Same Same but Different

As with many phrases in Vietnam, the expression "Same Same but Different" has many meanings and subtle nuances. The simple definition, "similar"does not necessarily apply. Context is all important.

Shopping: garment is "same same but different", same colour but different size, pattern design, material or price.

Events: same event, different time: same event, different place: different event,same time and place.

Place: same name different place: same place different name: somewhat like the old place but newer: same place but different owners: different owners but same place: same place, same owners, different food/prices/theme/furniture/opening hours.

Confusing? I'll say! No wonder it takes a very long conversation to figure out what and where and if one really wants to go, if indeed this is what you have in mind!

With the rapid changes occurring in Hoi An, we are having these conversations a lot, to get around, to shop, to eat, to visit.  Whole neighbourhoods have disappeared, new bridges and travel routes have developed. One of the houses in which we lived  a couple of years ago has become the garage of a giant new house in An Bang beach. The traditional "sod farms" seem to have grown massive houses three stories high. No fishermen live here.

Different this year is the fact that this is my first blog after being here for more than a month. I have wondered why my muse has been silent and have reached the conclusion that in years past I have reported "good" stories. Yes, there have always been "sad" stories to share; of poverty, illness and physical disabilities, but rather than visiting and gifting institutions and schools where we have not personally known the residents, this year we have witnessed tragedy amongst the people we know well and for whom we have great fondness. The emotional impact has been jarring and frustrating and difficult to write about.

This is Thanh, a dear lady who cooked for us at our first homestay for more than 5 years when we  started coming to Hoi An in 2008. The day that she came to visit us this year, she mentioned that she had had surgery and showed us an ugly scar near her collar bone. Our limited Vietnamese prevented us from learning the details of that surgery, but she looked well. She invited us to come to her house for lunch and in this picture she is taking Bruce to show him the way. A few days later, we got a message from her friend to say that Thanh had returned to hospital. Once again our terrible Vietnamese leaves us in the dark about what complications have occurred.

Another young friend's husband, no older than about 35, with two young children, has suffered a brain bleed. Four weeks later his eyes have opened but " he knows nothing". We have determined that this means that he is in a coma or severely paralysed.

Ly and her husband will likely lose their place to live. They too have two small children. At present they are renting a house from her uncle, who is tempted to sell. Although the official government plan is to preserve the nature of An Bang village, money is talking and many folks are lured into selling the family property for huge profits. The uncle owns several properties in a row and a developer is drooling about the villa that he can build in this former fishing village. Ly hopes to get a bank loan to buy the house that they live in and if that unlikely event occurs, they will be burdened with debt, which will be a struggle to pay back.

This story breaks my heart.

" Things are not good in my family.  My father is very desperate. He drinks. One day he get angry and put his hand through the glass. We take him to the hospital. They stitch, but he can not move his hand. He do not do the exercises to make his hand work again".

Life is harsh here in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, especially among the marginalized.

Blessedly there is balance and we have had many moments of joy.

• Our family are settled into their newly built house by the beach. Wisely they purchased the property before the land grab. They are well. The boys are in good schools. Below, Bruce, Quyen and Gao have lunch in the spanking new Hoi An International School lunchroom.

A rare treat, breakfast with the family at the Boutique Hotel, where Bruce is able to visit with his beloved grandsons, Sesame and Gao. 

• We shared the first month with our pals Dennice and Ted, with many adventures and quiet afternoons by the pool in our comfortable homestay villa.

• The food, as always, is delicious and we eat, eat, eat!

 

• Morning bike rides take us on quiet roads through villages where traditional lifestyles still perpetuate. 

• Our work is manageable, measured, and rewarding. We have been able to visit with CEF staff and the young girl whom we sponsor in her university education. We have worked with Linda, Graeme and Stephen and their lovely staff.  Both the Reaching Out Craft Shop and Tea House continue to be successful social enterprises.

• Bruce's writing goes well and he spends many an hour in his new "office".

