Rainy Day Woman

First a few quick updates:

• It’s not so much of an update since I’ve already told most people, but, for those I haven't told, almost five years after the original ring-pop proposal in front of the Vegas Fat Burger, a real engagement took place a couple of weeks ago, so congratulations, Isha and Mark!!
• I finished my product recommendation report, and we think we found a great embroidery trainer who is willing to teach at our center.
• Last Friday night Alice and I found a restaurant that serves pizza…real, honest-to-god pizza and beer. Hooray!
• Mr. Thanh and some of his family members took me to the floating market in Cai Rang last Sunday. All of the vendors sell their merchandise directly from their boats and you simply pull up along side in your boat to buy your goods. I just so happened to get some great footage of some fruit sellers, Mr. J.B.
  
  Ok, so it is the rainy season in Vietnam. This means that the mosquitoes are now out in full force. In addition, sometimes the rain interferes with work when your motorbike gets stuck in the mud on the way to the workshop and you have to get it unstuck and then attempt to find an alternate route, but end up an a bone-rattling 45-minute jaunt through what can only be described as the jungle.
  
  When you’re in Can Tho City, however, it’s great fun to see the traffic pattern the minute the skies open up. All of the bicycles, motorbikes and xe lois simultaneously veer to the side of the road, (I believe this is what is suppose to happen when an ambulance comes through) so their respective drivers can pull their rain gear out of their back packs or out from under the seats of their motorbikes.
  
  The rain gear is best described as a rain cape rather than a rain jacket, so everyone resembles superheroes pedaling through the streets as the back flap of the cape flails about in the wind. The front of the rain capes is large enough to be draped across the front of your vehicle to protect whatever items you happen to toting in your basket and the back flap is expansive enough to go over a backpack or even a second person who may be riding on the back of the motorbike or bike so that that passenger essentially becomes a piece of cargo.
  
  Incidentally, I have discovered a new trust building activity that Camp Clinton organizers may want to consider. Instead of the climbing wall at the Heifer Ranch, I suggest renting several motorbikes. Two students should be placed on each bike. The student driving the motorbike should wear the rain cape and the student in the back should take the back flap and place it over his or her head so that he or she can no longer see. They should then drive into a crazy amount of traffic and see how long it takes the second student to scream, remove the flap from their head, and/or jump from the bike. I promise that you never know how much you trust your friend until riding with her on the back of a motorbike unable to see anything and only hearing the sound of other vehicles whizzing by, the screeching of breaks and her shouting Vietnamese expletives.
  
  But I digress.
  
  Honestly, the rainy season hasn’t been nearly as rainy as I expected. The rain can be intense, but, for the most part, it is of a short duration. It often rains either at noon or right at 5:oopm when everyone is headed home. If it rains at lunch time, most people can avoid it because the Vietnamese begin lunch around 11:00am, take a siesta, and then return to the office at around 1:30pm. Generally after it rains once during a 24 hour period, it will not rain again until the following day.
  
  Or so I thought.
  
  A couple of weeks ago I was downtown at a coffee shop. It had already rained once during my time there, and the sun had returned. I packed up my bag and started on the 20 minute bike ride home.
  
  About 2 minutes later, the sky darkened, thunder rumbled and down came the rain. I pulled over and donned my lavender rain cape. Unfortunately, an awful lot of wind accompanied this particular storm so my rain gear really wasn’t keeping me all that dry. The wind also complicated things because it’s somewhat difficult to balance a bike with a massive bookbag on my back, my purse in the front basket along with a 1.5 liter water bottle, and strong gusts of wind.
  
  It wouldn’t have been quite so hard to balance, but for extra fun that day, I had worn a skirt. I was desperately trying pull it back down each time a gust of wind blew it up to inappropriate levels. This, however, was also extra challenging since I was trying to hold the front part of the rain cape onto the handle bars so that, 1) it was more difficult to see that the wind was raising my skirt and 2) my purse (with my camera and phone inside) did not get soaked. The problem with trying to cover your basket with your cape is that, if you do not hold it tight enough, the cape becomes a receptacle of sorts and begins to fill with a small pool of water that just might end up on your face as a large gust of wind comes along when you are trying to pour the water off to the side.
  
  But wait, there’s more. Naturally, the rain cape is not long enough to cover one’s feet. It is amazing how quickly the pot holes in the street fill up with muddy water. Therefore, when you ride over them the water splashes over your flip flops. You really can’t do anything but laugh as you continue to peddle home knowing how ridiculous you look and that your attempt to keep dry is absolutely futile. Thank God I like to laugh.
  
  The icing on the cake is when you finally pull up to the house and realize just how much you resemble a drowned cat when you see the expressions of your host family. If I’d had enough time, I would have snapped a photo of their aghast faces, but they moved into action too quickly, sliding the doors open, ushering me inside, and even mopping up after me as they insisted that I hurry to my room to change.
  
  Generally, I prefer the sunshine, but the rainy days here have definitely made me grateful not only for the cooler temperatures they bring, but also for the people who help me out on those rainy days.

Picture 1: Truc and Alice on the way home from work as the rain begins.

Picture 2: Typical Vietnamese homes along the riverside.

Picture 3: The floating market from really far away. I promise that I have better video.