Motorbikes, motorbikes, EVERYWHERE (Ron)

One of the first things that hits you when you see Hanoi is how EVERY single person seems to ride motorbikes/mopeds. Whatever you want to call them they are everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean I frequently see motorbikes parked in jewelry stores.

I took a xe om (translates to "hug bike") to work on Thursday. It's a very cheap way to go around the city and probably the fastest considering you don't follow any traffic laws. Running red lights, who cares. Answering your cell phone while driving someone, who cares. Driving on the sidewalk, who cares. I guess it wouldn't be Hanoi if you don't get honked at from behind to get out of the way while you are walking on the sidewalk (which happened to me).

Another aspect of traffic that I'll talk about is crossing the street. After you have ridden on a xe om and see exactly how little attention is paid to traffic laws, it makes it very difficult to trust anyone driving a motorized vehicle. The problem is you have to if you want to get across the street. This is no break in traffic so what you do is just trek out into street and try to avoid LARGE cars and trucks. Anything smaller and you have to trust them to avoid you. It sounds and looks like suicide at times but surprisingly it works fairly well. It certainly takes a brave soul. Below is a picture of a street I had to cross to see the most famous lake in Hanoi.
I think I'll continue to edit this post as I see strange things on motorbikes here. I'll start off with:
A family of four
Multiple bushels of rice
20 ft metal beams
Three adults sharing one rain poncho (because it was POURING)
SIX, that's right, SIX toilets
Panes of window glass, and their frames
A headboard
8 open cases of coke......BOTTLES not cans
A 52' LCD flat screen
A Palm tree
A full length mirror

Being a tourist in India... (Heidi)

So I have finally been able to take some pictures that I think accurately reflect my experience here thus far... and I don't feel now that I need to do the pairs thing, so it must mean I'm getting comfortable with the place!

Sara and I enjoying Chai tea! Her maid Ramina makes the best tea in the world, seriously. I've decided I'm going to learn how to make it before I leave... anyone know if it's possible to find buffalo milk in Atlanta?
Buying tea at the tea market - This is a time where there's no way to fully share the experience without uploading smells... and this guy was just so cute!
Buying sugarcane juice on the side of the road - they put ice in it though, so I only had a sip. But it was delicious!

Sheep hanging out in the shade in Sara's old neighborhood.

So here begin my great adventures. I walked to to the corner and bought a pineapple for 20 rupes (40 cents).

Walking home I found a dog... in a dumpster.

I love this. This was on the way home from the pineapple purchase. It's just really cool to see the old and new way of dressing and the symbolism -- as the modern dress approaches the old very slowly goes away.
There is a construction family that lives right outside the apartment building. I think the way it works is that the families all move to the building site and live in tents, and then they move to the next site when they're done -- if anyone knows for sure let me know. I asked her dad if I could take a picture and he did this head bobbley thing and I had no clue whether he was saying yes or no... so I gestured a few more times and he told the girl to stop moving so I could take a pic...
After I showed her the picture, it created a bit of a stir. Other women came over and wanted their pictures taken... so I did. Even after asking permission, it's always stressful to see how people react, so this was a really fun and memorable experience. Absolutely beautiful people.
Later in the day I took a tour of some mosque tombs that are in the old part of the city. They were quite impressive, but the best part was that I came across some kids playing cricket in one of the open areas outside one of the tombs. I chatted with them for a little while (they spoke great English) and they invited me to play... so I did! I felt like a total tourist for loving the experience, but it was really fantastic. I'm pretty sure my driver thought I was nuts at that point.

The next day was filled with the tourism department city tour. I found that the kids on my bus were thrilled to have the opportunity to try out their English (on a "real American") and so they acted as my tour guides at all the sites. It was just hilarious to see everything from a kids point of view. This was on the way up to one of the temples... the sweepy broom-like things are used everywhere and work really well!
A child coming down from the temple with the powder on his forhead.
A store for doors, or something like that, in the Old City.
A cow crossing the road. Ironically, right in front of the zoo.
The zoo was interesting. It didn't take too long before I realized that I was an attraction... this charming woman only spoke Telagu and so her grandson (maybe) acted as an interpretor. She came up to me really close and looked me square in the eyes and just started smiling and then speaking like I should be able to understand her. She asked if I would take a picture with her and so I had them take one with my camera too. What you don't see is that there are about 50 people on the other side of the camera just smiling and staring. I just can't imagine what they'll say about these pictures.. "we went to the zoo and saw an American!"

