No baby, trash hoagie, lipstick craze

The big news with our baby is no news … yet.  Phuong is huge and she gets an occasional contraction. But no signs of honest-to-God labor. The due date remains July 4, but doctors don’t expect the baby to wait that long.  Of course we’re anxious, hoping and praying for a safe delivery and healthy baby. No choice but to keep waiting.

I altered my walk route because motorbikes kept hitting me when I walked on the sidewalk. I was going to get into a fight and clobber somebody – or get clobbered – if I stayed the course on the sidewalk. Sad, but that’s how it is.  So now I walk along the railroad tracks. It’s trashy, but there’s a little bit more nature and green. There’s still a motorbike or two on the paths next to the tracks, but not like the sidewalks, where people suddenly pull in and park their motorbikes to patronize the shops.

 The other day during my walk, I saw something that shook me up. There was a man  ahead of me squatting next to the tracks and it looked like he was rummaging through some stuff. You see people looking for recyclables this way all the time. But when I got next to him I saw that he was filling a loaf of bread with discarded food that had been sitting next to the tracks. He was making a kind of trash hoagie that I assume he was going to eat.  It smelled rancid. Maybe I’m wrong, but countries like the United States and England seem to do a better job of hiding and segregating their poverty. In countries like Peru, Bolivia and Vietnam, the poverty is more visible, and is readily seen alongside the well-to-do.

It’s a fashion statement that’s blowin’ up in Bien Hoa. Young girls all over town, from ages 12 to 30, are wearing red lipstick. You betcha. Lipstick has come to Dong Nai province in Vietnam. I noticed my coffee shop girls wearing it. Staffers where I work are now wearing it. So are students. I even see random lottery girls and food stand girls wearing lipstick. This fashion “craze” has taken off in the past month or so. The girls aren’t shy with application. They’re still learning, I think. Personally, I’m not enamored with lipstick. In my opinion, Vietnamese girls are pretty and don’t need this kind of embellishment, but it’s not like I have a voice or say in the matter. People will do as they please, and if slopping red wax around your mouth makes you happy, then go for it. I wanted to get some pictures, but I couldn’t figure out how to get close-ups and not look perverted at the same time. I’ll work on it when I can.

I had more to write, but the internet is brutally slow so the blog stops here.