variety of hairstyles (every cell of my being grates at this one - Suong is 13, deaf and dumb, and an aspiring beautician. The ladies at the centre thought it would be a wonderful idea to get me all sorts of hair accessories for my birthday. The results can be best described as 'creative...')

I'm wearing dresses (sometimes by choice, sometimes for politeness! Maybe I should've kept my birthday a secret...)

I have a shiny red GENUINE!!! Chanel handbag (darned birthdays!!)

Oi choi oi! (Oh my goodness!) I'm becoming a lady!!!

Me in all my birthday finery. Aren't I beautiful... (?!)

  

It's not that my gender's ever been in doubt (at least I seriously hope not?!) It's more that when I arrived I stuck out like a broken leg in a full-length cast. If you didn't already have an idea, Vietnamese women are (generally) gorgeous, elegant, gentle and feminine. And whilst I'm never going to match the diminutive proportions (a girl at work is not particularly skinny, but 5 feet nothing, 42kg and a 24" waist), and whilst I would look and feel ridiculous in the beautiful full length white 'ai do' that girls wear to high school,  and whilst I'm never going to be one for frills, sparkles and embellishments (unless it's glitter from sparkly tom!), I CAN adapt my behaviour....