Grand Opening Celebration!

Nurses posing before the clinic entrance sign

Happy almost-March!  I didn't write for about a month because it seemed not much was happening, just plodding along with life in Vietnam at about our halfway point.  But then, all of a sudden (!!) we found out the Family Medical Clinic was to have a Grand Opening Celebration 10 days after we heard the news!  This is the building where our AVC (Academic Vision Center) is to be located, for our students to see "real" patients instead of practicing only on each other.  November 17 was the original date for the clinic opening, so we are happy to see it finally moving along!  I am not sure when patients actually start coming to this clinic, and our own AVC has many logistics yet to work out (scheduling, fee structures, etc.) before a real patient enters, but we are hopeful that it will be soon.  Following are pictures with headings to share some of the chaos/excitement:

Feb. 15 we were surprised by a call
to come in and be measured for lab
coats.  I think they were custom made!

Right across from our exam rooms are the "WCs."  :)  

  
Across the hall from us is the nutrition/dietician room.
The "before" picture was at 3:30 the afternoon
before the Grand Opening (complete with tours
for dignitaries).  But the day of the Opening,
the room was completed beautifully!

What a mess!

Clean and neat in time for tours on Grand Opening.

The optometry education staff in our new lab coats and
new clinic exam room.

We have name signs!!  :O  "TS" is a term for doctor, but not medical doctor.
"Khuc xa" translates as "refraction."  A new title had to be made for "doctor of
optometry" in Vietnam.

Bob standing by his sign "Doctor of Refraction Robert Elson Molter" and Mr. Long
(who has a master of optometry from Australia; his initial is "THS.")

Dr. Hui Hiang Koh sitting in the doctor's chair in the exam room,
ready and set up for eye exams.

The room for practice on medical mannequins--it
was a little startling to look into the room down the hall
and see what looked like bodies on the tables!

The display outside the clinic the day before the Grand Opening.
I was told it's more of a Chinese custom and it is to wish for
success and prosperity.  The big sticks were incense that was burned.
Lots of food and the chickens were quite elaborate with wing
tips threaded through the beak.

Lots of beautiful flowers from various well-wishers outside the entrance.

The Eye Care Foundation is one of the
contributors to the optometry program here,
along with Brien Holden Vision Institute.

Red carpet reception for program attendees.
Our 3rd year student Thanh was the front man on the left!

After the morning's 3 hour ceremony with speeches, a dance, and a song
by students, the traditional "lion dance" was performed outside the clinic entrance.

After the lion dance (which was part of the "ribbon cutting" ceremony), a huge luncheon followed:

Appetizers: shells stuffed with a yummy minced meat (crab probably)
mixture; rolls were fried and stuffed with cream cheese.  Rare in Vietnam!

Chicken, with heart shaped biscuits

Not for the faint of heart.  A salad with pig ear and beef.  Chewy,
but a delicious dressing.  Just don't visualize what you are eating!

Not a "hot pot" but this prawn dish was laid on top of a burner.

Traditional "hot pot" dish.  Greens added at end by someone at
the table.  Getting a bit full by this course!!

Finally, dessert.  Usually fruit is dessert here but this
time we had a sweeter "white bean soup."  We never have these
types of desserts back home; it consists of lotus seeds, white beans, and
a date or two in a sugary liquid.

Our table selfie!

Thus ends the big Saturday Grand Opening celebration.  I should call this the "long, skinny blog" since I can't seem to get my photos to align in order unless I keep them all centered (sorry).  I did take a few other photos in the past month besides the AVC opening:

BREAKFAST WITH THE GIRLS--3 times now I've been asked out to breakfast after the Saturday morning workout at my gym.  It's so fun to be included even though only one woman speaks English so I get to listen to a lot of chatter in Vietnamese.  And, they choose these great local restaurants I probably wouldn't choose, and they order for me!  We share the dishes as is typical for this culture.

The first local restaurant we tried a few weeks ago.  I don't know
the name of the dish I had, but it was good!

Ca phe da sua:  Vietnamese coffee with milk on ice.  Huong
speaks English (on my right) and works for a pharmaceutical
company here.  Lieu (left) is the aerobics teacher.

The last breakfast together, at a Chinese dim sum restaurant. Yen, the
one in the middle of Lieu and Huong, used her phone for the photo and
used a makeup app to make us look pretty after our workout!  Too funny.

MORE FOOD:

Another new street food experience.  Tiny little birds (we are
guessing quails) on the rotisserie. 13000 dong per bird (57 cents US).
"Tastes like chicken" with a lot of bones :).  And the innards
were still in them.

Quails cooking

And then another night Bob gave in to his steak craving and we had a great
steak dinner at B3 Steakhouse.  3 cuts of steak and 3 sides, yum!

SHOPPING STREET SCENE:  On a walk around my block at school I thought I'd show you how you might shop for a bathroom remodel instead of going to Home Depot or Lowes, as well as the choices you would face if you chose to buy rice on the street.  These places are across the street from each other. (Home stores are neighbors; rice across the street)

Ceramic tile

Toilets and other things

Rice choices galore.  I wonder if they would taste much different
if I did a taste test of 20 different types of rice?

I often see people burning trash/papers on the street.
Sometimes in a bucket like this, sometimes just in a pile.

Last two pictures!  Back to the serious stuff.  Bob shared his photos with me since he had better group ones for the AVC opening and I saw these he'd taken during one of my lab mini-lectures.  Just to show that it isn't all fun and games here, haha!

Teaching about neutral density filters for testing, and the dark
adaptation process

The students look so rapt!  Third year students in "Clinical
Optometric Procedures" lab.

Well, that wraps up another information-packed blog.  Thank you again for following our adventure in Vietnam!  Our next fun event will be attending another Vietnamese wedding reception next week; our Vietnamese colleague Ngan is getting married!  I'm sure some of those photos will make the next blog.  Until next time!