Day 26th? "So you think your smarter than a Vietnamese 5th Grader?"

Hello, My name is Woodie. What is yours? How are you? I am fine. What is your favorite color? Today is a beautiful day! Yes (or) No?

Woodie Wade is no more smarter than a 5th Grader than when he started this month long journey to Kontum, Vietnam! What a learning curve this has been for the past 22 days. I now know about conjegating a verb, and that a noun is a Person, Place or Thing....for crying out loud at 44 years old! Oh...and lets not forget our old friends; singular & Plural! Or what about their 2nd cousins Past, Present and Future??? I blame You Debo....for allowing us to skip school so often....pick me up from Garfield via....Potomac and miss Mrs. Pearsol's English classes...."how did we do that anyway!???

I'm sorry for the long break in posting a new blog....You will forgive me after what I'm about to write. You see, We've had alot of sickness and storms here in Kontum over the last 6 days. Most of the villages have experienced vomiting and flu like symptoms....and along with all the typhoon like storms comes the most horricfic flies, spiders, moths, bugs I've even witnessed.....ie...Malaria ! I have so many welts on my body! You can not escape the bug factor or Rat factor here.

Question: Is this a Beautiful Country? Answer: Yes

But it is filled with many contridictions and many views not spoken about....I'm here to clear them up:

1. Food. Spice is Nice but, Its Barbaric to say the least to injest a descent meal! I'm totally done with trying!...from the rats, to eating a dog, to their vegtables being washed in dirty water unfit to eat after being cleaned??? I'm sticking to my bread/cheese and crackers....! You can't be the weak minded person to travel to Vietnam! Again, it is a good looking surface here until you crack that surface...very much like an egg..this is just my own take on whats very live and what Memorex!! We all walk a different way thru life....Ur take if you come here may be Beta....Mayber, VCR....perhaps even DVR! or better yet..... Tivo! I guess what I'm trying to say here....Is I'm a very thrifty Woodiewade....Those of you who are in my present company would even say...I'm Cheap....So with that being said: If your not cheap or Thrifty and coming to Vietnam for other reasons unlike my journey: You'll be fine! Staying in accomadations you've never dreamed of...sleeping in Mesquito Net beds...and eating fine Cuisine....

3. Bug Warefare: Last night I came to this very Computer in the open air Lobby of my Hotel to post a Blog and the Bug Warefare was soo thick I could not keep the Flies off my Computer Monitor.

4. Eggs...Even If you buy a free range egg...(any where) and leave it in a sun lit room ready to be cracked for consumption; it still has the possiblility to be fertile and abe to have a live chicken hatch! Yes! Yes...and yes! I saw it come true on the back of my Motor bike! I was returning from the Day market with over 200 eggs and when I arrived to the Orphanage I had only 199 eggs plus a Hitch Hiker I named Alex Zamm! ( My director and Producing Partner "Alex Zamm" of WK does not fancy EGGS) A cute little egg had hatched and became a living little Chic!!!! There is a little Zammy man here clucking around the Orphanage ready for you to adopt Denise!!!

5. Religion in Kontum: You had better be a Cristian or else! Enough Said

6. Rainy season: 9 Months out of a year it rains here like nobody's Kitchen!! Dec, Jan, and Feb is the best time to travel here! Although the rains are magnefiscent...they come every day and with the rains comes the bugs afterwards...and sickness and disease! The village is full of sickness this very moment as I post this blog! I, myself have lost nearly 10 lbs. from my own battle with stomack flu! Only my body knows the true story behind how I got sick!

I'll stop with the unpleasentries only to say.....Its a mistafying courtry full on contridictions....Your story may be different...This one is mine and I'm owning it!

So....am I smarter than a vietnamese 5th Grader? hummmm? Me think Not! But I also think Yes...!!!! What I have learned in my class and in the villages is that it's a daily struggle here in Vietnam .....one that I was not aware of before coming and one that I'm still grasping at Orange straws to comes to terms with!

Would I come here again? Absolutely....and I'd do it probably the same only with much knowledge from my 1st trek here!

So...I'm signing off as a Graduated 5th Grader and now onto 6th grade.

Certificate is in the Mail! Addressed to Woodie Wade of A spanking clean and knowledgable New look at life in Vietnam!!!

Sincerely,
Smarter than a 5th Grader!

xoxoxo & love,
WW