The Final Weeks

Hello! I'm sorry that I have been a little MIA the last few weeks. I am now back in HCMC happily living with Alex again in a guesthouse that has no internet, hence the lack of blog posts! I ended my time in Hanoi on Thanksgiving day. I loved everything about Hanoi, from the area I lived, the street vendors, the park and lake nearby, the general feel of the city, and especially the work and research I was doing. Other than my guesthouse being absolutely awful (I'm talking…there were ants infesting my bed, I could reach the ceiling it was so low, no windows, they were doing massive drilling in a room below my room and because I had a gigantic hole in the floor of my room, which opened into the under-construction room, it was like living IN the construction site). I've learned that these inconveniences are truly insignificant – in fact, I was living luxury compared to the way that most people in this country live. I have to say that living with Alex again in HCMC is a relief. Living alone was great for the schedule I was living during that segment of my research, but living entirely alone in Vietnam does take a toll on you even when you don't realize it. I can't describe the relief I felt when I landed back in HCMC. I love Hanoi, but something about this city is so comfortable and familiar. Alex and I returned to our pho hole-in-the-wall "restaurant" where they welcomed us realizing we had been away for some time. We returned to the track, where all the old ladies remembered us as well, smiling as we ran past. Even the sticky rice ladies near the university remembered us when we visited this morning. Things are just falling into place here, as strange as it is to think that in two weeks from now, I will be formally finished with this incredible experience. It will certainly be over technically, but what I have learned this semester and especially the last few weeks living alone here, is absolutely indispensible and irreplaceable. I couldn't be more thankful.

Speaking of thankful, happy late Thanksgiving! One would think that being in Vietnam for Thanksgiving would mean no turkey, gravy, pumpkin pie, or mashed potatoes. But think again! Alex and I splurged on a Thanksgiving dinner at the New World Hotel, which is the hotel Bill Clinton stayed at during his famous visit, and the hotel that I longingly looked into each day on the walk to school from my home stay, hoping that one day I would be able to set foot inside. That day finally happened. The food and wine were great, but greater than that was the fact that out of the six or so Americans also eating dinner there, two of them were from GREENSBORO. Yes, that's right! We all sort of raised our wine glasses together as we sat down wishing one another a Happy Thanksgiving and asking one another about where we were all from. After a minute or so, it became clear that two of the men (both in the furniture business, one of them lives here doing quality control at a factory nearby) were from Greensboro, one graduated from Grimsley and one from Smith. What a small world. It was definitely the most memorable Thanksgiving I've ever had. I couldn't have missed my mom's pumpkin chiffon pie more, but nonetheless, I made due with what I have here. On the walk home at around 10:30, Alex and I passed a woman digging through the trash, clearly in the squatting position she would be for the remainder of the night…out on the street. We felt full, happy, and content that we had just allowed ourselves to spend money on a real dinner, but seeing this woman made us squirm inside. We gave her the rest of the money we had in our money belts and walked home. You just can't get away from these situations here – we felt like we were in a bubble of luxury in the hotel, but once you step foot back onto the street, this bubble explodes right in your face and leaves you with a sense of guilt, or rather just plain reality. I enjoyed and loved every moment of my Thanksgiving indulgence, but not without recognizing how lucky I truly am for what I have and how the majority of people here cannot say the same.

