Afte 10 hours of sleep (finally) I had to wake up and get ready for the orientation for I-to-I at 830 am. When I walked downstairs I saw some Aussie boys and one English boy who are the building volunteers in the Mekong Delta. I am the only teacher so far but I am told that there are more currently there. We were taken to the STA Travel Office in District 1 in the city and were explained everything we needed to know. Then we were taught basic Vietnamese which was hilarious. The Vietnamese had a good time laughing at us trying to speak their language. Then the coordinators Jesse and Charlie took us for breakfast down the street: Vietnamese soup usually with chicken or beef but I chose without. Jesse and I spoke about our love for ice cream (apparently its big here) and cooking and she wants me to cook when I am in the Mekong. The soup was absoultely delicious and full of flavour. Especially when you put the banana leaves on top and sweet and chilly sauce mixed in.
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Afterwards, Charlie took us for a walk through District one and we saw old buildings HCMC is famous for and one of the buildings that was the last the evacuate Americans during the war. Then he took us for a walk into an art gallery in which all of the paintings were not painted. They were embroidered! Absouletly amazing! The shiny silky treads created such detail and some were even three dimensional. The women at the shop liked us and gave us tea and some dried strawberries wrapped in ginger and sugar. There were also dried mangoes. Amazing!We continued to walk past women with rice hats making delicious smelling pancakes and waffles on the streets. We went our separate ways at the markets where we haggled and bargained. Most things cost about 20,000 which is 1 USD.
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After we went for lunch at a vietnamese restaurant and then Will (the english boy ) and I went to the war museum (the others had already been there). The museum was unbelieavable. I learned more there than I ever learned in the States. Unbelievable what my country did to those people. It was hard to fight tears at the gruesome images that I saw. Agent Orange affected me the most. The effects from that gas still affects the people today as they suffer from so many horrifying birth defects and deaths and diseases from it. The museum was really against America and I don't blame it. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling to Vietnam.
The effects of that war are present still. Now I know when I pass people on the streets who are limbless that they have been affected by a landmine and for those with scary birth defects: I see Agent Orange all over them. Unbelievable.
On a lighter note, Charlie is taking us out to a few bars in HCMC tonight. Excited to see what the night will bring.
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The bars were good and Saigon beer (Vietnamese ) is delicious! We met some of the other volunteers that are already at the Mekong Delta and just up to HCMC for the weekend. I met my roomies! One is a British girl and the other is from New York who is studying in London who picked up a British accent. Apparently our other roommate is a gay guy. YES!!
What I found incredible when I was out was that there were little kids out and about still at 2 in the morning selling roses. They were the sweetest things and we all eventually gave them money and joked around with them. One of the little girls knew perect english and played rock paper scissors with you. If you won you got the rose for free and if she won you paid double. I won but I still gave her some money. There was also men walking around with street stalls of dried squid that smelled awful. I think it was Vietnamese drunk food. Gross.
Mekong Delta tomorrow! I cannot wait!
Current Music: Armour for Liars- Birds of Tokyo
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