An end to all good things

Today was the last day in Vietnam.  As such, we spent our entire day with the UEF students, saying goodbye and generally getting ready to leave.  The day started with culture class.  We learned about folk arts such as music and dancing.  He was surprised that today was our last day in Vietnam; apparently he greatly enjoyed teaching our class.

Next, we finished up our language class.  We ended with a test on the Vietnamese we learned over two weeks.  We were then graded on a scale from one to ten with ten being the highest.  I, and about half the class, got a perfect ten.  I personally think the teacher was a little biased in favor of giving us a good grade so the ten is less impressive than it could be.

After that, we played games with the UEF students.  I don’t know what the Vietnamese have with slightly dirty games, but almost every game has been dirty in the right mind set.  Today, we had to find fruit blindfolded, without using our hands.  I had to find a banana with my mouth.  We also tried to feed someone vanilla yogurt while blindfolded.

After that, we played UEF in a soccer match.  Although none of us have ever seriously played soccer before, we put up a good fight.  We played blindfolded and half the people in the neighborhood stopped to watch the stupid Americans playing soccer.  The heat was surprisingly not a factor, we were subbed often and are getting used to it just as I am about to leave.

I will miss all the UEF students.  I hope that someday, they can come visit us at Pitt.

Re: Vietnam war

Today was the Vietnamese war or as they call it here, the American war or the second Indochina war.  Although we do not hear much about the war in America, it is the equivalent of 9/11 here in Vietnam.  This war has colored the government’s perception and how it interacts with the world.  We saw some of the most interesting parts from the war.

The first thing we saw were the Cu Chi tunnels.  These are the tunnels that the Northern supporters in the South used to attack and sabotage the American forces.  They were well hidden and almost impossible to see without aid.  They were also designed for the Vietnamese so they don’t fit my tall frame well.  The few entrances they did have, I was able to get into, but go no further.  Fortunately, they have expanded tunnels for tourist use.

After crawling through the Cu Chi tunnels in the morning, we went to the war remnants museum.  This was originally called the American War Crimes Museum, so as you can imagine, it has a fairy strong anti-American message.  This museum provided a different prospective on the Vietnam War, one that you don’t hear from many wars.  Almost every war that we have fought in has resulted in our victory so we never hear what the other side has to say about us.  Being able to read how the Vietnamese government stated facts about the war and seeing how different their perspective is, is a real eye opener. 

Working in Nam

Culture class was about the philosophy of the Vietnamese.  There was a lot of discussion about Yin and Yang.  This philosophy is very similar to many other Asian philosophies.  We also discussed the collateral of Yin and Yang-elemental philosophy.  Again, this is very similar to other Asian philosophies. There are five different elements that all work together.  This philosophy and symbolism is the basis behind most of the Vietnamese customs.  By understanding how things are represented by the five elements, almost all of the customs, like placing the gate on the southern wall, is understandable.

After that, we went to language class.  Again, the focus was on the basics of interacting in society, we learned how to ask where someone was form, and we learned how to respond to the same question.  We also learned how to say what our job was, although our responses are limited to business and engineering.

Finally, we talked to Patty Ndzana, a real estate agent working in HCMC.  She had been working here since 1995 and was able to tell us what that was like.  She was also able to tell us how conditions had changed in the time that she had been working here.  She was one of the few candid opinions on the government that we have received this entire trip, others have brushed upon the issue, but she discussed pit falls and problems in working with the Vietnamese government.  It was refreshing to learn what it actually was like to do business in Vietnam

Glass egg

The day started with culture class at UEF.  Today, we learned more about the history of Vietnam, and how that history was related to the cultural development of Vietnam.  We discussed the mythological beginnings of Vietnam.  Originally there were 100 tribes of Vietnamese spread throughout Asia. Legend has that they were all descended from one pair of parent, one from the delta, and one from the mountains.  From there we discussed the Chinese occupation around 1000 AD and how it eventually ended.  We then discussed the French occupation and how the French brought their culture.  This culture has been evident to us because there is a cathedral near our hotel that has obvious French Influences.

