...... Back from the dead... seeing "The Monkey", Mr. Abu with my own eyes:

After hearing from Chau that somehow Lise "The Monkey" Abu is actually alive, I had to see this for myself… he sure looked to be a goner when I last saw him. By the way, Chau said that there is apparently a disagreement as to the monkey's name. She has always known him to be called by the American name of Matthew…when I visited Peace Village this morning to ask to see the monkey, a worker speaking little English called him Abu Abu… so who knows.
 
Good News…. Bad News…. Good News…. Good News… Real Dumb Sad Bad News…..

 GN- Mr. Abu was out of his big cage.
 BN- he was still outside.
 GN- he was vertical and upright.
 GN- he was in a smaller crate sized cage right near the warmth of a fire that they have been keeping going just for him…
 RDSBN- They put Mr. Abu too close to the fire and when he first went to sleep, he burned himself right above the eye and has a nasty sore you can see 

 I mean really, like my friend Patty posted earlier, she wasn’t sure if she was sad or happy for him that he was still alive . But they did give him 2 injections and decided at the school that they really like Mr. Abu and want him to stay at the school with them... and they will take better care of him….I sure hope so.
 
After my visit to see Mr. Abu I left and in the courtyard were two of my favorite students, Minh & Ha. Minh gave me his usual high five and Ha just did what Ha does…neither of them really talks... Ha grunts a word or two occasionally, but they were smiling and happy to see me I believe. I doubt either of them was aware that I was gone at all however... I’ve included some video I took of them during this last visit.

And finally, I wanted to see one week later if the basketball rim I bought to replace the old one had been put up yet. I already knew the answer to that…so I tried to communicate to a staff person that I would put it up, but I believe she thought that the new rim was locked inside a classroom…I’m not sure. Add another to the list of telephone wires, traffic and Pho-to .


..... Visit to Hoi Lo “Hanoi Hilton” Prison

After my visit to Peace Village, there was still one thing I wanted to see but hadn’t. It was the (in)famous prison of Hoi Lo, often referred to as the Hanoi Hilton where John McCain was held after he was shot down. It was surprisingly powerful although really, only two small rooms are about the U.S. prisoners held here. This is an old turn of the century prison and most all of it is focused on the Vietnamese resistance to the French during the 50’s and earlier. It was more designed to show the inhuman conditions that the Vietnamese patriots were subjected to by the French at this prison. The rooms about the shot down U.S. pilots was 'spun’ to show how well the American prisoners were cared for, especially compared to how the Vietnamese freedom fighters were treated earlier by the French. Obviously, the conditions that the pilots lived in were horrible and very doubtful like how the information boards portrayed .

But for all the propaganda BS from the North Vietnamese, when I see how the people of Hanoi lived under constant bombings of the B-52’s and F-111’s in the neighborhoods that I'm now in, I can only see the inhumanity. Living with the people of Hanoi these past 3 weeks and realizing the families of the likes of Chau & Minh & Ha & Phuong and all those that I met lived in such everyday fear is unimaginable. These are just regular simple people, who at least now just seem to want to go about living their lives. 

I doubt many of the people were actively engaged…more likely it was just a clash of governments fighting for something the people could care less about. Really, as I look back, I can’t even remember why we were fighting in Vietnam…all I can remember is learning about this domino theory that if one country falls to the communists, all in this region will. My guess is that the people of Hanoi couldn’t care less, but they got involved when they realized that some outside country is in their country and dropping bombs on them .

But really now, regardless of anyone’s beliefs, the people here in Hanoi are just like me and you….period. 


….. The View from a Motorbike 

I decided to go for it & took a motorbike back from Old Quarter to the VPV house… Movie camera in hand, I shot this from behind… BTW, what’s an orange tree doing traveling in the middle of traffic?
Oh, and for those of you my age who may remember…Like a good Alfred Hitchcock movie, if you look real closely, you will see me make a cameo appearance in the motorbike’s rearview.