Europe Cruise 6/23/12 - 7/6/12

6/23/12 Days 1-2 Barcelona: We saw a bunch of Gaudi structures including the Sacred Family Cathedral. That is quite a cathedral and worth seeing while in Barcelona. It will be decades before it is finished but still is more impressive than all the other cathedrals that I have seen to date. The pictures below do not do the cathedral justice, it is even more impressive in real life.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sacred+family+barcelona&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=RHf5T7KmHorH6gGatKHmBg&sqi=2&ved=0CG8QsAQ&biw=1680&bih=965

At Olympic Park we found a fantastic contraption. It worked like a 4 way seesaw that spins. That was probably the most fun thing I did during the trip. I want to build one.

Day 3 Monte Carlo, Monaco: There's not much of a reason to visit Monaco unless you want to go to a casino. We took the train to Nice, France. It is difficult for Americans to fathom why Europeans go to the middle east and other far off places for the beach until you see firsthand. Nice is supposed to be one of the nicer beach areas. There "beach" is an area that has rocks the size of your fist. Most of the rocks are smooth. You get to walk/sit/lie on top of fist size rocks instead of sand. It gets worse when you go into the water because now you have gravel sized rocks mixed in with the fist sized rocks. Later in the trip I came to understand why this was considered one of the nice beach spots. In other places there aren't even rocks, there are boulders. People sunbath on top of the boulders and jump into the water from these areas.

We stumbled into a Triathlon. While walking along the course we got to overhear a competitor explain how much time one could save by not taking bathroom breaks, 17 minutes. Presumably if she unloaded her biological wastes on the course. Yummy, you got to really want to win.

Day 4 Livorno, Italy: We decided to skip Florence and Pisa. This was a great decision since we would seen many leaning towers in Venice that are never advertised. Instead we took a train to Cinque Terra (translates to: 5 towns). We took a spectacular/grueling hike through mountain paths that flanked the splendid views of coastal areas. We made it back to the ship with 15 minutes before it departed.

Day 5 (Train riding in Civitavecchia): We set out at 7 AM to take a ride into Rome. After waking up from two hour ride on the train we realized we were in Livorno, Italy. So we just canceled all the traveling we did last night by going two hours in the wrong direction. Instead of trying to make it to Rome (~3.5 hours away) we decided to head to Florence (~1 hours away). When we got Florence we noticed that there were no direct trains back to Civitavecchia. After calculating time vs. cost we decided to head straight back to Civitavecchia.

Day 6 Rome, Italy [Naples, Italy (Napoli)]: Naples is a very dirty city. It almost approaches the filth level of a third world country. We decided skip Pompeii and find a train to Rome. We did get to see Mt. Vesuvius in the distance though.

In the subway we had a wonderful illustration of the Italian bureaucracy as we tried to take a picture of the subway map to navigate:

Subway personnel: No photo! No photo!
Tourist: How do I know which station to get to?
SP: You buy map.
T: Where do I buy a map?
SP: You buy from us.
T: May I buy a map?
SP: We don't have any more.


This is when Allie discovered that you should break in shoes before traveling. Her new flip flops tore the skin off her foot. We taped up her foot until we could find some socks for her. We found a dog that would fetch anything you threw. It's owner was throwing a 3 lb rock and the dog was bringing it back.

We made it to the tourist sites before heading back. The forum looks like a pile of rocks. The library is in good shape and there is enough of the coliseum to warrant a look. The cathedral and Vatican are worth taking a look at just to say you were there. We didn't think it was worth the wait to stand in 95F weather for 4 hours to actually go in though. We cut this trip really close, boarding the ship about 6 minutes before it departed.

Day 7 Sea day. Day 8 Mykonos, Greece: There was already another ship in port so we had to Tender (take a smaller boat) onto the island. There were a couple of pelicans on the island that were clearly not concerned about the human population. I never realized how big those things were. All the structures are white washed and rounded. We found a dog that decided that it was going to follow us around until we went into an ATV shop (no door). The proprietor was obviously not a dog lover as he chased it away. We rented 4 ATV's and puttered around the island. We had a spectacle when one of the ATV's feel off the side of the road, rolled over a fence and into a field. Luckily neither of the riders were severely hurt and just had to decide how to get it back up the 4 foot drop.

Day 9 Istanbul, Turkey: Before I came here I was told how great and beautiful this city was. My expectations for a place that used to be the center of the western world were pretty high. Sadly it did not live up to the hype.

Day 10 Kusadasi, Turkey: We took a mini bus out to Ephesus then a horse drawn carriage out to the ruins. These ruins were in better shape than most of the stuff I had seen in Greece in my past trips.

Day 11 Athens, Greece: It's still a hole, just like last time I was there. At least there was not as much smoking as last time. No riot or general strikes, so I count myself fortunate. We rode the subway out to the Acropolis and spend the morning up there.

Day 12 Sea day. Day 13 Venice Italy: Riding into the harbor in a 5000 passenger ship gives a great elevated view of this city. The architect is spectacular despite the numerous towers that are leaning. Venice sits on a swamp and I guess some of these towers are not on stable foundations. They don't advertise this the way Pisa advertises its defective tower. There are numerous palaces and homes left over from the merchant kings of old. Each with a splendid front containing highly ornate doors, marble walls and carvings.

San Marcos has the largest palace and the cathedral. The square is still used for various events. We walked through while there was a graduation going on.

Transportation in Venice is either water taxi (water bus) or walking. The paths and bridges are not made for motor vehicles. The gondolas are for rich tourist who enjoy riding around on highly congested and polluted sewage. We took trips to two of the smaller islands too. On Murano we got to see a glass blower make a horse. That was pretty neat.

Vietnam-Introduction

I have decided to take a departure from my previous writing style for this series of entries because this trip was a departure from my standard travels. I set out on a cultural adventure that would help me understand more about where I came from, and who I would have been if life took a different turn. A vacation was the secondary goal and understanding was the primary goal. In telling these stories it would be incredibly cumbersome for me to use ambiguous pronouns. Also because this will also serve as a family history the 5 people that I know read this blog on a regular basis may benefit from the greater detail.

The style will also change in that it will not be a chronological recall of events. This is because my level of understanding continued to evolve, often from first impressions to a different level of awareness. Many things I would not stretch as far as to say that I understand because my initial impression were usually correct, it is more that I see how a significant group of people may reach these behaviors.

So now the disclaimers: Of course being politically correct I could not generalize. Not all people in any group can generalized. To save myself the ambiguity of framing every entry politically correctly I will state that the observations were of as many data points as I deemed available. I know that I will get comments from family and Vietnamese friends. I welcome these comments to continue expanding my understanding.

