Hanoi... It just keeps getting better!

And the week begins.  Monday we were back at school to learn about the effects of smoking in Hanoi... and they were quite astonishing to say the least.  Like I mentioned last week, I have already felt the effects of smoking in ambient air all around me.  I thought the U.S. was bad in terms of environmental pollution, but I was wrong.  Viet Nam does have a more tropical climate, and perhaps this is why the fog and air pollution just hovers over the city like mist over the sea.  Because of this I have learned to appreciate clear skies and fresh air, it is not until you leave your home environment that you realize the impacts of these determinants on health and well-being.  Not to be a Debbie-downer, but ever since I arrived in this country I have been sick, with an unending cough and congestion and I blame it on the pollution.  On the bright side, there is an abundance of soup in this country, which is great for congestion relief.  Almost everyday I have some type of soup with my dinner at home, and very often I eat pho or bun cha for lunch (see below).  Yummmm!

The most touching part of my day Monday occurred after lunch at the Hanoi Cinematheque.  We traveled to the Old Quarter to watch a movie on the effects of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese population.  Agent Orange was used during the Vietnam war to destroy the foliage and plants used by the Vietnamese as a mode of living and nutrition.  This herbicide was dispersed country-wide through the use of US army jet planes.  More than 20 million gallons of this chemical was sprayed during the war in Operation Ranch Hand.  I don't know if this was known at the time, but these chemicals have caused an enormous number of health effects on the Vietnamese veterans as well as their children and children of their children in future generations.  I believe there have been approximately 16 health diseases caused by this spraying, including mental disabilities, blindness, deafness, physical deformities, and much more.  During the time after the spraying there were also increased incidences of death, stillbirths, and miscarriages.  The movie we saw was really touching and emotionally challenging.  I could not hold back my tears.  The movie touched on the story of one army veteran and his family.   His oldest daughter was born mentally disabled, epileptic, blind, deaf, and paralyzed, she is now 21 years old and bed-ridden.  They also had a son a couple years later who was born blind.  As you can imagine this family leads a very hard life.  The father used to be very well off before the war, but now they live a very poor life.  The mother has to stay at home with the daughter to fed her, bathe her, dress her, and tend to her when she has seizures.  She makes a living as a tailor sewing, making, and fixing clothes, while the dad leaves the house to make a living as a photographer.  Through watching this movie, I realized that despite all of our cultural differences, we are all humans, affected by the same illnesses and diseases as anyone else.  We thrive in knowing we are loved by our families and we take comfort in religion and faith to help us move forward.  No matter what religion we practice, or who we chose to believe or not believe in, we are all united as people, in need of the same attention, love and care.

Tuesday we had the opportunity of visiting the Peace Village in Hanoi, which is the center for children ages 0-15 affected by Agent Orange.  We arrived and we were given a quick talk on the purpose of the center and what kind of activities are held for the children.  The center includes doctors, nurses, teachers, and many volunteers.  Children spend all their day here in classes learning the alphabet, how to read, as well as other basic skills.  They also receive free basic health care by the medical staff on site.  After our talk/introduction we were taken on a tour of the center.  We walked through their medical examination rooms and classrooms. As soon as I stepped into one of the classrooms I was surprised by the tiny hands I felt around my legs.  This little boy, no more than 4 years old had run up to me to give me a hug.  I was immediately touched my his love and presence, he repeatedly came up to me to hug me at least 3 or 4 more times.  He also grabbed my hand and walked me over to his table, where he was practicing how to draw circles.  It was evident in his appearance and mannerism that he was effected by a form of mental disability.  It was so hard to hold back my tears, knowing that the cause of this little boys disability was due to our involvement in the war.  Throughout the day I met many more little boys and girls just like this, some more worse off than others.  But despite all of their suffering, every single child there had a large smile on their face.  They were all very excited to see us there, and play with us.  Due to the status of the situation, we were not allowed to photograph any of the patients there, but despite that, this visit will surely be one I will never forget!

