I made it past 3 posts! Yeah! Been a little busy the past few days with searching for work and a place to live (minor details), so apologies for the lull in posting.
Monday and Tuesday I had the chance to work with the most delightful 3 year olds because a teacher was sick and needed someone to cover. Since I'm already approved to sub for the 5-6 year olds for the next two weeks, they asked if I would like to cover the younger class for a couple days. It was hilarious - mostly because the thought of me being in charge of young children cracks me up. I was able to dig into my bag of tricks to find ways to keep the children engaged. Lots of funny voices while reading books and nursery rhymes with hand motions going on. Did I mention that there are only 6 students in the class being taught by myself and an aide? They do things a little differently at schools here in Vietnam...
Lately I've been lamenting the fact that my camera doesn't have video, because there is so much happening here that can't be captured in still images. A few days ago I sat on the balcony of a bar overlooking a large roundabout intersection, and was absolutely hypnotized by the rhythm of the traffic. There's an ebb and flow that emerges as clumps of motorbikes jockey for position. Cars become islands surrounded by swirls of smaller vehicles. In a sea of black, red, and silver motorbikes, every once in a while a yellow or green one will capture your attention. Now add pedestrians to the mix. Freshly arrived tourists venture timidly into the fray, their lack of confidence betrayed by their awkward stop-and-go attempts to cross the river of traffic. Meanwhile, locals nonchalantly walk through the chaos, not looking left or right, but calmly straight ahead.
The Western inclination is to cringe while watching this drama unfold - each "near-miss" elicits a sharp intake of breath, a slight quickening of the heart. Yet as I continued to watch the traffic, I started to realize that my definition of a near-miss is the Vietnamese equivalent of business as usual. There's a certain amount of letting go that needs to happen in order to exist comfortably in the daily rhythms of Hanoi. It's starting to remind me of a game of pool; a study in trajectory, angle, and velocity, though the goal of this game is to avoid contact with other objects. Let go of the fear of possible impact, and instead believe that against all logic, you will make it across the street. So far, so good.
Wanderings, a set on Flickr.
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