Lunch with Tue and Uyen. Beef pho

Today I walked into the centre of the city and met Mr Tue (Tway) and Ms Uyen ( Win) my 2 teaching assistants, for lunch. I am mentoring these 2 lovely Vietnamese people into teaching. They help and support me in the classroom, similar to the role of a student teacher, take lessons and have a general responsibility for most of the displays in and around the classroom.

Lunch was at Pho 24 (Fur) which is a restaurant chain in Ho Chi Minh specialising in Vietnamese food, pho, rice or spring rolls. The Vietnamese eat pho at least once a day. The other meals are usually rice. Pho is a soup made from beef, chicken or fish stock with the long vermicelli type noodles, a little meat and a tiny smattering of vegetables. I chose beef pho which was rather nice.

It was rather an interesting and enlightening day. Tue and Uyen talked about the role that their parents had in the Vietnam war. Tue’s father worked for the Americans as a radio operator, Uyen’s parents worked for a business that supplied the Americans, not because might is right, but rather they had to take a side and they disliked communism. Some of Tue’s uncles worked for the VC. Families were obliviously divided..

The time passed very quickly as we discussed many topics and issues from the perspective of an Asian culture and a Western culture. The saying, same same but different seems to be a unifying thread through the conversations. Like being in the UAE, it's nice to step out side the expat community to mix and talk with the locals, albeit for an afternoon.