( So, I woke up Wednesday morning not feeling the greatest, and I learned the real meaning of "dash in a real rush hurriedly evading accident" ... yeah. Anyway, so I still went out with the group for the day, but I fell asleep as soon as we got back; I didn't wake up until this morning. Oh well, here's what you missed. )
I had a small breakfast, just some rice and orange juice, and then we (minus three due to being sick) headed out for the day. Our morning at UEF consisted of a lecture on rural planning and the Mekong River delta, just south of HCMC. The speaker, who was very funny I might add, was Le Quang Minh, Assoc. Prof., Dr. at the Vietnam International University in HCMC and is a native of the Mekong River delta. The region is agriculturally based, primarily rice and catfish. Interesting story: the catfish of the Mekong River are extremely cheap and have almost wiped out the industry in Alabama, USA, and Vietnamese catfish actually aren't allowed to be called catfish in the USA. Instead, they are called basa fish or bocourti. Anyway... he talked about that, the people of the delta, culture, economics, and agriculture. The Mekong River has always been a very large rice producer in Vietnam, but after 1975, there was a huge push for food production and thus more land in the delta was used. Some of the land is highly acidic and unsuitable for farming, but the government still forced the production anyway. He also mentioned difficulties with the river having origins in Cambodia and the effects of their usage on delta in Vietnam. He was clearly a passionate speaker with a lot of opinions, but he was apprehensive to share everything. We (minus three more who went back to the hotel) continued on to our language class to learn different adjectives. It's really helpful having the UEF students helping us with pronunciation, and Dong A has been a great guy. We had lunch and then went to the U.S. Commercial Service to hear from Patrick Wall, the Principal Commercial Officer in Vietnam. This entity of the U.S. Foreign Service acts as a consultant for American businesses trying to expand into Vietnam. Many businesses are breaking into Vietnam to outsource manufacturing; Nike now makes more shoes in Vietnam than it does in China. Also, many franchises have done remarkably well in country, most notably seen by Popeye's and KFC. Mr. Wall's career has allowed him to work around the world, including offices in Dubai, Philippines, and Uruguay. He gave the American perspective on Vietnam and how life is for an American in the country, getting his McDonald's fix once a month. He also went in depth as to the differences between the northern and southern parts of the county in the modern day. Some people in HCMC, who lived there prior to 1975, still have animosity towards the north and Mr. Wall has seen this anger play out through his own experiences. After the lecture, we went back to the hotel and made a quick pit-stop at the co-op to find some coconut candy, recommended by Dr. Berman. This is basically where may day ends. We walked backed to the hotel and I considered going to the pool, but my bed was too enticing. I fell asleep around 4:30 and woke up around 2:30 at night. Apparently a group went to dinner, minus several people who were sick or just needed sleep; I was clearly in the group at the hotel. I had some medicine today (Thursday) and seem to be doing better. I caught up on this blog and I'll continue today's tonight. Signing off!
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