This past week has been quite busy- up again at 6am to travel to the Thầy Pagoda (meaning: “the Master's Pagoda”), a Buddhist temple, an 11th century pagoda and one of the oldest in Vietnam. There are two arched bridges connecting to the pagoda. Built in 1602, they are named Sun and Moon. One of these bridges leads to a small island, home of a small Taoist temple representing the three elements of earth, air, and water. The second bridge leads to a limestone hill. Đạo Hạnh, during the last stage of his life, had walked up to this place and disappeared in a cave. This cave is located in the middle of roots of  trees and is hemmed between a small temple built in honor of the monk’s parents and a small pagoda.

On Tues, Wed., and Thursday, lots of meetings and writing. I am working with one faculty member, Dr. Minh, to write a manuscript for publication on skill transfer in the workplace and editing other manuscripts. I'm also meeting with as many people as I can who know about workplace conflict-some of these people are with the government, some with NGO's and others who are independent. On Friday (while Eric taught my class), I attended a conference in Hanoi: The International Conference on Women's Empowerment in Vietnam. The international development office who is my sponsor, has been organizing this conference for a year- the photo below shows a sampling of the organizers as well as the presenters and moderators. I was invited to attend the welcome dinner the night before with the US Embassador, the just-retired US Embassador, other embassy staff, Vietnamese women connected to the national assembly, a couple of women from Seattle who spoke at the conference (founder of Cinnabon and owner of the Seattle Storm pro- women's basketball team).

 The three Vietnamese women L to R:  Ly Ly, Ha and Huong (staff I work with who organized the conference and Dawn ? (Owner of Seattle Storm) and Jerilyn Brusseau (Founder of Cinnabon- her grandmother's cinnamon roll recipe)-they presented their stories. A slew of other presenters (15 in all) all shared their experiences of starting a business- I wrote a paper for the proceedings about internal characteristics of women empowerment...all in all, a great experience.

With Dr. Minh and Dr. Tuan, Director and Associate Director of International Development at the University.

After the week, I (and Eric) spent Saturday close to home- we were both exhausted. New experiences every day has a way of "catching up" with you and all of a sudden, it is just time to lay on the couch and read or watch TV.

Today (Sunday) we were was up again at 7am to meet with Leanne and Hollis, two labor educators teaching in Ho Chi Minh City- we went to the women's museum and then a long coffee and lunch afterwards to talk about our experiences. Eric had dropped me off and headed back home to make spagetti and meatballs-a little comfort food for Sunday night. After meeting with Leanne and Hollis, I headed several streets north to meet with Sabrina- a danish researcher in town to find out more about foreign investment for her master's thesis. We chatted for a couple of hours and then I headed home on a motorbike (xe om) bike  taxi- what a day! Tomorrow is writing all day-same for Tuesday....so, another great week in Hanoi- I can't believe we have already been here for 2 months!

 We work hard and we play hard. Well, I am working hard and Eric is just playing hard. Last Wednesday, Eric rousted me from my desk and said, "Let's go play." Twist my arm, right? So we took

off on his motorbike and headed for Snake Village, where everything is SNAKE. We only had to double back twice- we're getting much better at NOT getting lost. Once in Snake Village, we were herded into a restaurant and directed to pick out a snake. We had two choices- bamboo snake or cobra. We chose the cobra-can't remember why. They pulled it from the cage and proceeded to "dress it", first by cutting off its head, collecting its blood in a glass, cutting it length-wise, removing its innards-all while we were standing there.

 We were then seated at a table-we were about the only ones in the restaurant. They offered Eric the snake blood wine with the raw heart it in- and, without hesitation, Eric downed it. He is so brave. Then came the dishes, each one representing part of the cobra (see menu below). We tried everything, of course- my favorite was the snake spring roll- my least favorite was the rare of chitterling and liver dish. There was so much food, we could have  used 2-4 more people to help us. I think we'll bring the girls when they come to visit!

