Yesterday was a day full of reunion. From reuniting with the returning children to reuniting with some family members coming up to the center to see me, I spent much of day catching up with the times. Going back to the last entry, the night before this day is probably going to be one of my most memorable experiences - one that I definitely did not expect.
At around twelve or so in the morning, I decided to finally go to bed, tired and weary from the events of Monday. I did a sweep around my room, cleaning up trash and sweeping the room. I flipped off the main lights, and turned on my reading lap, hoping to get some more pages into my Vietnamese studying books. The room was quiet, only the sounds of the refrigerator, the air conditioning, and the flipping of pages could be heard. Outside, the pale light of the lightpole pierced through the yellow curtain of the window facing my bed. For some reason that I could not explain, I found myself colder than I had ever been, despite turning the air conditioning up to 24 degrees centigrade, my regular setting being 18 or 20. As I flicked the light off and got into a comfortable position to sleep, the nightmarish night soon started to begin.
The supernatural is something that I have found to be very strong with Vietnamese people in this area, many of them believing in ghosts, especially malicious ones that lurk during the night. All the younger children had told me of previous experiences with ghosts, telling me that, despite me not believing in them, that I would eventually see one. I told them that the only reason they were scared at night, and subsequently sleeping alone, was because they believed in ghosts. If they didn't believe in ghosts, they would have no reason to be scared. Perhaps I ate those words this night?
Right as I turned off the night lamp, three loud clinks could be heard coming from the lap, one after the other. That was rather odd, I thought, turning the other way in bed. Over the next three hours I heard and surprisingly felt it all. All of sudden, after closing my eyes and trying to fall asleep, a hard, rough smack hit my face, paralyzing my whole body. I opened my eyes, looking to my right, not noticing anything. That was odd. I decided to just lay there, taking the hits, smacks, and scratches of something I could not explain. "It's nothing, it's all in my head" I thought, laying there aimlessly for the next twenty minutes as it seemed. Eventually, I decided that it was enough and I was going to get up and turn on the lights to get a grip on myself, my heart pumping crazily at this point. What was this? My body was not responding, I was paralyzed to my bed. Eventually I heard a voice. It was the voice of one of my brothers yelling "leave Ben alone, let him get up!" How odd, I thought, no one else was in the room. That was when I realized what I was experiencing. A nightmare. My first one of the trip. Immediately I woke myself up, my whole body sweating. I jumped up out of bed, turned on the lamp, and went to the bathroom to wash my face off. I noticed on my neck a red marking that started to sting. Maybe a sign of something? I was thirsty and ran out of water. I opened the door of my room and walked over to the baking room, where my older brothers, at around two thirty in the morning, were already hard at work. "What's wrong? Did you see a ghost or something?" They asked laughing. "Uh... no, I'm just having trouble sleeping" I said, glancing away at them. Oh what is getting into me? I got my water and went back to my room. Flipping on the reading lamp near my bed, I decided to read a little bit more 'til I got tired. Luckily enough, I slept well through the rest of the four hours left that I had to sleep.
Today was a big day. Many of the children who had gone on summer break back to their home villages had returned, including my brothers Duy, Van, Ron, Luat, and Long from the Thanh Truc house. It was also a swimming day, many of the children excited and ready, seeing as how they had their stuff ready when I walked around the center in the morning to greet the children who returned. Today some of the older sisters decided to come swimming, growing our group to about twenty five swimmers or so. I grabbed four creations from the baking school, my brothers gladly giving me them, and went back to my room to prepare and also eat my breakfast. The stress from the nightmare during the night subsided, as I felt energized to enjoy another day with the children at the swimming center. When I told some of my brothers in the morning about the nightmare, they laughed at me and told me if I believed in ghosts now. "Not yet, I don't, and even if they exist, I will invite them to be my friends" I said in response. They all laughed at me and told me I was lying. I eventually learned much more about the supernatural element of the center the following day, but I will leave those discoveries for the next entry.
I was the first one to make it to the center, seeing as how my uncle took me by motorbike. They eventually all arrived, one after the other, with many new faces as well, those of the children who I had not yet seen go swimming with the main group. We were fifteen minutes early, causing us to have to wait outside in the blistering sun. Same routine once again. When we finally got to swimming, I spent much of my time trying to teach many of the children how to swim, especially swimming backwards. There was one instance where I had to save one of them from drowning, which definitely got my heart pumping as I rushed out to save them. Swimming was swimming. We played and had fun throughout that hour and a half period. Phoning my uncle that I was finished, my uncle rolled on into the site, taking me to go have lunch.
