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Take a break, Vietnam!

Take a break, Vietnam!

Friday, May 01, 2015, 14:09 GMT+7

I had to laugh reading about some talk that ‘Vietnam has too many holidays!’ I could imagine the growling and grumbling over a few cold beers in an air-conditioned bar while watching football beamed in from half way around the world. Reunification Day was celebrated on Thursday across the land – the final moment when Saigon fell and the north and south were finally one. Considering how hard the vast majority of the people work – I say take the holiday! And buy a hammock!

All my classes have been cancelled this week with students begging for the time off – quite funny that I actually had to teach them how to say, “Bạn nói lại đi! (Repeat again!) ‘Mr Stivi, can we have the week off?’” And my hotel training work too, with great claims of “Teacher, we’ll be busy! Many guests!” That’s odd; I thought tourist numbers were down this year? Many northerners head off on holidays to places like Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An – the best destinations in the world (really! I live here!), while southerners try to escape the heat heading to the beach cities such as Vung Tau or Nha Trang. I know they are northerners because they always seem to have big, expensive SUVs, sunglasses in cars with tinted windows and fifteen family members crammed in the back with grandma looking out the rear window.

Even for the poorer groups, students and workers it’s a nice break to visit families and friends back in their hometowns. Friendships are incredibly strong here and it’s quite common to remain friends with schoolmates and colleagues you haven’t seen for years or decades. My students often tell me it’s so relaxing to eat mum’s food again and enjoy the peace of the countryside after the pace of study and part-time work.

More than a few of my students also save quietly for months to go travelling to places they’ve never been to. In a country where I’ve frequently met people who have never visited the capital city of their area or the next province, it’s great to see the glow on their faces as they chatter away about travel plans or come back with 300 badly taken photos. I think it’s really amusing that 20 million (I’m guessing) young Vietnamese have cameras and smartphones but no-one ever attended a photography lesson.

Celebrations in my semi-rural area on the edge of Hoi An started already with the usual blast of Jet engine music into the deep purple humid evenings and the movie star spot-lights sweeping the sky for alien spaceships. We have regular shows funded by the local committees for the poorer people who can’t afford to attend the big celebrations or are simply too old or too young to go. I think the shows are a good idea actually. However it’s hard to believe my local loudspeaker announcements of imminent power cuts when those lights stretch so powerfully into the night.

Even though I’ve lived here now nearly seven years I still find it quite fascinating to see the local people hustle quickly to get the rice harvested this year. I saw two carts with some old half-rusted grain thrashers that separate the rice from the plants being pulled by hand past my house by two groups of tiny middle-aged men grinning in the heat. They really need the holiday!

I have no great plans to travel or visit the festivities as I’ve got young puppies to look after (five!) and more writing to do. But that’s OK because I’ll enjoy the holiday in a closer meaning to its true heart – the land and the people.

My street is a messy obstacle course of bricks stacked, sand hills for the cement, gardening and pot making, piles of wood under covers and chickens crossing the road. Everyone here is a house-builder, fence painter; carpenter, farmer and all their kids go to high school and some to university – a hard investment for some families here. One of the families in the street waited for four years for their daughter to finish university before they could save for a big flat screen TV. Yet all the red and yellow star flags are out and folks are starting to slow down.

To me, this is the real reunification, not the marches, speeches and fireworks, simply – a chance to take a break.

A chance to talk to your neighbors and sing karaoke badly, drink some rice whisky in the cooler night air. To welcome home children studying in Ho Chi Minh City and help mum and dad water the growing Tet trees. Smell the mint and lemongrass in perfect rows, watch the chickens grow fatter and flick the television channels a thousand times without really watching while cuddling the kids and feeding the dog. Most importantly of all, not getting up at 5:00 am to kick the motorbike fifteen times before it starts or shout at your cousin to hurry because you’re late for school!

Wherever you are, and whoever you are across this great nation – take a break, you deserved it!

Stivi Cooke

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