Developments in My Work and a Small Miracle - August 17, 2008

Ann and the patients enjoying exercises

I hope the teachers enjoyed the opporunities for hands-on activities rather than just sitting and listening. I would be very grateful for any suggestions of more ideas for ways to make cheap or free resources.

These two young girls attended with their mothers.

I enjoyed their response to the activities too.

Developments in My Work and a Small Miracle - August 17, 2008

This week I repeated my workshops this time for teachers from country districts. Many of the women in this group are even more unfamiliar with westerners than the group that I taught last week. They seemed very shy and found some of the things that I asked them to do pretty challenging but they participated in most really well. Last time parts of the workshops were far too hurried but I thought I had another three hours of teaching time so I was able to make some significant changes. I used this time to introduce practical activities with sand and water with the hope that they would be able to practice the teaching technique of scaffolding. I also hoped that this would allow me to introduce these activities and convince them that they are worth including in their programs. Once again I was only partially successful. Unfortunately the times were changed again on the day and I had less time than we had arranged. It is a real challenge for me to cope with unpredictable changes without becoming irritated.

Sand and water play is so unfamiliar that it was very difficult for the teachers to identify the possible learning outcomes for children. On reflection I can see that I probably did not allow enough time for them to explore the materials themselves before expecting them to engage with them academically. I have reworked this part again and hopefully it will be more successful when I teach these three workshops again four times during the coming fortnight. At least these endless repetitions are giving me time to refine my approach!

I am very fortunate to have wonderful support from home. Mum and Jenny have been tireless in providing me with early childhood education resources, information and ideas. I have no idea how I would achieve anything without the back-up of my NZ team. Being here without colleagues and very few resources I have discovered just how dependant I am on the stimulation of discussions and reading to develop my ideas.

One of the Department of Education bosses was in attendance this week. It was great to get some very positive feedback from her. One of the things that she said is that they have heard about the idea of adult teaching which includes activities for the learners but they have never seen it being used before. She was very enthusiastic and has asked me if I will also do some work with the Teachers College and University staff. I have talked briefly with her about my concerns with my assignment and am hoping to have a four-way meeting with her, Phuoc (my VSA boss), Ms Thuy (my counterpart) and myself in the coming week. I am trying really hard to make changes to my assigned tasks and my relationship with Ms Thuy. If I am going to achieve anything that is sustainable after I leave it is very important that I get opportunities to work with them on the “bigger picture” rather than just conducting workshops. The cultural differences in expectations about things such as partnership and collaboration are enormous and the challenges imposed by having to work through interpreters compounds the difficulties. We are still a long way from achieving a shared understanding of my role but hopefully we are making some baby-steps in the right direction.

I can already see that one year will pass far too quickly but I will be returning to New Zealand in April next year because I have other commitments in my life that I need to be there for. I am really hoping that one of my New Zealand friends or colleagues working in early childhood would like to pick up the next stage. It is not an easy task but it is really interesting and actually no where near as stressful as it sounds. Being the first person that has worked here in this field means that I am need to deal with establishing clearly the boundaries and expectations of my role but hopefully this will be largely clarified soon and I will be able to move on to the next stage. Life here is great fun with enjoyable surprises nearly every day. Despite the challenges I face at work I would highly recommend it to anybody who is ready for a change in their life. If anyone is interested please get in touch soon so we can start to talk about the possibilities.

During the week I also had the opportunity to observe one of the other VSA volunteers at work. Ann, a nurse, is working hands-on in the hospitals and is teaching nursing and medical staff. She has made some great progress and is already seeing significant changes in some practices. This week she was teaching patients and staff in a renal ward how to use post-operative exercises. Currently the patients stay on their beds after their operations, many lying still and prone for the ten days they are in hospital; clearly this is not good for their health or recuperation process. Ann asked me to come with her to photograph the session so she could make posters to use in other wards.

Visiting the hospital made me very grateful for our much maligned New Zealand health system. We are such fortunate people. As it was a Friday twenty patients had been discharged in the morning and the ward was quieter than normal but what I saw was still, by our standards, pretty horrific. It is an open room with about twenty beds for both men and women. Today some of the patients had their own bed and no bed held more than three patients but this is unusual. Normally all of the beds are shared by three or four people. When no more patients can be crammed into the beds cots are installed in the aisle for the overflow.

