Day 3 in Vietnam

Today was a whole different experience from that of yesterday. We started our day by going to visit the U.S. Embassy office. The security was really tight, and they even took our phones and cameras before entering the building. I was expecting to run into some sort of super-secretive technologically-advanced office building, but nope, it looked just like an ordinary U.S. office building inside. We were greeted by a really energetic and happy lady named Jennifer Letters. She was really interesting to speak with, and two of her co-workers came in and joined on our conversation as well. She explained to us how she got her job, as well as the requirements and standards to be accepted into foreign service. They also gave us a brief history of Vietnam and their relations with the U.S. Some of the statistics were pretty amazing; in 92’ poverty was at 58%, and in 02’ it was at less than 30%. They also spoke about the difficulties that Vietnamese have with getting visas to go to the U.S. They explained that 400 people apply for visas a day, and they only have a very small time frame to decide whether or not they are granted the visa. As our time ran up, we said our goodbyes and moved onto our next destination.
We stopped at a company called IDG which had the first American technology venture capital fund in Vietnam. A guy named Pho spoke with us about their company and I was surprised at how good his English was! Then I found out why; he had done both his undergraduate and graduate degree in the U.S. He explained that Vietnam had an economy that was currently emerging at full speed, and that only happens once per country. So he took the first opportunity he could after finishing college to start getting to work in Vietnam.
One of the main differences I noted between yesterday and todays visits was that in comparing IDG with Becamex, it seemed like IDG was in a much more profitable business. That may have been though because they were not government run like Becamex was. I also thought that Pho was much more exited and lively in his presentations than the presenter at Becamex was, she seemed more monotone and unenthused. Then again, both companies are in completely different fields. I think that IDG is taking more risks but has greater potential for great reward, while Becamex is taking a safer route.
Our next stop was at an orphanage located next to a Buddhist Temple. The nuns from that Temple actually ran the orphanage, and we were able to walk around to visit before we ate lunch. There were quite a few children with physical abnormalities, which we learned was frowned upon, so instead of keeping the children, the parents would just drop them off at the Temple. In fact so many people dropped off their kids at the Temple that they had to build the orphanage right next door! Our lunch was a vegetarian one since their religion doesn’t allow them to eat meat. It was probably one of my favorite meals thus far! I was a vegetarian for a year so the idea of things looking like meat but not actually being meat wasn’t new to me. Some of the others seemed to be a little freaked out by it, but that meant more food for me! J After making our donations and speaking with the nun we learned that these children aren’t even adoptable. Apparently the government only allows for two orphan homes where the kids are adoptable in the entire country! It was sad to see all the young kids and know that they would be there until they turned 18 with no chance of adoption.
Once we got back to the hotel we had a short break, where Rob and I finally got our massages—which were amazing! After that it was time to get ready for the water puppet show and dinner! I thought it was odd that the water puppet shows are known to be for tourists yet the story they told while playing was in Vietnamese instead of English…. I guess to make it seem even more traditional? The show was a lot better than I had anticipated. It was really neat to see all the different water puppets and how much they could move and stay in rhythm with one another. For a nice change in food, we went to a French restaurant which served traditional French food like baguette (which was SO good! I didn’t realize how much I missed bread until then!). After dinner, we went back to the hotel to pack our bags up for the Mekong Delta home stay the next day.