Last Monday, up at 5am: my students, Eric (they call him Mr. Eric) and I went on a field trip to two companies outside of Hanoi: A bamboo furniture company and a tile/brick company. The bus took us as far as the roads could take them, then we walked the rest of the way through a small village. It's harvest time in Vietnam for hay and rice which is dried in the streets (like in the photo above).  We also 'met' farm animals along the way as they just walked freely through the village.

The bamboo furniture manufacturer was a small operation- various sizes and types of bamboo were heated in a large oven- the door being sealed with mud mixed with straw and soot. The woman in the hat below showed my students the process. There was also a man sitting at what looked like an antique machine, drilling holes through bamboo at designated locations to later be pieced together into furniture.

The supervisor of the operation invited Eric to have a cup of Vietnamese green tea, with the students standing around translating for them. He also invited some of the students to have tea- they were delighted. Men in the Vietnamese culture love to get together, chat, and drink Vietnamese Green Tea (and rice wine, of course). It was no surprise that in the middle of the production floor was a table with plastic chairs all around, a tea pot and small 2 oz. ceramic tea cups.

Waiting for the bus to pick us up to transport us to the next company, the students ran up a hill with me in tow to take yet another group picture- they love having their pictures taken!

At rice harvest time, the rice is dried on the side of streets and highways- the perfect place for this activity. It is my understanding that this is illegal but unenforced.

The tile/brick company was much larger, though still small in size and very labor intensive. For the bricks, the clay is shoveled into a large hopper, gets molded and spit out onto a conveyor belt. From there, attendants take the molded bricks to a pallet, stacked eight high and then into the oven it goes. it then gets depalletized into carts and then restacked to cool and dry.

Day over and a great time was had by all!

Last weekend, Eric and I were invited by friends to a cottage on a lake about 40 miles north of Hanoi. This lake is in a remote mountain area that is slowly being developed, starting with the infrastructure (eg. roads). Roads are always a good thing. There were 4 couples, including Eric and I, and three of the couples have children, all under the age of 12. The weren't very keen on being photographed, but I didn't try very hard to persuade them. In fact, most of the time, I forget to take pictures! The cottage has 3 rooms- 2 for sleeping and a kitchen area and a bathroom. During the day, the sleeping rooms are for playing games and at night the mats come out for sleeping. We ate all of our meals on the front porch. Basically, the three women (I tried to help but was just getting in the way) prepared breakfast, we ate, they cleaned up and then started to prepare lunch, we ate, they cleaned up, and then started to prepare dinner, we ate, they cleaned up----the question is, what were the men (and me) doing? Playing. We swam, fished, hiked, played with the kids, etc. I told Eric not to get used to this lifestyle. In all seriousness, I miss being in the kitchen, preparing meals and tidying up. As one of the women said to me, it's fun working together and chatting about life all day long-- plus, the men play with the kids and that gives us a rest. I get it--totally. So we had a great time.

After dinner (we ate all sorts of new things, including a kind of thick paste made from duck blood) we sat by a fire outside and roasted marshmallows that I had brought and sweet corn on sticks. A local caretaker of a chicken farm (about a mile from the cottage) stopped by and enjoyed the fire with everyone. Eric, of course, asked him if he could work for him on his chicken farm and, of course, he said "SURE! Can you fix my tractor?" If that's not an invitation, I don't know what is! Eric, being Eric, told him he would see him on Tuesday (2 days ago). Well, he attempted to drive his motorbike to the chicken farm but got lost and had to return home both days. Since he is not one to give up easily, he attempted it again this morning and YES, he made it! So Eric is now working on a chicken farm, out of cell phone range, so I guess I'll hear from him in a couple of days.

This is the lake we visited-nestled right in the mountains. You can buy a 20 acre lake front parcel for $2000. I hope Eric doesn't get any crazy ideas about purchasing property.

Now with Eric gone, I can really focus on some work! I have been inside for the past 2 days working away without taking one step outside- which is why Eric and I make a good team. So there you have it! For a more detailed description of his two failed attempts to reach the chicken farm, read his blog.