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After a seventeen-hour, tedious, tiring flight – our group of twelve set down on Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport runway. Passage through customs was a breeze partly because our friends Hiep & Xuan had been here many times before. Cabs with some of Xuan’s family members arrived to bring us to a sisters home where we would then ride in tandem, with our luggage, on motor scooters driven by family members, to our little hotel just a few alleyways away.

Down a dimly lit lane and amongst family homes neatly stitched together, was an edifice, higher than most in that vicinity. It was to become our home for the next two weeks. We were greeted by the family that owned this fairly new structure. Soon to came to feel that we had become part of that family as well.

The hotel had no signage or flashy lightning to announce its presence. Only foreknowledge of its whereabouts could have gotten us there. It’s exterior would not have attracted us. The facility was, however, very neat and clean and the structure only six years old. And the cost for a large room with a balcony, a king size bed and a large bathroom? – about $10 per night.

Gathering

Motor scooters arrive at our hotel. Lot’s of them. On each, a family member or friend of our friend Xuan. Each of us is whisked away, down one alley, to another until we arrive, two by two at the home of our friend's sister. We could go no further as this latest alley comes to an abrupt end at her home. Women are cooking an assortment of food items I do not recognize. The odors are tempting. Soon people, mostly relatives, arrive bringing tables, plastic chairs and stools and sometimes more food items to cook. A brother-in-law (at least I think he’s a brother-in-law) brings a bottle of his “home brew”. He offers me a shot. Later another shot until I loose count. It’s potent but the food I have been eating has neutralized any affect it might otherwise have had.

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The Vietnamese eat all the time. I wonder why they are all so small?