I wanted to write about my research and field work the last few weeks. As you may now, I am studying the cultural influences on iron fortification of fish sauce and how national efforts toward widespread fortification can alleviate micronutrient malnutrition, specifically iron-deficiency anemia. I know that sounds like a mouthful, which it is, but I couldn't be more interested in my research topic. In essence, I am studying the nutritional impacts of iron-deficiency anemia in Vietnam and how the role of fish sauce in the Vietnamese diet affects will affect the success of the national project. In terms of fieldwork, I think it's most important to start off explaining the incredible advisor that I have been lucky enough to work with. She is a PhD candidate from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, but is from Vietnam and conducting her research at the National Institute of Nutrition about social marketing of iron-fortified fish sauce. Her American experiences, however, have helped significantly with the language barrier that tends to get in the way of successful verbal interactions here in Vietnam! I spent a few days at the National Institute of Nutrition using their library and primary sources available there, but the majority of my research came from the work I did in the field. With the help of Van and her contacts through the NIN, I was able to set up a day of rural interviews in Thon Dong Ba village with severely micronutrient malnourished women. Van was kind enough to accompany me on the hour trip to the village and be my translator. I conducted pretty in depth interviews with four women over the course of the day. I also had the opportunity to visit the commune health center and see the facilities (or rather lack of them). For a few thousand people in the neighboring communes, there is only one medical doctor. The entire courtyard was filled with plants, which were all the herbal remedies used in the facility. The interviews with the women, however were the most memorable. They were so open to sharing information about their lives, their food intake for their families, the percentage of their budget that goes toward buying meat, fish sauce consumption patterns, and experiences with IDA. One woman, for example, had arms about half the size as mine and was at least five inches shorter than me. She was tiny and clearly malnourished. She had a family of six (which she was embarrassed initially to tell me since there are family planning regulations about having two children – but she and her husband wanted to have a son, so they had children until she gave birth to her fourth child). She and her husband are rice farmers and get by in the off-season by reselling vegetables in a nearby market. Each day, she spends less than one dollar on food for her family. I just couldn't fathom it…it means that her children literally eat no meat, just rice porridge for three meals a day. After the interviews, I gave each woman about six dollars as a token of my appreciation, and realized that I was providing a week's worth of food for most of the women. I also used my grant money to donate six month's worth of iron tablets for each of the women I interviewed. I just couldn't sleep at night knowing that these women and their families were not eating enough each day to survive, let alone the micronutrients to keep them healthy.

The next segment of my fieldwork took place in Hanoi proper. I interviewed four more women through Van's contacts at NIN. Basically we contacted another health center near Van's home and recruited three more women who had recently visited the clinic for IDA. I also did about 10 interviews of fish sauce sellers in four different markets (two supermarkets and two traditional open-air Vietnamese markets, which were totally isolated from any tourists…I was definitely the only white person for miles!). One of the students I befriended from Hanoi University was my translator for the market interviews. Finally, I did a short questionnaire for the Hanoi University students. All in all, I did 17 interviews and 15 surveys. The results were fascinating – I will share them in my next post! For now, I have to go! I hope all is well with everyone there. Can't wait to be home!!!

Northern Excursion & Being a Non-Tourist

(This post was supposed to be posted almost 2 weeks ago…I'm sorry!!!)

This excursion is our last one in the program before ISP begins. It has been different from other excursions we have had because we are constantly moving and changing locations. Since the last time I posted, we have spent a night in the forest, slept in a stilt Muong house, and rowed boats through a bay of caves and rock cliffs. The general theme of the trip has been more ecological/environmental based. Before we left to the forest, we spent two days in Hanoi doing as much sightseeing as we could given the flooding circumstances. We ended up having to cancel many of our scheduled trips because the flooding completely devastated most areas of the city. People were without electricity and clean water. Upwards of 50 people have died so far in and around Hanoi proper. We even had to reserve a larger bus so that we could drive through the floody streets. On our way to our lecture at the Institute for Social Development, for example, there were parts of the road that were so flooded that men were literally fishing in the street and catching upwards of five fish at a time. The cost of food has nearly quadrupled since the flooding started, which is even evident in the very minimal selection of fruits on the side of the road driving in the villages. One village we drove through had boats delivering instant noodles to the people because they were unable to even leave their homes, let alone travel to a market. In Hanoi we also ate lunch at a restaurant that is an NGO for street children and runs a program to get them off the street. We also visited the Temple of Literature, which considered to be the first university in Vietnam. It had a completely Chinese feeling to it – the rich red colors interspersed throughout, the architectural design similar to a pagoda, and the intricately designed gardens that were expansive throughout. On our last day in Hanoi before leaving for Cuc Phuong National Park, we were supposed to have an all-day seminar at the National University in Hanoi. Because of the flood, however, the entire university was shut down and many areas of it destroyed. We ended up having the same lectures in the guesthouse. Although the lectures were all quite interesting and we also had the chance to spend more time with the Hanoi University students (one of which agreed to be my translator for my ISP!), I had a hard time being stuck in a dark room all day without any sunshine.