Vietnam-Time Table

This will provide a backbone for the timing of when all the events happened:

Day 1 (Sat)- Fly to Saigon

Day 2 (Sun)- Arrive at "Hotel" that cost $200/month

Day 3 (Mon)- Historic walk thru Saigon with Dad.
-Learned where he met mom.
-Saw grandpa's shop
-Grandma's last condo
-Sat on plastic stools at resturant, just like my house!
-Lots of exotic fruits
-Dinner with Ba

Day 4 (Tu)
-Suoi Tein Amusement Park
-Hall of monsters (deformed mutations preserved or stuffed)
-Grandma's last apartment; 12" rat, this could be home
-Cit-go negotations with dad

Day 5 (Wed) Trip to Nang Trang
-Stuck in the back of the bus with the luggage and exhaust
-Met Tham
-Met Amy, Xien (seen) and QUOC (not a mispelling)

Day 6 (Th) Nang Trang
-Beach
-Fish Market
-Met Packer
-Vinpearl Amusement park, rode an electric bull with one hand and didn't fall off.

Day 7 (Fr) Nang Trang - Da Lat
-Mud Bath
-Ghost House
-Went shopping for roses with Than
-Met Mohawk

Day 8 (Sat) - Da Lat
-De Marie Church - bought sweater for Tham
-Botanical Gardens "Yellow Flower Valley"
-Luge down Mountain
-Embroidery shop
-Traditional Dance
-Monk with Chainsaw
-Bar/Club that served watermelon, pineapple, strawberries and no napkins for the drink condensation. 3 year old child was in the club at 10:30 at night.

Day 9 (Sun) Back to Saigon

Day 10 (Mon)
-Downtown Saigon with Dad, family history chapter 2.
-Airport overlook with Packer, Mohawk, Tham and wives.

Day 11 (Tues) Ben Tre
-Motorbikes to Cu Chi Tunnels
-M16 and M60 firing range
-Met Uncle, aunt and cousins
-Uncle's farm house residency
-6 hours on motorbikes

Day 12 (Wed) Ben Tre
-Poverty of rural community

Day 13 (Th) Saigon
-Fine arts Museum
-Dinner with Linda's son

Day 14
-Shop 5 slacks for $23
-Hair cut for $1.15, straigh razor shave on forehead

Day 15
-Presidential Palace

Vietnam- Cast of Characters

Linda: Dad's long time girlfriend that still has family in Vietnam. She has a moderate English mastery.

Ba: Elderly lady that my dad says has many similarities with my grandmother. She has no English comprehension and lives in Los Angeles. I do not know her real name and dad says don't bother trying to learn it because I can never use it anyway. I address here as Chao Ba (respectfully hello elderly woman), thus the name Ba. Within a few minutes of meeting her she is showing me pictures of her grand daughters. Later she invites me to visit here in CA. It is not hard to guess her motives since she and I can not communicate. The next day she would tell my father that she thinks I have a kinder aura than my brother. I guess she can tell all this from the way I carry myself because I am sure it is not something I said.

Packer: This is the nickname I gave the Cantonese speaker I met on the 2nd day of the tour. I helped him with a user-generated problem with his camera, thus winning his friendship. From that point on he and his wife actually spoke to me. He speaks Cantonese and his wife moderately speaks English.

Mohawk: I would interact with him and his wife more on the 3rd day of the tour onward. His wife has a moderate mastery of English and he has a weak comprehension of it.

Amy: She is the mother of QUOC and the aunt of Xien. The whole family present speaks Cantonese and she has a mild command of English. At the start of the tour I would start off literally in the back of the bus with the luggage. The seal back there is poor so the exhaust enters the bus from the back corners, one of which I would be sitting at. An hour and a half into the trip I move up to sit next to Amy. When I figure out that they speak Cantonese this is a great relief because going 3 days without understanding anything other than what my Dad chooses to translate for me gets old. She invites me to visit her boutique in Chinatown, LA. After 5 days of speaking Cantonese with the people on the bus I can tell that I have vastly improved and pretty much gotten up to a plateau point. This practice would greatly help me when I got to Ben Tre to see Uncle. I had been worried that because of my lack of use of the language it was deteriorating very rapidly, it appears it had not quite deteriorated as much as I thought.

QUOC: The eldest son of Amy, is an Engineer and if fluent in English. He is about 6 foot tall and laughs about his cousin Xien, saying that she "can't drink". He ends up paying for it the next day. Karma is a wonderful thing when it happens to other people.

Xien (seen): Niece? of Amy? She is a local Vietnamese lady whose primary language is Cantonese and also is fluent in Vietnamese and a number of other languages that I can not translate. She speaks no English. My first interaction with her was after I sat down next to Amy on the bus. Xien offers me a piece of fruit she had just cored. I believe in the saying that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. You know it is going to be a good relationship when the first thing a pretty girl does is feed you. One of the few occasions I spoke with QUOC in English Xien berates us and says that we are in Vietnam so we are not allowed to speak English. I tell her that my Grandmother says that when we speak English around her that we are yelling at her. Therefore Xien sounds like my grandmother, an old lady. She does not appreciate this comment but her cousin and aunt gets a chuckle out of it. She has an interesting complex about being not pretty she seems to think that she was hit by a bus and truck at the same time. Of course I refute this many times, but she does not know how to take a compliment. She questions why I am not courting an American woman and says that's what she would be doing if she were as good-looking as me. She thinks I am too picky. I would later that I find out there is a rumor floating around the bus that I came to Vietnam to find a wife. I can guess where that rumor started. Xien makes two references to having light colored skin is better. Think about it, all the Asian models and superstars are very pale. This makes sense because the Western world went through the same mentality when we had more agricultural influence. The second time was when I ask why she had put on her jacket in the scorching heat and she said it was to keep the sun off. I tell her that in the US people pay to get a tan, ask your cousin. She doesn't appreciate this comment and demands to know why I must always turn everything around on her. Her cousin and I get a chuckle out of it when the bus opens up and she huffs and states that she is getting on the bus and the people who are not afraid of tanning can stay outside. After lunch one day she playfully says that she is jealous that I can just go upstairs and rest while she has to ride the bus back to her [better] hotel. I offer to let her rest in my room on the pillows. She huffs and exclaims in an exasperated tone “Pillows!” I say that if she wants to sleep in the bed that can be arranged too.

Tham: The tour guide. He command of English is weak. My first significant interaction with her is at the mud baths. While we are in the sun waiting for the mud to dry we are the only ones in the immediate vicinity. She explains to me that my skin will be very soft after this mud treatment. She says that all the girls will want to kiss me. I turn my cheek toward her and to allow her to prove her claim. She gets a real chuckle out of this and the story would be retold a number of times throughout the trip. I can tell when the story is being told in Vietnamese because she would point at me and eventually turn her cheek and everyone would laugh.