So yes, things are same same but different and despite our advancing years we are flexible enough to take it all in stride. The loving nature of the Vietnamese people is enduring and endearing, but then we don't have to deal with greedy land developers nor government officials or necessarily be at the right place at the right time!

We do pine for home, our dear family, friends, and neighbours, and a long soak in the tub!

At Last!

Aloha! We have been on Molokai for almost three weeks and at last today, after very squally weather, the perfect Hawaiian day dawned. It is the kind of day we all dream of at home when the rains are torrential, the winds gusting or perhaps a little snow is falling.

Today is perfect for performing a ritual to celebrate our upcoming 30th wedding anniversary. Not upcoming until November, but we decided that this month on Molokai would be our gift to one another. And we mark each day with a gift exchange......a rainbow this morning for me from Bruce, yesterday he got a bite of my taro donut!

Today's gift exchange, following a Hawaiian tradition. The legend is that if you cast your leis upon the ocean, you are assured of a safe return to Hawaii.

 We received the lei from the Librarian at the Molokai Public Library where we did a presentation on Back to Vietnam. Everyone was very welcoming, with much aloha. In the group, a Vietnam Veteran and his wife, a veteran from Iraq, who now farms on Molokai, the mother of a veteran of Afghanistan and a couple, both teachers, retired from the US Mainland, who have come to Molokai to serve. 

Yes, there is plenty of work for this dedicated couple. Molokai's isolation and anti-development politics, poverty, domestic abuse, drug addiction and the housing crisis all create a struggle for low-income families. Monsanto has been the largest employer here for some time, but they are shutting down. 250 of the 500 positions have already been cut. Molokai has more food stamp recipients than any other island in the State. Education is difficult. With many school beginners, speaking pidgin, early reading from English texts is frustrating for both teachers and students. However, there are marvelous programs being developed and the high school now has a Hawaiian emersion stream.

 A bit disappointing that the "Friends of the Library" did not sell more of the books we had donated for their fundraising. Mahalo to everyone who helped us get set up.

So what have we been doing for all these prior cloudy, rainy and very windy days? They have been quiet and gentle and sometimes very amusing. It does not take much to amuse us though. Below you see a small collection of photos of things that have stopped us in our tracks as we have explored the island.

Check out the sunglasses!

There really is a "wata tank" up this road

Alice could not live without Raleigh

Highway art show!

On every visit to Hawaii, we are awed by the tropical flowers. This year's discovery was an edible hibiscus. We have been aware of the flower tea, but this one has edible foliage. The leaves taste like a sweet lettuce and are used in salads.

Edible hibiscus, Abelmoschus manihot, is a shrubby perennial from Indonesia, the leaves of which are flavorful eaten fresh as one would eat lettuce or cooked either alone or added to soups. It is grown exclusively for its leaves and is a very prolific producer, out yielding most crops planted for the production of leafy greens.


The plant was a showpiece on a Flower Farm in the Halawa Valley. After a bit of a search we found this place on the private road which cuts through the valley where once 5000 Hawaiians resided making their living growing taro. A tsunami in the 1940's obliterated the taro fields and much of the population. Now five intrepid families make the off-the-grid valley home. Two of those families conduct hikes up to the Hipuapua Falls, through the jungle which has taken over the former taro terraces. When we asked our guide Kalani why the sign was upside down he said, "Well, when we hung it right side up the arrow pointed the wrong way."

The 6-mile hike ( 3 up, 3 down) was moderately strenuous and the falls lovely to see.

 

On an earlier, cloudy and windy day we headed over to the east shore to walk on the blustery shoreline, overlooking dramatic beaches.

It has been grand and we are so grateful that we have discovered the rural charms of Molokai. Mahalo for the welcome Molokai: including Sri at the library, the school crossing guard we pass on our morning walks who flirts with Bruce, the growers at Humu Farms who produce the best organic fruits and veggies, the folks at Friendly Farm for the fresh bread, Teri at the bookstore for her guidance, good hints and enthusiasm for our book and story, the wait staff at Kanemitsu Bakery, and the barista's at Hula Coffee!

