Virtual-Doug

Memorial Day 2008

Old men remember.

We remember the ones who didn’t have the chance to grow old like ourselves, to become grandfathers like we did, and to look in the closet at the uniform that once fit their young bodies as we do now.

On Memorial Day, the whole country is supposed to remember.  There are always ceremonies held at city parks and cemeteries, but they take a back seat to the family trips to the beach, the sales at the mall, and backyard cookouts.

But, it is the veterans themselves who really remember.  They once shared a foxhole or airplane or a hospital ward with those now in the ground.  And even if they didn’t know them personally, they render their respect.  Honors are given across the generation gap as the old remember the young men from our town who died this spring in Iraq.

(Click on each photo – you will see the full sized version of the picture.)

I find it interesting that many of the old vets were not willing soldiers themselves.  The draft ended in 1973, and many of those who were in World War II, Korea, or Vietnam were drafted.  But they still went – did their duty – and returned home a little different.  As the years went past, some military traditions took on deeper meaning.  One of those traditions is the salute – a skill mastered only by those who served, and the deeper meaning of which is unknown to civilians.  To a veteran, a sharp salute expresses a comradeship – a sharing of respect.  After another of our city’s young men was killed in Iraq, many came forward to render their farewell salute to a young man who will not see his own young son grow into a man.

And I wonder – I wonder what the young soldier’s widow is thinking this Memorial Day.  I doubt she will be at the mall, and somehow I don’t think she is interested in a trip to the beach.  More likely, she will be remembering her late husband.  Two months have passed since he died – enough time to have wrestled with the faceless government bureaucracies, to get used to the “I’m so sorry” greetings, and try to deal with the fact that she is a young and unwilling single mother.  I know she is going to receive a plaque at a ceremony, but I wonder if she will try to find time to visit her husband’s grave - alone.

While the rest of the country drinks beer, watches TV, and has family gatherings, I wonder what this family is doing.  Their son died on May 6th – only three weeks ago.  After the coffin was unloaded from the airplane, they huddled together on the tarmac to watch.  No doubt, this year’s Memorial Day will be one of bitter mourning.

Sometime in the future, different old men will remember.  They will be the survivors of the current wars who will remember the men and women who didn’t get the chance to be old.  They will know the deeper meaning of Memorial Day – and render their own salute.  And they will know Memorial Days occur every day.

The Mommy Report

Of course I haven’t posted in awhile.  After the excitement of being in Việt Nam, returning to the mundane life of a retiree leaves little to write about.

Actually – that’s not true.  I’ve been busier than a one-armed paper hanger.

One of the “exciting” things that has happened since our return has been Mom herself.  On Friday, May 16, I got a call from the nursing home telling me that Mom was on the way to the hospital.  An aide had started to check Mom’s blood pressure and found her non-responsive, cold, and clammy.  An ambulance was called and she was taken to a nearby hospital emergency room.  I joined her there; she was quite conscious and awake, but also very overwhelmed by all the activity buzzing around her.  She was poked, prodded, photographed, questioned, and smiled at a lot.  The end result was that “they” were not terribly sure exactly what had happened, but a good bet is that she suffered some sort of mini-stroke that had no lasting effects.  By the afternoon, she went back to Good Samaritan to rest.  The next morning, she was sleeping so hard I was timid about waking her up.  The nurses said they had woken her up to feed her, but otherwise had left her alone.  By Sunday afternoon, she seemed just fine again.

By the most wonderful coincidence, her doctor visited her Sunday afternoon when I was there.  Dr. Vic is our personal physician as well, and he has a “old country doctor” attitude about him.  He checked Mom over, and we discussed the possible ramifications of the mini-stroke (or whatever it was) and basically realized that at being almost 92, such things happen.

You may notice in the picture that Mom’s hair is a bit shaggy.  The Mystery Guest Blogger fixed that up yesterday with a new haircut, designed more for convenience than style.

And – oh yes – Mom still looks forward to “wrassling” with me during my visits.

