christmas in long xuyen was, well, lackluster.

eric and i sat around all day and did very little. i worked on some of my projects, even though it was saturday and even though it was christmas. i guess the worst part of the holiday was that my email inbox dried up almost completely.

the world is preparing for the lunar new year celebration. the flower market is being built back up again along the bank of the river. people are finishing up with their work before the holidays arrive, as things tend to get busy before there is a break. pepsi, and this i find fascinating, decided to ditch their trademark blue boxes in favor of red boxes that look quite like coca-cola boxes. we all know that red is quite a lucky color over the holidays.

in one week, rachel lee swartzendruber will come out to visit me. we will spend time in ho chi minh city and then down in the delta. it promises to be a wonderful time and i am excited beyond anything i could possibly describe. before she comes, however, i am obliged to finish writing my book. i am now sitting at my computer from sunrise to well into the evening trying to translate the vietnamese sections into english. my fingers hurt from typing. my eyes hurt from straining. this is the reason that i have not been writing anything of substance.

blessings to all this holiday season and have a wonderful new year.

IV Tet

One day that is extremely important for Vietnamese people is the Lunar New Year. Most Americans would recognize the Vietnamese word for the holiday, ‘Tet’, because of the famous uprising throughout the South in 1968.

There, however, is quite a difference from the way I understood ‘Tet’ before I came to Vietnam and how I understood the word after words. In American I didn’t understand the customs of this very important holiday. My first ‘Tet’ experience happened at the beginning of 2003 which I had been in Vietnam for about four months and before I had many friends. At school, one person told me that during ‘Tet’ everyone stays at home.

Americans who visit Vietnam always notice how packed the streets are and possibly can’t imagine a day when everyone is at home. Maybe my friend meant to say, ‘Many people stay at home.’ I guessed wrong.

The first day of Tet, 2003, the year of the Goat, I woke up early. At about 8 o’clock in the morning I went out to try to find something to eat but was greeted with a surprise. Vietnamese flags were posted all over the sides of the roads but no one was there. It even appeared like the myriad dogs that usually passed back and forth searching for food had even found homes. No people, no animals but a plethora of flags. I was hungry but I didn’t know what to do, surprised by the absence of people and traffic.

It’s hard to imagine the Vietnamese streets as silent as they are during the Lunar New year celebrations. I had to pedal my bicycle quite far just to find a place to eat. My first ‘Tet’ experience was seeing that empty road and no food.

The 2004 celebrations, the year of the Monkey, were quite different. At that time I had made friends with many people and many of those people invited me over to their house to eat with their families. I was really excited to experience ‘Tet’ with a family because I had heard so much about this day but didn’t at all understand it.

The last day of the 2003 lunar year was a very special day for me. I ate with my friend’s family and was given a new Vietnamese name. I am now named H? Minh Trí and I truly felt like a member of the family. I felt lucky to have two families: one in America and one in Vietnam. They even considered me their son.

That night we sat down and ate a delicious meal. My friend told me that if I wished my new parents good health, happiness and the like I would experience another Vietnamese custom. I walked up to them and wished that everything went their way in the year of the Monkey. After that, I was given a red envelope with lucky money in it. I was quite content with my new family. They allowed me to experience ‘Tet’ not like a foreigner who was staying and leaving but as a true member of the family.

After we had eaten the year of the Monkey was almost upon us. We went and prayed to the family’s ancestors at the alter of the house and then went to the local pagoda to wish all of our friends and neighbors a happy new year.

Following my experiences of the Lunar New year, I believe that society as a whole implodes and everyone spends time with their most important relationship. The first day is for only the most important people in your life, your parents. You have to wish them health and happiness because they gave you life, you have to give thanks to your ancestors because; ‘To drink the water is to remember the source’.

However, before everything implodes, everyone has to wish all of their friends a happy new year. It’s almost like people are saying, ‘I’m about to go home for about three or four days and we won’t have a chance to meet. Have a good ‘Tet’.’

After we prayed at the pagoda and wished our friends happiness, I went home and slept the first night of the New Year. ‘Tet’ doesn’t really begin until the first day of the Lunar New year. The last day of the last year is the day that everyone will wish everyone else health and happiness before they spend time with their family and other people very important to their lives.

The first day of the New Year is a day for the family and also one custom I really enjoy called ‘Ng??i xông ??t’. This phrase is used to describe the first person to enter your home who isn’t a member of your family after the New Year begins. Depending on their social status or personal life, the following year will be lucky or it will be bad. In America we don’t have a concept like this and I was quite afraid to be the first person to enter the house of a stranger. That’s one of the reasons that my friend’s family gave me a new name, so I could eat with them and I wouldn’t be considered to be breaking any of the rules.

I spoke with a bunch of people and always ask them if they really believe in that custom. Most say that only a few people in the family follow that custom but it really isn’t everyone.

The first day of ‘Tet’ I didn’t know what to do but I also didn’t want to go out and visit friends because I didn’t want to be the first stranger to enter the house after the new year arrived if that family had wanted someone else to come.

Before I experienced ‘Tet’, I had asked my friend this question, ‘If everyone is at home, what do they end up doing?’ My friend said that most of the time is spent eating together. It was hard to imagine spending a whole day simply at home without going out at all.

I woke up a little late and ate with my new family. We sat around and ate a wonderful meal and talked about life, desires and the future. One full day of doing nothing except talking about life with people who are the closest to you in your life is very special because our modern lives are so busy and they rarely afford us an opportunity like that. If there wasn’t the ‘Ng??i xông ??t’ rule and if people didn’t spend so much time at home, the ‘Tet’ holiday just wouldn’t be the same. We need to talk in order to understand each other better.

The second day of the Lunar New year is when every family goes and visits the ancestral homeland. We went and spoke to other members of the family who were also making the trip.

In America we don’t have anything that is similar to the Lunar New year in Vietnam. We have Christmas and that day is very important for many Americans but not for everyone. Christmas is also a day for family but it isn’t as important, or doesn’t last as long as the Lunar New year. Also, if you want to spend time with friends on Christmas after your family as been together, it isn’t really a problem.

Thanksgiving is also an important day for many families because it isn’t necessarily religious. Most Americans spend time together over Thanksgiving but it still isn’t the same as the Lunar New year. Thanksgiving is only one day and there are not the 10 days to travel around and meet people as there are in the Lunar New year celebrations of Vietnam.

