When it rains in Saigon...

Since the very first day here, Widhar and I had been telling ourselves that we should get an umbrella or a water poncho. It rains pretty much every day during this season, only that until now it had only rained during office hours, when we were indoors.

I am sure you noticed I said “until now”… Well… today when we where half the way to the school, I felt the first drop… and then the second, and the thousand thirds, and the million forths… we decided to stop and stand on the sidewalk, protected by the salient roof of some store, until the rain stopped. It usually rains unexpectedly and hard, but just for 5 minutes…. Well, not this time. This time it wouldn’t stop. At some point, Widhar disappeared. Alone with my camera and my random thoughts, I tried to capture in images the wilderness of the city under the rain… The motorbikers were still there, as active as always, only that now everyone was wearing a water poncho. For the rest, business as usual.



And just as I was starting to wonder what kind of crazy people venture into such a storm equipped only with that plastic garment and sailed on a two-wheeled vehicle on these streets turned into small rivers and as trafficked as usual, Widhar showed up again, bringing a pair of brand new Saigon-style water ponchos and that big smile of his. So of course we put them on, got on our bikes, rolled up the sleeves of our pants, and resumed our journey.



A day of happenings… Today was also the day of our first blackout in Vietnam. The wind was very strong, and it was clear that it was going to rain again any moment. Then, all of the sudden, the lights went off. And the wind seemed to blow harder. I didn’t feel that surprised; after all, we do get blackouts from time to time in Quito. The people of the School, however, said that it was unusual. It took me a while to understand that it wasn’t unusual to get blackouts in Vietnam, just in the School, since it is placed in the same neighborhood where the Party’s headquarters is, and where many influential people live… A colleague just got to the School a few minutes after the blackout, and told us that the wind was so strong that trees branches were falling on the streets, and that that may have been the cause of the blackout… At any rate, we seized the opportunity to have a long chat with our coworkers about the history of the country, its government and the liberties that there are and that there are not, and possible weekend-travelling locations. Lots of plans already cooking…