Wednesday we had an all day visit to the Hanoi Hospital of Traditional Medicine.  Our day started with a presentation by one of the doctors at the hospital.  She told us that this hospital also serves as a teaching center for aspiring doctors.  This is the first place I have ever known of or visited that combines modern medicine techniques like surgery with traditional medicine practices such as massage, acupuncture and medicinal herbs.  To my surprise it is very widely accepted by both the government and the people.  They recognize the need of both systems to complement and complete each other.  There are many things that can be done with modern treatment, but the addition of traditional medicines and practices above this is even more beneficial.

Once the presentation and introduction was over, we were given a tour of the hospital.  They have two separate buildings one for outpatient care and the other for inpatient care.  But what was most interesting was their pharmacy center.  They have a herb room filled with over 30 different herb species used in traditional medicines.  70% of them are found and grown in Viet Nam, the remainder are imported from China or Korea.  While we were there we got the opportunity to see pharmacists prepare remedies from a variety of different plants and seeds.  We also were given some samples to try... and lets just say some tasted better than others. We also went into their serum preparation room, where they boiled many herbs to extract the essential chemicals, and these extractions were then bottled up and given to patients to drink.

After our visit we were sent off to the Traditional Medicine Street in the center of Hanoi to find natural remedies for things like headaches, tension, stomach problems, high blood pressure, etc.  We ran into a lot of interesting things, like turtle shells, starfish, and lizards.  Oh my!  What a fun class period =)

Thursday we were back at school to begin our discussion of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam.  It was a very interesting and different discussion.  As opposed to Brazil and the US, Vietnam's main cause of AIDS is a result of its drug user community.  Because of cultural influences, sexual transmission is very minimal, therefore AIDS campaigns here focus on clean needles, no sharing, and sterilization, as opposed to condom use.  However, despite the context of the disease, it still remains a very touchy subject among communities and between spouses.  Interestingly, it is claimed that AIDS was brought to Viet Nam during the war by American and French soldiers.  Overall, the prevalence of this disease remains low in Viet Nam, but it continues to increase as times passes.  What was also surprising is that the government does not support AIDS campaigns economically here.  All of the funding that is received by AIDS activists and organizations in Viet Nam comes from international aid programs like from PEP FAR in Hungry and the US.  When this aid exceeds its minimal five or ten year commitment, the country will experience tremendous deficit in their AIDS programs on prevention and treatment.

Friday we continued our talk on HIV/AIDS by inviting speakers to come talk to us from WHO, the CDC, and also inviting panelists from various HIV/AIDS organizations and groups.  The representatives who came and talk to us from the big international organizations were both from countries other than Viet Nam, actually they were both from Brazil.  This meant that they were much more willing to share information with us regarding the country and its stance on HIV/AIDS.  Because Viet Nam has a communist government, there is a lot that the people here are afraid of or unwilling to share with us, and that makes learning things very difficult, because you never know if they are telling you the real story.  But surprisingly the panelists who came and talked to us, were willing to share very personal information including their HIV status.  After class we all went for a night out in the town, to go see a water puppet show!  Literally this was a puppet show in the water.  In the past this used to be done in times of flooding as a form of entertainment, it was then moved to rivers and lakes as a more regular form of entertainment.  But it soon became known that this was very dangerous health-wise, because a lot of the puppeteers were coming down with water born illnesses.  So it moved once more to be indoors in a theater, and puppeteers were then required to wear waders.  Overall, the show was really cool... I felt like a child again =)

Saturday was a relaxing day again.  I got to sleep in a little bit, and I headed back to the Old Quarter to walk around the lake.  I found a very interesting statue (see below).  So peaceful...

Sunday was a very busy and fun day!  I accompanied my host sister to Viet Tri, a town about 2 hours from Hanoi where we were to visit a famous temple.  We left at 5 am to catch a 6 am train and meet with her friends who were also going with us to the Hung Temple.  As soon as we got off the train in Viet Tri an older lady ridding a bicycle came up to me and told me in Vietnamese that I was a foreigner (who would have guessed!?).  We then made our way to Hung Temple, which was situated at the top of a mountain in the center of the town.  On the way to the top I learned a lot about the Buddhist religion which is shared by Vietnamese and Chinese people.   I saw many offerings of money, incense, food, and even animals such as dead chickens.  I was offered the opportunity to enter the temples to pray and give my offering (of a couple dong).  I was the ONLY white girl there... so I very clearly stood out like a sore thumb.  But surprisingly people did not question my presence and allowed me to pray with them.  There were three temples, the lowest, the middle, and the highest one.  The increased in importance as we walked further up the mountain.  It was such a cool experience to form a part of.

