The Gated Community, 29th April 2008

Our front garden

The locked gate

My bedroom - messy of course!

Our street

The Gated Community (Home)

People who have heard me talking in disparaging tones about those who chose to live in gated communities in New Zealand may be amused to know my situation here. I am sharing a very large house with two others. It has a walled garden and a gate at the front that is consistently kept locked. Every outing, even a dash across the road for fruit, necessitates a great deal of key fumbling and fiddling.

Our house is situated on the corner of a large hospital site. It is built in a western style. As the photos show, we have a lovely garden with mature trees and vines. There is a wide, shady verandah on the front and all around large windows with bars and mosquito screens but no glass. There are shutters but these do not appear to be used. The are no curtains, so I have a sheet pinned over the window and a sarong over the clear glass internal door that leads to my bedroom. This was regarded with some amusement by my housemates but I did feel the need to create a bit of a sanctuary.

The rooms are big with tiled floors and high ceilings. Most of the rooms have a ceiling fan which, although quite effective, we supplement with floor fans. The house is airy and, compared with outside, reasonably cool. Some of the furniture is fairly basic but it is comfortable enough. In my room I have a large bed with a mosquito net hung on four poles, a desk, wardrobe and some shelves.

In the kitchen we have a fridge, a gas burner for cooking, a sink and a lowered floor area for hand washing clothes. There are two lounge rooms, an office area, two bathrooms and a room that is kept spare for our guests. I am looking to having family or friends staying in there!!!!

Our street is one of the main Quy Nhon roads. Within a few minutes of our gate almost every need you can imagine can be met. We have a hospital next door, local beauty salons, the Vietnamese equivalent of dairies, cafes, fruit and vegetable sellers, chemists, curbside petrol bowsers for the motorbikes and even a maker of ornate coffins all within a few steps.

I am still finding it daunting to shop in these places. I find it difficult to discern what is actually available and challenging to establish the price. At the market this morning the old women insisted on adding more items to my bags so I ended up with, and probably paying for, more fresh produce than I will be able to eat before it goes off. My attempts at bargaining have been abysmal - never mind – it is all comparatively cheap.

Five minutes walk away we have a supermarket and shopping mall. My only visit so far was during a public holiday so it was too crowded to really see but it appears to stock a wide range of items.

Second Day in Quy Nhon, 29th April 2008

Our local beach - three minutes walk from home

I have delighted in taking photos of the amazing little craft

buying and selling freshly caught fish

I have a gap in my blogs here (already) but I am keen to include some photos from today. I hope to go back and fill in the gaps.

Today was my first morning of waking in Quy Nhon - what a way to wake up. Twice a day we have an hour long, loud, public broadcast from a speaker just outside our home. We started the day with stirring music at 5:30 am and then the announcements that are probably very interesting if you can understand them but significantly less so for the rest of us. Good thing I have always enjoyed waking early!

I was picked up at 7:20 and went, via the VSA office to meet the people that I will be working with in the Department of Education and Training. Phuoc, my translator Binh (sp?) and I met with the Director, my counterpart and an English language specialist. I cannot give their names yet because I did not check the spelling. I attempted to write them phonetically but this is a real challenge when you cannot even hear the sounds properly. We sat, opposite each other at a very long table. The building is fascinating, faded stucco in lovely shades of blue and ochre. The décor, reminiscent of another era, seems strangely familiar, probably because of movies and novels.

Throughout the meeting Binh translated back and forth. It was clear that everyone else in the room was much more talented than me at languages. Sometimes I felt like I was trying to listen to two radios tuned to different stations. I will need to become more adept at listening effectively. They were lovely people who have committed themselves to working with me. I do feel anxious about whether or not I will be able to contribute anything of value but I am trying not to fuss about that.

The next two days are public holidays so I will start at work on Friday. Apparently this will include some visits to early childhood centres, something that I am very keen to do. I think that when I have seen the children and teachers at work that I will be able to begin to get a concept of my role here. At the meeting it was decided, because of the dates of the terms, that I should remain in Quy Nhon for all of May and postpone my HCMC language school until June.

