SEPTEMBER A FUNNY HOOKER STORY AND THE MID AUTMN FESTIVAL

September marked the beginning of Fall and some changes for the teachers. First of all, during the summer months all of us had Sundays off so we were able to do things together and we really enjoyed that. In early September the same day off was ending and to mark the end of the summer, Mrs. Thao and all of us went to My Khe Beach for an overnight get away. Also, Raissa, a teacher from the Phllipines was leaving and this would be our last weekend with her. In her place, Mrs. Thao had spoken to her partner, Leah and Leah had agreed to come to Quang Ngai to set up curriculum, polices and provide us with professional development. Leah also came to My Khe with us. Minh, one of my students and her mother joined us and the three of us shared a room together. After a late afternoon swimming and indulging in the wonderful seafood, we noticed that the resort also offered a massage service. Mrs.Thao asked if we would like to have massages and of course, we said yes. it only cost 50 VND for the massage ...rather cheap. I thought it was sort of weird that the masseuses did not have uniforms, but thought nothing more of it. Well, I had the quickest massage ever...approximately 15 minutes long and the lady mandipulated this and that on my back and got a couple of good adjustments which felt heavenly,and that was it. She then asked me for a tip which I thought was also peculiar, All of us had very short massages. Mrs. Thao then approached me and advised me that the 50VND was for the room only and that these girls were hookers and that is why she asked for a tip. So I gave the girls a tip. Mrs. Thao told us later that this was the first time somethiing like that has happened at My Khe. We all had a good laugh about it.

We had been told a couple of months previously that September marks the mid autumn festival which is a children's festival. During the moon festival it is customary to give boxes of moon cake which are only available at that time of the year and sure enough there were specialized stalls set up selling their mooncakes. Children parade on the street singing and dressed up in costumes as dragons. The children dance in their costumes as long as they are paid for their dancing (sort of reminded me of the idea of Halloween back home)