Rach Gia

An early start yesterday...4 45 a.m. to be precise. Pulled out of Saigon and onto a plane for Rach Gia, which is located in the Mekong Delta and is just about as flat and wet as any place i've ever seen. We spent the day in a van, traveling between the eight - count 'em eight - work-sites we are to attend to whilst we are here. At least things are broken into week long cycles, the first week being spent in an idyll of very intense labor under excellent conditions -- the second week, less so. Those sites are a horror of loose duck feathers and close quarters, not so looking forward to digging those foundations around the broken existing structures, tucked close together, near filthy canals. Gulp.

But, that's next week.

For now, we only have to deal with the particularities of the Communist way of doing things, which involves little personal choice and much being told what to do, exactly how to do and why you must improve. This to people who have been doing these certain things (shoveling, mixing cement, brick-laying) for years. Unskilled labor. A-hem. Go figure.

Dealing with the fact that at least five people in my immediate vicinity have vowed to eat rat sometime within the next two weeks....will keep everyone posted.