Week 24 - ...and the rain finally came...

Hey everybody,

I have been waiting to experience 'rainy season' for a while now, and after several heavy storms this week, the 'non-stop' rain finally arrived. Thursday was a relatively warm and sunny day, whilst Friday allowed me to play that much loved English game of 'get caught out by the rain storm'. A seriously heavy storm woke me early on Saturday morning, and it has not stopped raining since, more to come on that note...

This week I have spent more time in Da Nang than I have in Hoi An, for a number of reasons. Monday & Tuesday I had to go and try to arrange to obtain some specific (cerebral palsy) wheelchairs, after the shipment arranged by the wonderful 'wheelchairs for humanities' group, arrived three weeks early! The guys there were amazing technicians, and have grown from fixing and maintaining wheelchairs in their garage, to delivering specialised used wheelchairs all over the world... I had to give them a mention, because I really was overwhelmed by their experience, good nature, and very helpful attitude, especially as we needed to find a way past the obstacles of obtaining equipment from local Government officials! Thursday I returned to Da Nang, with my colleague Vy, to visit some special education schools as we are trying to develop a very basic 'play therapy/education' room for our children at CHIA. The places we visited, (Sacred Heart & Village of Hope) were two incredible institutions, who catered for mainly hearing impaired children, but Sacred Heart also catered for disabled kids with Cerebral Palsy. Both places had associated vocational training programmes, but the one at Sacred Heart had managed to have hearing impaired kids working and managing public shops, in the a main street in the city centre....including, Internet cafe, copy shop, and a cafe...truly amazing, especially in this context! I also spent most of this weekend in Da Nang, but i'll come to that later.

At work we have begun to have some kids start in our 'Play/Education room' and in addition to that we have had three new staff member start this week. A Vietnamese girl called Giang, and two government assisted German volunteers, Karl & Corinna. Karlis a Doctor, whilst Corinna is a teacher and has additional training in therapy related techniques for children. Considering the entire organisation was made up of 14 staff, (volunteers included), 3 new starters is a big deal. We also celebrated the birthday of Van (CHIA physiotherapist), with another big cake at work!! any excuse!!! see picture below.
So back to this week's main event, (and I don't mean the England football team's 5-1 win yesterday). Whilst collecting the wheelchairs, as previously mentioned, I met a woman, (Linh) who was working for another NGO near Da Nang. By chance she was in Hoi An for the night, so I met with her, and some of her colleagues at a local coffee shop here. I needed to get a young local couple to ride their motorcycle with me, to find the damn place!!! Everybody seemed nice, and so I agreed to meet up with Linh this weekend in Da Nang, during my now weekly trips there each weekend. Given that the weather was pretty severe, riding my motorcycle along the coast road presented a few challenges, including trying not to end up with a mouth full of mosquitoes!

Linh met me and took me to her home, where I met her house mates Nguyen (female) & Phuoc (male) see picture below....
After having some impromptu English classes and watching the rain fall, we finally headed out into town for a bite to eat and what turned out to be 3 hours of karaoke! The food we ate was a new experience to me, not just because I couldn't pronounce the word for what I was eating, but because it seemed very different to anything I have eaten here before... (examples include a prawn in a jelly substance, wrapped in banana leaf). The karaoke session was also a fun time, with hits such as 'Copacabana', 'Don't let the sun go down on me', 'With or without you' and 'mack the knife' being completely ruined in the name of entertainment.... I have to say in my defence that they don't have any modern songs on the karaoke play lists here!!

When we finally called it a night, we drove home with the idea of getting some beers and watching the football, as Phuoc was also a fan, but the TV station had other ideas! Ah Well... So after illegally kipping (sleeping) on their coach, (laws here do not allow non nationals to stay in the home of locals), I was awoke by yet more torrential rain, and Nguyen leaving for work on her motorcycle! Sunday was spent eating: breakfast, lunch and more... plus drinking coffee, or in my case tea, as I have never gotten over my strong dislike for the taste of coffee, and being stared at by interested locals who eyed me with what felt like suspicion, and then usually followed these stares with kind smiles. The last meal we ate together today was just 30,000 (£1) for all four of us.... now that's what I call living the local life! I managed to get back to Hoi An after over an hour of driving at just 20kph, through rain and wind, and what seemed like small rivers running across the road! (mum, you've seen me drive so you know I'm careful here!)

I'll also just share with you pictures of my next door neighbour's puppy... he's tiny!!! (look below)

Ok, time is ticking on, and I need a good nights sleep...

Regards from Vietnam!

Dan