We had quite the lunch, my uncle Duyet once again taking me to one of his favorite restaurants in the area. He ordered meal after meal, from crab to hot pot, eventually totally a whopping twenty six dollars, which for two people, is a lot of food, especially in Vietnam. "Alright, I'm not eating for two more days" I told him on the ride back, jokingly. We did eat again that night, and just as much for dinner. He drove me back around twelve. As I entered the center, I noticed all the houses' doors shut and the curtains to the windows rolled down, signalling that the children were now taking their midday nap. I decided to as well, waving my uncle off, and falling into my bed. I napped well, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. With about an hour before my class, I read through my books, and surfed the web, eventually deciding a minute before class time to go and open the library.
Today's class in the afternoon was for the junior high students, as well as for the university students (but none showed up due to being busy, or having just arrived to the center). After going over vocabulary and grammar, I decided to introduce an assignment for them to introduce one another to the class. Seeing promising results from this lesson, I plan to use more opportunities to introduce topics for the students to talk about. After class ended, I got a phone call from my uncle Duyet, telling me that my Aunt Cam, her husband, and daughter were going to pick me up from the center to take me to go eat with them. I agreed, though hesitantly, as I had many activities planned to play, catch up, and get to know the children of the center. Nevertheless, I put my stuff back into my room and walked down to the houses near the entrance of the center to tell Ms. Lanh, the mother of the Ngoc Lanh house, that I was going to eat outside the center for dinner. "What a shame, we will try to save you some food for the night" she told me, the children of the house chastising me for leaving the center so often (which I have noticed for the last few days). I met up with Tuy, Hien, Hieu, and Hac, some of the sisters of the houses picking out vegetables to eat from the garden. We talked for a while as I waited to be picked up, about America, about my life, and about what I thought of the center. What I have noticed about the center is that everyone seems to have duties, the boys get their fair share of work, doing activities similar to the girls and vice-versa. Eventually my aunt called me and told me to take her and her family members for a tour. I agreed and took them around the center, eventually ending up at my room, where my aunt and cousin, My, decided to clean up my room and do my laundry for me, with me telling them not to the whole hour that they worked in my room. Eventually, we headed off to eat.
My uncle Duyet had gone back to the home village, having some business with a friend of his. However, my aunt called home and convinced him to come up to join us. The first place we ate at while waiting for Uncle Duyet was at a small restaurant called Quan 58, I think. We first had a bowl of beef porridge, or chao, rice seasoned with herbs and spices, and beef pieces of our liking. There we were, me, my aiunt Cam, uncle Than, and cousin My, chatting about my stay at the center. They had missed me, seeing as how I didn't return to the center the last weekend due to touring around Hue. Eventually, my uncle came, though not eating with us just yet. My aunt ordered another dish with a meat I found unrecognizable, as I ate the pieces, one by one. It was odd texture, not one that I recall ever tasting, and even more odd was that I could not even identify the piece of meat that I was eating. "No worries," I thought, "it's just food." Dung, pronounced yoong (D = Y sound in Vietnamese), My's husband joined us. He was an American just like me, who had recently exited the U.S. army, and came to Vietnam to visit My, pronounced Mee. My aunt told him to eat the rest of the plate of the mystery meat that I already hate half of. She giggled as she gave him the dish. Oh... Now I know what I just ate. After the first couple pieces, I could notice Dung's face turning a little puzzled over what the meat was. My uncle finally told him that it was meat from some of the 'special parts' of the cow, to which caused Dung to immediately stop eating and feel sick to his stomach. The rest of the night, my aunt teased Dung about it, him only smiling and looking away. How do I feel about it? It's no big deal, as I've eaten just about everything (well not everything, but a lot of different things), and can stomach about any texture of food. My uncle suggested we go to one of the most busy seafood restaurants to finish the night. We all agreed and rode off.
We ordered so many different dishes, one after the other, all by the hands of my uncle. At the end, we ordered around fourteen or so plates at the seafood restaurant, though surprisingly, its cost was cheaper than the meal me and my uncle had for lunch by around a dollar or so. My uncle told me to wake up early the next time so that we could all meet up again for breakfast, especially because my aunt and her family were to go back to the village the following day. After waving them off, me and my uncle rode back towards the center.
On the ride back, my uncle reminded me of how much my aunt's family cared about me, and how he is trying his best not only to allow me to try the delicious foods of Hue, but also getting to know all the family members and different life lessons he wants to bestow upon me. "There is one special lesson that I will not tell you until you leave back to America" he told, right before we pulled into the center. "Alright, sure, I'll look forward to it I told him" right before we stopped at the first house to tell Ms. Lanh, that I would not be able to take the food they saved for me, as I was stuffed. After catching up with the children for about ten minutes or so, I decided to head back to my room to relax and get a good night's rest (of which I did!).
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