Uncle/Cousins/Aunt: Interactions between this group will all be observations except with Uncle since none of them speak Cantonese or English except him. He has a mastery of Cantonese. They live in Ben Tre many of them work in the coconut industry as laborers. Uncle commented that I blew through in about 10 minutes the amount of money he makes in 40 hours of shucking 8000 coconuts. That small fortune I burn through was about $30 USD. There is no trash pickup or disposal in the rural areas so the residents get to figure our what they are going to do about it. Many of them choose to leave it lying around, especially if it cannot be burned.

Vietnam-Other Observations

We went to a nightclub in the Nha Trang and instead of bringing peanuts for munchies they brought fresh fruits like watermelon, strawberries and pineapple. They also brought salt to dip the fruit it to help wet our appetites for hydration.

In Nha Trang there was a seafood market next to a private beach. The customer selects the items by the kg and they cook it up and deliver it to your at the beach. The vendors are very good at tracking the customers. They spotted us 30 yards in the water. Dad and I of course were not wearing glasses in the water and were topless, yet they still found and recognized us. This was the first time I had ever has scallops in the shell. After we were done we left all the trash in bags by the gazebos for little local boys. The little boys took the bags. The boys separated the recyclable for money and then took the bags to some adults. They sorted through the trash and ate the leftovers. At the same time they looked like they were collecting the shells. I can only guess as resourceful as they were they were going to use the shells to make something that they could sell like tourist trinkets.

Relative to the large population I saw very few beggars. Most of the people try to be industrious and provide a good or service. Some of the efforts were not very logical from my limited perspective. There were quite a few people providing shoe shining. They were obviously not targeting locals because the locals were flip-flops. In my time there I really did not see very many foreigners with dress shoes that would need shining either although the vendors were persistent about offering to shine our running shoes.

I think the massive amount of people in the country has led to many of the people to pushing, shoving and a disregard for lines. By the 4th day in Vietnam, I had been shoved from behind four different times by someone trying to get past me in a line. One large group decided to try to shove past us in a line starting with a lady, that bugged me a bit. Then I got shoved again by her friend, and I turned this time it was her male friend and cronies. Very few things gets the alpha male testerone going more than a smaller male trying to shove him aside for position. With their behavior to get a few inches further on the platform when the transport car wasn’t even there, I recognized that there were going to try to bully their way past me once the car was there. So as the car approached I let the first of them push and shove past us then braced myself for the impact of the rest of them without ever changing my stride. I calmly sat down in the transport and effectively separated their group. One person of their groups could not fit on the transport and had to wait to catch the next transport, how unfortunate.

When I saw the monk wielding the chainsaw it was a bit of a disconnect. Since Buddhist monks are mostly poor it strange to think of them using technology because technology is usually expensive. I almost associate them with Amish, which I know is a very poor way to categorize them in. Seeing the monk with the chainsaw did help reset the association that they have not lost an appreciation for technology during their spiritual journeys. Sorry Lewis he appeared to be behind a private area of temple. While I did consider snapping a picture, I thought it might have been a bit disrespectful to be taking pictures of them in their private areas and I could not ask them if it was ok since I do not speak Vietnamese.

The Cu Chi Tunnels are the underground bunkers that the Viet Cong used to attack Saigon. There was about 150 km of tunnels with everything from kitchen to meeting rooms. They allow tourist to purchase bullets to use on the firing range. The heavy machine guns ammo would cost more than the pistols. All of the weapons were mounted with a little play for aiming but not enough to be dangerous. After firing the M60 light machine gun I realized that they were mounted so that you could not possibly hit the target. They are locked high. It dawned on me that if the foolish tourist could not hit the targets then they never had to replace them. I fired the M16 assault rifle anyway with this understanding just for the experience, but stopped after that because it takes a lot of fun out of it if you can’t ever hit the target.

Vietnam-Haircut and Luge Ride

I got a haircut for 20,000 dongs ($1.15 USD). They gave me a straight razor shave with that. What was unexpected was that she started shaving my forehead. I never knew that my forehead needed a shave. She asked me if I wanted to have it waxed. I thought that was a bit overboard and declined. I handed her a 50,000 bill and she gave me back a 20,000 and a 10,000. After consulting with dad about what was a normal tip he said 10,000 was very generous (remember that’s 50% tip). I gave her a 100% tip and made her really happy.

In Da Lat there was a gravity-tracked ride similar to a roller coaster down the mountain. Being completely gravity there were no gears to slow you down. Dad sat in front of the two-person car so I was in the back with control of the break. The car reminded me of the cars that you go down some water slides in, not much more to it than a tray with a brake. We picked a time when there was no one in front of us and took off. I took off under the philosophy of “I don’t need no stinkin breaks!”. So off we go flying down the mountain and swing around the turns at full speed. They have people seated on benches along the way. I hear one of them shout at us, dad hears it too but can’t understand him because we are zipping by. We zip by another one of them that is shouting at us and again dad can’t understand him. We use the context to assume that they are yelling for us to slow down. Those guys on the bench wouldn’t be able to do a thing to stop us at those speeds. At this time it dawns on me that we are in Vietnam and they probably do not idiot proof their rides. So I decide to yank the brake slightly before the next turn. I don’t think I actually yanked it hard enough slow us down, I think I just kept us from accelerating. I did notice that this turn had netting around it, I assume that is for those fools that flew off the track because they were going too fast. The netting looks pretty feeble and I wonder if it would actually have stopped a full speed car. I continue this responsible course of action for the rest of the turns down the mountain, never really slowing down just not picking up more speed before a turn. After the ride dad said he was concerned about how fast we were going.

Vietnam-Family history

The whole city of Saigon is a market. So I found it humorous when dad would say that someone was going to the market. Every available inch of street property is a shop in front and living quarters behind it. Even in the alleys and back roads there are carts set up selling wares. The only exceptions were religious structures, and the government properties like the parks and museums. The areas that were not streets were a cross between sidewalks, parking lots (for motorbikes), and vendor store front. So the pedestrians were just as likely to be walking in the streets as the “sidewalks”.

It was well into the dark hours of the night when we walk through the closing street market leading to grandma’s first apartment. Debris from the market completely littered the street. As we left the alley there was a 12 inch rat (8” body, 4” tail) that scurried across the path. This could have been home.

In the daylight dad showed me where grandma’s last condo was. In the same day he showed me where grandpa’s stamp store was and the place where he met mom. He answered the question of how they met each other. He showed me where he proved that wood was stronger than his ribs and the hospital that grandma took him to afterwards. This was how he got all the stitches in his abdomen.

Dad shared with me stories about how he and his father bonded working the stamp shop and his errands to the post office. He told me about what he had heard about his only uncle that lived outside of Shanghai, where grandpa was originally from. He also shared what he knew about his only cousin. We also covered mom’s side of the family and why there was some bad blood with parts of that side of the family.

Spending time with dad in Vietnam provided an opportunity to see and hear things that I would never have experienced otherwise.