On our way down the mountain, I stopped to take many nature pictures, as I am a Biology major and enjoy this stuff.  During this time I was approached by many people who would pass by and say hello, where are you from, etc.  What was most surprising were the mothers and families that would approach me with their little kids, so as to touch them and bless them good luck and a prosperous future.  It felt very bizarre.  Also on our bus ride home to Hanoi (which was very random because we simply jumped on an unmarked bus near the side of the road) the lady who sat behind me began playing with my hair as if in amazement.  Oh what a trip!

Viet Nam - This can't be real!

Whoa what a week!  After over 24 hours of travel from Sao Paulo, Brasil we finally arrived in Hanoi, Viet Nam.  Not surprisingly, our initial flight from Sao Paulo to Doha was delayed 3 hours... we arrived at the airport at midnight and instead of leaving at 3 am we had to wait there until 6.  Needless to say, by the time I got on the plane I was exhausted, so I slept right through and turned our 11 hour flight to only 3 or 4 hours long. We arrived at around 5 pm on Monday ready to explore the city!  Well not actually, we were still really tired, and most of us slept on the bus ride to the hotel.  Once we checked in, we were released for the evening to have dinner on our own.  Dinner was very interesting, we walked around the hotel and found this vegetarian restaurant.  It was through a very tiny alley-way, all the way near the back, and of course no one spoke English.  But luckily for us, the menu was in both Vietnamese and English =).  Our dinner was delicious and very cheap, we only paid a total of $2 USD for a meal with dessert!  However after looking though the menu, we quickly realized that their definition of vegetarian was very different than ours because we noticed things like vegetarian beef, pork, chicken, and even... yes... vegetarian beer.  Interesting.  After dinner we came straight home and slept.  It must have been the first night in years that I was in bed before 9pm!

Tuesday was orientation!  I woke up super early and several times during the night because I was still very jet-lag, but I officially got out of bed at 6am.  For breakfast, they had an array of pastries and the typical tea, juice or coffee.  They also had traditional Vietnamese pho and fried rice, noodles, and vegetables.  It all was very good.  Orientation was right after breakfast, and it included general information about Vietnam, safety, the school, and dos and don'ts.  Talk of all of these things was getting us super excited to go out an explore, so instead of keeping us all day, Ngyuen, our coordinator let us out early!  As part of my exploration, I headed to the nearest ATM to take out some Vietnamese Dong.  It was only day two and I already had in my pocket, 2.5 million dong!!!  That was the moment when I knew I would enjoy Vietnam.  Well not really, but it was very exciting to see sooo many zeros in my hand.  We had to return to the hotel before 4pm to check out  and wait to meet out host families.  It was so nerve-wrecking, just waiting there for our families to arrive and greet us.  But in Vietnam they did it a bit differently, we were actually all brought up to this conference room, and assigned a numbered table to sit at.  So meeting our families felt more of like a blind date. Our family was great, both the mother and daughter who came to pick us up spoke English and they were really nice to us.  We got on a taxi from the hotel to their apartment complex, because everyone here owns motorbikes and it would be a bit difficult to carry our luggage on that.  I have to say that taxi ride was the most stressful car ride I've been on.  Taxi drivers are bad to begin with, but this one had to weave in and out of cars, buses, and motorbikes at rush hour.  What an adventure!

Wednesday was our first day of class and the most difficult part of our day was getting to and from school.  The streets here don't have street signs or traffic lights, and if they do people don't respect them, so needless to say crossing the street is always a challenge and making it across is a big accomplishment.  The bus ride was also an adventure.  Even if you are waiting at the bus stop to catch it, you always have to run/jump to get on it because it barely stops.  Similarly when getting off, you must always be waiting by the door because as soon as that doors open you have to make a leap for it and hope there are no motorbikes or puddles on the road.  Our classes are at the Hanoi School of Public Health (Đại học Y tế Công cộng), which is about a 20 min ride from our apartment.  I really love the location of our home.  It is still in the city limits, but far enough away to feel like a new place.  It is very peaceful and quite, well at least at night it is hehe.  The picture below is a view of Hanoi from our apartment window.