Luckily the rains slowed by the evening and we were able to take a long walk around the lake and attend the water puppet show, which is a traditional and trademark element of Hanoi. It is a puppet show, which incorporates Chinese and French influence but has a uniquely Vietnamese twist to it, which is particularly evident in the content of the puppet show stories. The marionette puppets are all intricately designed, ranging from dragons, snakes, to people, and are controlled by a group of about four or five people standing behind the bamboo wall. The most distinct feature of this puppet show is that it is done in two or so feet of water. Vietnamese singers provide the background songs to this production, which left us in our wonderful second row seats a bit wet by the show's end after getting splashed quite a few times throughout the program.

After the show, we walked along the streets by the lake on our way to a late dinner. Co Thanh just radiates energy when she is walking along the streets of Hanoi, which helps fuel my own intrigue with the city. On this walk, we saw so many exciting things, from clothing stores, street vendors, pharmacies, and hotels. All the streets here are compartmentalized – there are streets entirely devoted to shoes, to cups of fresh fruit with yogurt, to scarves, to pharmacies etc. Unlike in HCMC, the sidewalk in Hanoi is an actual sidewalk where people walk. There are even spray-painted lines structuring the rows of parked motorbikes in some parts of the city. In the middle of our walk, Co Thanh quickly crossed the street and told us she would be right back. We saw her talking with a street-vendor woman selling sticky rice. Co Thanh came back to our side of the street with two bags full of sticky rice, each ball of which was wrapped individually in newspaper and felt hot to the touch. Because the walk to our restaurant for dinner was far, she wanted us to have a chance to experience this sticky rice. This is the vendor where she enjoyed sticky rice as a child growing up in Hanoi. Looking back at this small food vendor, nestled away onto the sidewalk of this street, I realized how appreciative I am of Co Thanh and her desire for us to see Vietnam not as tourists. I'm not exactly sure what I am here, but I know that no tourist stops on the side of the road and picks THIS woman to buy rice from. As I bit into this foreign food, I realized that this country is becoming less and less foreign to me after all. I'm learning to enjoy this increasing degree of comfort and confidence in both myself and life in this country with each passing day.

On My Own in Vietnam!

Hello everyone! I am sorry for not posting in a long time but things here have been (great) but so busy! I have a lot to catch up on in my writing, including our most recent and last excursion to Cuc Phuong National Forest as part of our Northern Excursion, but first I want to update you all on where I am right now. It is now about 3 PM on Thursday and I am sitting outside my guesthouse room in Hanoi on a crammed little patio of bamboo chairs and potted plants overlooking other apartment buildings nearby. I can hear some honking and the sweeping of the woman beneath our patio, but in general, this area is refreshingly quiet. Most important to point out, I am wearing long paints and a sweatshirt, the sun is shining, it is not raining, and there is zero humidity. The weather in Hanoi is absolutely perfect (minus the flood ordeal which was devastating to the city about a week ago). The weather reminds me of early October days in North Carolina when the humidity starts to become less intense as fall puts its first foot in the door. That crisp, fall air is exactly what it is like here. Our guesthouse is about a five minute walk from a huge lake in Hanoi, which is called the Green Lake because the water is greener than evergreen trees. People walk and run around the lake at all hours of the day and there is a beautiful pagoda in the center of the lake. Last night, I went for a longer run around the lake at around 6 PM once it got dark. With a full moon overhead, a breeze, and cool temperatures outside, it couldn't have been more perfect. I have to say escaping the oppressive heat of HCMC is the biggest relief I have sensed in a long time!