Following the meeting, while Phuoc was busy, I went for coffee (juice in my case) with Ann, and nurse educator volunteer and Noel, an ex-volunteer who lives here. The coffee shops are everywhere and are amazing. We climbed up spiral staircases to the third floor. Like most of the buildings this level seems to be largely open to the elements. The interiors are often highly decorative with unique, quirky touches. At night the coffee shops seem to invariably be lit with multi-coloured fairy lights. When I returned t the office Noel and I were just in time to catch up with Phuoc and Alan (a volunteer who started the same day as me) - so we went for coffee! Besides fitting in a delicious lunch at home we did manage to get to the bank to organize accounts and I purchased a cell phone – my first VND $1,000,000 plus purchase. The young woman in the shops says that I need to charge it for three days before using it which seems extraordinary – I hope that I understood her correctly.

The highlight of my day was when I went for a walk at lunch time. I followed my nose (literally) down to the beach which was crowed with people bringing in and trading fish. The heavy wooden boats are brightly painted in blue, yellow and red or green, yellow and red. Woven round coracles, about 10 feet in diameter, were being used as dinghies to transport people and baskets of fish between the moored boats and the shore. They are astonishing vessels. It seems incredible that they can float and that they can be effectively steered. Bringing them to shore, when laden, did seems to require a cooperative effort that sometimes involved large groups wading out to their chests in the water.

Meanwhile a tightly clustered group of women on the beach vigorously bartered for fish. Most of the fish seemed to be tiny, silvery, sardine sized specimens piled in brightly colored plastic baskets. There were some other species that I have never seen before and a sizeable stingray, apparently about to be dismembered, on the beach.

Clearly out of place, I wandered and watched for some time. Responses to my presence were somewhat mixed. Some of the people greeted me with hello or waves, but fascinated by the beauty and industry of the scene, I took some photographs which did not seem to be appreciated by one of the old women. On reflection I realize that, responding to my own desire to record the images, I had perhaps done so in a way that may have been insensitive. I need to examine ways to change my approach.

The sand is filthy, the smell pungent and the rubbish distressing but this beach is fantastic. I want to go back again soon.

Michael and I went by motorbike to Barb’s Kiwi café for dinner. A friendly relaxed café that sells all sorts of ‘kiwi’ fare. Riding home, past the fairy lights, melodious cycles selling ice-cream, and a concert in the park, reminded me of Spain or Italy. Thousands of people including; infants in arms, independent young children and teenagers, as well as adults of all ages, were out and about relaxing on the footpaths, strolling or tootling up and down on their bikes or motorbikes. It seems a relaxed, sociable and friendly environment.

An excellent day.

Travelling to Vietnam, 26th April 2008

A picture for Nicky who knows about the best place in Changi airport

This probebly won't impress you (typical out the plane window pic) but this was one of the first images I had of Viet Na

Monday 28th April

I woke early for my first morning in Vietnam. Already the streets are full of tooting traffic and people racing about. I have been so busy getting all of the necessary things done to leave NZ that I have done little research about the city and I feel somewhat under prepared. I have been looking at a map (thanks Nicky) this morning, trying to relate the two dimensional to the three.

Traveling to Vietnam

Leaving family and friends in NZ was of course very hard. It is strange for me to think that I will not see most people again for a year and already I find myself unconsciously searching crowds for familiar faces. I wonder who I will run into unexpectedly – it always seems to happen in the strangest of places when we have traveled.

It was lovely to have a posse to see me off at the airport. I managed to get through the final hugs and waves without descending totally into the ‘ugly cry’ (the one where I get all choked up, blotchy and snotty) and successfully went through processes to get onto the plane. The flight was uneventful and nowhere near as tiresome as I recall from the past. Flying westward through the continuing night may have helped, as does being smaller and fitting much more comfortably into the seat.