The Lunar New year celebrations are extremely important for the people of Vietnam. While everyone has their separate lives on a normal day, when ‘Tet’ rolls around each family comes together and celebrates themselves. It’s just as if society implodes and everyone spends time with their most important relatives on the same day. The Lunar New year begins at the beginning of the month and stretches until the end of January. After spending time with your family, you move out and meet other families until all of Vietnam is reunited through familial ties and normal life can begin again.

things are out of control.

this is an article about me found in the ‘thanh nien’ newspaper today. it talks about the book i am writing and about a meeting i had with a journalist in ho chi minh city. this is the same paper that wrote about me about 8 months ago.

the book should be published before the lunar new year if everything goes smoothly. not much else to say. i’ll translate it when i have time.

the seventh day of the year of the monkey and the last addition to the now world renown ‘special two week lunar new year edition’.

tet has blown through like a gigantic storm. it was a hurricane. we began to feel the effects of the celebration about three weeks ago and we will continue to feel the aftershocks until the first month of the lunar year ends. it was impossible to ignore the pure natural power of this storm.

while the storm had been brewing on the horizon for a couple of weeks, the real effects could be felt in the two days preceding the new year. those two days were full of people running home with supplies to last through the upcoming siege. men with motorcycles laden with drinks and food. women with decorations. children wheeling things down the road either on bicycles or in wagons. everyone was stockpiling and i caught the fever. the two days before tet i made sure to go to the market and buy enough supplies for me and the dog. we bought enough fruit, bread and sausages (for the dog) to last a few days of isolation.

then the storm hit.

the fireworks and the familial celebrations of the last day of the year bring in the new year, and foreshadow the storm’s arrival. prayers at the pagoda will cement good fortune for the coming year. trips to the fortune teller will guide decision making. the first few hours of the new year are eerie. they are like nothing i’ve ever seen. there is some strange communal understanding that something great and grand is happening. it’s never stated, it can just be seen in almost everyone’s eyes as they dart past you in the night on their motorcycles.

i am still shocked at the shear size of the celebrations. on the first day of the lunar new year, a town of about 250,000 people stops. the town ceases to function in any way. somehow 250,000 people all find a home to hide in, everyone shuts their doors and windows and the outside world no longer is of any importance. for a foreigner, this is incredible. over christmas, there is a similar occurrence in america, but it is much smaller in scale. we do not celebrate any one holiday as universally as tet is celebrated over here. this is the middle of what i would call the tet hurricane. everyone is bunkered down.

i was lucky enough to have made friends with people in town. i was able to experience tet from a more personal perspective. from this perspective, it feels nothing like a hurricane or a storm. from this perspective it feels like a warm time of tradition, prayer and reflection. of course it’s different for every age group and social class. the young people look forward to receiving ‘lucky money’ and the older people look forward to seeing all of their relatives under one roof again. i had a wonderful opportunity to see tet from both perspectives.

after the storm, there are three days of re-cementing old friendships and rebuilding societal relationships. in a culture where there are so many different ways of addressing another person depending on their age, social status and sex, it is important to go back through all of your old relationships and reaffirm everyone’s place. the first day is for immediate family. the second is for extended family. the third is for friends and teachers and other important people who are not directly related to you.

now, we are left with the residual effects of tet. we are left with a few more weeks of constantly saying and being told ‘happy new year.’ we are left with some traditional left-overs to eat and many people to greet. this holiday does not let up easily.

there is nothing that i can adequately compare this holiday to in america. many people celebrate thanksgiving but there are no residual effects like there are for tet. the hype before christmas is similar to the hype before tet, but christmas ends quickly and tet takes a long time to fizzle out. many americans go home for the holidays but they surely do not bunker down with their families for a long period of time playing cards and chatting for hours on end. there is a bit of commercialism in the lunar new year, but it is mostly confined to giving and receiving money. our christmas can be described as nothing short of commercialism on crack (with a side of stress).

tet is not a day, it is not a week. tet is a tradition, it is a mindset. it is a way to think about family and relationships. it is a way to understand the hierarchy of life. it is a way to make sense of everything. my two weeks writing about tet did not in any way adequately describe all there is to describe. tet is much more than anything i could ever write.

i will end this spectacular ‘special two week lunar new year edition’ with a traditional greeting for the new year in the year of the monkey:

chuc mung nam moi! chuc suc khoe! vang vo vai ky! tien vo vai ty! trong nam con khi!

happy new year! i wish you good health! may you get gold by the kilo! may you get money by the billions! all in the year of the monkey!

the fifth day of the year of the monkey.

last night i was invited to attend the new year’s celebration with the chinese self-help society. we celebrated tet in a very traditionally chinese way.

the celebration was held at the local chinese school and it started late in the afternoon. there was a grandstand set up and all the dignitaries sat in a neat row in front of banners covered with unintelligible chinese script. there were speeches that talked about the self-help society and what it did in the previous year. all the important guests were introduced and i stood up, clasped my two hands together and shook them to the right and left of my face as all the other ‘important’ people did when they were introduced.

after the speeches, there were dances by the local dragon dance team. the dances started with four tiger costumes manned by two people each. they would walk around the god of the earth, the one who was responsible for keeping base things stable and harmonious, and dance to him. the god of the earth wears a gigantic mask that is bright pink with red dots for cheeks. he carries a fan and waves it as the tigers pass. the tigers do a number of different things in time with the music. since there are two people controlling one tiger suit, the man in the back must crouch down. his job is to move his legs in aggressive ways. the man in the front controls the head. sometimes he pushes it high above his head and shakes it, other times he moves it from side to side. when they decide to get fancy, they can have the person in the front stand on the shoulder’s of the man behind him or they can roll on the ground in tandem. all of this is done to the rhythm of one large drum played by a fat man, six cymbals played by children and a gongish type of instrument.

the next dance is a man dancing on top of a large bamboo pole wearing a tiger suit. it is interesting but too repetitive.

the last dance is the dance with the actual tiger. there are about 10 people controlling the gigantic dragon which must stretch on for about 40 or 50 feet. they all have a large pole and must follow exactly what the person in front of them did. they run around and do about three or four different things. they can swing the head of the dragon from the ground on one side above their heads to the ground on the other side. when everyone is doing this in unison, the dragon looks like it’s writhing in incredible pain. the dance is very complicated.

then comes the meal. it is a very typically chinese meal, i am told. it looks very vietnamese to me but i am no expert. during the meal there are little children that are paraded about and made to sing. they look scared and they sing poorly but they are children so we all watch and dutifully clap.

