New sport, Bucketing

Well, we had another major rain and we experienced flooding again. Joseph and I accepted the challenge and went to work bucketing out the water from behind our house so that the water did not come into our kitchen. While we did this, Ann and Brittany soaked up the water that did come in and wrung out the towels into buckets inside the kitchen. While Ann and Brittany worked together, Brittany said, "we are a good team, it takes all 4 of us, two boys and two girls".

It is true, we could not have kept up with the water if we did not have all four of us. Having twice the bucket power made a huge difference in keeping up with the flood and Brittany, as part of the team, besides wringing out towels with Ann for a period of time, she also peeled boiled eggs for Joseph and I so that we could keep our strength up. She was a big help!

When the rain finally stopped, we discovered that water was coming back in through the sewage system, either from the flooded alley, or from our flooded courtyard. That is why we ended up bucketing for 2 and 1/2 hours. Needless to say we were sore the next day.

Joseph and I figure if we bucketed like this every other day we would be in really good shape (ha ha). Our landlord is supposed to come and see what he can do, but we just found out that our house sits lower than all the new contruction in our neighborhood, meaing that we are one of the low points, maybe the lowest point in the neighborhood, so we collect the water the sewars can't handle. Hmm. I guess our choices for now when we have a downpour are, run for the hills or, quick, get the buckets!

UPDATE: Our landlord came and is planning to build a small wall inside our kitchen door so that the water can rise, but not come into our kitchen. This seems to be the best option right now.

Fruit

These are pictures of dragon fruit. They grow on a cactus. The fruit is lightly sweet and has no pit or core. It has only the small black seeds, the black specks in the white fruit, which are eaten with the fruit. Delicious!

And we thought the traffic in Hanoi was difficult!

First Day

Today was the first day back to the University (ULSA). It was great to be back and see colleagues and friends. It seems like it will be an exciting school year. Thanks for thinking about this.

It has also been great to get back to speaking Vietnamese. I have remembered much of what I knew and have started studying. I have spoken with our landlord, with our friend who does repairs, to friends who own a shop and to people at the office. Overall, I was encouraged and I am encouraged to go to the next level of my language learning.

I was asked today how I felt being back in the Hanoi traffic, as many of their friends upon returning from studying abroad find it scary to drive in Hanoi. I responded that I got right back into driving without any problems. Of course the picture shows what I was up against in the States.

Brittany and Joseph started school today. Brittany is learning the excitement of History and Science. She was quite proud that she now has subjects like Joseph. Joseph started his online courses today and found out we are missing some information for his math class. He is waiting to hear back from the teacher to see what needs to be done. It is the course materials so we are hoping he will be able to download this.

Ann, being the teacher has had a busy first day, but it seems that it was a rewarding first day for her. Ann made a great discovery at our local shopkeepers. They are able to buy the milk for us. They have orders of milk brought on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Before I had to ride to my friends shop around 20 minutes away (through an area that is not easy to get to and usually have to deal with bad traffic). So this was very nice surprise. We still go to my friends shop for cheese and other items.

This weekend on Saturday night we went to a concert at the Vietnam Opera building in support of an American friend who is a pianist and who has worked with the Vietnam Opera to put on that night's performance. Performing were a 25 children choir, opera soloist, a four hand performance on the piano and around a 30 person adult choir (made up by the opera singers). Our friend played the piano for all of it. It was fun to see the children perform and enjoy the talent of the pianist and opera singers. Believe it or not, the V.N.O.B. puts performances on for free. Certainly makes it affordable to take the whole family to.

Joseph got his first ride out in the streets (at night even) to ride the 50cc our friends loaned him to the concert. He did a great job riding through the traffic.

Life in the big house

Yesterday we had our first big rain since we arrived back. While we were gone our kitchen flooded twice, so we were watching the back area (behind the kitchen) closely. The water rose pretty fast. Joseph went and got our water pump just in case, but the hose to suck the water out was gone. We tried to makeshift with another hose, but it did not work. The rain stopped and the water was about an inch and a half from cresting the little step into the kitchen. I decided to bucket it out. Several of the neighborhood young boys peered in through the fence to see why I was bucketing water, then they continued to laugh and play hide-and-go-seek. Many of the motorcyclist, bicyclist and pedestrians were happy I saw them coming and stopped throwing the water out into the alleyway until they went by.

Today, we discovered termites behind our couch. They were transferring eggs from the couch to a hole in the floor by the wall (wood baseboard). So I sprayed all those lovely termites carrying eggs, pushed the couch back further and found the eggs and termites lined almost the whole back of the couch. We hired our friend to bring more traps for the termites. The traps are boxes filled with easy to chew wood. After about two or three weeks, he will come back and put poison on the wood. The theory is the termites will like this wood because it is very easy to eat. After it becomes a source for the colony, the poison is applied, which will then kill the colony including the queen. Our friend has done this over the summer in other areas of our house as well. He informed us after we returned that it resulted in killing lots of termites, showing what he meant by cupping his hands, with is fingers spread, with actions suggesting that it would be overflowing.

Today we picked up a 50cc motorbike. Our friends who are in the States for the next year have loaned it to us so that Joseph could have a motorbike to ride. Joseph took it out for a little ride already. Needless to say, he enjoyed the ride. We were honored that our friends trusted Joseph to be responsible with their bike, especially as it is hard to find these type of 50cc's anymore. They are built by Honda and they last forever it seems. In Vietnam, you do not need a license for a 50cc, but you do need to be 15 or older.

Almost supper time.

Back Home

It is good to be back home here in Hanoi. We certainly wish we could bring all of our family and friends with us, but we would settle for a visit (hint, hint). All you have to do is go west and head south and eventually you would reach Hanoi. ha ha.

Brittany had a play date yesterday at a friend's house and today she has the same friend over to our house. Needless to say this is helping her to settle back in well. We are thankful.

Joseph, today will be loading up items on the computer for his online courses. He starts August 13th.

Ann is working on a shopping list. We will head out later today and go grocery shopping on the motorbike.

Joseph and I played basketball yesterday (we usually play on Sunday afternoons). We could tell our bodies were still dealing with jetlag. So we had two reasons for missed shots, jetlag and the fact that they set the rims at 9'9" (around 3 meters) instead of 10'. Even with the missed shots, we had a great time, especially seeing some friends that usually play basketball with us.

Overall, it seems we are adjusting to the time zone difference (12 hours) quickly. The humidity, well it will take a little longer to get used to.