Propaganda and War

In the places I visited in Vietnam the monuments and most prominent displays were of the war with America. There is very little mention of the wars preceding and following the Vietnam War. Meaning little is said about the war with the French (before) and about the war in Cambodia (after) and with the Chinese that followed the Vietnam War. Some of the translations were pretty comical, and clearly not done by fluent English speakers. The translations were much harsher than what one would find in a historical monument in the US. Instead of referring to the Southern Forces in a governmental term the translations often referred to them as the “Americans and their Lackeys” or something else derogatory.

Having a chance to interact with Draftees of the Vietnam War it is not surprising to get the sense that they were not really interested in the political side of the war, meaning they only fought because they had to. Spending time in the countryside brings the understanding that wars are conducted by the rich for the interests of the rich and usually fought by the poor. A rice farmer who is happy to makes enough to have 3 meals a day. His free time is spent socializing with his neighbors and family over a cup of tea. He doesn’t have the money for other options. Why would he care whom he pays his taxes to? Why would any government care what is doing out in his rice patty as long as he was not being disruptive? Yet it is the poor rice farmer who was drafted into the wars. It was the draftee rice farmers that were hit by the 500,000 bombs in the front lines, the victims of environmentally destructive chemicals. What happens when that farmer’s family is slaughtered or mistreated because soldiers are incapable of distinguishing the enemy? This sounds like certain elements of Abu Ghraib doesn’t it?

There are always two sides to every story. Somewhere between the two stories lies that truth. The truth may not be a single absolute point but rather a fuzzy region that resides with elements of both perspectives. As American children in the US educational system during the eighties we were brainwashed to be terrified of the communist specter. We were told that democracy is the best form of government and that almost everything else was evil. Does that kind of remind you of Bush Junior’s “Axis of Evil”? We were told how we were so heavily oppressed by the British so we had this glorious revolution leading us to believe that everyone in the colonies were furious with the tyranny. I got straight A’s in history, so I was pretty good at absorbing the propaganda and repeating it back to the educators what they wanted to hear even being classified as “Gifted and Talented” in that subject. If one has and interest he can find out that the majority of American’s did not actually actively participate in the revolution. The various historical accounts put the Patriot support at less than half of the population. About 20% of the population were Loyalist and actively supported the British. The victors write history.

Communism was the specter that every American kid was taught to fear in the 80’s. In my time traveling through Vietnam and China there really were no immediately visible effects of Communism, of course I wasn’t trying to find any censored websites or have political discussions or anything as aggressively foolish like that. My ex-girlfriend and I went around China without anything that hindered out movement or activities. Like wise in Vietnam. So is it really the end of the world if not every country is a Democracy?

The collapse of every democracy has been decay from within. The majority population feels apathy for the system and when the remaining figure out that they can vote themselves rich. Consider the voter participation rate and the socialistic actions like Social Security. A bunch of 50+ year old legislators vote into effect a policy that says that they pay in for a few years and then collect money for the rest of their lives. A stroke of genius if you were category to benefit, was it an altruistic policy to benefit society?

Vietnam - Living Conditions

I was pleasantly surprised and not so wonderfully surprised by the living arrangements throughout my stay in Vietnam. My home base consisted of a single room about 12’x10’ including the bathroom. I was very pleasantly surprised that a place costing $200/mo had air conditioning, cable TV, foam bed (no springs), and a refrigerator. The exterior door leading into the complex was a sliding door. The lock on this sliding door would not work from the inside. The bathroom had a sink, toilet and removable showerhead in a 5’x3’ area. The drain hose from the sink deposited onto the floor 2.5’ away from the drain. When the toilet flushed an unexplainable effluent went to a different hose onto the floor and rolled across the floor for 2.5’ before reaching the drain. The effluent was not colored, but was also not a coincidence that it came out only when the toilet was flushed. I tried not to think about why the two events happened at the same time.

At the two hotels we stayed at the night shift slept at the hotel. You could see them sleeping on a mattress or cot either in front or behind the desk. That means a request for a wake up call is useless because the night staff is asleep while customers are sleeping. The first hotel was located inside a 6-story structure, the first story being a large appliance store. You had to walk to the back of the store to get to the stairs leading to the hotel. In the late evenings the store closes and the metal roll-down door prevents anyone from entering. If you are out for a late night you have to open the mail slot and yell\bang hoping that the night staff that is sleeping on the second floor in front of the hotel desk can hear you to open the door.

Uncle’s farmhouse was located in Ben Tre. There is a small, well-maintained road that leads back his home. The road is large enough for two motor scooters to simultaneously travel. The area is lush with foliage, fruit and coconut trees. The area is by the river. There are also lots of ponds of standing water around, perfect for breeding mosquitoes. Being so close to sea level I wonder what happens when the monsoon season comes. The structure is fairly large for the area, about 50’x20’ with one bedroom, a bathroom and a covered kitchen annex. It has three-inch exterior walls and a sheet metal roof. Other than being covered by a grate to prevent intruders the windows are completely open to the exterior environment. The kitchen annex is best described as a covered patio with a large iron stove that burn anything you put into it as fuel. The bathroom had a toilet and a floor drain (no sink). Water is boiled on the stove so that warm water is available in one bucket to mix with the cold water from the other bucket. So each pitcher of water used for the “shower” is a different temperature depending on how good you are at mixing the two solutions. Brushing your teeth works the same way; you just fire away at the floor drain and rinse it afterwards. At night mosquito nets are set up around the sleeping areas.

Cousin’s place was significantly smaller and much poorer construction. The front room’s walls are made of 1”x6” boards with many inches between them exposing the exterior environment. The roof is sheet metal. The entire place is smaller than my one car garage. I have seen barns and sheds in the US of better construction, it is sad to know that hard working members of the family live in such poverty. My guess is the difference is between Uncle’s house and Cousin’s house is having foreign money sponsoring the construction versus all local earnings.

Vietnam-Silence is golden

The streets are a constant roar of from the motorbikes and other traffic. There is a primitive form of advertisement that occurs in this constant roar. In Nha Trang I heard a car coming from many blocks away. By the time it was two blocks away it was already deafening, clearly above the 90 db required to cause hearing damage. I retreated into the store and covered my ears as it continued to approach. The car was mounted with two huge 5’ bullhorns that it was using to spew out the deafening message. After it passed by the second time I realized why I had not seen anything like it in the US. It is highly ineffective advertisement and they would have been fined for disturbing the peace or something.

In the places speakers are installed such as theme parks they like to use one large speaker and blast the noise instead of separating the delivering into multiple locations of smaller volume.

Vietnam-Pollution, Trash

When I arrived at about 11 PM I was taken to a restaurant. There were paper napkins, vegetable, bottle caps, cans and all other sorts of rubbish on the floor. I have seen two or three places like it the US and have turned around and walked out the door. I even dare to say most, of the restaurants in here are like this. In one place I even saw a pet bird about 2 feet from (and above) the food. Birds are infamous Salmonella (food borne infection) carriers.