the lunar new year celebration came from china originally and, like all bits of civilization that are imported by other cultures, when it came to vietnam, it was changes slightly. the difference is slight.

the third day of the year of the monkey.

traditionally, on the third day of the lunar new year, everyone is supposed to emerge from their family bunkers and head out into the world. they are supposed to meet up with their friends and greet their teachers. preparing for an onslaught of greetings from students (or the horrific disappointment of no one bothering to stop by), i hedged my bets and headed west to the town of can tho.

in can tho, i have a number of friends who also work at the university. they were all eager to get out and have a little fun with me. i tied the dog up outside, mounted my motorcycle and headed off before the sun came up. it's really invigorating traveling by yourself on a motorcycle. so much time to think, i always end up talking to myself which is disturbing. i arrived and woke my friends up at their homes.

the whole day was very typical.

we started out by having coffee. having coffee during tet is exactly like having coffee at any other time of the year. you sit around slowly milking one glass of very strong coffee. you sit for about an hour and a half.

the next thing we did was drive around aimlessly for about another hour. we drove slowly, about 10 miles an hour and three abreast. this wasn't a waste of time, this was relationship building.

the next thing we did was have another cup of coffee next to the river. the river isn't much to look at, but it's better than looking at a busy street.

we then went to a fruit garden about 20 minutes outside of town. the garden was beautiful but overcrowded with people emerging from their homes after the tet holiday. it was gorgeous, but you had to ignore the swarming masses of children and mosquitoes which are sometimes indistinguishable.

then we were off to have more coffee and noodles. i couldn't have another cup of coffee because i would have died. i had soy milk.

at last we went to some of my friend's homes and met their parents. they twisted my arm enough and i'm going to stay here for the night because i can't quite stomach the drive home especially in the dark.

so, the third day of tet is also important. this is when everyone officially emerges from their homes and re-associates with society. they have reaffirmed their basic family roots and will now blend back in with society. the day was full of good wishes, smiles and lots of time sitting on lawn chairs sipping strong black coffee and staring at the vast mekong.

the second day of the year of the monkey.

on the second day of tet, people are supposed to visit their home land. today, we had a more important mission to complete. i had to go with one of my best vietnamese friends to attend the engagement ceremony of his girlfriend’s sister.

in vietnam, there are three ceremonies when you get married. the first ceremony is when both of the families get to know each other. it is fairly informal and people walk around and ask each other what they do and how long they’ve don’t that. the second party is the official engagement party. this is much more formal with speeches and people standing up with glasses in their hands looking quite important. the third party is obviously the wedding. in the past, according to what i’ve been told, there was seven different parties to allow both families to thoroughly get to know each other. today, that tradition is not carried on because, in the words of my friend, it’s quite tiresome in today’s modern world.

the party i attended was the first one. it was the ‘get to know one another’ party. while it is not fitting with the tradition of the lunar new year, it did seem to work out nicely.

the two families had never met each other before and they gathered at the house of the soon-to-be bride. her house was located on a large island in the middle of the river. it is an incredibly placid place. the trees all seem to sway slowly. the air is very fresh. the sounds of motorcycles are all drowned out by the breadth of the river. it is a farming island and it truly is one of the few slices of paradise left.

the two families stood next to one another on the front lawn of her house trying their best to make conversation. it was interesting, the way they talked was as if they were two families that used to know each other long ago and were finally getting reacquainted. in my experience, vietnamese nationalism views every member of their nation as a member of the same family. i stood around all morning and afternoon and watched two long lost brothers reunite. it’s really difficult to explain. i guess some would feel the same in the mennonite community back home. there we have a tight knit group of people that all have a relatively similar background. in a way, that’s the same thing i see here.

the first day of the new year.

and everything stopped.

i walked outside and the road was absolutely deserted. a road that is normally teaming with motorcycles and bicycles stood silent and barren. the sides of the road were lined with vietnamese flags. there were hundreds of flags all barely floating in the wind.

the first day of the new year, as i am experiencing it, is a solitary time for families. most families end up at home watching television and spending time talking to one another. there is no important meal and lunch and dinner are both large.

yesterday night and afternoon i was invited over to a friend’s house to experience lunar new year’s eve. the afternoon meal was large and was enjoyed only by men. we sat outside in a narrow alley around a foldable table. that particular meal ended up lasting most of the afternoon. we ate until about four, took a brief nap on rock hard beds and then began preparing for the evening meal. we ate the evening meal (this time with the women) and were finished by about 7. from 7 until midnight, i went exploring long xuyen with my friend.

the meals were, to say the least, a gastronomical experience not easily forgotten. the food was wonderful but the amount that was forced on me was staggering. you were presented with a problem. you didn’t want to be rude so you ate all the food that was in front of you. when the host presented you with more food because he didn’t want to be rude, you ended up having to eat that too. when you said you were full, the host didn’t quite know if he believed you. he was afraid you were just being polite. so, with a gorged stomach already, you are offered a gigantic piece of bloody beef. yes, you eat it slowly and loosen your belt.

the town was very excited to welcome the year of the monkey. the streets were packed with motorcycles and the town square was decorated with flags, banners and other patriotic things. at one point, there was a fireworks show. for some reason, the show was held at about 9:30 instead of midnight. it lasted for about 20 minutes and, wherever you were driving your motorcycle, you were forced to stop. whether you wanted to see the show or not, traffic was a chaotic log jam. we sat in the middle of a bridge on my friend’s motorcycle watching the sputtering and smoking of the low flying fireworks.

we also saw a traditional dragon dance outside of the chinese association. about 10 young men all wear the same uniform and hold a large stick which supports a part of the dragon. the head is held by a very experienced dragon dancer. they run around and follow set patterns of movement all to the beat of a gigantic drum and what looks like an old pot painted white.

after the show, we went to my friend’s neighbor’s home. he trades gold and spent most of the night talking about how much he bought and sold of this or that and what the going rate was for such and such. he was very well off. we sat on small plastic stools on the side of the road for about an hour. at five minutes until midnight, we went inside to wish the family a happy new year.

we sat in front of the television and watched the crowds in ha noi and ho chi minh city. we counted down with everyone and yelled when it was the new year. this entire country stayed up until 12:00 midnight to welcome january 22nd.

because i was an honorary member of the family, i was given lucky money. this was a huge honor bestowed upon me and i was quite grateful. i was the second person to receive lucky money because i am the second oldest child. after receiving the lucky money and wishing my ‘parents’ a happy new year and luck, prosperity and old age and what not, we went into the alter room of the house.

