| | | From Nov 5 (long read):
Day 6. At least I think it’s 6. Time moves mysteriously over here. Surprise! A change in plans. My sniffles kept me awake most of the night. We had planned to go to church (5:00 am, remember?), then take a bus to My Tho to visit an old family friend, returning in late afternoon, and join up with our nursing home visitation group on Tuesday morning. I suggested we go to church and decide on the other activities later. Arriving at the church we saw the cyclo driver again sleeping in his cyclo on the street corner, while the destitute young woman who we’d seen sitting at the church entrance a few times previously was not to be seen.
After church we canceled the Tuesday morning plans so that our friends wouldn’t waste time on any preparations. The trip to My Tho was very important, so I thought we should risk it.
We got on the bus for the 2 hour ride to My Tho and shortly found ourselves looking over peaceful rice fields and coconut groves. The bus reached our destination, the doors opened but before I could set foot on the ground someone motioned to me and said “Somebody looking for you “. That must’ve been an easy job: find an American guy getting off the bus in My Tho. It’s not like there are hundreds of us. There in a chair under a tree was a man I’d met only twice before in the last 20 years. We shook hands and my wife came up and exclaimed “5!” That’s what she’s called him for years, and what would you expect, since he was the fourth child born into his family. They hugged, and he exclaimed “mi!“, which is derived from a nickname one of his sisters gave to my wife nearly 60 years ago. He jumped on his motorbike and took off, while we jumped into the taxi. After driving down some country roads we arrived at his house, a corn field to the right, and passed through a few security gates on the walkway over a small river.
My wife and 5 began an animated discussion that didn’t slow down for 4 hours. They looked through old photo albums and chatted away. Then came surprise number 2. 5 invited us to stay the night. I didn’t relish the prospect of a hot afternoon bus trip back to Saigon, so we agreed. We weren’t prepared for a night away from our hotel, so my wife hopped on the motorbike behind 5 and they took off into town. I took the opportunity to recline in the hammock on the patio, but soon discovered that I was the guest of honor at a mosquito party. I got up, entered the house, and found another hammock. The air was hot, humid, and perfectly still, so I went outside to look around... pummelo trees, coconut trees, sugar cane, and the list went on. I avoided a jackfruit tree because I didn’t want to become a casualty if one of the fruits decided that my head would make a good target.
The motorbike returned after what seemed a very long time, and in addition to a few toiletries we had more fresh fruit... mancau (sp?), and fresh longans, to name a few.
After dark “5” and “mi” hopped on the motorbike to go grab some takeout dinner and soon returned. For dessert we had plenty of fresh fruit. We sat and talked for quite some time, interrupted by the occasional fish splash in the nearby pond, or by rats scuttling across the tin roof over the patio.
Awhile later it was time for bed. The shower facilities in the house didn’t quite live up to western standards, so I dipped a container into a big basin of water and washed my feet. My bed was a big wooden platform with no sheets or blankets (no need for them here). My wife settled into the hammock next to me. I couldn’t help thinking about my toothbrush in the cup by the sink, hoping that the geckos didn’t take an interest in it during the night. |
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