Our Da Nang family consists of Nam and Phouc - 30 somethings who have rented out a room in their large house to Laura.

The house is typical of this neighborhood - large and three stories high. This style of house is common all over urban Vietnam - the homes are made from brick and plaster and are very modern looking - similar to our Infills at home. Most are attached to their neighbors and have around a 35 foot frontage with a large enclosed front yard which is gated with a very high fence that is kept locked and double locked at all times. 
 
On the main is their living space - a huge kitchen and party room with disco lights and a bar, up the stairs to a second floor where their are three huge bedrooms - all with full ensuites. The rooms seem even larger because the ceiling height in these houses is around 15 feet. The third level has another suite and two open air (rooftop) spaces. We live on the second floor. Nam's sister, Liam, 28 years old, lives on the third floor and Phouc's mother, 'mom', just arrived from Austrailia where she lives six months with a different son and 6 months here. This is a new arrangement as she used to live here full time.

Phouc and Nam have a 2 year old - Zue Zue, who, although she is only 2, attends school for 8 hours a day. Also here in the house is Loan, an 18 year old relative from the countryside whose job is to look after Zue Zue and do the cleaning and laundry. She sleeps on the floor of the party room. As is in most homes around here, motorbikes - and there are sometimes 4 or 5 here, live in the kitchen through the night.


Phouc and his mom built this house a few years ago after mom's brother - one of them who lived in Alabama (since deceased), won the lottery and shared his good fortune with all of his siblings. Her other brothers live in Germany, France and Phouc's father lives in Canada. It appears he went to Canada (Toronto) once and never returned.....damn Canadians. Nam's family all live around this neighborhood and seem to be land developers. These details are all uncertain because only Phouc can speak some English. He loves everything American. This is a trait that seems very common among young Vietnamese. They love rock and roll and heavy metal bands. Phouc has the most extensive music collection I have ever seen. It includes everything by Anne Murray and Leonard Cohen so he is not limited to the US.
Phouc and Nam own two art galleries in downtown DaNnang. Art galleries in these parts mean oil paintings - but not original type work. Vietnamese love to copy the masters - exactly - no artistic liscence...(little pun). They have many sweat shops where fake Degas and Monet's sit recreating the old creations. Then the Vietnamese buy a Starry Starry Night - sort of exacto mundo, for their wall.


Phouc doesn't seem to work even though he tells me he teaches Yoga to the military via the internet????? hmmm - think something got lost in translation. The whole family is incredibly warm and hospitable and fun and generous. They make us food everyday - huge lunches and in between meals send up peeled friut trays, elaborate deserts, etc. Their hope is to attract more foreigners to come live with them and contribute to the family income. We have been paying $8 night - that includes lunch and wifi and cable tv and non stop treats. The average wage in Vietnam is around $150 month so our contribution is considerable here. The treat part and the food part for me has been difficult because I just can't fake excitement around sucking fish heads or even fresh caught crabs. Last night we had squid jerky delivered to our door and it made Laura and Sharon very excited but I yearn for fresh popped popcorn......oh how I miss popcorn. Sometimes when I come home here in the evening I think they are having popcorn but they are just sitting around a big bowl of tiny snails and sucking the guts out of them.....

Mom's arrival a week ago was a big event with promises that she was a spectacular cook.  The specialty that was anticipated is soy milk. She supported her entire family in Hanoi by making 900 or 9000 (translation) litres of fresh soy milk every morning and then selling it. I think maybe her parents were killed in the war and she was left to fend for the family. Here, she takes the soy beans, boils them down, takes the mush and blends it, then cooks it and then strains it and a whole lot of work and they drink it boiling hot. I thought soy milk came from soy cows. That a a lot of other misconceptions have been put to rest as I get to see where food comes from everyday and I would rather just continue believing it comes from M and M's.


Zue Zue - the strongest solid kid in the world, has a power shake prepared for her every morning before school. Nam takes a baby eel, adds some soy milk and blends it up - presto - eel smoothie!!!!!

Each day we have a meat dish, soup with god knows what floating it in, fruit, loads of rice, salad and sometimes desert. It takes hours to prepare every meal - and I am not even around when the shopping happens. Yikes! So much work.

We had a big party the other night for Nam's 32 birthday and for Sharon's anticipated leaving. Mom and Nam and Loan cooked a zillion dishes for the crowd - the food and beer just kept coming.......their generosity is amazing and sincere. Their kindness and the kindness and openness of their friends has helped me change my perception of Vietnamese.


Our house is on a typical street. What that means is that nearly every house runs a business from the front. Beauty Parlors are the most common where men and women line up to have their noses and ears picked. it is an obsession. Either they are at salons having noses and ears professionally picked or they have a finger up there digging away. There is no shame or embarrasment in public grroming. Because there is no privacy, any mirror serves as a place for picking, digging, plucking. If you see a motorbike parked - you often see someone using the little rearview mirror for picking.


The only behavior that is hidden is tooth picking. After every meal, every person takes a toothpick and holds the other hand over their mouth before picking away. Mouth - private, nose - free for all. Also, you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose!

Also on our street are numerous Baguette stands - French bread is very popular here and lots of moms pull out their stands every morning and sell baguettes with fried eggs and spam to passerbys. Noodle or Bun stands are also popular - they sell noodles with mystery meat floating on top - some are really good, others are really gross. Crap shoot.


This street also has about 10 mini restaurants ( kindergarten sized plastic chairs and tables) which you just set up anywhere on any open sidewalk. They sell beer with noodles. Not beer in the noodles, beer in a glass and noodles in a bowl. We have the ice guy - he cuts up big blocks of ice from sun up to sun down and one sex hotel. Because everyone lives with someone, couples (married and kindof married) book a room at the sex hotel to get it on. I waited outside there for a while but I think you are supposed to bring your own partner.....duh!!!!


Everybody can see what everybody else does and there is obviously no zoning or limits. Two doors down had a funeral a week ago and it lasted four days which included big rented bands arriving by massive buses and playing at all hours of the day and night. Between the bands, the grieving folks - dressed in matching white robes and headbands, hung out on the street drinking beer and having parties. A huge drum was drummed for the 4 days and a buddhist priest chanted and chanted. And no one complains...and then there is the sticky dumpling guy - he drives around on his scooter at all times of the day and night with a loudspeaker crowing out "sticky white dumplings, sticky white dumplings"  OK, I have no idea what it says but it annoys the hell out of me at midnight. Yet, no one gives it a second thought. The tolerance for differences is very admirable.

My family is devout catholic. Very devout. Lots of catholics here, and like in India, a lot of time is spent going to church or thinking of going to church.

We are just one block from the local market where everytime i stroll through to purchase my daily fix of pineapples ( fist sized and oh so sweet - pre peeled, or pomelos - also peeled, I am met with the market families giggling away right after one of them yells "hello". So cute. There are fish right out of the fishing nets, live chickens and ducks of every size and description, flowers ready for offerings to Buddha, the Virgin Mary or Shiva, and every kind of fruit and vegetable one can think of. It is good, very good, except for the lack of popcorn.

I now have my favorites folks and just today I sat with a market family, on their little plastic chairs, and tried to have a conversation, in a combo of German (dad had lived in Germany either 3 or 30 years ago, mom - 48 years old, two of her sisters and two kids who probably know a little English but were so embarrased at their parents bozo attempts to converse. Same same in every culture.


That is a little glimpse into life on easy street Da Nang. I have come to enjoy the rythms of the normalness of this neighborhood and the sweetness of the people in it.