I can not even begin to imagine what it would be like to be in pain following an operation, lying on a bed with three other people topped-and-tailed along with me. Men and women are mixed together and there are no screens to provide any privacy during medical procedures or personal care. Apparently the patients passively accept this situation as well as the habit of nursing and medical staff conducting their functions without communicating anything beyond the barest minimum of instructions. Ann is hoping that not only will her exercises be beneficial for the patients’ health but that they will also provide an opportunity for positive interactions between the patients and staff.

While we waited for the staff to be ready for Ann to begin I felt awkward and somewhat anxious but over the next hour I felt like I witnessed the unfolding of a small and beautiful miracle. Initially many of the patients, and some relatives who were visiting, seemed understandably quiet and guarded as they watched us but quickly Ann broke through the barriers. With gentleness, good humor and enthusiasm she coaxed both patients and nurses to participate. Within an amazingly short time she had only to raise her arms and all around her almost everybody, even those not yet ready to sit up, had their arms waving enthusiastically in the air. Old men got out of their beds and not only practiced leg lifts but literally danced with Ann in the aisles. By the time we left the ward was alive with alert chattering people. It was a real privilege to be there to see this transformation.

A Wedding and a Swim with Nemo - August 10, 2008

Brian and Kieu Le with their pre-wedding photograph

It was a beautiful venue

(photo by Adeline)

Noel (an ex VSA volunteer) gave the toast to the bride - he reminded her of the importance of keeping her husband happy so that he attention does not wander.

(photo by Adeline)

The cakes look good enough to eat but looks can be deceptive.

One was "sliced" in the traditional fashion

(photo by Adeline)

(photo by Adeline)

I have never seen champagne quite as red as this before

(photo by Adeline)

Anne presenting a rose to one of the diverse range of performers

(photo by Adeline)

(photo by Adeline)

(photo by Adeline)

This is most of the VSA staff (interpreters, housekeepers, drivers) and volunteers





(photo by Adeline)

The woman on the left is Hanh - she is the wonderful person who cooks, cleans and washes clothes for me

(photo by Adeline)

The man on the left is Tuan - my fantastic but part-time interpreter. The other man is Nuyen, who is an interpreter for other volunteers.

Anne, Alan, Adeline, me, Nuyen and Pat

Believe it or not hidden beneath the surface is a beautiful tropical coral reef

This child was playing knuckle-bones in almost exactly the way NZ kids do

The daughter who they wanted me to take to teach English is standing in the centre.

The daughter who I was not introduced to is sitting in the background

A Wedding and a Swim with Nemo - August 10, 2008

I have had another lovely weekend the bookends of which were particularly enjoyable. On Friday night I went to the wedding of Brian (a volunteer who has been here for about four years) and Kieu Le (a local woman who is a singer). Some of the volunteers had bought with them clothes suitable for such occasions but the necessity had not occurred to me so I put together the most suitable things I could find and joined the others for the wedding at 5:30. It was an entertaining evening.

Between four and five hundred guests gathered in a large open-air restaurant that looks out over the sea to Quy Nhon city. When we arrived the bride and groom with a group of female attendants, greeted us at the door beside a glamorous photo of the couple dressed in white. I see these portraits often outside wedding venues and have wondered why they take the pictures before the big event – apparently it is customary here to make an occasion of this with the bride outfitted in a number of different frocks. When they met us Brian was wearing a suit and Kieu Le a gorgeous fuchsia ao dai and headdress.


Within a few minutes the first of an extremely varied range of entertainers began their performance. To the beat of hip-hop music, played through speakers set to an excruciatingly loud volume, they burst on to the stage and performed moves normally associated with American music videos. After one song they were replaced with a man playing jazz clarinet and then by an orchestral rendition of the wedding march. This pattern of contrasting and varied styles continued all evening. We had rockers, crooners, queens, Latin American, pop, soul and Christmas carols all jumbled together. The only common thread was the volume which never changed from ear-splittingly loud. It eclectic, entertaining and enormous fun. Whoever thought that I would be sitting at an August wedding in Viet Nam singing along to “we wish you a merry Christmas”? The dancing was equally diverse. Their were couples performing striking Latin American moves, complete with floor level dips while young men bounding about like head bangers of the eighties. The guests were just as entertaining as the performers. There were tiny grandmothers in velvet ao dai, young women wearing miniscule miniskirts, Vietnamese cowboys, small children in traditional satin costumes, resplendid transvestites, florid western men with their arm candy, and people in jeans and t-shirts.