i was given incense and asked to pray.

they had a number of alters throughout the room, some dedicated to ancestral veneration, others dedicated to some gods but the alter i prayed at was on the balcony. it was a small alter at the top of the balcony’s railing. on it were two oranges, a can of pepsi and a place to put the incense after you prayed. to my left, just about at eye level and half an arms length away, there was a vietnamese flag fluttering in the wind. i looked out on the naked streets and felt the cool air mix with the musty smoke from the incense. i thanked god for life. i thanked him for everything he did for me. i thanked her for making it so beautiful and so horrible.

next, as my eyes were failing me and i was looking to go to bed, my new family went to the pagoda to pray for the new year.

the pagoda was very, very crowded. the smoke from the incense was so thick that it was hard to keep your eyes open at parts. the smoke literally billowed out of the front door. people believe that the smoke is the vehicle which carries your prayers up to heaven and, in that pagoda, there was a traffic jam of prayers just looking for a way out. i went home and my shirt smelled like prayers.

we prayed a couple of times and watched people mill around. my friend wanted to take my picture and is took next to a giant alter dedicated to uncle ho and had a picture snapped. it should be a good one. i went home and fell into a deep sleep.

this morning, i was woken up, oh, maybe 15 times by the phone. it started at 6. then, ever twenty minutes or so, i received a phone call from another person wishing me a happy new year.

since i am a member of my friend’s family, i went over to their house and was invited for lunch. because i am a member, i didn’t have to worry about being the first person to walk through their door and either bring them good or bad luck. i went inside and listened to the father explain why he thought our meeting was fate.

he told me about buddhist principles and about how one person had many different lives. he talked about how strange it was that i would end up in long xuyen and how strange it was that i would end up at his house. he said it was fate that brought me there and that, in a previous life, i was either a member of their family, or a very good friend of the family. i listened to his perspective and found it fascinating. he thoroughly believed it and i was tempted to do so too. he said that, since i was a member of the family, i should have a vietnamese name. i told him i had a vietnamese name given to me by a waiter on the way to ho chi minh city, nguyen quoc minh, or someone who’s proud of my country. it’s tongue in cheek. he said i needed a new name that would be in line with the family. i was given the name ho minh tri, or intelligent one. i will go back to their house for supper tonight and find their hospitality to be overwhelming.

tet is turning out to be christmas times 10.

the final day of the year of the goat.

this morning, the roads are completely packed with motorcycles. people are all traveling and bringing things to other people’s houses. it’s chaotic.

the last day before the new year is very important. every family will sit down at about 100 in the afternoon and ‘eat tet’. it’s basically a giant christmas meal that will last all afternoon and will only be with your family, no friends are ever invited.

this meal and the few days after tet have always had quite a mysterious allure to them. last year i was not invited to ‘eat tet’ with any families because i hadn’t formed any meaningful relationships with any families yet. this year, however, i have been invited to ‘eat tet’ with a number of families and choose the family who was by far the mot traditional. to be invited to ‘eat tet’, the family must decide to make you an honorary member for a day.

we will eat and then, after midnight, go to a pagoda and pray for the new year.

the first day of the new year is to be only spent with your family. you’re not supposed to visit any friends and you should stay at home. if you visit friends, it’s disrespectful. the second day is a time when you’re supposed to visit your ancestral homeland. the third day is a day to visit teachers and friends.

one of the reasons that having a stranger in your home over tet is so unique is that people believe that the first person that walks in your house after the new year will, depending if they are important, lucky or unimportant, bring them a prosperous or an unlucky year. the first person is very, very important to most families and that’s why they don’t want strangers in their house when the new year arrives. they have to declare that you’re a member of their family so that you will not be that person. i am excited to experience something so exclusive and will provide actual facts tomorrow. right now i can only relate what i’ve been told, i’ve never actually felt it.

the 29th day of the last month of the lunar new year. one day before tet eve.

today i was invited over to a friend’s house to make different kinds of rice cakes that are very traditional for tet. it’s like being invited over to someone’s house to make christmas cookies.

the process of making ‘banh tet’ and ‘banh trung’ is extremely time consuming. making cookies takes, including going to the supermarket, mixing the dough, cooking and letting them rise, a couple of hours, maybe more. making tet cake and trung cake takes more than a day of solid labor. i only took part in the last stages of the process.

it all starts with the mother or one of the girls going to the market. they must buy green beans, rice, beans, palm leaves, banana leaves, rope made from banana trees, pork, salted eggs and probably some other things. this must be done two days before the tet cake and trung cake are actually put together. that night the mother must boil the green beans and make them into a kind of paste. the past has a similar consistency with pie dough, except it is a bit stickier. the green bean paste must sit and solidify. the next night the mother (or daughter) must prepare the sticky rice. i have no idea how this is done, i only know the final product is a mound of sticky, white grains of rice with mushy, red beans interspersed throughout.

after the two major ingredients are finished, the actual process of cooking the cake can begin.

i arrived at my friend’s house at 7 in the morning to find his father sitting on the front porch with a giant palm leaf at his feet. he was preparing the moulds for the tet cake. tet cake is much more popular in the north of vietnam and that is where he originated from. it is square in shape, about six inches across and an inch high. the outside of the cake is made out of a variety of leaves. he would cut leaves off of the branch, trim them down and fashion a perfect box using only toothpicks. i was impressed.

inside, the mother and the rest of the family was getting ready to prepare the center for the trung cake. the trung cake is more popular in the south and is shaped like a cylinder. it is about as long as a football and as thick as a soda can.

the inside of the trung cake are made from the green bean mash and bacon-like pork. they call it ‘three level pork’ because it has to have fat, meat and skin on it to taste good. you take the bean mush and ball it around in your hand. at first, i was not very willing to mush it too hard because i always remembered my mother scolding me when i played with the pie dough (‘play with it as little as possible so the crust is more flakey.’) well, they mashed it and ploughed it around with their hands until they had a baseball sized clump. then, they put it on a banana leaf and rolled it into a thin cylinder. they then spread the inside out, placed a long strip of bacon in the middle and rolled it up entirely. the bacon was completely concealed in the green bean mush. i did this a few times but was not very good at it.