Love to all of our friends and family at home. See you soon!

Merry Christmas 

  From our house to yours!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a “real” visit this season?  We would love to cozy up with a glass of wine, a cup of tea or perhaps a warm toddy to hear your stories of 2017 and laugh with you about the fun times and wrap our arms around you through the stories of the “not so fun” times.

2017 has been fraught with disasters worldwide, natural disasters, political unrest, deep concerns for our environment and the physical toll on the bodies and minds of our aging cohort. But we, like you, have found solace in our abiding friendships, our loving families, the peaceful place we live and also being welcomed in places of beauty in far-flung corners of our continent and the world.

We began our 2107 with Bruce’s recovery from hip replacement surgery, the result of a break from falling on the ice.

Here are Bruce and Eliza, having our Christmas dinner delivered by our sweet neighbor Dennice in our entryway, because Bruce could not get up the stairs on his new hip. The table is made of two sawhorses and a couple of boards. We managed a laugh or two, despite the strange circumstances and Bruce’s discomfort.  Thank goodness for a bed and bath on this level of our three-floor townhouse.

In March, Bruce was ready for an escape. We went to Molokai for a couple of weeks of R&R….just what the doctor ordered, with long hours gazing at the view, swimming in the pool and walking the quiet friendly roads.

And of course Bruce wrote. The manuscript of his second novel is now with his editor. A sequel to Finding Lien, the story of Lien’s recovery is another page-turner. The cover will look something like this amateur mock-up that I produced.

We both belong to writers’ groups here on Salt Spring and feel very lucky to meet once a month with skilled writers who are astute but gentle critics!

April found us in Crescent Beach for a reunion with my dear sisters, Nancy and Rosemary, who I do not see often enough!

After my hip replacement in late May (planned and performed by an excellent surgeon in Arizona), we set off on a road trip in August, across Washington, Idaho and Montana where we visited the McBrides and then up into Alberta where we attended the Gerbitz’s 50^th wedding anniversary celebration. Back down through the Rocky Mountains with smoky days due to the forest fires raging through the province. Our couple of days with Eliza in the Slocan Valley were a treat, relaxing on her farm and eating fresh vegetables from the garden.

Can’t forget to mention that while in Arizona we attended a fete in honour of Jess Devaney, retiring founder of Tours of Peace, Vietnam Veterans. Fabulous to see so many “trip buddies” there.

Undaunted by all of that; we were ready to get back to Vietnam, leaving on September 20^th for six weeks.

We travelled with our neighbours, Dennice and Ted. On our stop in Taiwan for a few days we connected with Le Ly Hayslip our longtime friend in service in Vietnam.

At Sun Moon Lake the food was notoriously bad! How unlike Taipei, where we feasted at street markets. and local restaurants. Thank goodness Le Ly found this Chinese restaurant and ordered some good dishes.

As always our time in Hoi An was rich and a little frantic! A bonus this year was having Sesame; our 13-year-old Vietnamese “grandson” join us on a couple of our projects. His facility in English enabled us to have deeper conversations with all the people that we have served for many years.

 Talking with Ha Thi Quy, a survivor of the My Lai massacre Sesame showed empathy and maturity. We are very proud of him. He also helped us at the Home for the Aged with translations.

The envelopes beneath the hands of Ha Thi Quy and her son (who lost an eye, an arm and a leg in the massacre) contain funds to alleviate the poverty within which they live on their meager government pensions. 

Last weekend Bruce popped down to Monterey, California to see his kids, Cindy and Randy and his granddaughter Savannah, hosted by lovely cousin Anna, in whose warm house they enjoyed some relaxed family time. We wonder sometimes why fate, luck and the gods have deemed that we should live such a distance from our children. The Slocan Valley, California, Vietnam…that’s a lot of ferries, taxis, rental cars, and airplanes to see all of our fabulous progeny!

So many stories to tell! Come on over, fill these chairs and tell us about your year!!

We wish you a Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah!

May your 2018 be filled with the blessings of health and happiness.

Bruce and Elaine