I would see not only the customers but the shop employees dumping trash on the floor. Servers would pop the cap off a drink straight onto the floor. Cooks would drop finished beverage containers onto the floor.

When one leaves the city you will see trash all over the roadside, from my observations this is the fault of both the travelers and the residents. They even throw it into their water supply.

My initial impression was that the people had to know what was going on and the long term effect, but they simply didn't care. In my quest towards understanding then was more focused to determine if it was a sense of resignation or if it was something else. As I watched overall behaviors I start to think that for many people this is how it has always been, perhaps that they do not even understand that there could be something better if the environment was cleaner.

Vietnam - Pollution, Air

Vietnam - Pollution, Air
One of the first things that will hit you when you come here from the US is the exhaust fumes and other air pollution. While it is very similar to what I have experienced in the other 6 Asian cities I have been to the difference for me was that there was escape in this situation. My initial reaction has been that these are poor countries that can not afford the expenses of pollution control on their vehicles, factories and other habits. I also figured that people may get used to it too. I still think both of those points are still pieces of the puzzle and have expanded beyond that during my time here.

I spend about 6 hours on the back of a motorbike during my trip to the Cu Chi tunnels and then down to Ben Tre. To add to that the driver was also a smoker so I got a bonus dose of pollution. There were many fires burning near the roadside, I believe that these are because there is no trash disposal. At the farmhouse in Ben Tre they had an annex kitchen that used an iron stove that burned any fuel available. That fuel may have been coconut leaves, husks, stems, various vegetation or possibly even trash. The problem was that the design was poor and did not provide enough venues for the smoke and gases so a good portion of it went back into the house. The next day we went around on motor bikes again and finally returned in private car that a cousin arranged for us. Unfortunately the car was not properly sealed so the exhaust was coming in the back of the car for all 3 hours. When I got back to Saigon there was a heavy smoker in the room next door, 3 feet away. We were separated by a sliding door in each room. So the whole room smelled like smoke.

By this time my senses were fried, I could not smell or taste anything except pollution. I think this validates my initial impression that people especially smokers do not even really notice the pollution. These 3 days of severe air pollution exposure would also mark the start of my health failure, which I never recovered from while in the country.

Vietnam- Traffic

Navigating traffic here can best be described as continuously playing a slow motion game of chicken. There are thousands of motor scooters at any intersection, mixed with cars and trucks. The motor scooters pay very little attention the stop lights, the cars sometimes stop for them and trucks usually obey them. They have crosswalks painted but no one pays attentions to those either so the pedestrians enter the fray at their peril. I wonder why they waste the money on the paint (the labor is really cheap so they probably don't care about that). Put that amalgamation together and you will end up with a real mess when a couple of cars or trucks get caught in the middle between lights.

About 1% of the vehicles drive on the "wrong side of the road" meaning they are driving counter traffic on the same side that the traffic is traveling in the other direction. When one attempts to turn in a vehicle or cross the street on foot it is a matter of slowly continuously moving across the street. The hope is that people will go around you because it is very rare to actually find an opening in the traffic to cross the street. A few people will use the hand like a policeman's stop sign meaning that they have no intention of stopping, please don't run into them.

What saves them is that the traffic only moves at 30 km/h here. That is slow enough for people to stop. On the highways is that the max speed is 50-80 km/h depending on the size of the vehicle. Ironically the larger the vehicle is the faster it is allowed to go. This makes road trips very slow.

Vietnam-Homecoming

A few minutes into the flight from Saigon I can feel the effects that the air processing systems are having on the air. My sinuses start to dry up and clear out the congestion that the wet polluted air that had inflicted on me. I could breath again! They say that smokers start to repair lung tissue as soon as they stop smoking. It may have been partially psychological but I think that the drier cleaner air really did help. I am usually a healthy creature but that environment completely wrecked my system.

24 hours after leaving tropical Saigon I arrive at the CVG airport to be greeted by flurries, no luggage (which I won't get before tomorrow), and no taxies even after I call for one. We soar home at the wonderfully not congested highway as speeds the awesome highway speeds of the Cincy. I live in the northwest of downtown (technically I don't live downtown). As we roll into the outskirts of downtown there are only a handful of cars and no pedestrians roaming around in the cold. This is a drastic contrast from the extremely noisy 30 km/hr bustle of Saigon.

There have been times when I had thought that a few more people\shops right by my house. I am now very happy that the revitalization of downtown is happening half a mile from my house. I appreciate more than ever that there are relatively few people and noise in my area of town. Sure that revitalization could easily spread over to my area but that will be a few years, by then who know I might have a need to become a surbanite.

I arrive home to a 45 degree house and can see my breath. That is the maximum temperature you should have a refrigerator at, it is also a fairly safe temperature to make sure you pipes don't freeze in the basment. It's good to be home.

South Africa Day 11-15

Day 11 (Tuesday)
The next morning we went to the botanical gardens. One would have thought that spring would be the perfect time to go. Surprisingly not very much was in bloom even the time of year. So our stay was fairly short in the gardens. The climate was much warmer in Durban than in the areas that we just came from. We went from bundling up to shorts and tee shirts.  

We next went to U-Shaka Marine world. Which was 100 yards around the corner from our hostel. We learned that there were restaurants outside the paid admission areas. That would have been nice to know before we took the leisurely stroll through the “No Go” area the previous day. The park had a nice aquarium the spent a lot more effort highlighting conservation than the parks in the states. The pictures of the stingray feeding and dolphins are from this site. The diver put the fish right into the stingray’s mouth. My assumption is because the stingrays can not compete with the other fish for food in the densely populated environment. They food would never make it to an area where the stingrays could eat it because of the positioning of the mouth and the lack of relative speed. The fish bumped so violently against the diver that his equipment got dislodged for a while.  

As we exited the park we purchased almonds. We had gone 10,000 miles and ate almonds that most likely were grown in California. Most of the world’s almonds come from California. And most of those come from one company.  

We had enough of this city and left that afternoon even though we had prepaid for that night. Arriving at St. Lucia Estuary we checked into a dump that was clearly the worse backpacker’s hostel. It was also the most expensive, which is a relative term (~$13.6). We would find out later that we had paid these prices for a lack of hot water too.

Day 12 (Wed)

The next morning went for a morning drive in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park. It turned out to be quite a fruitful morning. We spotted many grazers, warthogs, rhinos, giraffes, baboons in heat, elephants and many other animals. The picture of the rhino does not do justice to how absolutely massive the animal is. It was by far larger than a car and unlike the car, it was completely solid. So the car would be little protection if the rhino chose to attack. In some ways it seems even larger than an elephant (even though it is not). An elephant has such a high center of gravity that the mass (even though there is more of it) is at a distance. The rhino is all right in front of you and you know there is no hope of luckily dodging in between the legs. The elephant you can at least hold the unrealistic fantasy that maybe you will be really lucky and it will miss you between the legs.  