There was a pause in the singing for the ceremony, for which the bride had changed into a lovely yellow ao dai, but as this was just speeches, not an actual wedding ceremony, it did not last long. As they cut the five layer cake, which I discovered later was iced cardboard, and poured astonishingly red champagne into tiered glasses, the bride and groom were showered with explosions of silver foil squares.

Early in the performances we began our seven course meal. This sounds like an extraordinary amount of food but each course was quite small. People ate and drank beer with gusto and happily flung their chicken bones, fruit skins, bottles and butts on the floor. Within an hour many people were very merry and sociable. The bride, (now wearing her third and last frock, a white western wedding gown), and the groom moved rapidly around the room pausing long enough to be photographed with all of the guests. Their movements were matched by roving groups of guests who stopped at tables long enough to shout “Mot, Hai, Ba, Yo” (One, Two, Three, drink) at which point all of the men, and a very few of the women, slugged back more beer. We joined in the fray, albeit some of us with coke rather than beer.

The place was rocking; the floor was trashed with rubbish, the tables had turned into gruesome messes and many people were decidedly tipsy but it was a great atmosphere – fun and inclusive but then the food was all finished and all of the over 400 Vietnamese guests suddenly left, the musicians packed up and the staff started sweeping the floor and rolling up the red carpet. It was 8:00 pm! We westerners, (volunteers, Brian’s family and a few others), suddenly found ourselves wandering aimlessly in a large empty room wondering what happened to the party. Apparently this one went on longer than usual. A group of us were back at my flat, having a little brandy and reflecting on cultural differences by 8:30.

I felt like we had been to a party set on fast forward – it started fast, rapidly reached a high point then suddenly ended. Because this was unanticipated it was somewhat disconcerting but on reflection it is probably the perfect arrangement for a party phobic like me. I certainly did not have time to get to my usual “is it too early to leave yet?” state.

The rest of the weekend was fairly quiet. I had a lovely surprise Skype phone call with my sister Jenny and niece Catherine on Friday, another pleasurable one with my son Chris on Saturday and a great chat with my friend and workmate Susan on Sunday. Skype is a wonderful invention. I also recently have had long calls from Jenny and from Mum and Dad who used an Oasis card (NZ$10 for 135 minutes incase anyone else is interested!!!!). Talking with people, without the pressure of a rapidly mounting bill is so nice – emails are wonderful but voices from home really help me to feel connected.

On Saturday night I had my favorite dinner, Banh Cuon (fresh spring rolls with a peanut sauce), and then a drink in a café down by the ocean with volunteers Adeline and Pat. Sitting in the balmy evening air, under coconut palms watching the twinkling lights of the squid boats while the sea is gently lapping on the sand is not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening.

Today I went to the market and bought a pile of lovely fresh fruit and vegetables. On the way home I stopped to take photos of some of the dozen or so people who sit dotted along the footpath sewing garments on old sewing machines. I wanted to take some photos for Rebecca at Wintec who includes sewing machine images in some of her paintings. The women I approached were really lovely, unlike a couple of men who refused very abruptly, but my photos were again disappointing. I get self-conscious when photographing people and almost always muff it up. I am having fantasies about buying a better camera again but unfortunately this will not overcome my one’s major limitation – the person behind the lens!

Alan (upstairs) is away for the weekend so I have borrowed his CD player. Bliss. Being able to play music, other than through my tinny laptop speakers, is one of the things that I miss the most. So with Mick Jagger for company I made a big pot of pumpkin, kumera and curry soup so I won’t need to cook much this week.

