Eggcellent Day in Danang

In the spirit of an "American cultural education" I got the task of teaching about Easter in my ESL class in Danang.  I found this just a tad ironic in that the mere mention of a religious holiday at a public school in Vermont raises red flags.  Here I was specifically directed to teach about Easter. 

If you have checked the attendance record at church lately, you may see the humor in this assignment.  To balance my religious truancy, however, I do have an intimate knowledge of all things chocolate with a particular soft-spot for Cadbury mini-eggs.  So, armed with a recently-acquired knowledge of the religious details of Easter (thanks to History.com) and significant real-life experience with the commercial side of Easter, I set out to inform a small portion of the Vietnamese population on the intermingling of Christianity's highest holy day and Peter Cottontail's hop around the world .

To set the scene, recall that my 25 Vietnamese students speak little to no English (apart from what they have learned in the last five weeks).  I would struggle to explain the Easter story to a native English speaker, but now I was forced to dramatize and draw the story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.  We started at the beginning with God (the "father" - they've learned that one) and Jesus, the "son."  I skipped over Mary's role in this whole thing - fearing that I may end up trying to dramatize/draw "virgin" for the class.  With the addition of a cross, some pantomimed hammering and the word "dead," I got the crucifixion part over with.  Next there was the drawing of the tomb and a large stone.  Then I erased the stone, and stick Jesus magically levitated back up to his father.  Whew!  I'm thinking "religious education" gets a line on my resume in the upcoming job search.

The Easter Bunny side of things was right up my alley.  I was happy to hop around the classroom, show pictures of chocolate bunnies and hand out samples of Peeps that had arrived from home.  Candy is my comfort zone.  Needless to say, we stuck with the commercial side of things for some hands-on fun.  Brianna accompanied me to class on the Friday before Easter and we had an egg-dying party.  Remarkably, we had all of the necessary ingredients, and, despite the fact that we were working with brown eggs, everyone came away from class with a hand-dyed Easter egg of their own. 

I do wish I could get inside the brains of my students for just a few minutes to see what they really think Easter is all about now...a sticky chick, a furry rabbit, candy eggs, a levitating man, a murder and single Dad who oversees it all.  If nothing else, we all had a good laugh.

   

            

To celebrate our successful Easter class, Brianna and I went to Miss Apple's Cafe (my regular spot for avocado smoothies in Danang) for a quick juice before heading back to Hoi An on the motor bike.  Brianna got more than she bargained for with her strawberry juice.  Typically if we have Nolan around, he gets the unwanted attention.  Today, however, Brianna was front and center with Miss Apple's staff.  We were the only customers with an overly-attentive Vietnamese staff of six.  It started with the usual polite inquiries...name, age, where do you live, etc.



Embracing the community comb


Then the petting began.  Brianna was caressed and pinched, patted and poked.  Finally one woman pulled Brianna's hair out of her ponytail and started combing though it with her fingers (hopeless).  She shook her head at the tangled mess and called for the "community comb."  Brianna and I both cringed inside.  Most bathrooms in Vietnam sport a community comb (and sometimes even a community toothbrush) for last minute personal grooming.  So out from behind the cash register came the community comb.  I whispered to Brianna that we would do a good lice combing before bed, and she pasted on a smile and endured the detangling at the hands of her new friend.  And when a few stubborn wisps just wouldn't stay in that ponytail, her friend licked her hand and patted everything into place.  Brianna smiled politely and gave me the "can we please get out of here" eyes.  I paid, and we thanked everyone for their attentive service.  Brianna left shaking (and scratching) her head and vowing to stay away from Miss Apple's crew on her next visit to Danang.

The Last Supper with Megan and Danny...
I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Easter.