Yesterday our independent study period began. I feel a strange combination of both being overwhelmed and simultaneously relieved. The few days prior to yesterday and after our Cuc Phuong Forest excursion, we had our final paper and various other academic obligations to complete before starting ISP that got a bit stressful, so in many ways being "set free" yesterday was a relief. I now have an entire month of time that I get to budget entirely by myself, without the structure of any academic program whatsoever. Granted I have a massive research project that would terrify me to complete in the United States let alone in Vietnam, but I am really excited. I have set up all my contacts at the National Nutrition Institute, will be conducting interviews with micronutrient malnourished women in the countryside, and will even be accompanying my advisor on nutrition field research in a nearby village on Saturday. I promise to explain more about my project as time goes on. Despite this sense of liberation I feel, it is a bit scary to be on my own away from the eight other SIT students I have spent intensive time with the last two and a half months. The only real contact I have with my program director is updating phone calls here and there plus my $19 a day stipend for housing and food. Although there are a few other SIT students in Hanoi while I am here, I am living on the other side of town by myself, other than these few days with Danielle. I feel more vulnerable to the hardships of living in this country, but at the same time very excited and honestly feel ready for this experience. I think about what my life would be like now in the US if I hadn't gone abroad. I would be in the library studying some concept or book or writing a paper. Instead, I am in Vietnam studying nutrition, which I've come to realize is something I am really passionate about, with firsthand contact with people here and life here. I can't even imagine how I will look back on this experience one day in the next few years when I am stuck in a cubicle in some office building. This is so energizing, real, exciting, and unique. I am not letting myself forget that, even when things get challenging!

This morning I spent at the World Bank Library, which is the most pristine academic building I have yet to see in Vietnam. The resources were fantastic for me. It was actually reenergizing to use actual books for research rather than internet articles. The library windows overlook the Opera House of Hanoi, which is a beautiful building reminiscent of Versailles in France (it was built during French occupation). I think I may be going back there to do more research because it is both a comprehensive library and an enjoyable place to work. Last night, Danielle and I (my roommate for the next few days before she leaves to Danang for her research, at which point I will move into a single at this guesthouse) went out for a nicer dinner near the American Club and ended up walking around the lake and meeting up with a few other SIT'ers in Hanoi for some $.30 beer in the old quarter. There is such an interesting mix of Westerners and Vietnamese in that neighborhood, which I far prefer over HCMC's backpacking district. As you can tell, I am just loving Hanoi and can't wait to spend the next few weeks here before I return to HCMC for the last segment of my research. This is a city that still has many of the same infrastructure problems that HCMC experiences, but the cooler temperatures and different type of people here (which is almost visibly apparent) make the day to day experience of living here much more enjoyable. In Hanoi you can use an umbrella (in HCMC there are too many people to even think about opening an umbrella). You can walk on the sidewalk and not touch anyone else if you wish not to. You can even walk around and not be harassed constantly by motorbike drivers, cyclo drivers, and fruit-selling ladies. Although I'm not sure if it's my growing confidence in the Vietnamese ways that make some of these observations true or not, but in general I am much more at ease here. I have even used more of my Vietnamese skills here and people are so entertained. For lunch today, for example, Danielle and I ate the most amazing bun bo, which is beef vermicelli soup, sitting on little red plastic stools on the side of the road. We ordered completely in Vietnamese and even had a mini conversation with the women working about how old we are, how long we have been here so far, and how delicious the food is. Obviously the content of our conversation was nothing complex, but I'm beginning to realize how necessary basic Vietnamese language skills are in order to experience the most authentic elements of Vietnamese culture, such as street food eaten off of little plastic stools. A small interesting side note – all the street vendors like the one we ate at for lunch are nomadic. By that I mean that this amazing bowl of soup we had for lunch today may not be there tomorrow or even in a few hours. Unless it is an official restaurant, the vendors just move around the streets for the most part. It's like the Vietnamese culinary disappearing act!

Even though I knew this entry would be extremely long, I did not think it would take me this long to reach the point to talk about the latest excursion. I think for the sake of your eyes and sanity, I will stop here for now and use my next post to write about the forest, tarantula experiences, Obama victory in Vietnam, and Halong Bay experiences. Miss you all! Sending love from Vietnam.

