Well, as the Brits say, I should look smashing in my dress at the Holiday Party because I've hardly eaten a thing this week ... don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed locus flower salad, pickled jellyfish, Chinese ribs, coconut soup ... but what I really want is a bowl of chili or a slab of pizza. I've been too busy to be homesick and can't say enough about Facetime with the girls and Jeff.
The country of Vietnam is amazing. It really makes me appreciate all of the modern conveniences. We took 120 university and growers from 26 different countries into the Mekong Delta today to look at rice and corn plots. We also witnessed a seed treating competition, by hand, that was nationally televised with more than 15 television crews on site. We had a major road bump when our bus drivers refused to go across the small bridges and we needed to be shuttled back and forth about 3K. It wouldn't have been so bad if the traffic -- majority mopeds and bikes -- wasn't so crazy out of control and the temperatures were crazy, crazy hot. I thought I knew hot from standing in LA rice fields but this was miserable. I know I must have looked steamed and miserable when the local that we hired to handle/coordinate the buses handed me a dozen roses before we headed back into town. If we could have got the bus to stop, I would have fed them to the cows along the road. I saw women leading a single cow on a rope down the highway to grass on more than one occassion.
I've also seen water buffalo, numerous family burial plots, floating homes/old barges and amazing feats of balance as the Vietnamese manage to transport everything via scooter. As we waited on the buses, which was apparently partly my responsibility, we found this woman picking cocnuts by her home. Totally throwing away all common sense, when the man from India used a sheath to cut me a hole ... I drank coconut milk. You can see it in his hand that the coconut here is smooth skinned and apparently the flesh is brown. I should have asked him to cut it in half. I had about 1/4 cup before I realized that I have broken every rule that has been given to me ... regardless, I feel fine so far and it was totally worth it! Across the road were these rice fields and this is just one of the hundreds of families that I captured as we waited on our shuttles. It's ironic, in many cases, the adults will wear helmets but the children will not. And, they often have two adults riding with small, young children nestled between them. I'm tempted to find a way to go for a ride (yes, honey, I'm getting braver).
Tomorrow we have another day of meetings and on Friday, I'm on my own. While the idea of a Vietnamese spa entices me, I'm leaning toward an organized tour into the Mekong Delta to see the sights and I suppose I should try out my keen negotiation skills. I recently polished those on luggage at the Junior League Spree and the local market is world reknown for haggling. I understand I can get a Rolex for $10!
And, for those of you who were wondering, yes ... there is a small Christian population and they do celebrate Christmas. Apparently many people celebrate Christmas and stores have started decorating. I heard some steel drummer playing Christmas music near the hotel lobby this afternoon and am hopeful to find the drummer tomorrow afternoon to get his photo. Since our trip to Disney several years ago, steel drum Christmas music makes me happy.
(Sorry for the spelling errors ... somehow it marks nearly every word as wrong tonight and I don't have the energy to figure it all out ...)
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