Arriving at Changi airport (Singapore) sharply bought back memories of the last trip Rob and I had resulting in another bout of tears but I fairly quickly got it back together. Changi is like a city in itself. A huge, sanitized, plasticized city. It is sparkling clean with staff, many of who seemed to be quite underemployed, everywhere. The expensive shops selling clothes, perfumes, bags and electronic goods held no attraction for me apart from finding a shortwave radio. Eventually I found one, the same as I had seen in NZ for $200 for approximately half the price. I hope that it works well – I anticipate that the spoken English word will become important for me at times. Not hungry I used the Singapore dollars that Dad gave me to buy another book – I know that I will be hungry for reading material (thanks Dad).

Mostly I just mooched around for five hours. I found the sunflower garden that Nick had told me about. It is outside with tall sunflowers growing within glassed walls, a lovely unpopulated retreat. I was feeling tired but calm and thought that I had managed the whole process very well and was busy congratulating myself. Pride certainly cometh before the fall! On arrival at the check in for my flight to Vietnam and when I looked for my wallet of tickets, passport etc it was gone. Panic! Several times I unpacked my carry-on luggage desperately searching in vain. I raced to the nearest information desk and there sitting on her desk I saw a photocopy of my passport. “That’s me, that’s mine” I incoherently shouted. Eventually after some form filling my wallet and I were reunited. I cannot believe that I was so careless and can only blame it on sleep deprivation. Everything, including cash, was still in the wallet. Immediately I fell in love with the efficiency and honesty of the people at Changi airport.

The flight to Vietnam was great. There were very few people on the plane. I had rows of seats to myself. I realized how appalling my geographical knowledge of the area is as we flew over the South China sea and I was completely unable to work out which countries I was looking at. As we flew over the plains of southern Vietnam I started to see the pattern of this land that I will call home for the next year. The long narrow fields divided by meandering wide khaki brown rivers and canals. The country roads appear to have densely populated houses along each side. As the sun reflected off some of the fields I realized that they must be water filled rice paddies. As we descended into HCMC I could see the buildings; homes and commercial buildings almost invariably long and narrow. The palette of colours creams, dusty brown and terracotta with splashes of mint green and cobalt blue. Already it felt clear that I was in a country different than any other I have visited.

On arrival at the airport I had to go to a Visa counter clutching my letters stating that I was allowed to stay. With a little English on their part, and no Vietnamese on mine, it was established that I had to apply for a visa on the spot – forms, a photo and $52 US later I was free to go through customs. Because this had taken quite a long time my bag was no longer on the carousel but, seeing my consternation, a friendly official took me to a room where it had been stored. As I went outside, into the hot, moist air and crowds of taxi touts I saw a man holding a sign with my name and was gratefully bundled into a modern, air conditioned taxi for my first ride into the city. Wow! Then the adventure began.

Rob's remembrance ceremony

Thank you to the people who supported me through Rob's first anniversary day. This past year has been full of difficult challenges for me and many others. I am immensely grateful for the care and support that I have received during the year.

On Friday we planted 5 beautiful kowhai trees in Rob's name beside the Waikato river. These trees will form part of the kowhai project aimed at encouraging tui to return to the city. I look forward to spring picnics under her flowering kowhai in years to come.

I am now in the final days of my preparations to leave for Vietnam. Thanks to the people who have sent such encouraging messages and to everyone who has worked so hard to get me, my house and my luggage ready.

5 more sleeps!

preparations for leaving

It is now 12 sleeps (or not!) until I leave for Vietnam. It seems impossible that it will be so soon.

One of my tasks is to learn how to Blog - thank you Lisa for getting me started. During these first few entries I will just be learning how to operate a blog so please forgive me my mistakes.

A big big thank you to everyone who helped to make Rob's remembrance ceremony a lovely day. I know that she would have enjoyed the beach, kites and balloons.

Take care

Robyn