The beginning

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Saigon- A very beautiful city. The streets smell of fresh botanicals and spices... or is it dead bodies and rotten fruit? I can't recall, probably the latter. It was good to leave Siagon. I boarded a train north bound for Da Nang. The train ride was sixteen hours long. A very long train ride that I am not looking foward to taking again. It was quite beautiful to see water buffalo standing in the green rice patties and children playing and chasing after ducks. I am a bit more of a country girl than a city girl.

Da Nang is a bustling little city. The drivers on their motorbikes are crazy. There are paved streets with painted lines and traffic signs, but no one attends to them. People drive the wrong way down the street and horn to signal for people to get out of the way. Crossing the street is a bit like playing frogger. Our translators tell us the basic rules of crossing the road. If its a motor bike or a bicycle, you are safe to cross. Walk slowly and don't stop, it will confuse the drivers if you stop. If there is a truck or a car coming, do not step in front of it, they will not go around. The rule for driving is basic. Those who are the biggest and have the loudest horns go first.

After checking into the GVN house I went bowling with one of our interpreters and another volunteer just arriving from Australia. It was a bit surreal going from a train housing live chickens to a clean, very American looking bowling ally. Like most of the people in Vietnam, our interpreter had never been bowling. It's a hobby for the rich. She did, however, bowl better then I did. Not a big suprise.
The next day I woke up early and was invited to a wedding. The GVN volunteers are often invited to weddings and parties of people in the community. The wedding was a lot of fun! Vietnamese beer is very good!

I finally arrive in Quang Ngai yesterday. I love it here! It is a small country town and our rooftop terrace overlooks palm trees and rice patties. I am so glad that I was placed here and not in one of the cities. It is so incredibly beautiful!!!!

I visited one of the placements the morning. It was the school for disabled and deaf children. I played soccer with the children and then taught them how to say some english words in sign language. The children are brilliantly smart and very quick to catch on. There will be two boys from the group that I will be working with individually.
One of the boys has cerebral palsey and the other has ADD and possibly fetal alcohol syndrom? None of them have seen doctors before, so they don't actully have formal diagnosis. This afternoon I will go to SPC the orphanage that I will go to everyday to teach, and this evening I will go to the University to teach conversational english to the students there. I'm not sure how I will do with that one considering that I am frightfully shy. It will be good for me though.

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