Second place and spelunking

Our second week at CFC culminated in another test and competition day, which was a lot of fun and very competitive. My green team had much more integrity this time around. After drilling in the lesson about how we weren't allowed to cheat at CFC, my 9th graders got the picture. I am very proud of the students progress in both the 8th and 9th grade classes. They were very well behaved, and the "cool boys" who cheated last time bonded with me quite a bit this week after they realized that I appreciated their skills in sports. To demonstrate this bond, I was invited to ride on the back of Khai's bike up to the bridge! About 40% of kids get to school by riding on the back of someone else's bike.

Biking to school with sun protection

No cheating this week!

Quang had a blast winning the volleyball competition

Go Green Tornados!! Toi Xanh Co Len!

The whole competition day was a blast, and the green tornadoes kept doing very well and then losing in the championship. Thus, my voice was completely gone by the end of the day from screaming "dôi xanh cố lên" at the top of my lungs to a team that let 3 championships slip through their fingers. Next week our lifeskills lesson is about dealing with failure :). After the competitions ended, we drove straight to our weekend getaway at the beach in Ha Tien. Somehow we all found second winds in our tired voices to sing karaoke on the bus the whole way there!

The view from the bus on the way to Ha Tien

View from the hotel

The bus ride was a rough 5 hours long, part of it on a tiny one lane unpaved road through rice paddies. The road had no shoulder, and besides narrowling missing 100s of motorbikes, our bus driver (Uncle Minh) managed to avoid 7 or so collisions with other trucks and buses going the opposite direction. It was quite a thrillingn ride, and helped to explain why such a short journey could take sooo long.  Once we reached Ha Tien, the first thing I noticed was the incredible clarity and sheer number of stars in the sky. We could easily spot the milky way, a sideways scorpio, and many many more constellations. The stars are also marvelous at our base in Hoa An, but I can't enjoy them due to intense mosquito paranoia.

The view from the hotel is quite marvelous. We are right on the beach and mountainous, lush green islands and peninsulas dot the horizon. We see tons of fishing boats and boys standing in the water and dragging their nets to shore to catch fish. Families clean and process the fish right on shore, leaving an abundance of fishheads on the beach. This surprised me, because at our meals in Hoa An, Mr. Tuan usually cooks and serves the entire fish--eyeballs, scales, and all.
There is a ton of trash on these beaches, and lots of makeshift shacks along the shore full of curious people. I asked Dung (Yoom) about garbage services here, and she said that a truck comes by quite often, but she says the people lack "awareness." The Vietnamese coaches are unimpressed with the water quality of the ocean, so we didn't go into water. This area is the first place I have noticed such abject poverty with slums on the outskirts of town by the mangroves and ancient women squatting toothless by the sides of pagodas selling dried fish. Its quite eye opening for me.

A highlight of this weekend was getting to tour some caves formed by carbonate dissolution. Not quite a Mexican "cenote," but the two have a lot in common. I was definitely overexcited to share my geologic knowledge about the formation of the cave networks :). These caves were used by Vietnamese soldiers to hide out during the American war. There are now a number of Buddhist shrines in the caves.
I realized that I was taught very little about the Vietnam war in school, so it is quite interesting to learn about it in detail for the first time from the other side. I am immensely curious to compare stories once back in the USA.

A giant jellyfish on the beach! Did not go in the water after seeing this guy!

Carbonate dissolution anyone?

American coaches at the beautiful beach

After the caves, we explored a market and spotted some wild monkeys! We are having a blast teaching the Vietnamese coaches American slang (i.e. "that was clutch," and "whelp, see ya later!") and simultaneously realizing how often we speak using idiomatic expressions.

We are excited to find out the results from competition day and to begin our final week of CFC.
Green tornadoes, we are number one!!!