The Halfway Point

The time has come – I am halfway through my study abroad experience in Vietnam. It is hard to believe that in only 12 days from now, I will be on my own in this country doing my independent research project. I remember at the very beginning of the program, I told myself that when the time came for the Hanoi excursion, (which we left for at 5:30 AM this morning), I would really be "over the hill" of my time here. This past week has been strange in a lot of ways because it has really been like an ending. We finished our Vietnamese language classes, had our final exam, had a cultural exchange program with university students here, and on Friday night we had our final dinner with professors and home stay families at a fancy buffet restaurant. Despite the difficulty of the language classes, we were all pretty sad to be finished. We have grown to really love our cute, little professor and all of his quirks – such as consistently calling me "Berrecka" instead of Rebecca (everyone in my program now calls me Berrecka), being a grandpa figure and taking care of us on excursions, or asking us to join him for a smoke during our 15 minute break during each three our lecture (don't worry, no one has taken him up on this offer). After our test yesterday we gave him a framed picture of all of us and made a cute card as well. An interesting fact about gift giving in VN culture: it is not appropriate to open a gift in front of the people who give it to you. Professor Nghia was blown away that we asked him to open the gift once we gave it to him. During the oral part of the exam which was done one by one, I realized that I was actually able to speak Vietnamese! Although the questions were not complex questions by any means and he spoke slower than anyone actually speaks here, I could respond in Vietnamese with little difficulty.

Last night was one of the best nights I've had since I've been here. In the afternoon we had our cultural exchange with university students. We had been told that they were practicing hours on end for this two hour show, so we decided to put some effort in as well. We ended up singing and dancing to a few classic American songs like "Amazing Grace", "Ain't No Mountain High," and "Lean On Me." We sounded pretty pathetic but we had a great time nonetheless. The Vietnamese performances were absolutely, positively HILLARIOUS. It's guaranteed to be funny when Vietnamese try to cater to American pop-culture tastes. When we sat down at our seats, there was a paper printed with the lyrics to "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands." Luckily we never got to that part of the program, but one game they performed/played that we did get to was called the "I Love You Game." The two VN hosts would clap and then suddenly stop. Whoever continued to clap would be "punished," as they called it, and come up to the stage. In order to sit down, those on stage had to go up to someone else in the audience and say I Love You. It was so silly, but because the VN students were so enthusiastic, dressed in their wigs and glasses for Halloween, it was so funny. It was the kind of humor worse than any cheesy, American game show, if that makes any sense. I was also "pet" for the first time yesterday. The girl sitting next to me was taken by the length of my eyelashes and asked if she could "touch" them. I'm going to assume this was a complement, not her attempt to make me feel like a puppy in a pet store!

After the cultural exchange, we went back to the guesthouse and got ready for our dinner event. For the first time in a long time, maybe weeks, I broke away from the simplicity that has been central to my daily routine here. This simplicity means that the only consistent thing I wear or apply to my body every day is deodorant. No makeup, jewelry, etc. But last night, we all broke away from this simplicity and looked nice for a change! We walked to the restaurant along the streets of the downtown area, which is completely different from "real" Saigon. That is, the area with all the fancy hotels for foreigners is a world apart from the real life in HCMC. Gucci, Armani, and Prada stores line the blocks in this area, which in my opinion is the biggest irony to exist in this country. Here are stores where the average item sold costs more than most Vietnamese families' annual income. Beggars and all forms of street culture are missing for blocks on end. Everything is written in English. It was bizarre to experience, especially since the majority of my time Vietnam has been spent in such ordinary places where ordinary people spend their time. In many ways, it bothers me that this is what an average foreigner considers Saigon to be when they visit. It's too bad that this average foreigner doesn't always go down the random alleyways or eat at ordinary restaurants to see what Vietnam is really like for most people. After the delicious dinner which lasted nearly three hours, my entire group went back to our guesthouse and dressed up in some Halloween attire and went dancing at a club downtown. We all had a great time together, as usual!

