11/4/2017 1 Comment The beach... and back to workAfter the intense Saturday program it was a pleasure to wake up at 9:30 only to discover that the breakfast was over. Thankfully I had already thoughtfully purchased some "Dutch Lady" milk and a Vietnamese spinoff of the Nesquick cereal in the grocery store. Our breakfast was simple but good. At 10 we boarded our air conditioned bus and headed off to the ocean. After the backbreaking ride through the Vietnamese towns and villages we had finally reached the sea, however to everyone's utter disappointment there was no beach. After being bombarded by numerous complaints our teachers rightfully deduced that everyone was hungry. The restaurant we stopped in was situated 10 meters from the coast, our expectations were brought down as soon as we entered the restaurant due to the ubiquitous disagreeable smell that is present in the majority of restaurants in Vietnam. To our great surprise the seafood meal we had was delicious and fresh, this could not be said about the bathroom of the restaurant... After finishing our meal we proceeded to the "beach". As we approached we saw the red Vietnamese flags impale the sky from the boats parked next to the road, the sea was stormy and a pleasant breeze cooled our sunburnt shoulders. After arriving back to Thai Binh we went looking for a new place to eat, the Vietnamese food was starting to get somewhat, boring... With great delight we ate our dinner in the newly found place which served western food called "brother food". After having quenched our ever increasing desire for European cuisine we headed back to the rooms of our hotel where we braced ourselves for the upcoming build. After the somewhat tiring weekend it was time to go back to work. Thoughtfully going to sleep a couple of hours earlier than normally I couldn't sleep on the bus on our way to the site. As we mindlessly gazed at the Vietnamese roads through the window of our air conditined bus we enjoyed the last minutes of comfort in the next few hours. The temperature that day reached a scorching 34° in the shade, our build site was however under the sun... Imagine being locked in a sauna for several hours with no way of getting out while having to shovel countless buckets of cement or laying bricks, that is what our day felt like because that is what it was. Finally it was time to eat our lunch, many people would have rather stayed under the sun due to the ever increasing paranoia that we are being served dog meat. The break was over and it was time to go back to work. The dazing working conditions played their evil trick on us as a minor disagreement turned into a big argument that led to awkward silence on our way to the hotel. However the shower has washed away all the sweat, mud and cement alongside any grief and discontent. For dinner we ate the now beloved fried squid as we made a huge effort not to think of the next day of work...
- Ivan
1 Comment
Monica
12/4/2017 01:33:54 pm
The best when you finish each day of hard work is notice how much you gave to others who need it :0)
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