I’m not one to use cliches or known phrases, or at least try to avoid them, but this one seemed perfect. Here comes the sun. What a perfectly astute title to a song that was so clearly written for central Vietnam in 2020. For the first time since early September, there is not a major named storm system barreling towards central Vietnam. I had grown so accustomed to the wind howling through our building that it became my dream-filled sleep’s comforting white background noise.
A constant whistling and in the height of the 13 storms that have come through, some as little as three days apart, an almost train-like howl. Without hesitation, I have never witnessed so much rain and wind. Day after day, night after night, the wind, rain, and accompanying noise filled the air. At one point in mid-October, it felt like this was just life for the rest of eternity. On and on, like the sound of a fan that is never shut off, the noise eventually faded into the background.
Learning To Live in Rain
Living like that for three months causes you to adjust your daily routine. Always making sure a poncho is within arm’s length. Learning to accept that you may never be fully dry. Realizing that rain and wind do not stop life here, even with most driving by motorbike. I have driven home many nights with a small opening in my poncho to see. The rain was so intense it blew under my poncho, soaking me anyway, hitting my face so fiercely as to force me to alternate eyes to keep a clear enough view. The only thing prohibitive is when the sustained wind gets above 20 miles an hour. You can’t stay straight on the road. But, on the other hand, it makes getting around slow and more thoughtful. Do I really need to go to the store?
Minor skin irritations
Also, living in constant water brings a few issues I wouldn’t have considered. Exclusively wearing sandals, you can’t wear shoes in this much water, and the excess water everywhere causes skin issues. As the sandals rub on their contact points with your skin, and the skin is almost constantly soft from water, it causes sores to develop. I’ve learned to try and keep my feet as dry as possible and go barefoot as much as possible. It’s just a slight but constant irritation.
Wet clothes
During the stormy period, I put on wet clothes or put them over the fan to dry if I had time. We obviously couldn’t hang our clothes to dry outside with the rain. We have a rod in the bathroom to hang clothes, but the bathroom is permanently open to the outside, and with so much humidity in the air, they never dry completely. It is not as miserable an existence as it may sound. It just has its own set of problems to overcome.
Like most things in 2020, the rainy season in central Vietnam has been unprecedented. It rains a lot during the season, but Da Nang and the surrounding area usually see scattered days of rain and sun dispersed throughout. Unfortunately, this year, the sunny days have been almost nonexistent.
A Dental Detour
We had to deal with a dental situation a few days before Vamco reached our shores. Xu had been having problems with some teeth. She had been on antibiotics for a few days to get the infection to subside. Now, it was time to deal with the problem directly. So we went to the mini-hospital, the easiest way to get treatment that can’t be resolved at the pharmacy.
A full-service hospital that can deal with most problems but doesn’t deal with overnight patients. You must be admitted to a regular hospital for an overnight stay. But here at the clinics, I guess it would be a closer name to something in the US, though they are rather large facilities—the size of a small hospital with different sections for different conditions.
A rather efficient system
You always hear the propaganda in the States about socialized medicine. I’m sure it is different in every country. But here in Vietnam, the only experience I have ever had is efficient, affordable, accessible, and fast. I parked the motorbike and made our way to a small desk at the end of the parking area. We filled out a half-page form, name, address, and problem, and the lady took us to what looked like the lobby of a standard hospital.
We didn’t even have a chance to sit. As I was beginning to do so, a nurse standing almost at attention behind the desk motioned us to follow her. She had our little slip of paper with her that had now been attached to a clipboard. We followed her outside down a small covered walkway and into another section of the clinic. We walked into a dental examination room and waited for the doctor.
The Doctor
The doctor walked in as the nurse excited and immediately sat down to examine Xu’s toothache. She spoke with Diem in Vietnamese, and they discussed the situation while she probed around Xu’s mouth. Everything that needed to be done was concerned, with two extractions and two teeth to be repaired with dental cement until the teeth underneath emerged. She left the room for a few minutes and returned with the supplies.