We went back to St. Lucia for an afternoon of kayaking. Our guide’s name was Chris and we had another companion named Jo. Jo was from Holland, blond and studying premed. She was nice enough, just one of those people that you get a sense that you do not want a sharp object in her hands. We paddled out in individual kayaks and got within a very few feet of the crocodiles. The hippos had a reputation for coming out and playing with kayaks so we avoided them, and only observing them about 75 yards out. Hippos are not animals you want to mess with; they are extremely fast in and out of water. Jo dropped her camera in the water during the trip. As we were putting the kayaks away Chris made offered to take go the next closest town in his car and be back to St. Lucia by 10 AM the next day. It was stated it in such a way to say that was an open invitation. Being a slightly dimwitted person one might not have notice that it was directed only at Jo as a proposition for the night. Since he had phrased it in such a way that it was an open invitation that all 3 of us could hear I was so tempted to accept his offer just to mess with him. That would have been really funny. I decided not to be cruel and avoided throwing a wrench in scheme. Ah I’m such a nice guy sometimes.  

We took maximized our evening by spending time buying some food for the next morning’s breakfast. We purchased an interesting looking coconut pastry, danishes, and cereal bars. While waiting at a restaurant for our dinner we started with the coconut pastry. We each consumed one and I was stunned that it was a very strong liquor pastry. Since I do not like the taste of alcohol it was quite nasty. In the US it would have had to been labeled a liquor pastry. I quickly decided that I was not going to eat any more. We devised a generous plan to give it away to the other backpackers telling them that we did no like it and they were free to have it. The Aussies were quite excited to have some since it was a special treat in Australia. The first kid wolfed it down the next started with smaller bites not delaying long enough to get the reaction from the first kid. They were also repulsed the taste and said it was not supposed to be that way and were spoiled. Noting how awful it was two other people including Jo (the blond from the kayak trip) insisted in trying some. Ah, just like the college days when some idiot would say “Ew, it’s awful try some!” 

The next morning we were greeted by monkeys outside the hostel they were the trouble-making kind that would steal your glasses and such. We trade in the pastries for a whole sack of apples, 2 candy bars and juice. My host explained how irresponsible we were in that we had spent as much money on the pastries as many South African people would have for a few days worth of food.  

Day 13 (Thurs)
It took the full day to reach Pretoria. That night we spent night Brie (barbecuing) with some locals at the hostel. They shared some pap with me. It is a maize dish that was completely tasteless; it looks like mashed potatoes and has a very pasty texture. So you have to eat it with a tasty sauce. This is a main staple of the culture.  

Day 14 (Friday)
We got to see an active archeology site, the Sterkfontein Caves located inside the Cradle of Mankind. This has been one of the richest hominid artifact sites. It was where “Lucy” was found and they still were excavating “Littlefoot” after 10 years. The interior of the site had algae growing in by the light fixtures. This is the cost of increasing awareness. This awareness is the whole reason why we do the archeology. The tourism industry helps fund the conservation of this site. The damage from to the already excavated areas was helping to fund the research of the unexcavated (and inaccessible to the public) areas. Are the elite researchers the only ones that should be allowed to view this part of our heritage? In the museum on the surface there was information about the evolution of man. After a series of pictures with male ape-like ancestors the final picture depicted the words Homo Sapian and above it a very attractive Asian female.

We spent a couple hours at the Apartheid Museum learning the sanitized version of the history. It still had good information even though it could not capture the horrible spirit of the times. We would spend most of that night socializing with a whole bunch of Peace Corps volunteers. As a general rule most volunteers are women. My host made friends with a cat that would run with him. That night we slept in the equivalent of a comfortable wooden tool shed, not really that bad.  

Day 15 (Sat)
My final day in South Africa started off by going to DeWitt Cheetahs Conservatory. We are requested not to run in the area. Cheetahs will instinctively focus on anything that runs. They are so focused that they may run into an object (like the fence) and break their very thin skulls.  

We also saw them feed wild dogs pieces of chicken. The pictures depict the dogs with very high vertical leaps to catch the chicken. They would consume the chicken parts in three bites. Interesting that they tell us never to feed our domesticated dogs chicken because they may choke on the bones. A pack of wild dogs can complete consume a corpse in 15 minutes. They will run home and regurgitate the food to feed the young, old, sick and guardians.  

We had lunch with a local family. The home has 3 gates. The exterior fence, the gate protecting the front entrance, and a steel gate inside the house protecting the bedrooms. Two dogs are on the property, the final line of defense were firearms inside the bedroom. This is what Americans would consider a middle class home.  

As I boarded the plane it was a great feeling to know that I was going home. At the same time there was a sadness that another chapter of my life was closing. The memories were great and if given the option to go back in time to choose to take this trip or do something else, there is no question I would do it again. The time spent with my host would be cherished for the rest of my life. It was because of my host that these experiences were made possible together. Know thought that I never really could go back. As in most things in life you can never really go back. In the very unlikely chance that I show back up in South Africa, I would have changed and it will not be the same. It is like when I show up in my old schools. I am different and it will never be the same again.  

South Africa Day 10

Day 10 (Monday)
Arriving at the Happy Hippo backpacker’s hostel in Durban at 2pm left us famished. We took a stroll outside in the quest for food. As we walked through the city we quickly realized that we really did not belong in this area. A lot of energy was spent keep aware of our surroundings and any people that got in close proximity of us. So after a mile or two of walking thorough the bad part of town we found access to the beach and found food in that proximity. We decided to walk back along the beach back to the hostel. Inside the hostel we saw a very nice map indicating the area we just walked through as a red “no go” area. That was mighty nice of them to tell us that we just survived a really rough part of town.  

That evening we would find another backpacker in the hostel who took the same route as us and was accosted by two thugs trying to pickpocket him. He was walking by himself.  

The next person I talked to that evening was an ex-volunteer police officer. His training sergeant told him that his type got the worse deal with getting shot at for free! So one would really have to want to serve to volunteer for this duty. His examples of the lack of technology of the South African police force was so far behind it made them seem like they were stuck in the 70’s. He said that the police dispatcher was not connected to the other emergency services (fire, ambulances, search and rescue, coast guard etc). They could not communicate with each other. He said that they were lucky to have a radio in 25% of the vehicles. He said that the pay is pitiful for the normal police force. The cops that start off as straight are heavily pressured to join one of the corrupt “gangs” of cops or never advance in his career. He stopped volunteering because the he was asked to report the corrupt cops. He did this until his superiors revealed to the corrupt cops the identity of the informant. The locals seem to think that the cops are not to be trusted and will not do anything if there is a crime, especially at night. If you were a lowly paid public servant that gets no respect, would you risk your life to try to stop a violent crime in the dark of night when you know that you can not call for backup?  

