Chapter 6

And life resumed its course

Yarden began to speak French very well with me, with a few words in Hebrew sometimes. Boowa and Kwala help a lot. Well it is fortunately not in Vietnamese, or not yet. But she will not stop conjugate French verbs in Hebrew.

As for English, she continues to practice a bit, and with whom? With Ngoc the cook who has learned all alone! It was big hugs when we returned. She continues to talk to her in English, she must be used with us, despite Yarden's improvement in Vietnamese. So Yarden repeats after her English words with a Vietnamese accent. Besides it seems she understands everything in Vietnamese. In all cases she knows well the language of hands. No problem to be understood.

On returning, we still managed once to light the candles of Chanukah. But it is far from the festive atmosphere. Fortunately, Yarden is there to make the guys sing with her.

One Sunday Gilad finally agreed to come for a mule ride with us in the fields. Everybody came. In any case it's a nice spot and Baz is a very good organizer with his Turkish coffee.

After that first time, the second was to be expected. This time on a beautiful hill. Hopefully these rides will continue.

This month, they felt the village with signs ... more decorative than anything else. To believe that Big Brother is watching us. Even last week, Gilad got whistled because he had encroached upon the grass! But the trails are paved with detours. If they believe that their boards are there for something...

And the new pool table happens to be a very good entertainment in the evenings.

TH true milk, that's how the chair woman, the billionaire who owns everything, calls her products. And this Sunday, she inaugurates the beginning of the milk and veal marketing. It's not quite there yet because the calves are still there and they had to be castrated (Holstein bulls are not as sweet as their nice buffaloes). And the milk, a part still goes to a factory near Hanoi, but the rest, afer having been spilled around here, what a smell in the evening, is used to moisten the cows food.

So all week, they mounted a huge shed on the football field behind the dining room. They are at least a hundred people working day and late into the evening. Everything must be ready for the Lady and the Prime Minister.

The corporate colors, blue and white ... To believe that we will celebrate Independence Day before time ...
They even put the logo in big letters into the pool.

Everything is there. The big sound system, the projectors, the backstage, the scene, grandiose, and from the parking to the shed, a gateway decorated with blue and white banners, but that does not respect the pavement layout...

Meanwhile, a short tour to the silage, it's new here. The only difference from home is that Gilad is not there.

It is December 24 also, and I could not resist going to see what happens in churches in the area. It's the French who have left souvenirs. We managed to do two of them. Here, women on one side, men on the other. We didn't stay until the Mess but in one of them, a dance show and in the other one a sort of trivial-tombola with a wheel and gifts. Let's say that we were there.

Yarden went to school all week (for the first time) and she seems to be OK, except she does not eat much but it does not change from the ordinary. One day she scratched Hai on the cheek. But it seems that it was self defense. They were fighting over a toy ...

Now she put some vietnamese words into french sentences. “Maman je veux une ca chua”. (“Mom I want a tomato”).

As for the preparation of the ceremony, it is making great strides. The tables are set in and they put in place the flowers along the gateway and even in the pool. And all this for a two hours show!...

They added a generator, portable toilets and they transformed the dining room into an office. The poor cooks must enter through the window to bring food.

And here it is, on Sunday, the ceremony. Speeches, a little dance, a few songs, it seems that the singer was known, and a meal well washed down.  The presentation film was super nice, screened all around with about twenty projectors, with the large carton of milk that came out from behind the scene at the end. The commercial film was very ordinary. Everyone was there, all the farm workers, except Hang and Tang, Hai's parents, who went out to eat. When they returned, Hang said they had not found a place and had been disappointed in the organization ... They are both still part of the management ...

All afternoon, Yarden had fun with thousands of flowers. But do not ask her for photos. I have to run after her and catch her by surprise.

The Vietnamese know something about that. They are required to have imagination to get a smile of Yarden for their mobile phone. And for me it is now impossible.

In any case she was stuck to Ngoc all day (or sometimes to Meital, the manager of the cows nursery). They both are nice and really have patience.

 

And at the end of course the scene was hers and Hai's for one last dance.

One week to organize everything, and one day to pack everything up. Well besides cleaning and doing up the village. And the guards are very careful that we don't walk on the lawn!

 

Finally they have left us the letters and the flowers in the pool.

I finally understood what TH meant. These are the initials of the owner, Thai Huong. In fact nobody really knows, but perhaps it also means “true happy” ...

Yarden still loves to draw and began to draw better and better. Apart from the sun she already draws for a while, she draws shapes increasingly accurate. It's after she finishes that she imagines what it represents. 
As for the coloring it's not there yet. Kim laughs every time she shows me her work.

For the computer, she uses the arrow keys now, always with Boowa and Kwala.
Right now it is the period of the “why”.

And there is the new year's eve. After a short tour to Vinh to end up with the papers for the driver's license, the chefs have kindly organized a small party with sweets, wine and vodka.

Yarden and I initiated at karaoke. We have a lot of improvements to make... They love it here and there's a karaoke at every corner.