expectations are rarely a good thing, and yet there is no part of me that can divorce myself from them.
we arrived in My Tho on sunday evening to find paved roads, a plethora of motorcycles, and tall buildings. i don't know about you, but to me that still means "city". my expectation had been of a quiet, rural town, surrounded by rice paddies, bikers with baskets of wares, and children playing in the dusty yards. far from it, the hustle and bustle of this little town is not that different from my experience in Saigon, however here there are no nice hotels to get fancy cocktails! darn! i think part of me expected to come into this town as if on a white horse to "save" these families from floods and ignorance. i think a lot of volunteers wrap their arrogance and selfishness into their "selfless" deeds. well, i shouldn't speak for others, but i know i am guilty of that. i console myself, though, by saying that the work is beneficial in the end for them, and if it is beneficial for myself and my pride, is that such a harm? is only painful giving the selfless kind? i will admit, that i was a bit (ok, quite) disappointed to not find the sleepy back-water town of my visions. but as i am here at the end of the day for them and not myself, i need to focus on where there is a need, not where i want the need to be.
and so in this busy little town of My Tho there is a need, and every morning we wake to the heat and the roosters to walk to our site to begin miming with our local contractor and begin doing the tasks needed to complete the house. despite having only been working for 2 days i can tell you that if not all-- sweat, blood and tears-- will be in the house, at least sweat will be! the house is two weeks along and so we are continuing to finish it by mixing concrete for mortar, laying bricks, mixing concrete aggregate for the joists and floor beams, and laying rebar to embed in the aggregate. the construction is all very similar to that of my experience in Zambia, so it's easy to pick up where i left off. we received a delivery of fresh clementines and lychee from a neighbor down the street, and barefooted children swarm into the house to spy and flirt with us westerners. despite the heat and tiring work, our days are not that brutal: we work from 9-11 and then break in the middle of the day when the sun is at it's zenith and the heat is unbearable, and then return to our labor around 1:30 until 4. if only the US would adopt the 4-1/2 hour work day...!
in addition to the adjustment to the vietnamese life and culture, i am finding another need to adjust to the culture of my peers, most of whom are from the UK. from idioms to pop culture i constantly find myself saying, "what's that?" or more eloquently, "huh???"! of the 9 of us working together on the house 5 are from England, 1 from Ireland, 1 from Scottland, 1 from Australia, and then little old me from the US. in fact, "little old me" is actually accurate because unfortunately our group (which includes the 4 who have already been here some weeks) is all younger than me, mostly 18-22. only andrew is 25. the other group (on the other house) is a bit older, but they are all only here for 2wks, so they put us die-hards together. in fact, the 5 of us "new kids" that arrived on sunday have been staying at the hotel with all the other new arrivals, but we will be moving in with the rest of our team this wednesday night. i am looking forward to that b/c there will be a place to cook, watch tv, and just lounge at the guest house, as opposed to just secluding ourselves in our rooms at the hotel. so Prue, Laura and I will room together at the guest house, as we're the only girls.
we plan to take a tour of the Mekong Delta this wknd by boat, hopefully scouting out the lush greenery we expected. our tour will actually be an overnight trip, including a homestay in a house along the river. the following day we will explore the floating markets before returning to our home in My Tho.
and home it is... it is strange to think of this as my new home, but i need to adjust to that because that's what i've chosen!