Tam Biet, Việt Nam

Indeed, goodbye, Việt Nam.  As you read this, we are on the way back home, sad in leaving friends again, yet eager to sleep in our own bed again.

Thank you, people of Hûe.  As always, you welcomed us with warm hearts.  We will be back – we just don’t know when.

(Click on the photo to see the full sized version.)

Going to Market

Anyone who travels to Asia is obligated to take the usual market photos – you know the photos - the ones with the smiling old lady and some sort of exotic foods on display.

And you can take those photos in Hûe too.  In addition to the giant Dong Ba market (where these were taken) there are numerous neighborhood markets throughout the city.  Of course, seeing helmets on the ladies looks a bit strange, but that is just another sign of the times.  This scene is a fairly typical one each day.  Refrigeration at home is getting more common as the middle class grows, but most women still go to market daily whether they have a refrigerator or not..  Of course you can find exotic foods too – these are dragon fruit.  It is very common and very delicious.  The inside is a white meat flecked with small black seeds.  The exterior is not as formidable as it looks – the waxy skin is easily cut with a kitchen knife.  Oh yeah – that’s plain ol’ watermelon in the background.

These fruits are exotic too – the navel oranges are name brand Sunkist from California and the apples are Red Delicious from Washington State.  The United States is Việt Nam’s 11th largest trading partner and it is not uncommon to find American products here.

If it’s important for you to take pictures of exotic Asian market places, you’d better call your travel agency and book your flight.  In the cities, markets like this are cropping up fast.  In a few more years, city dwellers will be going to newer, more modern markets and the open farmer’s markets will exist only in the countryside where tour buses seldom go.  The Thuan Thanh market is three stories high, completely air conditioned, and has scanners at the check out counters.  The bottom floor has groceries, the middle floor clothing and non-food items, and the top floor furniture and home furnishings.  The grocery section has a nice produce area right near the refrigerated section.  The frozen foods are at the end of the aisle.

An easy ride up the escalator takes you to the section where you can buy a new food processor or electric toothbrush.  Markets like these may be new to Hûe, but huge megamarkets such as Metro or Big C have been in Saigon and Hanoi (and more recently in Danang) for years.  Another large store – larger than the Thuan Thanh store – is due to open next to the traditional Dong Ba market next fall.

Now, I just have to learn to say “Good morning, Ma’am – would you like a cart?” in Vietnamese.

Bucket Ruffle Redux (by the Mystery Guest Blogger)

Shops all over Hûe sell helmets for everyone.  Though he didn’t buy it, our friend Robert found one he liked.

In the last blog posting about high-fashion in Hûe, Tuan requested a pic of Virtual Doug in a bucket ruffle.  Since I don’t know anybody who has one, I had to buy one.  40,000 VND   I’m assured by my friends I got a good price.  I do know where to shop in Hûe.

At the helmet shop I discovered that the young lady at the end of the last story is NOT sporting an enclosed ruffle, but a helmet constructed with a ruffle and covering self contained, black rubber chin strap and all.  Pretty clever, no?

And now I have also discovered Doug looks pretty good in a bucket ruffle, don’t you think?

Living on the River

The Perfume River bisects the city of Hûe.  Though often romanticized, the river is also home to some of the worst grinding poverty in Central Việt Nam.  The river people live and work on their boats.  This makes it difficult to send their children to school, leading to a cycle of illiteracy.  When docked, some boats are able to pirate electricity, but most of the time, life on the small craft is primitive at best.  Some of river people operate bulk carriers bringing construction gravel downstream from the pits, while others gather fresh water mussels.  Still others operate “dragon boats” taking tourists to see the tombs of the kings or the pagodas. 

The smaller boats are used as taxis to go ashore for food shopping or other errands.  Oftentimes, these are used for fishing.  Notice too the construction of these small boats.  They are made from aluminum with wooden rails added.  Lightweight and durable, they are a great example of “swords into plowshares” as they were once ½ of an external fuel tank from an American jet fighter plane.  They can even be used to herd flightless ducklings from their feeding area on the river bank to a floating cage attached to the larger boat.

