The Soup Girl

Oh another crazy day in Vietnam!

This morning before I met everyone at 8:30 I took my laundry to the shop down the street. I think it is a little bit cheaper than the laundry at the hostel (which gets sent out anyway) and it is same day pick up (if you drop it off in the morning)! We met Hang at the bus stop and we were off to the soup kitchen.

I was really excited about the soup kitchen. Yesterday was just an overload of everything, and I didn’t exactly feel comfortable at the orphanage. It wasn’t that working with the children made me uncomfortable, but there was no direction. I had no idea what I could do to help, etc. and when I asked (or when Khaly asked) they just said it was flexible and you could do whatever you wanted.

So anyway we met Hung at the bus stop and took it about 20 minutes or so to the soup kitchen. We all laughed because for whatever reason we pictured a massive kitchen with big work spaces and stainless steel etc. It was very small and we started off by sitting on the sidewalk cutting and peeling vegetables. I felt very Vietnamese since this is what they seem to do most of the time anyway. It was VERY relaxing and a well needed break from yesterday. I did get sore after a while and couldn’t seem to get comfortable. After we finished (around 10:00am) they said it was lunch time! Uuuh what? Apparently they get up at 4:00amish so by 10:00am I guess it would be lunch time.

By “they” I mean (and I am still confused) a group (of mostly women) that come from rural areas of Vietnam (maybe about 6 hours away). They come for a month at a time and live above the soup kitchen and there are 10 groups in all. That’s about all I found out.

We had lunch in the back room on the floor. I always enjoy knowing there will be rice, so at least I can eat something! They had a lot of strange food, nothing that I liked but I did try it all (and struggled with a fair amount of it)! But THEN they brought out the good stuff. First were Vietnamese cherries. I do not like cherries at all but Ken said it was pretty sweet so I tried it and it tasted just like pomegranate! Neither Ken nor Khaly had ever tried pomegranate, but that’s what I would compare it to! They also had sugar cane which is SO good..it’s like..well I don’t know but you put it in your mouth and chew it until you get all the juice out and then you spit the rest out! We had some more time to rest because the rice wasn’t done cooking for the meals we were going to prepare.

Then, the assembly line for the meals started! I was a bit confused as to where the meals were going and still am, but I believe they go to people in hospitals who can’t afford meals. I guess you have to pay for meals if you are in a hospital, so those who can’t afford it can get meals through the soup kitchen. I was in charge of tying up the rice bags and they were HOT! The room we were in was very hot and the three of us were sweating from the warmth of the food. The rice was placed in plastic baggies and then tied with a rubber band (as were two types of soup/stew). Then, the three things (rice, soup, stew) were placed in a bigger plastic bag and tied and put in big sacks to be taken to the hospital. There were these huge trash cans filled with rice and the two types of stews. Those were loaded into a van that we then jumped into! I was a bit confused, but I thought I heard that we were going to deliver the food. I was very excited because I was looking forward to the interaction, but we dropped off one bin of food at a hospital and left. Then we brought the rest of the bins to a “unit”, for lack of a better word, on the side of the road. It looked like it could have been a shop or something else but was empty. We were confused who we were bringing it to, until finally Khaly was able to understand THIS was where the soup kitchen was and we were going to serve the food! I was sooo excited!

The three of us each had a bin..Ken was rice, I was soup and Khaly was stew and at 2:00pm we opened up shop! People came with their plastic bowls and cans (and some metal ones but THOSE were very hot to hold!) and we gave them food! They had to have their card stamped, which I think was from the government saying they qualified for food. It is hard to imagine poor people in a poor country and it was especially sad when kids came up to get food for their family. It was AWESOME and I really enjoyed it and was SO GLAD Khaly was there to translate. NOBODY speaks English (not even at the soup kitchen) so I really don’t think I would have been able to go alone. Her translation skills even came in handy when people wanted more soup/less soup, etc.

Unfortunately, we ran out of rice and had to end a little early. We still had some soup left over so we carried that and all the empty bins back to the bus and took the bus back to the soup kitchen. Everyone was sweet and asked us to stay for dinner but Khaly was quick on her feet and told them we couldn’t. It would have been nice but we were all exhausted. We took the bus back and then decided to head to the market. Khaly and I both wanted flip flops for the orphanage, because you have to take off your shoes and we do NOT want to be walking around barefoot. But, you can’t bring in flip flops that have been outside. So we decided to try on some flip flops! We found plain black ones for 80,000VND a piece. I hadn’t read up on my bargaining for Ho Chi Minh, but I did know you couldn’t go as low as 10% like I did in Beijing!

Khaly was speaking to them in Vietnamese so I told her to get two for 100,000VND. I forgot how uncomfortable I was when I first started bargaining, but I could see it in her face. I told her to stick with it and if not we would find some somewhere else! The girl finally caved, so we ended up paying $2.78 each for flip flops which is what I would pay at Old Navy!

We then decided we both wanted/needed blankets! I was glad to know someone else thought the blankets here were gross and questioned whether or not they were washed properly. So we found a place that sold them that told us one for 250,000VND. We started at 200,000VND for two, but they wouldn’t budge so we left. But, as we were walking away we realized if we could get two for 250,000VND we would each be paying $6.94 per blanket which was VERY doable. So we want back without a problem! I am very happy with my new flips flops and CANNOT wait for my new blanket!

It was SO nice to have some time to rest before dinner. I am completely exhausted and miss having the “me” relaxing time to process the events of the day.

I grabbed some chicken and fries (my stomach was feeling a little ehhh from the day and knew, although greasy, my body was used to this type of food) and then went to pick up my laundry! I organized myself for tomorrow and took another WONDERFUL shower!

Also..I have updated pictures from the Pandas! I am having a LOT of trouble with the videos..so I will keep trying and let everyone know when those are done!

Hugs and kisses from a Vietnamese soup kitchen!