A Trip to Ba Vi

The weeks since my last blog post have been filled with interviews – Linh, Tung, and I have conducted 30 so far (we’re halfway there!), and things show no sign of slowing down. The parents we’re meeting with come from all income levels, and each family has been very kind to us. We’re always offered tea, usually some type of food, and oftentimes are introduced to many members of the family (from the grandparents down to the newborn baby) before we start. We are also finding out some very important information regarding parents’ perceptions of HIV transmission. So far, nearly every parent we’ve met with has been certain that if a child has HIV, other children can contract the disease easily through cuts on the skin. What they do not know is that the chance of this happening is so small that it has never happened before. For many of them, this fear is what causes them to object to integration of children with HIV into public schools.

The first place we conducted our interviews was in Ba Vi, the rural district that we’re using for my project. We spent three days shortly after the Tet holiday traveling around Ba Vi, conducting interviews with people who live in the town (ten in total) and experiencing what life is like there. It was an incredibly powerful experience. Ba Vi is located about 60 kilometers away from urban Hanoi’s city center. The differences between life in downtown Hanoi and that in Ba Vi could not be starker. There are few cars, no form of public transportation, animals everywhere, only a few hotels – it was unlike anywhere I’d been before. The people were generous and welcoming. As we were looking for households, the addresses we were going on contained no house numbers, and oftentimes consisted of only one word (which conveyed a village or sometimes a street). Anytime my translators and I got lost while we were searching for these houses (which happened at least ten times per day), groups of people would crowd around to help us find our way.

We also learned early on that our interviews were going to run much differently than expected. Prior to our trip to Ba Vi, I had envisioned interview settings consisting of a small room, a table, and a few chairs for my translators, myself, and the interview participant. When we arrived at the first house in Ba Vi, however, we saw that the house consisted of one large room, with a table, bed, cupboard, and TV. This was the format of nearly all the houses we traveled to during our trip. That made privacy much harder to come by, and it was all we could do to make sure that no one else was answering the questions aside from our participant. We also found that many of our interviewees in Ba Vi had never seen multiple choice questions before; some also could not read the questions. Despite these minor complications, the interviews went very well and we learned a lot those first few days. Many of the people in Ba Vi know little about HIV/AIDS, and one participant told us it was a “rich person’s disease.” Others told us that it can spread from hugging, touching, kissing, etc. We saw that there is much work to be done to help educate them and ensure that the HIV-positive people living there will be able to live in harmony with the rest of society.

In terms of accommodations during our stay, our hotel (which was fantastic) was a steal – for two nights, plus three days’ worth of lunch and dinner, we paid only 1.3 million VND (around $65 USD). Our meals were delicious, and consisted of rice, fried tofu, sautéed beef, sticky rice, fried banh chung, fruit, and of course some pho. We lost power the last night and our hotel was filled with candles, which added to the ambiance of being in the countryside. Below are some pictures of the scenery.

^The last photo is a picture of our hotel.

After we returned to downtown Hanoi, we began conducting interviews with the parents in Ba Dinh. Here, many participants speak English and nearly all of them are familiar with multiple-choice format. The interviews in Ba Dinh have been lasting nearly twice as long as those in Ba Vi, and many of these parents can list the ways HIV is transmitted and/or have friends or relatives who are infected or affected by the disease. Yet even in this urban Mecca, the fear of transmission through saliva or cuts on the skin remains high. A medical doctor we met with a few days ago told us that for him this possibility is a serious concern, and a nurse at a kindergarten told us the same thing last week. I hope that through the work of Save the Children and other NGOs tackling this issue, in time, their fears will subside.

Number one reason I love Tet in Hanoi: Banh Trung

Tomorrow morning I officially return to work, marking the end of my first Tet holiday in Vietnam. I have had a fantastic time, and honestly wish the holiday would never end. Between the food, the parties, the lucky money, and the festivals happening all over the city, Hanoi really does feel like it has been the place to be the past week.

My friend Natalie (who’s visiting until this coming Sunday) and I have been lucky enough to visit a number of houses for traditional Tet meals. There are a few dishes that we’ve seen at every one: gio (pork and/or beef that is mashed up and steamed, then cut into tiny pieces), nem (fried spring rolls that you see all year round but are at every Tet table), bamboo and other vegetables soaked in a delicious salty broth, rice wine (because what would a Tet meal be without it), and my absolute FAVORITE has been banh trung (a very traditional Tet dish that consists if three layers – sticky rice on the outside, then green beans, and pork – all wrapped in leaves that give it a greenish color). The Vietnamese save banh trung for the end of the meal because it’s sure to fill you up quick. Luckily, Natalie and I just got back from our very last Tet meal where Linh (one of my translators) had made his mom well aware of my love for banh chung so she gave us a few pieces to take home. Now I get to have it all week. There are also a few deserts that we’ve had after most Tet meals – o mai (dried apricots that are usually covered in ginger), sunflower seeds, and pomelo. Below are pictures of Natalie and I at our Tet feasts (some of the pictures were taken with my cell phone so they're not the best quality):

^The above two photos were taken at the dinner Natalie and I had tonight, with Linh, one of my translators. His mom is the BEST cook, and has promised to teach me how to make pho and mien (my two favorite noodle dishes). In the bottom of the second photo is banh trung, and to the upper left gio and the upper right nem. 