Not long after I had finished Pat called offering to pillion me to a beach about twenty minutes south by motorbike. At the beach I had two wonderful experiences. The first was meeting a really interesting family. Before I had even sat on the sand a woman came and invited me into her home which was a little shack under the coconuts on the edge of the sand. She was very keen for their daughter (one of 15 children) to practice her small amount of English with me. The conversation was pretty limited but we did manage to establish the “essential” facts (my name, age, nationality, number and sex of children, and occupation). The mother was convinced that if she repeated herself loudly and slowing enough that I was sure to understand everything she said eventually. She refused to be put off by me saying “xin loi. Toi khong noi tieng Viet” (sorry I don’t speak Vietnamese) and continued to make a request of me. Finally I guessed from the context and gestures that she wanted me to take her daughter to stay with me in Quy Nhon so I could teach her English but I just kept saying “xin loi, toi khong hieu” ( sorry I don’t understand) because the last thing I need is a teenage boarder. It was never-the-less a very pleasant interlude but eventually I persuaded them that I wanted to go for a swim and made my escape sans teenager.

The beach was very pleasant but unremarkable however Pat , who is here as a marine conservationist, had a real treat in store for me today. I enjoyed swimming about for awhile then he handed me a snorkel and mask and the world changed. Within moments of putting on the goggles and swimming out to sea I was floating above a coral reef swarming with brilliantly colored fish. It was fantastic. I felt like I was swimming in a tropical aquarium. Apart from one species of long thin translucent fish, the fish were small. Most were less than ten centimeters in length but they were all the colors of the rainbow and more. Some were rotund and bright day-glo orange with black spots, there were black and white striped angel fish, iridescent yellow and blue fish and ones with bright red lips that kept coming right up to my mask as if to chase me away. It was an unexpected and magical experience which I am very keen to repeat as soon as I can.

Traveling home in the twilight along the winding coastal road I thought about how I was bought here by such sad circumstances but, given that I can’t change that, how incredibly fortunate I am to have this opportunity. Rob would have loved this experience so much.

“CEREMONY OF PARADING SOULS OF QUANG TRUNG EMPORER AND CIVIL AND MILITARY MANDARINS INTO THE TEMPLE” 1 August 2008

I have added six new fantastic photos that were taken by Adeline. She was able to sneak up to the front and get a good view while we were stuck behind the unbrellas

This was our view during most of the opening ceremony. Adeline was able to go to the front and get better photographs. I will add some of her photos later

The "emporer" and his entourage were impressive when on elephantback ....

....but less imposing up close!

“CEREMONY OF PARADING SOULS OF QUANG TRUNG EMPORER AND CIVIL AND MILITARY MANDARINS INTO THE TEMPLE”

The official opening for the festival was early on Friday morning. Needing to be at the bus by 5:30 dictated a 4:30 start to the day but it was well worth it even though being a “VIP” was actually a disadvantage in this instance. We were seated about six rows from the front which would have been fine (especially as most of us are so much are taller than the Vietnamese people) except the VVIP’s in the front row all had sun umbrellas over them. These umbrellas largely blocked our view of the parade and performance which was very frustrating. The people behind us in the “cheap seats” on a stand were much better off if somewhat squashed. I could not get photos of anything much during this time but Adeline sneaked up to the front and got some delightful ones which I will include in this blog when I get them.

The Tay Son district is very important in Vietnamese history. In the late 18th Century three peasant brothers from the area led a successful rebellion against the Chinese who had dominated Viet Nam for a very long time. Following the battles one of the brothers, Quang Trung, became the emperor. The festival included a number of displays and shows which commemorated this rebellion. At the opening actors portraying the brothers arrived on elephants. Standing on the backs of the elephants, resplendent in bright costumes, they made an impressive entrance. Less striking were the thirty men on horseback. With tiny horses that looked like skinny Shetland ponies the horsemen created an effect that was much more humorous than imposing.

Regularly large groups of costumed teenagers dashed up and down with impressive weapons and bright square shaped flags while on stage well practiced performers portrayed a variety of historical events. Even though it was not possible to follow the words and symbolism the message of oppression followed by triumph was very clear.

My lasting impression is of brilliant color, drumming and movement. When the official part was finished we followed the elephants and performers into the grounds of the museum. It was great being able to see up close the things that had been so hard to see between the umbrellas. There were stalls and more performances. I have already written a blog about the dancing of the Bahnar people. This was for me the highlight of the morning. I was entranced by their costumes, music and dance.