It is now Sunday evening and I have been up since 4:30 AM and am exhausted! We are in Hanoi now, which I have grown to absolutely LOVE over the course of the last 8 hours that we have been here. Many describe this city as the Paris of Asia. Although I have not been to Paris, I truly believe this expression to be the case. Over the last two days, there has been massive flooding and rains here, which is worse than Hanoi has experienced in two decades. Just yesterday, the streets were flooded up to two meters, but today there has been significant improvement. We were on the verge of cancelling or postponing this trip, but because the rains have slowed down, we decided to continue on. The situation has become so serious, however, that food is running out for many families in the surrounding districts of the downtown area. Prices of food have nearly quadrupled because all the farmland is completely inundated by the water.

Landing in Hanoi was a world different from landing in HCMC just two months ago. Instead of the colorful arrangement of crammed houses in HCMC that were so evident during the landing, the scene landing in Hanoi was the stark opposite. Farmlands were extremely flooded and many homes were completely submerged in water. Despite the natural disaster that has taken place here, there was a charm to the place that I couldn't help but notice right from the start. The roof tops are all terra cotta and the homes are modeled like French villas with dark yellow stucco. The land is much hillier and the buildings are spaced much further apart than in HCMC. Flower fields, horse drawn carriages, and motorbikes all line the countryside on the way into the city from the airport. In general, there seems to be a fascinating combination of modernity and ancient times. Once we drove into Hanoi proper, my initial impressions became even truer. Tree lined boulevards, yellow stucco villas, sculpture parks, multiple large lakes lined by trees, less traffic, slower pace, elegant stores, cyclos, space between all forms of vehicles – these are all things I noticed. The opera house in the center of town is gorgeous, as is the high school my academic director went to, which is the same yellow stucco with a terra cotta roof and massive wooden shutters (she is from Hanoi and her parents still live here). Hanoi seems completely livable and enjoyable, unlike HCMC, which as much as I have learned to love is only tolerable. People dress differently here as well. There is a real sense of fashion and elegance to the way people present themselves. I remember my home stay mom in HCMC telling me about Hanoi because she is from here as well. Although she complained that life here has become too materialistic, she swears that the men are more handsome and the women more beautiful. I have to say she is right – people look strikingly different here, with rounder eyes, smaller noses, and they seem to have a more sophisticated, European demeanor (if the people weren't Asian here, I would think I am in Europe).

After lunch at a wonderful bistro called Paris Café, where we enjoyed delicious salads, French baguette sandwiches, chocolate mousse cake, and strong cappuccinos, we had our second drop-off exercise. It started to TORRENTIALLY raining again as soon as Alex and I began our trek to the ancient quarter. When I say torrential, I mean the strongest rain I have EVER experienced or even seen on TV. I have never used every feature of my Marmot rain coat and still gotten soaked. Even with the wrists Velcro-ed tight and my hood fastened around my head, I came home from a five hour shopping experience/exploration of the ancient quarter soaked to my underwear (keep in mind also that it is much cooler here, so the rain is cold rain)! It was interesting to note the difference in infrastructure here, though. If it rained this much in HCMC, I would feel like I was bathing in gasoline, motorbike grease, and dirt. Here, the sidewalks are open, consistently paved, and walk-able, so walking through flooding streets is a bit less miserable. Alex and I had a great time, though. The shops in the ancient quarter have some of the most beautiful artwork, bowls, plates, chopsticks, jewelry, and other household items that I have seen in Vietnam so far. I wish I could just ship entire stores home with me to outfit my apartment in Atlanta! Soaked in our wet clothing about halfway through the drop-off exercise, Alex and I stopped for another cup of bittersweet Vietnamese coffee. After my third boost of caffeine for the day, we were ready to continue. We ended up walking around the flooding streets for nearly five hours. Now that I've had my hot shower and am curled up in my bed, I couldn't be happier. Our (very, very modest) guesthouse is having many problems with the rainwater, as are other restaurants and hotels in Hanoi. The room just reeks of mold and none of the sheets are dry. Despite these small inconveniences, I couldn't be happier here. I really love the city and can't wait to spend more time here over the next month. Sending love to you all from the Paris of Asia!