the father was now finished with his tet cake boxes and we were to begin forming them. the first thing you do is take a banana leaf, wipe it with a rag and place it at the bottom of the box horizontally. then you place another leaf vertically making sure that they fit snugly. you place the last leave diagonally. it’s a little like making origami except that you will end up filling the origami with food and then will cook it for an entire afternoon over an open fire. a bit tedious.

the bottom layer is sticky rice. one bowl. you have to mash it down in the corners to make sure it’s a good foundation. the second layer is green bean mush which is flattened into small, square pancakes and is, once again, mashed into the corners. the third layer is a few big chunks of pork which are unceremoniously plopped in. the fourth layer is the green bean mush and the final layer is the sticky rice. you end up with an odd rice bean pork mixture wrapped in a nice, green origami box.

on top, you have to be careful to fold the banana leaves around the rice entirely to prevent water. you then wrap the whole thing up tightly with rope made from the banana leaf.

the trung cake is made in a slightly different way. the rice is plopped and made into a rectangle on a piece of banana leaf. the green bean cylinder is placed in the middle and the two sides are wrapped around it. when tying it off with the rope, you must put one end in your mouth, wrap it around the cake two times and pull as tightly as possible.

we made about 6 tet cakes (the square ones) and about 10 trung cakes. it took us the entire morning and, by the end, we were exhausted. i was in charge of making two trung cakes and we’ll see if they turn out. they’re still cooking.

before we had lunch, the father went outside and made a small fire in his front lawn. he put six bricks around the fire and we filled a large pan with the cakes and water. a fire was built and one of the sons was put in charge. he had to watch the fire and the pan all afternoon. it took about 5 hours to cook.

so, i made christmas cookies here except i found it to be a lot more time consuming. i wonder how a tradition like that would last in the states. who would spend two to three days preparing a pot of food? while i did spend an entire morning sitting around on a kitchen floor slowly preparing food, i also learned about the fascinating lives of five other people i probably would have never met in my life.

the 27th day of the last month of the lunar new year.

today i went with a friend to venerate his ancestors. i was told to be at their house at 700 and that his father had a car. no one has a car here and this thoroughly confused me.

when i arrived, i was delighted, surprised and couldn’t stop laughing. the car was a french ‘citroen’ from maybe 1950. the father said it was brought to vietnam in 1960 but couldn’t say exactly when it was manufactured. my mother had told me about these cars from when she studied in germany. she said they called them ‘flying nuns’. the cars are squat and curvy, but not in a sensual way. the wheel hubs are gigantic and stretch out horizontally from the body of the car. when you look at the car from the front, you see two giant bug-eye lights protruding from a tiny grill, a hood that is tapered for some reason, gigantic wheel hubs and a tiny cab with a large vietnamese man behind a gigantic steering wheel. i was afforded the front passenger seat because of my height and we were off. to shift gears in this relic of a car, one must pull out a black leaver and turn it. i didn’t quite figure it out and whenever gears were changed, there was a reassuring mashing noise resonating from somewhere beneath us. we drove slowly to their ancestors home land with my hand hanging out of the window and my head hitting the ceiling on every bump.

we arrived on a small, dirt road that runs parallel to a canal of the mekong. there were two largish houses to my right and many older people standing around drinking tea. we walked towards the group and greeted everyone.

we gathered plastic bags full of fruit, bread and other snacks and headed off towards the jungle. walking through the jungle is fascinating and i always end up being on guard for some reason. the ground is formed and clay-like. it does not form a smooth path, but rather a path that is covered in miniature clumps of clay that have been dried and packed by the sun and human feet.

we arrived at the tomb of my friend’s family. it sits in the middle of a beautiful rice paddy that is surrounded on all sides by majestic trees. the tomb is a fairly large, fenced in area with two off-white tombs about three feet off of the ground sitting parallel with each other. between them is a small alter. the tombs are in the half of the fenced in area that is covered with a roof and each tomb has a picture of the deceased on it. it has been half reclaimed by the jungle when we came to visit.

there were large vines growing on both of the tombs. they crept up from the floor and were making a vain attempt to retake the jungle floor. we used a machete and chopped them away. we swept and cleaned and made the tomb look perfect. everyone lit incense and prayed at a small alter.

we went up the path to another set of tombs. this was the extended family. i was shown the tomb of the great-great grandfather who was the founder of the family. he came down to vietnam back in the late 1800’s from china. he had one wife who died and he married another. his tomb was old and made of ornate concrete. he was a very rich man.

all of the men stood around the tombs talking about those that came before them and those that will come after them and the whole system really started to make sense. they do not pray and ask for favors, or protection. they pray to remember and to be remembered. i believe the simple fact that the whole family walks out to the tombs and looks at the grainy black and white pictures is just as important as the actual prayer. to remember those that came before you, to remember their pains and their joys will inevitably help you in your own life. there are lessons to be learned.

i thought about my family at home. my home is a small town about an hour from philadelphia. my family’s church is located not two hundred yards up a hill and every time you set foot on our dining room balcony, you are faced with a sloping cemetery. i remember many sunday diners where my father, some of my great aunts and my grandparents would walk up to the church and mull through the grayish white stones. they would tell stories and remember the people. i remember going with them a few times and, as i grew up, appreciating the stories more and more.

today we returned from our venerating and i was given a tour of the town. it turns out that their great-great grandfather was very wealthy and had the first house built of stone in this province. the remains of the house were still there. there was a gigantic wall with intricate carvings all over it. there were high, arching windows. it was a beautiful wall, but something was wrong. there was only one wall, the rest of the house was missing. the wall that remained looked very sturdy and there were a number of bamboo houses built around it.

back in 1945, the french were raping the vietnamese countryside and also bringing ‘civilization’. they were very concerned with groups that fought against them and one of these groups was the ‘viet minh’ (a predecessor to the viet cong). well, back in 1945, the french were trying to take a firmer grip on their land after being kicked off of it by the japanese in wwii. they ended up burning this gorgeous house because the owner, my friend’s great-great grandfather, sympathized with them. now, all that is left is the charred remains of what must have been one of the most beautiful houses in the mekong.

our day ended and most of the family told me the story of the burnt house. i’ll have to return to take pictures. we said goodbye to everyone, hoped in our french ‘citroen’ drove past the charred remains, and headed home.

the 26th day of the last month of the lunar new year.

spring has finally arrived. in all of the coffee shops you can hear songs officially decreeing it’s coming and we are all appreciative. the songs are numerous and everyone is excited.

