Back home in lovely Hanoi & Vietnam
We stepped out of the airport. The sky above the city pronounced nothing good. Ha Noi was covered under a yellow layer. The smog irritated the respiratory tract. By the window of the coach I saw them again, the mass of the motorcycles and cars. Noisy and frantic people on their overloaded vehicles. Yes I am back, back in Ha Noi! I missed my charming capital city.
We hoofed from the bus station back home. The people yelled when we passed by. We heard them from all corners and ends saying “Hello” and “Tay”. Tay means nothing else than west or in this case foreign person from the west. I have missed these words much. Even though I think it would be very impolite, if I would shout that to a foreigner in Germany. My neighbors asked curiously where we headed to and what we experienced. With patience I answered all their questions. Then, I entered my house. The floor and furniture were covered with a thick layer of dust. I cleaned our residence and rested then on my bed. The familiar smell, the peace and my comfortable mattress. I took pleasure in being home. It was plenty of time left, half a week, to get used to the “normal” rhythm.
Peace House was nicely to be seen again. The VPV employees welcomed me with open arms. I settled down to work. The timetable was unfortunately a chaos. My lessons were rescheduled. They told some pupils to clear the way for others. I don’t know why and I don’t see the fun in such actions. So I called the old students and reinvited them to my lessons. Nevertheless I carried on with old and new learners. Besides that were some changes in our dialog group, Indigo, too! The previous team members desist from the active encouragement and new ambitious volunteers took over their work. I’m looking forward to the coming collaboration.
At times I wish to be in Germany. I want to see the golden autumn. Autumn in Ha Noi is really gloomy. It is cloudy and muggy by the day. It gets rather cool in the evenings. On some days I am lucky and the sun shines through the clouds. It reminds me of the first three month here, where I haven’t seen the sun at all. There’s not much to tell recently, except the ordinary cultural differences. It’s quiet and peaceful. The people are friendly, curious and even sometimes shy. They invite us quite often for a tea or we occasionally attend dinner at their homes. Well, did you know that dog meat contains a lot of Vitamin C? Do you know expressions like “parabol” (Satellite dish)? Or “Hitler No.1”? For us, with our limited Vietnamese, it is really difficult to explain that he’s a criminal, mass murder and f***ing bastard.
We meet up with the new German volunteers from time to time at the weekends down to their placement in the province. Then, we commonly spend our time in cultural activities. We were, for example, in the opera house and listened to the “Abegg Trio”. They performed Beethoven, Brahms and Schostakowitsch. We also went to the “Cinematheque”, an art-house cinema, and watched “Le Ballon rouge”. The short movie is about a red balloon with a life of its own, follows a little boy around the streets of Paris. That followed a Korean remake. A little boy and his baby-sitter inhabit the same imaginary world. Through their adventures they are followed by a strange red balloon. I like those kinds of movies. In contrast to that we went to a rock festival the other day. We savored cheap beer, Vietnamese and international rock bands. We had a good time.
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