I also met 3 American Peace Corps Volunteer and they told me that they had been offered la bola. La bola is the dowry offered to the father of a woman the man wishes to buy. Traditionally it comes in the form of cows but these days it also comes in the form of cash. So we figured a normal la bola is 8-11 cows. That is our new joke: “How many cows is she worth?”

South Africa part 3

There were ostriches that had been tamed and will eat out of your hand. They are not very bright so they will bite your hand while feeding from it. Since they don’t have any teeth if feels like a clamp coming down on your hand.  

We stayed at a place called Backpacker’s hostel called Kama Soul. This is where I took the sunset pictures in the links. This place was quite nice, clean and we didn’t have to share the dorm with anyone. Just to make sure the place was secure I used my Herculean strength to pull one of the bunk beds in front of the door so that no one could surprise us at night. Many places in South Africa like to have two faucets, one for cold and one for hot. Both faucets are very short like 3 inches so you really have to get close to the basin edge to use them. This is a similar phenomenon that I saw in New Zealand, I am not sure why they would inconvenience themselves this way because I would not think it is cheaper to install 2 faucets instead of one that mixes hot and cold.  

Day 7 (Friday)
We woke before the sunrise to go out to greet the meerkats. A researcher (Grant) has befriended meerkats so that they do not see him as a threat. He takes pains to let the meerkats know that he is not a threat and also that he is not a meerkat. In previous research when the meerkats thought the Grant was a really big meerkat sentinel they let down their survival instincts and ceased setting up sentinels. They quickly became snacks for the real predators. We accompanied Grant to the burrow that the meerkats slept in that night. You can see from the picture links how close we were to them as they were warming themselves up from the morning sun. Were actually a bit closer as we followed them through their foraging run. Almost on cue the rain started at the time when we were supposed leave the meerkats.

We then drove to Monkeyland which were most of the pictures of monkeys in the photo links were taken. It was a cold day so there were not that many out. The white monkey and black monkey in the pictures are extremely stupid monkeys. These Lemurs will forget where they leave babies.  

Right next door was Birds of Eden. My host had a grand time letting two of these birds climb all over him.  

A large roadblock stopped us on the N2 highway. The officers without guns requested to see our passports, this was not a port of entry. Why would they need to see our passports if we were just driving? South Africa is known to have a corrupt police force and for fake roadblocks. The driver showed the identification page and paged to the entry stamp but refused to surrender the passport. After while of discussion the officers instructed the driver to pull over to the side at which point the driver “calmly drove away.” A few minutes later a tiny hatchback with police markings forced our vehicle off the road. The officer snatched the driver’s passport and demanded we return to the roadblock, speeding away leaving only one option of we wanted that passport back. A quick analysis of the situation: told me that if jail time was in the future valuables would have to be transferred out of reach of the corrupt police force. A quick plan was forming for alternative lodging, a replacement driver, removal of all valuables from the driver, the main hope was that they did not impound the car because there would be no way to protect all the luggage\valuables without a vessel to carry them. Some may see it is as cold way of thinking but it is also the most effective way of thinking. If the driver was going to be arrested was almost beyond our influence at this point. The focus was on the solution not the panic of worry; the type of thinking that is needed at the time of crisis.
 
Boy the cops were mad. The police threatened to throw the driver in jail for the weekend. After repeated threats we were released and drove merrily along. Which tells me that that the police had some underlying precondition that prevented them from executing the threats. They were disrespected at that level and then just let the offender go. Very few people would allow their prides to that heavily offended and do nothing about it if they had the authority or power to do something about it. In the US the driver would have been arrested when he was chased and forced off the road. I will come back to this discussion later in the blog when I recount my conversations with the ex-volunteer police officer and stories from the locals.  

The rest of evening is spending on very dark highways driving toward Addo. There are pedestrians all along the highway. Most are black people in dark clothing (non-reflective and usually not white), making the practically impossible to see until they are 20 yards in front of you. Traveling at 120 km/hr, you do the math on how quickly a car would be upon these practically invisible people. We decided that was the last time we were going to drive at night.  

The Aardvark backpacker’s hostel was quite nice, with an all you could eat breakfast for 20 rand (~$3), laundry service for ~$3 a load and an electric fence to protect the property at night.  

Day 8 (Saturday)
We drove to Addo Game Reserve, arriving around 7 AM. Throughout our trip in South Africa we would seen many herbivores that resembled deer. After a while of this they were no longer exciting and being the sophisticated people we were we only noted there was another “deer-like” or “grazer” instead of expending the effort of looking in the books to identify the creatures. There were lots of ostriches, warthogs (they are really ugly) and Kudu (a deer-like). The highlights of the morning drive was a huge herd of elephants that were approaching a watering hole. These are the elephants depicted in the photo link. We timed it just right, the elephants were just arriving. They drank all the water in the hole (until it was dry) and then moved on. Our car happened to be in the path that the elephants wanted to take. The driver shut off the engine and we watched as the whole herd of elephants walked around the car. Elephants spend 14-16 hours a day eating and sleep on their feet.  

In the distance we saw a jackal, the pictures on the links are with a 48x (12x optical, 4x digital). I was told it is very rare to see these animals because they flee from the first sign of humans.  

We saw a large family of meerkats that is where most of the pictures came from. We were not allowed to take pictures while with Grant. I was told these animals are pretty rare.  

Since my host had told me how hot it was in South Africa I did not have any warm cloths for the evening drive through the park in an open jeep. I prepared myself with a tee shirt, two long sleeve shirts, two borrowed sweaters and my windbreaker. The cold still started penetrating by the end of the drive. Don’t let anyone fool you South Africa gets cold! The evening drive was pretty uneventful although I did get to try the local beef jerky, biltong.  

Day 9 (Sunday)
We arrived at Port Elizabeth and inquired what there was to do interesting in town. Our analysis was that it was not a very exciting place. We did see some interesting wake boarders using giant kites to pull them through the very cold waves. I did get to see giraffes and zebras too. Eventually I practiced my stick shift driving. 

South Africa part 2

I learned a long time ago not to say “How are you doing?” as a greeting unless I really wanted to know. This piece of clairvoyance came when I got stuck listening to someone tell me her life story for 10 minutes and I really was not interested in what that person had to say. The reverse has happened to me fairly often to reinforce this point; people would ask: “How are you doing” and walk away as I am speaking. My greetings for politeness are more succinct now sticking to a “Hello”, “Hi”, “Hey”, “Sup” etc. In the South African Township the verbal greeting exchange assumes that the other person is going to say “Hello. How are you doing?” When I am introduced after I say “Hello” and they say “Hello. How are you doing? I am fine.” I smirk as I realize how much that social idiosyncrasy is an automated response to a question I never asked.  

Day 4 (Tuesday)
After landing in Cape Town the previous night we awaken to a heavy rainstorm. Our morning is spent socializing with the host family. I notice that there is a lock on the refrigerator and freezer. It is explained to me that these locks are standard issue because of the value of food to the poor population. That could be their food supply for the week and the many families would be devastated if this were stolen because they could not replace it until the next paycheck.  