Being born and raised on the water, the kids develop their boat skills at an early age.  It is not uncommon to see a small child left alone in a boat while Mom goes ashore to the market.  He won’t return a smile, much less move from his perch.

The future is very uncertain for the river people.  Because their bodily waste and garbage go directly into the water, the river downstream from the city is an environmental disaster.  There have been previous attempts to close down the sampan villages, but without education and job training, the efforts were for naught.  Though tourists love to see the boats, the time has come for their cycle of poverty to end and the river to be cleaned up.  We can only hope this little girl’s future is a good one.

The Other Side

Despite what I have written, all is not well in Việt Nam.  Any developing country has its difficulties, and my former student Trâm showed this one to me.

Trâm (say drum, like a soft T) is a junior in college.  Bright and ambitious, she is taking a more serious look at life than she did as a freshman when I was her teacher.  Though busy with her studies, she spends a major chunk of her time working as a volunteer at a nearby vocational training center for the handicapped.  It has become her passion – her calling.  After sharing coffee, she took me to the center.

And, I was blown away.  The Center is a Vietnamese charity – the government is not involved – run by local Hûe people who want to help their community.  Most of the students are brought in from the countryside where there are no support facilities for the handicapped and their families.  They may be mentally retarded, physically impaired, deaf, or have lost a limb.  The goal is to teach all who are able to learn, a skill that will allow them to be self-sufficient.  Some, obviously, will never be able to live on their own, but they will be able to live a life of dignity and productivity at the Center.

This is a training and production center.  Students produce goods that are then sold to resellers under contract.  The products are diverse.  One classroom is dedicated to the production of small electrical items, such as the horn mechanisms for motorbikes or circuit boards for scientific instruments.  Some are for export, while others are sold for Vietnamese consumption.  Students in this program may be in wheelchairs or have lost a limb, but they must have full mental capabilities and have the ability to do close intricate work.  As the economy of Việt Nam continues to expand, more jobs in electronics assembly will open up.

Sewing is taught in the next room.  As I wandered through the classroom, I noticed a girl sewing on paper.  The explanation?  She is new, and it is cheaper for her to make mistakes on old newspapers than to give her cloth.  I was also to discover that not every student is “handicapped” by the usual definitions.  This gentleman has no other “handicap” other than he is older with no job skills.  He is sewing together scrubs – the uniforms worn by medical personnel.

In anther room, Trâm (on the right) and Hong (a staff member) show off a baby toy produced by students being trained in wood work.  Such a simple and inexpensive toy is a great gift to for poor parents to buy for their child, but the skills learned in making such simple items will eventually allow the student to create more complex items, such as formal furniture.  This young man’s ability to chisel shapes will lead to the skill of being able to create intricate decorative carvings on the base of a finely made coffee table.

Every part of the Center exudes competency, orderliness, and cleanliness.  The staff teaches more than job skills – the students are learning life skills.  The girl’s dormitory is crowded (32 girls live in this one room.) but everything is in its place, the floor swept, and clothes hung out neatly because there are no closets or storage racks.

But the fact that the dorm rooms are crowded demonstrates the Center’s biggest need.  They need more space.  They bought the land immediately behind the Center and plan to build new dormitory space on it.  Building costs will be a bit higher than normal simply because a lot of fill dirt will have to be brought in as the Center is in a flood-prone part of Hûe.  Though inflation changes the numbers quickly, current estimates are in the $25,000 range.

I was treated with deep courtesy and respect during my visit.  I had a brief exit conversation with the Director, Mr. Trần Văn Thành, and I had to remind him that I am not a well-heeled businessman who can offer money. 

I can, however, offer to help make the Center better known – and to encourage others to help.  Here is Hr. Thanh’s email address if you would like to donate (I have disguised it so he doesn’t get more spam) ttdndtvl.hue at vnn.vn.  You can transfer funds through Xoom. 

Are you reading this, men of C 2/5?