Ah... the delightful feeling of air conditioning through the night. I slept rather well that night, getting about six hours of sleep or so. I did wake up with several bug bites on my fingers and my feet, probably from ants or spiders in my room. Today was a big day for the center. Many of the children and the employees of the center were to go to a center for swimming about a thirty minute bike ride away. I was included on the list to go. Getting up at about six thirty or so, I stretched, brushed my teeth, and gathered my belongings in one of my small black backpacks. I at last hopped out of door, meticulously checking and double checking if I locked the door.
Safety is a big concern on the center. Other than the stolen laptop that I wrote of some entries back, one of my new brothers, who works at the baking school on site, told me that before they did not lock away their motorcycles on the site. One day during the night a group of robbers came into the site and stole a vehicle, using their numbers to lift the motorcycle over the walls of the center. From that point and on, the center has been extra careful with everything. There are locks for every building, storehouses in every house, and locks for everyone of the store houses. I myself, have been given various keys to lock my belongings in. Though I am told by many locals in the city that Hue has one of the lowest crime rates in Vietnam, I still have to be vigilant as to not lose my belongings, especially as tracking down the robbers would be next to impossible if they break into my room while I am gone or knocked out. That's enough of paranoia, on to the day!
Noticing that I had not eaten breakfast yet, my brother Manh walked over to the baking house, asking them if they had any sweet breads left. "Sorry, we sent that order off a while ago," said one of the brothers, "but here are two french baguettes." The smell and taste of fresh, home baked, french bread from the baking apprentices brought me delight, as I took my time tearing through the pieces and enjoying them. "Let's go swimming!" screamed one of the younger children, suited up with and ready to go to the swimming center. Of the thirty or so children still on the site, about twenty of us got onto bicycles or motorcycles driven by the adults on the site, and moved out together towards the center. I rode alone on my bike, while some of the other children rode together, two people to a bike, which is something I regularly see throughout Hue. What a ride this was.
I had never before rode on the streets of Hue on bike, though I have plenty of experience riding a bike through a city. "Are you scared Ben?" or "Do you want me to take you?" asked some of my brothers. "No, I can do this" I replied with a smile. So off we went, as a group moving through the streets. I had no idea where the center was, so I spent most of my time in-between the pack. Today was another cloudy day (its been awfully cloudy for a long time now), slightly breezy. The traffic was relatively moderate, causing me to stay on my toes throughout the whole bike ride over to the center.
It wasn't too bad riding around the city. When at last pulled into the center, my group was greeted by the children and adults who arrived before us on motorbikes. We stored our eight bikes away and walked together towards one of the swimming areas.
Well, what do you know? More filming about the center! About ten minutes after waiting near the swimming area for children for a lifeguard to watch over our group, the camera crew from a local Vietnamese TV Station, VTV, asked us to walked back to the entrance of the center and then shoot a small clip of us walking towards the swimming area. "Ben, you in front!" yelled Mrs. Hong. Oh goodness... I must say that I am surprised at all the filming is going on and, to be in the middle of it all, is quite exciting, but also nerve-racking. About twenty minutes later of waiting, our group was given some free passes courtesy of one of the directors of the swimming center. We all walked into the swimming area, stored our belongings and went on up to one of the larger pools designated for young children to teenagers. Everyone was happy, giggling, tickling one another, as I was told this was their third time to this swimming center as a group. "Stretch time!" yelled our lifeguard.
Stretching was an important part of today's experience (which I learned the hard way later on while swimming). There we were, all of us lined up in three rows, practicing swimming techniques and swimming. The camera crew continued to film us while we stretched and up until we hopped into the pool. I was surprised at the flexibility of all the children. I consider myself a flexible person, as I stretch many times during the day, but these children were much, much more flexible and laughed at me when I couldn't do one of the particular stretches that we were told to do. "Okay, go back to showers and wash off," said the lifeguard, "right after that you can hop into the pool." Immediately after his order, we all rushed down the slippery stair steps down to the showers, rinsed off, and ran right back up. He divided us into two groups, one with intermediate swimmers, and one with beginners. Cannon ball!
