thirstythong

“But the most significant derivation from the meaning of as ‘water’ is the concept of people who have gathered near a body of water to grow rice for one another, and founding a stable community, sharing rain and drought, plenty and famine, peace and war: from ‘water,’ its basic meaning, has come to designate ‘the homeland, the country, the nation.’ It is in this ultimate exception that the monosyllable nuoc reverberates throught the deepest and farthest recesses of the Vietnamese collective unconscious and stirs there the most potent feelings. The nation’s fateful course, marked by ups and downs, is figuratively rendered as a ‘tide of water’ (van nuoc) with its ebb and flow. The highest virtue demanded of a Vietnamese is that he or she ‘love the nuoc‘ (yeu nuoc).” –Huynh Sanh Thong (no relation)

Saigon Sunday Night

Six people pull up to the bar, Filipino singers, local backers

Turns out they’re two couples and two others

Women order juices, Coronas, the men

Fruit plate

Visual survey

Whispered observations

Dice bar games

Coronas at a 45 degree angle

A husband excuses himself

Cleaner leans against the wall, checking her cell phone

10.000 VND tip

Machine gun laughs

Smile to shouts

Hands in the air

Hands held

Easy hugs

Cantonese amongst friends

English and rock, paper, scissors, flung across the bar

Wife drinks husband’s Corona, washes it down with lime juice

Hand in hand

“I wanna dance with somebody”

Hands in the air

Hand on lower back

Kiss on the cheek