The Main Attraction

That’s what I feel like right now – the main attraction at a freak-pointing event, that is. We’re in Phu Yen Province, and I’m guessing they don’t get many tourists, because as I was walking out of the restaurant where we ate dinner tonight, people were prodding their neighbors and pointing at me, and one guy was completely turned around in his seat to stare at me as I ate. Okay – so maybe I’m not always okay with the staring thing. But as with many things, the fact that I’m tired is not helping. It was really cute, though – we went to a commune today and looked at a school that had been built under our project. As I walked up the driveway, little kids started running toward me, asking Itsy Bitsy if I was American. I got a picture of them, they were following me around like I was the Pied Piper or something. I suppose I don’t fully understand the mystique that a foreigner generates in any more than a theoretical sense, because I don’t think that I’m quite that fascinating, but when we were talking to one family in their home, about seven kids from the neighborhood came in to check me out. That kind of staring is what really never bothers me, I suppose. The other stuff…well, *sometimes* it bothers me.

There are two questions virtually every person I’ve met here has asked me – well, one is a question, the other is really more of an observation. Every single person asks me if I’m married, which by now totally makes me laugh because it’s so consistent, and everyone comments on the fact that I’m left handed. Usually when we’re eating, and someone notices that I’m holding my chopsticks in my left hand, using my own peculiar technique that I sort of made up as a kid, but which succeeds in getting the food from the bowl to my mouth. I’ve actually been told that I use chopsticks pretty well for a white girl, so that’s nice. Of course, as soon as someone says that, my spectacular lack of coordination comes out to play, and I am then incapable of picking up anything using chopsticks. Or probably my bare hands, if I were to try. Someone, oddly enough, suggested that I try using my right hand. I said that I can barely use a spoon with my right hand, so I didn’t think chopsticks were going to fly.

We had a really early start this morning, and I was up late working, so that has made me one sleepy girl today. I’ve still got more work to do, and tomorrow is going to be a really long day, so I’m going to see how much I can get done tonight. IB and I are sharing a room here, which is fine with me. What’s funny is that the price at this hotel if you’re a foreigner is twice what it is if you’re Vietnamese. The other team members complained that it was unfair, so I think they bumped me down to the Vietnamese rate. I kind of have mixed feelings about that whole thing, because it’s very common – the price for foreigners versus the price for Vietnamese people. On one side, I know that I am likely to be making more money than a lot of the people who live here. Of course, I have to pay a lot more to support myself, but still, I probably have more disposable income (which is funny to think of, because it usually doesn’t feel like I have any – but I know that in comparison, I do). But on the other side of it – I don’t expect any kind of special treatment, but I would really like to be treated the same as everyone else. However, I feel like a spoiled brat saying that. It’s kind of the reason why I’m bad at bargaining when I go to the market. I know that the first price a Vietnamese person hears is half of what I’m hearing. And I know they probably end up paying about 70% less for any given item than I will, even after I bargain. But I feel stupid arguing with someone who wants to charge me $3 for a meter of fabric, just because I know it should be $1. I mean…I know it should be $1, but arguing over $2 with someone who has to sit in a booth surrounded by bolts of fabric for 29 days out of every month to earn a pathetically low amount of money just seems selfish.

But as I was saying…after a few hours in the car, we arrived in Phu Yen. We pulled up to a surprisingly luxurious looking hotel, and I thought “is this really where we’re staying?” Well…not quite. That hotel isn’t finished, and we’re staying in the hotel behind it that is some kind of communist bunker. They’re actually attached, and to drive around the façade of the new hotel and see it turn into the old one is a hilarious and abrupt transition. But the room is clean and comfortable, although there’s no shower, just a shower head in a bathroom tiled from floor to ceiling, with a drain in the middle of the floor. So, really – it’s just a really big shower. But it’s perfectly fine, and there doesn’t seem to be an ant infestation in this one, so here’s hoping I don’t start one with the ants that, undoubtedly, stowed in my suitcase on the drive from Nha Trang. I swear I’m going to have to fumigate that thing when I get home.

We’re trying to wrap things up early here so we can head back to Nha Trang, where the weather is now sunny and lovely – perfect for a boat tour of the islands. Ah well. I don’t think I’ll be able to fit one into the schedule as it currently stands. I want to get back to Hanoi anyway, so although IB said she might stay longer in Nha Trang, I think I’m going to head back on Friday as scheduled, if not earlier. Actually…Thursday would be even better if we *can’t* get that whole boat trip thing pulled together. But that depends on too many things.

The guy from the Yemen project said he wanted to call me and chat about it. I said that I couldn’t commit to 3 – 4 months, which is what they needed, but if I could make a relatively short trip and do the rest of the work from the US, then I might be able to do it. I really don’t think he’ll take me up on it. Although, how many people who aren’t imitating Chandler Bing really get to say “I’m going to Yemen!?!?!” Maybe I’ll get to wear those salwar kameez again after all. (Is that what women even wear in Yemen? Goodness gracious, I have no idea.) But in case any of you were wondering…even though it’s not on my “HELL NO!!!!” list, which is basically limited to Iraq and many parts of Afghanistan, I kinda really don’t want to go to Yemen. We’ll have to see what happens.

The internet connection here is pretty awful, so I may have to wait until I get back to Hanoi and post these all at once or something. I dunno. I’m honestly surprised that I can connect at all, so I suppose I really shouldn’t complain. It’s frustrating, however, to know that I have e-mail, to be able to see that I have e-mail, and not be able to get into it.