It had only been a few days since I last swam, thinking back to after my birthday party when I swam at the beach near my village. It was relaxing, tiring, exciting, and uplifting getting to share this opportunity with all the children. We raced one another, played tag, and swam our hearts out, forgetting of all the duties and stresses of living at the center. Than and Thiec (both twins), some of the university students who had recently returned to the center, joined us for the swim. They both spoke to me about the countless times that they went to this center to swim after classes during their high school years. They both were just like me, undergraduates having just finished their first year in college.They were both students at the Hue University of Sciences. alongside Trieu, another member of our house (he's a junior now). "Man, I am tired" said Than, after swimming for about thirty minutes in, "its been a long time since I've been back here." We taught each other swimming styles and eventually decided to play tag amongst all the intermediate swimmers. I figured out that we were playing tag when one of my brother yelled out "he's it, you have thirty seconds to swim away!"
And there we were, yelling and screaming our way around the pool, which at this point was filled with more than fifty people, our group alongside some other small groups of children. The reason why I mentioned the stretching above was the fact that right I was about to be tagged by my brother Hai, my right quad cramped up and immobilized me in the water as I tried to swim away. While I was scrambling my brain to figure out the word for cramp, my brother's eventually understood what was going on and called off the game, allowing me to recuperate. Ouch that hurt! I thought I would be able to ride back to the center, but after some time, the pain subsided and we commenced swimming. After about an hour and a half of swimming, our time was up and we slid back down the steps to the showers, rinsed off, and headed on out of the swimming center. We took the same route back, with some minor scuffles with traffic, which led to me almost getting stuck in the middle of traffic at one point (rather nerve racking point of time in my stay here in Vietnam!). We made it back safely to the center, the sky finally clearing up and beaming down rays of sunlight. Ugh, I was tired, so I marched on back to my room to drop off my things and ate lunch at Mrs. Hong's house, as Ms. Yua, my current host mother, was gone for the day. After a delightful chat about the day and filling meal, I sought refuge back into my room, sleeping until my class in the afternoon.
Today's class was a joint class, as no class was held do to the swimming in the morning. Today's class involved the university students with the middle schoolers, making for an interesting class. Nearing the end of class, the film crew came into the classroom, asking to feel me teaching a lesson to the children. So we went over some conversation examples, slowing working through the pronunciation and some of the grammar rules associated with each sentence. I guess I could get used to this. Shortly after closing the library door and ending the class, I rushed over to one of the film crew members and asked about why they were doing so much filming. "Well, you see, we are going to be broadcasting on television about this site and all the life that goes on here," said the man that I asked, "it's scheduled to be up on TV on the 5th of August." The accountant of the center told me that she would get me a disk of the video, which I was told to be about thirty minutes long. How exciting! I was going to be on television with the center! What I privilege I must say.
After watching them film a segment right outside my room near one of the open patios, I chatted to some of the bakery apprentices about work and such, taking pictures of them, and watching them deliver an usually large order of hamburger buns and sweet breads. After, I went over to help my brothers with some gardening, answering many of their questions about America and such, especially from the brothers that just recently rejoined the center, Than and Thiec. "You are a hero Ben" Than said to me, "I admire all your hard work." I couldn't help but laugh and did not reply. Quickly after, I was scheduled to tutor the director's daughter in English. After about an hour's lesson of vocabulary and pronunciation, I set off to eat dinner with Mrs. Hong's family, bringing along some fruits and drinks that my Uncle Duyet bought for me. What a day...
Spending about an hour, eating, chatting, and enjoying the wonderful dinner at Mrs. Hong's house, I decided to visit my brothers from my previous house, the Thanh Truc house. They gave me some sweets, and we chatted for a short while, going over the day and such. At last, I found it was getting late, and went back to my room to read and work (catching up on my blog once again!). Ua asked me to join her and one of her close friends for coffee at a nearby cafe, and so I agreed and joined the two of them, Ua and Thanh, for a late night (9:00) get-together. It was interesting getting to know each other, as Thanh was a student from Saigon, a year older than Ua, a close friend who came back up to see her. He talked to me about Vietnam and his take on it, speaking to me of many of the things I had already heard of and debated with me about the freedoms of our respective nations. After waving each other off after about an hour or so in the outdoor cafe, I went back to my room to do some further readings, eventually falling asleep at about midnight. Oh and by the way, I never actually woke up at 4:00 AM yesterday to make bread. Maybe tomorrow?
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