^Here's a photo taken during a Tet lunch I had at my other translator, Tung's, house. In addition to the nem pictured here, there was chicken (off to the upper right), lots of vegetable and soup dishes, and banh trung which isn't pictured.

^This was a pre- and post-dinner snack that Natalie and I had during our Tet dinner last night with some of the bankers I tutor. You can see the quats (kind of like tangerines), pistachios, o mai, and other candies (as well as the drinks they had us cheers with many times).

^Natalie and I, along with Mr. Hoang (one of the bankers I tutor) and another banker's son, who was also at the dinner.

^This is the Tet dinner we had last night, equipped with banh trung, nem, gio, and lots of vegetable dishes.

We haven’t just been eating over Tet, though. We’ve also gone around the city and seen some pretty cool stuff. In addition to the fireworks that I wrote about in my last post, we’ve gone and seen the water puppet show right near Hoan Kiem lake. there are people who stand in water about knee high behind a curtain and use water puppets to convey traditional Vietnamese activities ranging from farming and fishing to wedding ceremonies and traditional ancestral processions. This was my third time going to the show, and they’ve cut it in half and taken out about half of the numbers since I last saw it two years ago. It’s still a very interesting cultural experience though. Here are some pictures from the show:

^The talented puppeteers.

And today Natalie and I and a few friends from Save the Children went to the Museum of Ethnology where they are having a three-day-long Tet festival. Vietnam has fifty or more ethnic minorities that live in provinces nationwide, and the museum has displays that provide information on all of the minority populations. During the Tet festival, all over the museum, there are people from a number of the groups putting on games and performances. We saw people walking on stilts, playing “clay crackers” (where they throw dry clay on the ground as loudly as they can to see who will make the loudest noise and thereby have the most luck that year), playing on swings, drawing messages in Chinese, making paper flowers, etc. I even got to join in on the fun – a Vietnamese guy and I paired up with two people from one ethnic minority group to see if we could repeat traditional chants after they said them for us. At first, the woman I was imitating said I was doing a pretty bad job, but I learned quick and eventually was able to grab a lucky money envelope from a nearby tree (and read the Vietnamese message to the crowd that was watching!). Below are some pictures from the day's events:

^These statues surround one of the traditional huts featured at the museum, and are meant to represent the circle of life. 

^Groups making paper flowers.

^My friend Mai attempting to walk on stilts.

^A balancing beam they had.

^Natalie and I tried to swing on these swings, but there was too large a crowd to get a spot.

All in all, it has been quite a few days. I recommend that everyone try to spend at least one Tet holiday in Vietnam, it’s a great experience!

Tet Eve Fireworks, Tet Day Peace & Quiet(ish)

Happy year of the Cat everyone! Two nights ago, I went with a friend who’s visiting to a market where tons of vendors were selling ornaments that people can hang on their quat trees. My friend, who’s studying in Beijing right now, was confused about why there were pictures of cats on all of the ornaments and the lucky money envelopes. Turns out, in China it’s the year of the rabbit. We each bought an ornament that says “Chuc mung nam moi” on it. Here are some pictures of the market:

Then last night, a number of places around the city were showing fireworks. My friend and I went to Hoan Kiem lake to check them out, and saw a ton of other people (both Vietnamese and foreigners) flocking to the lake to catch the show. It was like the fourth of July back in the states. Afterwards, we walked around downtown and saw a number of shops with alters set up in front and a fire burning. Below are some pictures of our day.

For lunch, we had my van tan, a delicious dish that includes pork, beef, egg, lettuce, and thin chinese noodles. Definitely my new favorite, I've had it literally 4 days in a row!!

^Natalie and I at the top of a bar overlooking West Lake (the second-most popular lake after 

Hoan Kiem). 

For dinner, we had a delicious beef and vegetable dish that we got to cook ourselves on this pot.

TONS of people came to the lake to check out the fireworks.

Today, the city really does seem to have shut down, though it’s not as empty as some Hanoians told me it would be. All the stores are closed for the most part, but families are dressing themselves and their children up to go out (perhaps to church? Perhaps to a fancy meal? I’m not sure). All of the motorbike drivers I see every day aren’t at their usual post, and none of the pho shops are open. But everyone is in very good spirits and says happy new year to me when I walk by. Below are some pictures around my house -- usually all of the streets are full of people.

^This is the corner where there are usually at least seven or eight motorbike drivers hanging out.