however, it doesn’t feel like spring has arrived. the weather used to be hot, but bearable. there were a few days in the ‘winter’ where i felt as if i could shiver if i was drenched in cold water and held naked in front of a breeze. since then, the sun has been shining brighter and we all wear hats and sweat whenever possible. the temperature has been consistently climbing.

it doesn’t feel like spring back home where we finally all awake from our deep, winter slumber and find ourselves in a new and beautiful season. the grass is green, the trees are in bloom and everything is wonderful. even the air smells fresher.

however, the importance of spring coming here is different from america. sure, when i ask people if they notice a change in the seasons they will throw back their heads, think for a while and mention something about a slight temperature change or humidity alteration, but spring is really a time to welcome the lunar new year.

this spring, as all springs before, there is a beautiful ‘spring flower market’ set up in the middle of town. the flower market stretches out along side a wide and lazily flowing branch of the mekong river. there are two giant signs that welcome you to the market. they stand like triumphal arches stretching across busy streets. they are sturdily constructed of wood and concrete and proclaim the arrival of spring in vibrant yellow letters on a red background. they are lit at night and look quite professional.

the market is cluttered with different vendors selling all sorts of flowers and small, banzi trees. i know names for a variety of flowers, but couldn’t match the name of the flower up with how the flower actually appeared. the flowers may be chrysanthemum, petunias and orchids, but i wouldn’t know (i do know what a rose is. that’s about it.) they are yellow, for the most part, and have thick heads that point squarely to the sky. some are red, pink and white, but they are few. the vendors have their flowers lined up neatly and organized into types. people mull through the market and look at the flowers. flowers bring peace.

there are also bonzi trees. some of the trees are gigantic and are taller than me. they are squat and well groomed into odd shapes. some of the bonzi trees are blooming small, yellow flowers. some of the bonzi trees are squat and have few leaves resembling a stump that somehow sprung back to life. some of the trees look like a nest of roots with an odd green leaf protruding. the bonzi trees are expensive.

i walk through the flower market slowly and try to ignore the stares. this time of the year brings everyone together and families come in droves to buy yellow and red flowers for their homes (the two luckiest colors for tet). seeing them all crowd around plants and decide which one would look best in what part of the house reminds me a lot of shopping for christmas trees with my family. i have wonderful memories of walking through fields and supermarket parking lots picking out the best evergreen for our living room. these families are partaking in a wonderfully similar experience choosing the best bunch of yellow flowers that all point their bushy heads straight towards the sky to place in the corner of their living room this holiday season.

the 25th day of the last month of the lunar new year.

mass student exodus from campus. they leave in droves and mill about waiting for a motorcycle taxi to pick them up. they have their backpacks slung over their shoulders and are all beaming and talking constantly as if they have an extra source of energy that magically appeared in the past few days. it’s like christmas and thanksgiving all rolled up into one and sprinkled with a bit of the fourth of july.

they do not live far from here but most come from poor families and thus do not have access to a motorbike. they live in surrounding villages and will return for two weeks to enjoy life with their family. they’re, for the most part, going to be returning celebrities. in an area with a population of about 20,000,000 people and two universities, those that do go to school are the cream of the crop. they will return and the whole village will greet them and they’ll walk around in freshly pressed shirts tucked into dress pants beaming and passing out nuggets of wisdom. now they’re just waiting for a bus to take them. they wait and beam.

going home is the most important thing anyone can do over the lunar new year. a family must be together, they must eat together, they must celebrate together.

i drive my motorcycle around town and lazily drink coffee in this or that coffee shop. i have made friends with hundreds of waitresses and thousands of motorcycle taxi drivers. at my favorite coffee shop, this will be a typical pre-tet conversation.

‘what are you drinking?’ (the waitress knows but she asks anyways. she stands politely and doesn’t smile. she means to show me respect.)

‘iced coffee’

(she brings the coffee.)

‘teacher jon, (once again with the respect) are you going home for the tet holiday or will you stay in long xuyen?’

‘i will stay in long xuyen. i don’t have enough money to go home.’ (that’s my textbook excuse. i’m going to be going home this summer and that will be a lot more important than going home randomly at the end of january for a couple of weeks to enjoy snow, ice and, most likely, various illnesses related to the weather.)

‘so, you will enjoy the tet holiday in long xuyen?’

‘yes. i will eat at some friend’s house and relax.’

‘teacher jon, i’m sure you will be very sad to be so far away from your family. i hope you are not bored here.’

‘i’m sure i will have fun. i wish you a new year of prosperity, health and success in everything you do.’

‘i wish you the same.’ (by this time her boss is glaring menacingly over at her for interrupting my coffee and she scurries away. such is life.)

so, the question that is brought up so many times is whether or not i will be going home to spend tet with my family. tet truly is more important than christmas. families are, in general more important over here. to spend tet away from home should be eating a hole somewhere deep inside of me. i should be depressed and out of my mind. but, just thinking about home at the end of january makes me want to sit out on my hammock and enjoy the balmy breeze blowing through the palm trees.

i think i’ll have coconut juice for lunch and maybe will order a few slices of juicy, ripe mango.

(i know that my family always has problems meeting up with our extended relatives on christmas because of the logistical problem of choosing between going to the wife or husband’s family. here, that is not a problem. upon marriage, the wife is officially a part of the husband’s family. it’s as if the family adopts another member and every future tet, she will spend with her husband’s family.)

the 24th day of the last month of the lunar new year.

you can feel the excitement of tet burning somewhere on the horizon. people are noticeably more jovial and the petty problems of life do not seem to weigh so heavily on their collective conscience. tomorrow is the last day of school. we will have off for the next two weeks.

while we don’t have to actually go to school and teach and what not, we will still be expected to participate in all of the tet activities. we will be asked to go to countless parties (four this friday alone) and visit a number of houses for general chatting and an opportunity to me so-and-so’s parents.

today i held my final american studies class for the next two months. it is a lecture class given to 104 of the seniors and, when it was all over, i wished them a happy, successful and lucky new year. everyone stood up and clapped and cheered and generally felt good about what was to come.

while nothing particularly interesting happened today regarding tet, i would like to comment on some of the other gods that have been imported and accepted into vietnamese culture from china. today i would like to talk about the god of earth (ong dia) and the god of money (ong than tai).

the god of earth is a very fat man that is usually sitting cross legged on some sort of a bowl. he is extra rotund, thus symbolizing the effect of earth and mass. he is jovial, and smiling. in the picture at the bottom, he is the man on the right. when people here build houses, they must go and pray to the earth god for security. it is his good will that will make sure the house stands the test of time and weather.

the god on the left is the god of money. this is an important god if one wants to lead a very comfortable life. people often pray and light an incense stick to him whenever the need arises.

the alter pictured at the bottom is a very typical scene in most people’s homes. it normally sits in a fairly conspicuous place. the tigers on the left and right of the earth and money gods represent the different gods mode of transportation. some gods ride on tigers, others lions. in the middle of the two gods is a small place to burn incense. the smoke of the incense is what actually carries the prayers up to the gods. in the front, there are offerings of tea.

people here are fairly superstitious but they never really let that get in the way of their lives. while they will pray to the earth god when they want to build a house, they will also not let their belief in the earth god dictate too much of what is going on. bills still must be paid, food still must be purchased from the market and life continues.