After that, came language class.  We still are learning the basics.  By the end of the trip, I expect to be able to deal with introductions and not much else.  This is a useful skill, and the classes are fun, but you just can’t learn as much as you want in two weeks.  It makes me wish that I had time to take a language class at Pitt.

The company visit for the day was Glass Egg.  This was a company that created graphical images for various computer games.  They spent some time explaining how the creative process worked, and how they trained Vietnamese workers.  It was fascinating to see the work that was done to make these video games work, and to learn that the workers at Glass Egg are not credited for their work

VTI

Today was Viet Thai International day.  Today we met with several of the ventures that VTI has running.  VTI was originally a coffee distributer that turned into a coffee café.  From there, the people who run VTI, two brothers with the last name Thai, have expanded it into a very large corporation.  This corporation has branches in mostly food and clothing retail, but is one of the premier businesses in Vietnam.

We started by listening to one of the brothers talk about his experiences as an expatriate and how that made him into the hungry business man he is today.  This led into a general discussion on the difficulties of entering the Vietnamese market.  Most of the stuff was related more towards the business majors than the engineers, but there was some applicability there.

Next, we learned about the Hard Rock Café, a venture VTI is into.  The manager worked his way up through the ranks.  This was mostly about how managing a Hard Rock Café works.  Finally, we talked to the human resource officer for Highlands coffee.  This was a guy who had worked for Starbucks for 15 years and then came to expand Highlands.  Because he had been in the Asian market for so long, he had fascinating examples of what it was like to live and work in various Asian companies.  Discussion did not stick with Highlands Coffee.

We also went to the Bantan market.  It was noisy, crowded, and a thoroughly enjoyable experience.  There we learned how to barter through trial and error, a valuable skill that will be used in other markets like this.  After that, we went to Karaoke with VTI employees.  Although it was still a fun experience, it was not as enjoyable as the one on Saturday with the UEF kids.  Mostly because we were not as close to the people there.

Beach day

Today, we visited the beach.  We traveled down the River in HCMC.  We traveled down to the South China Sea.  It was the most beautiful place I have seen.  The sea was perfectly blue and the sky was clear.  This was a big change from the polluted water that we have been living with in the city.

We visited some of the mega worshiping sites such as the giant Mary and a large Buddhist pagoda.  At the pagoda, we learned some of the ways of worshiping such as releasing a bird and how to properly burn incense. After that, we climbed a huge mountain to see a large stature of Jesus on the hill.  It was a very long and tiering climbing.  The sun was hot and everyone was tired.

After that, we went to the beach.  Everyone got burned.  Unfortunately, no one had sun burn lotion.  I tried to go to the market and get some, but apparently Vietnamese don't get sun burnt, I couldn't find any.

Mekong day trip

Today, we visited the Mekong delta and some of the cacao plants we learned about yesterday at ACDI/VOCA.  The day started the earlier than any other day so far.  The bus ride was long and after we first left HCMC, somewhat tedious.  We travelled through rice fields and saw the people working there.  However, rice fields all pretty much look alike after you see enough of them.  The only distinguishing features were the graves of ancestors buried in the fields; those were colorful and interesting to look for.

The cacao plant was somewhat of a disappointment.  It was a guy in a basically a couple garages processing cacao.  The process was interesting, but the scope was unimpressive.  We then went to a farm where cacao was grown.  Again, this was interesting, but less than impressive.  Although the variety of techniques used to grow the cacao was fascinating, the scope was still basically a farmer and his garage.

After that we went up and down the Mekong River.  The scenery was one of the most beautiful that I have seen.  It was a lush jungle.  There was everything that you would expect from a jungle.  We saw how types of bridges were used, and saw many types of ethnic craft.

After the day trip, we went to a hot pot resturaunt.  It was like a fondue resturaunt got mixed with a factory.  Food traveled around on a conveyor belt and you could take it and cook it in your little pot.  Yet another thing that I wish America had.