At the fort...

A short 26 hours later...... (Ron)

and I arrive in Hanoi.

That was a long flight, but I think it will be worth it.

The Vietnamese people are very nice people. On the plane I met a woman who organizes Vietnamese students to study abroad and she offered me a weekend job teaching English. She also spent a little time teaching me Vietnamese, which lead to a conversation with the older gentleman behind me telling me to get married in the country. :)

Two women who work at VINACOSH (my worksite) picked me up at the airport and helped me settle my apartment. It's just perfect for me with internet and all utilities already set up.



It's a nice little place that I will call home for the next 10 weeks.

OH BOY the time change. Hanoi is 11 hours ahead of Atlanta so I attempted to reduce my jet lag by staying up late 2-4am and sleeping in late a couple days before my flight. I followed the plan well except for the sleep in late part. Consequently spending 26 hours on a plane or in an airport and already being sleep deprived from before, I've already taken two naps and I'm getting ready for bed. It worked somewhat well because I'm tired at nighttime and hopefully won't be tired tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow I am meeting more people from VINACOSH and buying a plane ticket to Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon) to meet the ACS project consultant this weekend.

Wish everyone well this summer.

Things that don't work at my cottage or the NICD (Jeff)

1. The front door (cottage).

2. Any of the lamps (cottage).

3. Printer (NICD).

4. Shower (cottage). The shower isn't mounted on the wall, I have to hold the nozzle up. Which is stupid but not the end of the world. The problem is the hole in the tube leading to the nozzle, which the water sprays out of. I can either plug the hole with my finger and use the nozzle or use the spray from the hole.

The printer issue is being resolved soon, hopefully.

On the plus side, yesterday I left a dish in the sink to see what would happen. It was cleaned and returned to the cabinet when I got back from work. Score! I think maybe my laundry is done for me as well. I'll know about that soon.

Jeff

p.s. Heidi, is there a way to spellcheck posts?

Cool things I learned today (Meryl)

I asked my Spanish teacher (after going off on how I hate all the cat calls on the street!) what foreigners do that offend Nicaraguans and this is what she told me:

1. Wearing flip flops in public. Nicaraguans just wear them in the house and particularly just in the bathroom. When they see all the foreigners, who mostly wear flip flops, Nicaraguans are offended and think it's gross and dirty. Whoops!

2. They get offended when we put on insect repellent because it implies that we think their country is diseased. She said that if foreigners think the country is so diseased, they should just go home.

Interesante!

Exploring the city... (Heidi)

I've spent most of the last couple days enjoying chai tea, air conditioning, and fabulous food -- Sara really has me spoiled!

But today we went into the heart of Hyderabad, downtown where it tends to be the more "real" Hyderabad experience. Walking down the streets was entirely frightening and I've yet to gain the courage to walk on the outside next to the traffic. She tells me it's safe and nobody gets hit, so maybe in the next couple days I'll get to where I can brave it! And I'm completely blown away by her ability to navigate and drive a car in this city. It's pretty hard to blend in too when there's two blond girls walking down the street here, but aside from the expected stares everyone was incredibly nice. I had Sara take me into a hospital (just to see what one was like) and it was really impressive -- at this point I had no clue what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised. I LOVE all the sinks available for washing hands before and after meals at all the restaurants... makes sense since you eat with your hands here, but still amazing to see! (The Google cafeteria that we ate at this afternoon had a whole hand washing station that you went to before eating, crazy!) This isn't a tourist town so it's been amazing to know that everything here is for locals, from the Mercedes dealership to the sugarcane juice stand... it's all catering to the local community.

Which leads me to my next topic, contradiction. I must say I had no idea what I was getting into when I was going to India, and it's been really difficult to try to articulate how I feel about it. The people I've met are lovely, the food is spicy-goodness, and the amazing color of the sari's on the street just blow your mind. I was told that the sheer number of people would be overwhelming but that really hasn't been the case in Hyd (we might be going through Delhi to see the mountains this weekend so that will likely be true there). But, it's more the entire state that is overwhelming. There is such incredible wealth and incredible poverty on the same street, unlike in the US where everything is very divided. Here there is an Armani store next to a family living in a blue-tarp tent, and the most expensive apartments in the city overlook an empty lot with children playing and urinating in construction sand. I don't know which India to describe, nor which is "real." We've had some really great conversations about this in the last couple days, and it seems that the only explanation is that "This is India. Whatever you say is true about India, the opposite is also true." Because of this it's been difficult to decide what "India" I want to share on here. So I've decided that I'll only describe and post photos in pairs of two, describing both Indias that I see because it's a dichotomous place -- I haven't taken very many because I've been completely overwhelmed, but I will take some and post the next few days.