23rd day of the last month of the lunar year.

the day of the kitchen god has arrived. the kitchen god, ong tao, returned to heaven at around 12:00 this noon to tell all the other gods what’s going on at home.

the kitchen god sits in the kitchen all year watching what the family does. he sees the good things, the bad things and records it all in a little book of some sorts. there is not statue for the kitchen god because no one knows exactly what he looks like. most other gods do have a statue to commemorate them. there is, however, an alter in most people’s houses somewhere in the kitchen. my friend allowed me to see the alter in his kitchen and take a picture of it. it is a small, incense holder with a plaque behind.

the kitchen god will return to the kitchen on the first day of the lunar new year. he will have told the gods all of the goings on in the kitchen and the family’s fate will be determined based on their past actions. if they were good, they’ll have a lucky year. if there was too much fighting or food wasted, the year won’t be that great, or possibly worse.

there is also a legend about the kitchen god. it goes like this: a long, long time ago there was a female kitchen god who fell in love with two male kitchen gods. she kept both loves a secret and the male kitchen gods were in the dark. one fateful day, when she was in the kitchen (presumably) with one of the male kitchen gods, the other male kitchen god decided he would stop over for something to eat (also, presumably). when she saw the other male kitchen god coming, she quickly ran and make the other male kitchen god that was already in her house go and hide. he hid in a pile of straw. the other male kitchen god came into the house and didn’t notice anything was awry. he chatted a bit with the female kitchen god and went outside. he lit the straw on fire. (this point was not clearly explained to me. i’m sure there was a reason for him lighting the straw on fire. i don’t know.) the male kitchen god that was hiding in the straw died. when the female kitchen god saw this, she quickly ran outside and dove in the pile of straw to try to save the other kitchen god. she also died. when the other male kitchen god saw his love dive into the fire, he also dove in and tried to save her. they all ended up perishing in the fire. this is one reason there is no statue to commemorate the kitchen god. he was burnt beyond recognition in the fire.

today, these three lovers can be found in the kitchen. they are represented by the three prongs that rise from the grill to support the pot. the three prongs represent the three kitchen gods and they will forever be remembered in millions of homes that cook with gas and happen to have a grill with three prongs that supports pots and pans and what not. the female kitchen god is always the middle prong.

so, the kitchen god returned to heaven to tell all of our little secrets. he will be away until the lunar new year arrives, in whole one week.

i asked people how much they believed in the god and i don’t get a very straight answer. my feeling is that it is just a part of tradition that people are happy to follow. it’s a day that brings the whole family together and a day to remind everyone to be good or else next year won’t be lucky at all.






this is a picture of the alter in my friend’s kitchen. the stove is located directly to it’s left. incense is normally burnt in the mornings and afternoons. the plaque is there to commemorate ‘ong tao’.

the origin of the watermelon.

once upon a time, during the reign of the hung king, there was a man named mai an tiem. he was a poor and desolate man. he was a slave and was routinely bought and sold and moved about the country. one day, he was bought by the king to be used in his court.

at the king's palace, mai an tiem worked very hard. he moved up quickly in the ranks of the servants and was noticed for his hard work.

one day, the king's daughter fell in love with mai an tiem. she saw how hard he was working and how smart he was. she wanted to make him her husband. they were married and mai an tiem moved from a servant to a very important person in the king's court.

people began to get jealous of mai an tiem. the king loved him and treated him as a son. he had a lot of responsibility and some of the court's advisors were subject to his rulings. they plotted against him.

one day, at a party, they asked mai an tiem why he worked so hard. mai an tiem responded 'cua cho la cua no', which means that you are indebted to those who gave things to you. he was trying to be respectful to the king by telling him that he was trying to pay back his kindness by working very hard for him. the king took this as an insult. the king thought of mai an tiem as a son. the king lost face in this process and had to do something drastic to mai an tiem and his family.

the king, instead of killing them, banished them to a deserted island. they were not allowed to take anything with them and they were sure to die. they had to search all day for food. they tried fishing but didn't have much success. they were dying.

one day, mai an tiem found a small piece of fruit on the ground. it had been partially eaten by birds. he tasted it and it was very sweet. he decided to plant it in the ground and it grew and grew. one day, he had a whole patch of water melons and his family survived. he sold them to a passing boat and the boat brought back food in return. the watermelons were very popular.

one of these watermelons was offered to the king. the king tasted it and found it to be wonderfully delicious. he asked where they came from and they told him that they came from mai an tiem. the king decided that he wasn't angry at mai an tiem any more and he let him come back and live in the palace. that is where watermelon's come from.

(i was told this legend by my vietnamese teacher. the watermelon is very important during the upcoming lunar new year. i asked her a bunch of questions about mai an tiem. i felt like a little kid asking about a fairy tale. i asked if mai an tiem was handsome. it sounded important at the time. she said that it wasn't at all important if he was handsome or not. in asian culture there is a saying, 'tot go hon tot nuoc son', which means wood is better than paint. it basically means that the men of the story don't have to be handsome. they only have to be smart and hard working. this does not apply to women.)





this is my work id. thought you’d all like to see what i’ve become. don’t worry, it’s not permanent.

debacles come in all shapes and sizes. you can have simple misunderstandings or instances that seriously impact.

this was a combination of small debacles.

first we couldn’t get tickets to chau doc. chau doc is a small town that is nestled along the cambodian boarder. it is home to the lady pagoda and some quaint mountain. we’ve been told that you can hire people to carry you up this mountain if you can’t make it up under your own strength. you sit in a hammock between them as they struggle along. this, i wanted to see.