The Room
The room was incredibly modern. Only the chair was hard plastic. Everything designed for the Vietnamese is hard. Even on the train, you must pay extra for a soft berth. The room was also immaculate and sanitized but incredibly utilitarian. Every aspect of the room was intended to aid in its purpose, not comfort the patient or offer a comforting experience. It wasn’t uncomfortable by design, just to the point.
In and Out
The doctor swabbed liquid novocaine to numb the gums before administering the same with a needle. Xu was not happy with the needle, and we even had to hold her down while the doctor gave the injection as, at one point, she was thrashing her head with the needle still in her gums. After the first extraction, we bribed her with a trip to a toy store to remove the final tooth.
After about 20 minutes, the work was complete. The doctor was great and helpful in being sweet to Xu to get her through the ordeal. When we pulled into the parking lot and pulled out, 45 minutes may have lapsed. Keep in mind we did not have an appointment. The total cost was about $25 US, and there was no lengthy paperwork or trying to determine who, what, how, or under what phase of the moon to pay copay, or all the other nonsense.
On the way back, we did honor our trip to the toy store. I guess spending so much time in the shop lately, she got a toy hair kit. We grabbed some fried bananas and stopped in for a few shrimp coconut crepes on the way back to the shop. I really can say my experience with socialized medicine here has been very positive. But I know it doesn’t always work as well as it seems here.
Vamco Approaches
The last storm to come through was Vamco. Vamco began impacting Da Nang around Midnight on November 15th. In what was a strange set of circumstances, the two days prior were dry, partly cloudy, and in the upper 70s. The storm had pulled everything it could into a tight, well-formed system, and Vamco headed its course directly for Da Nang. The skies over Da Nang were beautiful even on the morning of the 14th, 12 hours before the worst began. The previous storms came with no semblance of a break, at least not like this.
A city-wide curfew was to go into effect at 6 p.m. So Diem and I headed to the market to get food for the house and the shop. We opened for the morning, cleared our appointments, and began preparing for the storm. Diem prepared lunch for the staff, and we closed the shop early. We headed home, picked up the girls, and arrived at the apartment around noon. Preparations were already underway in the neighborhood. Awnings were being drawn, glass doors and windows taped up, and potters were being pulled in.
A few last-minute supplies
As the evening approached and the curfew drew near, I went to the corner store for a few last-minute items. The winds were already building, and the Vinmart+ next to the apartment had already dropped their storm doors. So I continued up another block to the store inside the large apartment building on Asian Highway 17. That apartment building has a massive generator, and the store is sheltered deep in the concrete parking deck. It operates 24 hours, typhoon or not. It is an excellent perk with a small produce section, dry goods, frozen meat case, beer, wine, and liquor. It’s pretty much anything you need in a pinch.
As I made my way back to the apartment, the wind had increased to a point where it was hard to walk, especially on streets flowing with the wind direction. As I arrived home, my friend Trung, our landlord, was helping the neighbors secure their door. He was none too happy with me being out and scolded me to get inside. They are just great. They have become our family here. Always looking out for us and taking care of us.
Back on the roof
In previous storms, I have made my way to the roof periodically during the duration of the storms. Trung asked that I keep the outside door of the penthouse closed this time. Something about the pressure changes is causing issues in other parts of the building. In exchange, he asked me to join him and his son Tuan on the roof to secure everything. It seemed like a fair trade. I could document the securing of the building, which was dramatic, and in exchange, I kept my but inside.
It was pretty wild going on the roof with Trung and Tuan. The wind was just steadily intense, with gusts that felt like they would rip your clothes off. I recorded the scene as Trung and his oldest son Tuan secured the water tanks, water heater, and swing and double-checked the ropes on the light well. Hail began to fill the air, and the rain went from slightly annoying to stinging instantly. Finally, as everything was double-checked, it was felt that all that could be done was, so we retreated inside.
A Deep Sleep
After securing the exterior of the building, Diem and I prepared a large dinner for the girls and us. Here, they often shut power just before any landfall if the storm itself doesn’t knock it out, so we always like to have a good amount of cooked food on hand. We always seemed to have the wilder side of Vietnamese cuisine during these storms; this time, it was small intestines.