The next couple days I'll be exploring on my own so there will likely be some eventful happenings, and I'll keep you posted!

Heidi

It Doesn't Seem Real (Jeff)

Hello,
The whole time in South Africa has been a bit surreal for me. All hostels are kind of the same and the only time I have been in hostels was in Europe. So, I'm in a room with some Canadians, Americans, Dutch, and I have to remind myself "In South Africa."

Yesterday I did a tour of Soweto, which is a township next to JoBurg. I had a similar feeling when we went to see some "informal housing." As I was gazing out at these shacks, it didn't feel real. I've seen a million photos and video of slums in India, Brazil, etc. and now I'm actually seeing it in person. That experience was a little bit disapointing as it is clearing packaged for the tour. Someone who lives there meets us and shows us around a bit and then we got to see a woman's house, but she is a part of the tour, essentially. So, not super authentic. On the tour, we saw the spot where Hector Peterson was killed.
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/worldlit/africa/south_africa_h.htm

After the tour we drove through downtown JoBurg. I couldn't tell that it was that dangerous. The tour guide told us about the time he got shot in a botched mugging in JoBurg. In the side.

The area I'm in now, Kensington, is not super dangerous. People at the hostel have been going to the market and the internet cafe constantly (girls, alone) so I summoned up some courage and went shopping. All of the houses around here have walls and fences and razor wire, but it felt safe. The whole day yesterday I didn't see any white people except other tourists. Today, I saw a few Asian people on the way to the market and there were a bunch of white people in a restaurant across the street from the hostel.

Jeff

Updates from Nicaragua (Meryl)

So far we haven't made much progress on the projects. There was a lot of miscommunication between CARE Atlanta and CARE Nicaragua and so our projects were redefined several times, and I think this last meeting on Friday was the last about project changes..hopefully now we can get the ball rolling because there are only 9 weeks left! Although we spent the entire week 8am-5pm in the CARE office, Wednesday afternoon we were invited to join on a trip to Jinotega. It is a semi-rural community 45 minutes outside Matagalpa. The ride there was intense. The road infrastructure is terrible; there are giant potholes everywhere that engulf the whole truck. There are also a lot of hitchhikers, horses, and very small children playing on the side of the road. The latter surprised me the most. We are talking very small children! Most were entertaining themselves by throwing rocks at cattle or climbing trees. We drove by coffee fields, through the mountains, across fields. It is very, very beautiful. Jinotega is a very chill city like Matagalpa, there are lots of bikes, motorcycles, kids running around, and people walking. We only stayed briefly because we were just dropping off some files, but next week we are supposedly going out into the intervention communities for four days. I am excited to see what these are like!

Saturady Allison and I went on a 7 hour hiking trek from Matagalpa into the surrounding foothils. We kind of did a semi circle around Matagalpa. It was intense, but worth it. We hiked through lots of coffee and plaintain farms. I hadn't ever seen either of these plants so it was awesome. It really is a lush and tropical place. Smiles from abroad! :D

New CDC Director (Heidi)

So I figured since we're all public health people, we should at least mention the selection of the new CDC director.

Check out:
NYT Article
Frieden's Biography

Post from India!! (Heidi)

So here is my first official post from abroad! Yay!

After 18 hours of flying I have arrived in Hyderabad! My cousin Sara has been in Beijing for a few days and is flying in later this morning so her concert pianist friend Timothy picked me up at the airport. Today's a big day -- it's Sara's birthday so we're going to be getting all the fabulous things ready for the extravaganza!

Couple things:

• I may start only flying British Airways if only for the accents and generous wine servings.
• Malatrone makes me so thirsty it's not even funny.
  
• Drank hotel water at 7:30am... no diarrhea yet.
• Every Hyderabadi I've met so far hugs instead of shaking hands... very cool.
• It's 109 degrees right now... enough said.
• I've taken two pictures: first of the H1N1 screening at the airport. I went through and then asked to take pictures of the masked people :) -- But my auto focus was off and it was 4am....so it's blurry...sad. I'll have to try again next time!

• ...the second photo was my first feral dog sighting!

I'm not sure what to think as I've only seen the city from the drive home and inside a nice hotel while getting coffee, so but I'll definitely post more as I start to get a better sense of the area! So far... brilliant!

Heidi