Hey everybody, well it's the end of week 3 already and so much to say and report on. I must start by saying that today has been one of favourite days by far! After a 10 person road trip to Da Nang for a supermarket/city shop, I spent the ealry evening swimming in the sea, by moonlight, not long after sunset, and it was just fantastic! The water was warm and the beach was lit with numerous white lanters, as local kids played football around us... and this was followed by dinner on the main street, watching processions of people passing by with coloured lanterns to celebrate Buddah's birthday. All this was with our new arrivals Amber, Bree, who are Occupational Therapy students & Yvonne an Occupational Therapist educator, all from James Cook University, Australia, working with me for a 5 weeks on a university placement! It's been a long week at work as we continue to introduce more formal procedures to the staff, who have not been exposed to this kind of detail when planning services before, but with each week, and each new social venture for drinks and food, we are all getting better aquainted. The highlight from work this week was definately my first 'home visit'. We went to visit a very young baby with hydrocephalus and 13yr old boy who has severe contractures of his legs (he can't walk) and his family are currently carrying him to the toilet, at the back of the house.... and despite being good at school, the family claim to have soild their motorcycle (the only means of him getting to school) to pay off debts, so hence he is missing out on school too. Anyway, the journey to the children's home is waht I really want to share... setting out on the back of Van's (the physiotherapist) motorcycle, and Carol on the back of Lai's machine (an interpreter), we rushed through the busy streets, thorugh the crowded market, ignoring tarffic lights, and with my praying to god for a safe return to the office! We then pulled up at the river, where after loading the motorcycle onto the boat, we took a 10 minute journey across the river. The boat was heavily loaded with motorcycles and i was convinced they would fall off into the river at any point... once to the other side, we then rode through a few miles of rice fields, with shouts of 'hello' coming from small children from the most remote of houses, to a small village. On arriving at our first visit, what appeared like the entire village crowded into the house to watch what we were doing, and point, stare and giggle... there was no privacy (as I am quickly learning in Vietnam) and anyway, the house didn't have a front door or windows, it was completely open, so you couldn't stop people coming in if you tried! On to the second visit through more rice fields and more shouts of 'hello' to the odd looking and very white English guy! After the second visit we raced backed to the boat before returning to the office, which gave me time to sort out my horrific helmet hair that the journey had left me with! to give a quick comparison, on my last home visit, back in the UK, I had to stop at traffic lights every two minutes, whizz past a 24hour ASDA supermarket, and use an intercom to get in to see my client! My next short story involves an incident a week or so ago, and now I can understand why it happened, I can share the story! Myself, and two freinds (Bryony & Josh) set off to go relax at a place called 'Red Bridge', a very small resort with a swimming pool, whcih we had been invited to through a friend of a friend etc... we were given directions and picked up a sign that said 'Red Bridge 3k' so we followed it, and after maybe 3k we stopped to ask for directions, 'conitnue continue' was the cry, and as the advice was delivered with conviction off we went... another 2k down the road, we asked again.... 'over that way' was the response this time, pointing over to a fairly remote looking road, but again the guy seemed sure so we followed his advice.... another 3k later we cam to a main road, knowing we had come almost full circle. The next set of directions pointed us back the way we came, with a laugh. By now we were not laughing cos it was bloody hot!!! so we cycled all the way back to near where we saw the 3k sign, and again asked, and again we were told that we were close by..... but now we were losing faith, and after a fourth failed attempt we had some local lads on a motorbike show us where to go.... the place itself had taken its sign down to be re-painted... unlucky you may say, but why had all these different people sent us off in so many different directions??? the answer I have only just come to understand.... Vietnamese people are very polite and helpful people (apart from trying to get your money at the market!!!) and so rather than just say, 'i'm sorry I don't know where that place is' (and therefore seem unhelpful), they will happily guess a direction at random, to seem like they have been helpful, but I assure you, after cycling almost 10k extra in the midday heat, I did not find their behaviour helpful one little bit! I'll stop there as I need some sleep before tomorrow morning and it's late already!Regards from Vietnam
Dan
Dan
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