The Long Loan
Jack & I meet for dinner at Crazy Kim’s joint, just up the block from Shorty’s. We’re having seafood dinner with a nice bottle of French Chardonnay. The bar is crawling with kids of all ages who have come to bask in Crazy Kim’s holiday generosity. Santa meets them at the door to give them santa hats and stuffed toys. In the back room they marvel at a 5 meter long cake!
Later we’ll go to the Blue Gecko for a few more drinks before meeting thew ladies at ‘Why Not?’, just a hop skip and a jump around the corner.
We’re having a roving commission of a conversation and time passes utterly unnoticed.
I met Jack and his lady friend Geeyu(phonetic)around Hue on the long train from Hanoi.
Since then we have several interesting conversations. This is a prize often longed for as a necessary respite from pidgin chat such as:
Lady: “you lie me?”
Me : “me no lie you!”
Lady: “why you no lie me?”
Of course she meant ‘do you like me?’ but she has no practice with the ‘K’!
Now we are at the Gecko drinking Saigon beer, smoking Winstons & shag.
Jack is a world class solo traveler who has many excellent experiences to share. I have held my own on the road over the years so we have much to speak about. These discussions are loaded with deep digressions into even more commonalities.
I bring up the question of Micro Banking and Jack tells me that he has been helping certain people he has met in Africa and Asia but he would never use a third party. “They take too much away from the ultimate recipient.”
This makes sense to me. He explains that in each case he has set up relationships with third parties who are interested in the welfare of the beneficiary and all of the people of his/her tribe, region, nation, etc. You know, the good people.
Through an elaborate network of Chinese boxes built from person to person trust, Jack and his friends send relatively small amounts of cash at regular intervals but not without a monetary return on the investment. Instead, future assistance is based on the performance of the beneficiary.
If ‘child x’ continues to work hard on his/her education, then there will be more assistance. If they squander the gift without some tragic occurrence in their lives to explain this failure, then the funding stops.
If ‘person y’ enters into business and shows insufficient effort or cannot follow sound business practice, they too are cut off. If they have a good model and get up on their own two feet, they can pay back the principle. If they do very well, they can pay a small return on investment.
Now we wander over to Why Not? for more eating drinking and dancing with the ladies. They are all ’sisters’, not necessarily from the same father but raised by the same mama.
They are Nyah, Geeyu, Loan and Cham. All lovely in their own way. Unbeknown to me, Geeyu has arranged for me to be paired off with Loan, her fair skinned ’sister’ who’s name is spoken as ‘long’. Now I’m beginning to understand that without knowing anything about me, that if I’m a friend of Jack’s then I can be unquestioningly allowed to enter the family’s inner circle.
Loan speaks no English but we happily muddle through with the aid of Nyah as interpreter. Nyah is the eldest and thus the boss of the rest of the sisters, second only to Mama.
I am introduced to Loan and take her hand for the French ‘enchante’ style kiss on the hand. Loan breaks into a long grin. after some drinks and some dancing Nyah is becoming more open.
“If you want kiss Loan, you make hand talk.” (puckers her lips)
“you want make boom Loan?” (clasps fingers together then smacks palms together)
“you want taste loan diamond?” (extends tongue lewdly and wiggles it up and down)
Geeyu and Cham break out laughing and Loan looks embarrassed. Who wouldn’t?
I ask Nyah: “why do you say embarrassing things about Loan?”
Nyah replies: “I oldest sister! can say anything!”
We go our separate ways around 2:30am. I am accosted by the same moto riding pimp that has tried to sell me ’special massage’ every night since I arrived. He rides slowly along my side asking me “where your lady?’ and other predictable questions. There is no real tension as he offers no threat. The only thing I fear are roving bands of taxi girls who will descend on a lone walker like locusts and create a dizzying frenzy of distractions in order to pick your pockets clean.
Now it is around 11am. I have already eaten breakfast and returned to my hotel to use the toilet and change for the beach. I flick the tube on to see if I can find the BBC (I am mostly living in ignorant bliss these days), but find instead live coverage of the Milan derby between Inter and AC.
It’s just into the 2nd half when there is a knock on the door. I expect it’s the cleaning lady and tell her to come in. It’s Loan, smiling, wearing her moto helmet. “you come cafe?”
“ummm, sure, why not?” She smiles and waits while I gather my things. We go down to the street where her moto awaits. I get on the back and she takes me all of ½ a block to the cafe where Geeyu and Mama await.
What happens next?
I’ll tell you when I know.
Tags: Families, Nha Trang, Travel, Vietnam, Women