Just when I thought I had gotten used to a new bus system, our instructors tell us to meet them at a  new location on Thursday.  We were to all meet up at the Hanoi Cinemateque near the Old Quarter.  This required talking a new bus, two buses actually.  Taking buses is the next most stressful thing to do in this city, not only do they not stop for you, but they drive like crazy, and they are super packed so you must always hold on for dear life, all while trying to manage your location so that you don't miss your stop.  But besides all of this, being at the Cinemateque was a nice escape from class.  We had a hard time finding it at first, because like all good things, it was hidden at the end of a tiny alley-way in the city.  The movies we watched here were very interesting, they were both on Viet nam, one was about the war and the second was about cultural differences between Americans and Vietnamese.  Its very interesting to learn about the Viet nam war here, because even though I vaguely remember talking about it in my high school history classes, we only talked about it for a brief period.  It is such a recent war, that I feel like I should know more about it but I don't.  In Viet nam the war is actually referred to as the American war because of our involvement in it.  It always intrigues me to hear and see the other side of things, I am very lucky to have that new perspective.

Friday we returned to the school for classes.  I can't believe that we already finished the first week, everything has felt like a blur since I got here.  It is very weird.  At the end of class we all stayed a bit later to talk about our vacation plans.  Our last week in Viet nam is our spring break and we are thinking of getting away from the city.  Even though I enjoy being in cities, it is very overwhelming at times, especially here.  I have really felt and seen the effects of pollution in this city, every morning the sky is grey and a large fog cloud covers the city, during the day the sun never comes out, and at night its back to its dark gloomy state, its very depressing.  I never realized how much I would miss the sun, or what impact the sun would have on my state of being.  So, for our spring break we decided to head south, to a warmer part of the country, preferably with a beach =).  After class we met at a wifi cafe across the street from our school, Valentines Day Cafe/ Lego Cafe.  It was a very nice, zen, place to be after a long week of classes and adjustments.  I had this amazing strawberry tea with milk.  It was delicious!

Saturday was by far my favorite day this week.  I woke up early, went to an internet cafe, checked email and just sipped on some green tea.  It was very nice to take a bit of time to relax and have some alone time.  After noon or so I headed to the Old Quarter with some friends to go shopping.  This neighborhood is very very touristy.  I no longer was the only "white" girl walking through the streets, trying to cross without dying, or butchering Vietnamese.  It felt great!  We began by walking around the lake, which was gorgeous and serene.  It was so relaxing to just be in this area for some time.  For the first time all week I was enjoying walking through the city.  We walked around for some time, bartering with street vendors for scarves and other nick-knacks, until we finally retreated in this small cafe in the city.  I had a delicious grapefruit smoothie, I really needed that freshness and vitamin C.  The smoke all around the city was really getting to me, to the point where I had to walk around with my map over my nose and mouth.  People here smoke everywhere, there is no place in the city where smoking is banned and it doesn't help that over 50% of the population smokes.  To relieve my tension a little bit, we all decided to go for a manicure =).  This city is great for pampering, with massages, spas, and nail salons available in almost every corner.  And not to mention how cheap it all is.  I think the most expensive massage I've seen is $15 USD, and this is a full body massage for one full hour.

Sunday was a relaxing day for me.  It was the first day since we arrived that I was able to sleep in... and when I say sleep in I mean 9am hehe.  We had breakfast, I sat around watching TV, organizing some school stuff, and just being lazy.  Our family took us out for lunch to this very fancy restaurant near our apartment building.  I kid you not, we had a minimum of like 25 or so courses brought out to us to eat.  Granted they were all very small but they just kept on bringing out more and more dishes!  It was very overwhelming but delicious.  I know I keep on mentioning money, but it is just amazing all one can get here with so little money, we paid a total of $40 USD for a full meal for 5 people, and I mean very full.  Not even at Olive Garden can you pay that much for 5 people, and this place was no match for Olive Garden.  So if you guys are hungry, come to Viet nam!