We head out to Simon Town to see penguins that live in the ground. They live in shallow burrows in the grass near the ocean. I never knew that there were penguins that live underground. They are so docile and used to humans that they react to us as they would to an elephant. The penguins will let you get within inches of them and simply step out of your way to avoid being trampled, as they would with an elephant. They are not afraid of humans. 

We head to Cape Point at the Cape of Good Hope. This is the southernmost point of Africa. At the cape we find a brightly colored poisonous caterpillar and a dassie. The dassie looks like a cuddly rodent the size of a cat. I was told that they are supposed to be the closest relative an elephant. The rain starts back up as we leave.  

Day 5 (Wednesday)
We wake to find that our car was broken into during the night. We are instructed to go to the police station to file a report since the police would not come to the scene of the crime. The police do not bother to look at the car. They our police report is a 4 inch piece of paper that pretty much says that we said the car was broken into.  

So off to Hermanus where we arrive in slightly rainy weather. Even though the weather was not totally cooperating, the whales were. We could see them in the distance swimming at the surface and spouting. This is the first place we have to check into a backpacker’s hostel. The room bathroom is inside the room and smells like urine. That lovely odor permeates the room when the bathroom door is open. When we identified that the blankets were quite thin we learned from the cold night in JoBerg that we were going to need to buy an additional blanket for each of us. At least there are no strangers sharing the quad dorm room with us that night.  

Day 6 (Thursday)

The next morning the weather has cleared up and we walk the two blocks to the ocean for a final viewing of the whales before we head off to Oudtshroon.

We arrive at Oudtshroon at about 4 PM, just in time for the last ostrich tour. We pass by the first ostrich farm and head to the one further away. My host had been to the closer one and wanted to try the further one. The further one turns out to be 75-80% cheaper than the first site. We get a demonstration of making ostrich feather dusters, egg incubation. It is explained to us that ostriches are extremely stupid and have a 40-g brain, each eye is 60 g. The birds will swallow pretty much anything with the mouth and throat that are quite flexible. The ostrich exhibit showed the contents of a bird’s stomach to contain stones (for digestion), coins, sparkplug, toy car etc.  

Then drive over to the nesting sites. It is explained that the birds will kick humans. If the human stays still on the ground the bird can not kick him so it will sit on the humans for 4 days to suffocate/starve the invader. The guide uses a long branch from a thorn bush to ward off the ostrich. The bird does not want its eyes damaged by the 2-inch thorns. We are allowed to stand on the eggs because they are strong enough to withstand that much weight. There is a wooden A-frame built over the nest to keep the eggs out of view of flying predators. 

We get in our cars and drive 20 yards to the ostrich corral where we are allowed to ride the ostriches. That was the highlight of the trip. The retainers would chase the birds around while we were on the birds to make them run faster.  

Start of South Africa Trip

Day 1 (Sunday)
Flying on Northwest from Detroit to Paris I saw a new feature, they had a camera on the plane that showed the outside.  You could see the forklifts driving by and then the runway and terrain as you took off and flew. That was something new for me. I spent the time writing out my lesson plan for the classes I will be teaching in South Africa. This comes to an abrupt end when I lose my pen in the second flight. My host later explains to me that a partial lesson plan is more than most the teachers will have when they enter the class.  

Day 2 (Saturday)
Arriving in JoBerg I was picked by my host and fed Lebanese bread and sauce on the car ride back to Parys, Free State. My host had warned me how hot it was in SA and to bring clothing to block the sun. In SA they do not have heat in most of the homes. I was provided a thin blanket and sent off to bed to brave the night. Do not let anyone fool you it gets quite cold in SA! 

Day 3 (Monday)  
Arriving at my host’s high school I received a lot of looks from the learners. I think the looks were from the curiosity not hostility. The learners were looking at a novelty of someone different since everyone in the school was black except my host and myself. I was introduced to the staff as I we encountered them. The greeting was a three-part handshake almost as if it were a secret society:
1) A western style grip (like Americans are used to)
2) The grip changes to arm wrestling type of grip (which is more rare but also used with a few of my less formal friends in States)
3) Then the grip changes again to a hold that reminds me of playing thumb war.

As we travel through the country I notice that only the black community uses this three-part greeting, the whites uses the traditional western handshake.  

The school day starts with the learners in an outdoor courtyard and educators/admins surrounding the courtyard. The speaker at the front is forced to stare straight into the sun as he projects (no microphone) into the crowd of ~1000 learners. Between the distance of my vantage point, language and the accent I do not understand much of what the speaker is saying.  

Eventually I tune it out because I do not even know which of the 11 official languages they are speaking, my attention shifts more to what the learners are doing. The students are much smaller than in an American school. In the US, I would expect a large portion of the population to be bigger than me and in better shape than someone 15 years older. As I look around, most are my height or smaller and pretty much all of them have less girth than me. I doubt many would be able to do any damage to me if they tried. My host explained to me than many of these students are so poor that they may get one meal a day.

Singing is part of the morning ceremonies; again I do not understand what they are singing about. As expected the learners in front tend to participate more than the more passive groups in the back. There are learners arriving late and as punishment they are required to pick a piece of trash off the ground and put it in the trash can before entering the courtyard. None of them wash their hands after this task. My host claims that he is responsible for this punishment, prior to his arrival there was no punishment for a tardy arrival.  

My host and I enter a classroom of 10th grade high school kids and I am introduced to the learners. My host asks the students to bring forward the homework. The learners have nothing to present; they did not do the assignment. This is repeated throughout the day, none of the classes do the homework assignment. I start the class by instructing them about ice cream, the ingredient functions, manufacturing and mathematics behind it. Because of the warning from my host about how weak the students are (by American standards) I stick to addition, subtraction, multiplication and percentages. Some of the students can handle the adding and subtracting. A few of them can handle multiplication. Percentages are a real struggle for the learners, even as I show them shortcuts and tricks to doing percentages they have trouble with the calculations.  

I open up the floor to any questions and certain questions appear in all of the classes.  
1) Are you married? 
2) Do you have children? 
3) Will you adopt me?
4) Who is older you or the host teacher?  

In two classes I am asked for a dollar bill, and I dispel the myth that in the US we only use paper money. When asked to give as for the dollar as a gift I had enough foresight to see the precarious situation that could happen and offered to exchange for the local currency 8 Rands (8.7 Rands = 1USD). The learner came up short but I gave it to him for 7 Rands. I could not afford to give 1000 students each a dollar.

I receive a request to sing a song. I can only recall one of the 4 or so songs I know the words to. I sing the lullaby to the class. This actually appeared to be about as quite and respectful as the class was the whole time. They were actually quite and stayed passed the bell to let me finish the song.

The classes were all deafening, I felt like I need ear plugs to teach the classes. I used quieting techniques to bring the decibel levels down multiple times each class.