Kids

As my friend Louise said – and one of my favourite quotes for the year so far – LOCK AND LOAD – a teaching I must go. I slept fairly poorly and my neck is sore again. I think it has to do with the tossing and turning from the heat – then the air-conditioner, plus I had some pretty wild dreams last night, I had worked out how to shake off gravity and jump meters into the air and was trying to teach my friend Emma how to do it – you didn’t pick it up Em. 

So a pleasant bike ride in the thin(ner) traffic of 7am with my pollution mask on, it is fairly essential on the days I teach two classes, I am quite hoarse by the end of the four hours. Sitting on the back of Mr Wah’s bike is like watching a great artist at work, without going into too much detail, he knows just the right time to duck and weave with the most advantageous progress and without any aggression or unnecessary risk, using other riders as shields to avoid having to stop for the oncoming traffic and when it is raining he gets me through the whole half hour trip without a drop of water on my shoes from the puddles. He always finishes the trip with his signature OOO KAAYYY in that gentle croaky voice of a man who lives his art. 

Only time for a quick cigarette before I plunge into the first class, I have not taught these kids before. There are seven of them and only one has the book, the rest are too poor to buy one from the stingy school who, for the price the parents are paying should be providing them. Especially because the school is only photocopying them, I wonder what Cambridge would have to say about that. So seeing that the whole lesson I am supposed to teach relies on pictures and sentences from the book it is improvisation time. Using the board my texta runs out, then my spare one won’t work, ok who knows what a verb is? – student one, give me a verb starting with A………it is a long class but the kids are fun and we get through it. 

Brandon turns up while I am having my between classes cigarette and we chat about the pros and cons of VATC, as I have mentioned he is fairly down on the school but there is some wise and informative realism amongst his doom and gloom. He quit last week and today is his last day so he gives me his number in case I would like to call for advice or suggestions. He is a bit gloomy but not as a person just as a teacher at VATC, he is a decent guy, I will remember him as the quiet American. 

As I head back in Tessie takes me aside and offers me fourteen dollars an hour for the next two weeks, I act like it is just acceptable but to be honest I was expecting her to say ten which would have covered my accommodation so fourteen is great considering I don’t have a Uni Degree, Letter of Reference OR a work permit. (However I have just worked the last two weeks for free so the school has already saved what they are going to pay me so you could say I am getting half that much over four weeks – but it is still two weeks free accommodation and then some).

I take a deep breath before I walk into the second class and “Oi Joi Oi” (“Oh my god” in Vietnamese – Anne taught me that last week and it works wonders on people who hassle you for anything, they immediately smile and realise you are not new at their game and walk away) this class is fifteen kids who can speak the bare minimum, I have a headache and have to keep them entertained for the next two hours! Once I work out how much they can and can’t do I settle in on some basic teaching, I read – then you read – “Sally has brown hair” in unison - “Sally has brown hair”. Oh when will the bell ring? 

I cannot get the tie off fast enough as I walk out and get under the shower when I get back to my room. I also learnt a trick today that has given me much relief, I do the tie up but not the top button of my shirt which is what really chokes me so my throat feels less “strangled” today. Off to Dungs café for a chicken curry, I am starving, then to the corner café for a beer with the English lads. Today I meet another English guy who has been teaching all over Asia for the last fifteen years called Simon. He tells me good things about Burma, and Louise – he says Korea was his least favourite place.


I make my excuses after one beer and head to my massage place to fix my neck. Today Nha works on me, she is just as good as Trang but a bit gentler, I tell the manageress I will only use these two girls from now on and she tells me my massages are permanently cheaper as I am now a VIP. 

I head off to the GO2 for some RHCP and Beatles and a coffee so that I don’t sleep this afternoon in the hope I sleep well tonight and then to the Coffee Bean for a bagel fix, my fourth this week. Thankfully I am getting over them, I must find some scales soon and monitor my weight, you are right Max, being in sweaty hot Asia with good healthy food does not ensure maintaining of or loss of weight.  

Back to my room to shower the massage oil off and glance over tomorrows lesson material, after improvising my way through at least half of this weeks lessons I am starting to feel the need to do any more than glance at it less and less. 

I go to Anne’s for dinner, nice spring rolls, ravioli and a couple of Heinekens. Sitting at the other front table I meet a really nice Welsh guy, Keith who is here for a couple of days from Korea for their long weekend. We chat for quite a while about the annoyance he is feeling from the street sellers, how his son who is also named Simon has just spent a year teaching English in China and how he got caught up in the “friendly game of cards” scam yesterday and lost a heap of money. I told him about losing my wallet so he didn’t feel so bad about being scammed and offered a few suggestions for sightseeing tomorrow so he doesn’t think about returning to try and win his money back. 

No real interesting photos today so I’m putting these up just because I adore these girls. As an October special competition I’m offering one weekend’s free accommodation at the Blue River Hotel in HCMC to whoever can guess which one I like the most? There is also a great poster in the shop front across the street with a trench coat figure holding a sickle that says “Google knows what you did last summer”

To be fair Lan has her beautiful smile turned on but i caught Hi at a bad moment.