We had our fill of dinner, ensuring the girls and we had full bellies to help facilitate sleep in the long night. For Diem and me, a few beers didn’t hurt either. Finally, we went to bed in the howling and whistling den of the night. The girls ended up in bed with us. It was about 2 a.m. when the power went out.
Waking to a new world
With the power out and no alarm set, it was late in the morning before we woke. It was early in the morning when the howling finally subsided, so I think we didn’t fall into a deep sleep until just before dawn. It was the sudden power surge that woke everyone. When we finally awoke, the world outside was quiet. There was no underlying wind lowly groaning in the background. There was no steady pitter-patter of rain on the windows. The clouds were still there, but everything seemed calm and, dare I say, normal.
We quickly got ready, cleaned the dishes from the night before, and the four of us went to the shop to survey any damage. There was none, at least not in any measurable amount. Just before landfall, Vamco turned north. The storm skirted the coast another 100 miles before making landfall. This gave us an extended period of rain and wind but ultimately put us on the southern side of the storm. Thus sparing us from any significant storm surge and reducing the impact of wind from a direct strike.
An Unprecedented Year of Rain
Vamco would quickly dissipate after landfall. That backbone of mountains that stretches the entire length of Vietnam causes storms, no matter how strong, to quickly weaken after landfall. The only downside is that the mountains also force the storms to purge much of the rain, which is why central Vietnam has received so much rain this year. All the stored water and energy just gets dumped at the landfall.
Da Nang alone, which hasn’t borne the brunt of the storms in central Vietnam this year, has recorded in September, October, and through November 19th, 2020, 145 inches of rain. But to be fair, the average for those three months in the last 20 years has been a whopping 107 inches, but we still have 11 days in November to add to that total. That could be close to a 40% increase over annual averages. It has been an unprecedented year.
The Sun Shines Again
In the wake of the storm, life quickly began to head in an average direction. We took the girls to the shop after the storm for a day of pampering. The weather stabilized between the mid-60s at night and the low 80s by day. Multiple nights passed where we drove home in warm, dry, and beautiful weather. It was becoming that wonderful Da Nang I have spent so many months in.
A Western Night Out
One night, Diem asked if I could find a Western-style place to have dinner with some friends. We hadn’t gone out to eat much in the past few months, and there was a real desire to get out after months of rain. So I found a western bar and grill called Dirty Fingers, and we headed out from the shop Sunday evening to meet some friends there.
It was awesome—a live band known as the Johnny Congo Trio was performing. A rockabilly band, their set featured everything from Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Carl Perkins. The beer was draft, and the nachos and chicken wings were delicious. It was a fantastic evening. I could have been in a honky-tonk bar in Texas. It made me feel like I was back in the States, if not for the evening. It was a much-needed outing.
Finding our Groove
And so things settled down. The shop is growing quickly. The shop is building a clientele, and the days are beginning to roll on. Sometimes we enjoy lunch with a friend or cook in the shop. We keep the girls busy when they are out of school with a day of pampering or helping to prepare the shop.
Unbeknownst to me, a package was delivered to the shop one day. A delivery guy shows up with an elongated box. He opens it. I see out of the corner of my eye a faux Christmas tree with all the trimmings. It even has wall decorations. Part of his job is to assemble anything he delivers. He looks at the bundle of green plastic grass wrapped around the wire and a grass-wrapped pole. He examines it in a desperate attempt at understanding what, to him, is unknowable. I look at him in his desperation and merely say, “I got this.” He thanks me and hurries off.
Making a Home
And so it goes. The world is made to fit us, not the other way around. I am enjoying my perch at the front desk. Diem has been amazing in making our world feel like home for both of us. Being so far from so many I miss isn’t always easy, but it is a lot easier when I’m so close to the one I love. I don’t know what the next chapter holds, but I know it will be amazing. Everything has been nothing less since I was first introduced to that amazing smile, what now seems like a lifetime ago.
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