the bus companies were making too much money running between long xuyen and ho chi minh city. they were in no mood to travel short distances. most prices are slightly inflated during the lunar new year and bus tickets are one of them. the price for a one-way ticket went from 40,000 to 80,000.

communication was a problem. they said that the bus would leave at noon, then one, then two. we sat, and sat and sat eventually giving up. that was the first debacle.

the second debacle happened when we tried to eat lunch. we ordered bun bo hue which is noodles, beef and broth all fashioned in the styling of hue city. it’s a bit spicy and not too filling. we asked for the bill and the waiter quoted an outrageous price. it was three times what would normally be paid, or so we thought. we were sitting with all of our bags and looked like tourists. we thought we were being had.

we told the waiter that we lived here and that we were teachers at the university. we said that we were volunteers and that we didn’t earn a salary. the small man looked on with no empathy. we made a bit of a stink about it and, it turned out, we were paying the normal price. i found out later from friends and felt terribly that we had made such a scene.

nothing terrible happened. i’m still able to breath, talk, laugh and sing. today was just a combination of frustrating events. waiting and waiting followed by poor communication, ignorance and fear on our part.

the second version of the chinese new year.

jack and i went to the local chinese highschool to participate in the festivities. during the lunar new year, the first three days each have specific functions. the first day of the new year you are supposed to spend with your family. the second day you are to spend with your in-laws. the third day is reserved for teachers. we heard this and thought, “wow, our room will be a joyous mess of phone calls and visits. how much fun is this going to be!” we ended up sitting around all day reading. no one called.

the chinese high school is a u shaped building. jack and i were adorned in our lunar new year’s best and we sat in one of the front benches reserved for guests of honor. we listened to speeches in vietnamese, chinese and cambodian. we understood a bit of the vietnamese but the chinese and cambodian was only an odd mixture of hand gestures and sounds. the treasurer of the chinese cultural preservation society in long xuyen stood up. we had no idea what lie ahead. we sat through a solid hour of number reading and an entire analysis of last year’s spending. i could feel my eyelids weighing my face down and my stomach was angry with me.

he ended after banging his glasses into the microphone randomly. he was so absorbed in the numbers that his depth perception was off. we all turned to watch the dances.

a large dragon carried by nine men ran about to the rhythm of a large drum and some sort of bell looking thing. the dragon was an incredibly bright shade of green and yellow. the nine men all ran and swooped and dipped the dragon while three smaller dragons danced with some fat man with a mask. the three dragons in the middle were teams of two men. the man in the back would bend all the way over to make the back legs of the dragon. the man in the front would hold the dragon’s head over his own and jump up and down and sway back and forth. the head was connected to the man in the back by a large cloth that made everything look bright. each team would move in unison. they would crouch low to the ground and then jump high in the air. the fat man in the middle was actually a skinny man wearing a prosthetic paunch. he wore a pink mask and carried a fan. he would run among the smaller dragons and they would respond in ways that i could not interpret. i had no idea whether they were all friends or whether the fat man was evil and the dragons were good or whether it was the other way around.

that dance ended and the treasurer stood up again and had some more numbers to report. we sat and listened again to his mumbling which was only interrupted by his glasses banging into the microphone.

the next dance was a group of about forty boys and girls from the high school. they came out and all ran around with fans and long pieces of cloth. the pieces of cloth were in all sorts of colors. there was fluorescent blue, day-glow orange, cosmic pink and bright, bright, green. some of the dancers were leaders and others were followers. some of the girls spent all their energy trying to get everyone to dance in unison and others just giggled and danced oblivious to the beat.

that dance ended. the next dance was less of a dance and more of a stunt show. a large bamboo pole was set up in the middle of the school. it was at least twenty five feet high and one of the members of the dragon team climbed up on it. he reached the top and put on one of the smaller dragon costumes. he proceeded to defy gravity and all laws of rationality for the next five minutes. the crowd was please and he was too.

we sat around eating un-ripened mangos and talking. some of the agricultural department invited us to their shack and we were more than happy to oblige. one of the men asked us if we liked mangos and we said yes. he ran out of the room, climbed a tree, and picked some off. they taste like sourness and had the texture of dirt. we’re not sure why people eat mangos when they’re green instead of when they’re fleshy and orange. i guess people’d rather eat un-ripened mangos rather than not eat any at all. if they let them wait, someone’s bound to take them first.

i learned a really important lesson. we were talking about age and culture. how, in vietnam, it’s not offensive to ask anyone anything. there are four basic questions that strangers ask: what’s your name? how old are you? do you have a wife/girlfriend? and how much money do you make? you surely are able to answer these four questions after a month of vietnamese training.

we went around the table talking about age, birthdates and the year of the goat. the year of the goat is jack’s year. he doesn’t look like a goat at all but i’m sure he exhibits some goatish qualities. my year is the year of the monkey. nothing more needs to be said.

the man across from the table said he was also twenty two years old. i smiled and we looked at each other and pretended to have something in common. i don’t believe either one of us decided in what year we were to be born.

it turns out that he was twenty two according to vietnamese standards. the year of your birth counts as year one. you gain another year every time the lunar new year comes around. the man was only nineteen. it turns out i’m twenty four.

i can’t tell you how difficult it was to understand. all this time i had thought i was twenty two. i thought that every june seventeenth i gained another year. i cut another notch. it turns out i’m much older. twenty four. twenty four. i should be doing something else if i’m twenty four.

i looked in the mirror today and still looked twenty two.

the first day of the new year is not that exciting for foreigners. the streets are empty. the shops are boarded up and nothing moves, only the red and yellow flags that are perched outside every house.

we went for breakfast fairly late. nothing was open. all the normal shops were boarded up. all of our usual cafés were closed. tet is a time for family, not business and having no family around makes for a boring lunar new year.

we finally found some young, enterprising lady who was selling some sort of meat and noodle combination. we ordered a couple bowls but without the meat. the flesh looked old and was sitting in the early morning sun and had attracted flies.

the soup was good but nothing else was. streets that are normally packed with people were deserted. it was as if an air-raid alarm had sounded and all had fled for their lives.

later on in the day things started to pick up. there were large bands that roamed the streets banging drums. they were headed up by a small dragon that directed by two young boys. they would strut around proudly as the drums thumped out a loyal rhythm. the dragon visited many random houses and we were able to watch from our balcony as it danced towards a small, tin-roofed shack where it was greeted by a flock of children. the dance ended and the dragon moved on.

hopefully tomorrow the streets will have come alive again.