Long time no updates

Sorry it's been a while. We thank those who called or emailed out of concerns for us. Yes, Hanoi flooded really bad over the past two days (worse rain and flood in 35 years), but no, we have not been affected here in Hai Phong. We saw some heavy but short rains yesterday and today and some strong winds, and the school grounds outside of our rooms had about 2 inches of water, but it drained quickly after the rain stopped. I was teaching Friday morning and the rain came pouring down really hard. But it stopped by the time class was over. We have some teachers in Hanoi who have been stranded because of the flooded streets. Some also lost electricity, and food has also been scarce.

Talking about electricity, we in Hai Phong had no power for 24 whole hours two days ago! The blackout came unannounced at 10:30pm, right before we had a chance to take our showers. Less than an hour after that, the water supply also ran out because there was no electricity to run the water pump. We had no water to at least wipe our sweaty body, so we went to bed feeling all sticky. It was also hot inside our room since the AC also didn't work. So we left the door open. Next morning, we didn't have water to brush or wash our face. We tried not to move too much so we wouldn't generate more sweat. We had bread and canned tuna for lunch and couldn't wash the dishes. Thankfully, it was not a very hot day and there was some breeze. I was hoping it would rain so that I could go out and shower in the rain, but it didn't, and apparently Hanoi (2 hours away) in the meanwhile was flooding. I prepared lessons for the next day, and then we decided to have an early dinner before it got dark. We boiled instant noodles for dinner and ate part of it in candle light. At about 6:30pm we went to bed, all sweaty again, and no brushing. It felt kinda like camping. Then we heard from a lady from the school office that the power would be back at 12 midnight. I thought I would try to get some sleep and then get up at 12 to shower. We left the door open again because it was hot, and it was so noisy outside because all the Chinese students were all running around screaming because they had nothing else to do. At about 10:30pm we heard some really loud screams. We ran outside to see what was going on and realized that there were lights. Yeah, we had power again! But it took a while, the next morning, until we had water again. We all had a nice shower the next morning!

Then, last night, just as I started showering, the water began to slow down. Thankfully, there were a few meager drops left, enough for me to actually finish washing away my sweat (with cold water). I then decided to squeeze in one quick shower for Caleb as well. The water finally totally died right after Caleb got his body washed. Caleb likened the situation to the story where the widow had just enough flour and oil left for one last meal. Both of us went to bed nice and clean. Water came back at around noon time today. We were told that the Chinese students used too much water and they used it all up, and the pump didn't work fast enough. They somehow fixed the problem, but we were wondering if it was a permanent fix. So we hurried and got all our dishes washed, floor mopped, meals prepared before the water disappears again.

That was the highlight this past week. In general, the past two weeks have been extremely crazy. Many many students started to show up here to practice their English to prepare for their first Speaking Midterm. There were also tons of papers to correct. And there were a few visitors that decided to come in the same week. And we had meetings with school officials because they decided to give us an extra course to teach. I had two or three hours of sleep each night. We were all wondering how we would survive through the week. Manny and I were saying how we are a lot busier here than when we were engineers. Here, we don't even have weekends to relax. We work 7 days a week. It just never stops. There's never a dull moment here. If you're looking for excitement, come and join us.

Anyway, this was all to let you know we had a good excuse for not having been blogging. There are more to tell, but I need to go to bed now. I'll tell you about the new course and update you on our partially functioning toilet in a later post, maybe.