Xin chào!

(This means "hello" in Vietnamese)

Warning, this is a long one.

As I talk about places in this post, you can look them up on my handy map!

First of all, I wanted to assure everyone that I do have mosquito netting. It was wrapped up in my blanket for my bed, so I didn't find it right away.

I had my orientation on Thursday, which included an overview of Volunteers for Peace Vietnam (VPV), which is the main organization in charge of all of the volunteers in my house. They communicate directly with the organizations that everyone works for, including mine, the Institute for Social and Medical Studies (ISMS). It didn't cover any of the details of my project, though, so I didn't learn what I would actually be working on until later in the day, when I met with one of the staff members one-on-one. She was clearly not very familiar with the organization and going entirely by some information sheet that was handed to me.

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. After the introduction to VPV, I went for a walk to the nearest village, Tây Mỗ, with the other volunteer that was in my orientation group. He's from all over, sort of - half Canadian, grew up outside of London, and now lives in Cardiff, Wales. He's a super hippie who calls himself "Steve-O". He also talks A LOT. Nice guy but will probably drive me crazy if I spend too much time with him. We came back and ate lunch - and I'm glad that was my last lunch at the house, because the food at my house is rather uninspiring. I get fed at work, now, so my midday meal is much better than breakfast or dinner.

After lunch I got the aforementioned very brief overview of ISMS, and a little after that, Steve-o and I got our intro to Vietnamese lesson. I learned, among other things, the greeting at the top, how to introduce myself and ask someone else's name, how to say my age, to say "nice to meet you", to count to ten, and to say "too expensive!" I got the last one the fastest - and I think, given that bargaining is expected, it will be the one I use most often. I still feel woefully inadequate at speaking, though. Correctly pronouncing the words is tough. During my lesson there was one point when I was mispronouncing the word for "hungry" - which is "đói", correctly pronounced like "boy" but with a D, I think, but the subtlety of the pronunciation is difficult - the ó sound is, according to my Vietnamese-English dictionary (thanks, Alex!) pronounced like the "a" in "law" - and I kept saying it as "die"(more or less, it's actually kind of elongated from that, with the "i" as a distinct sound) - which my teacher kept giggling at and telling me that I was saying the word for the toilet or WC. According to what I've looked up in my dictionary I think I may have actually been saying something more vulgar, but she was too polite to tell me what I was really saying. So, I want to take more lessons before I really try to communicate in Vietnamese, so I don't say something horribly inappropriate.

I was feeling really dehydrated after my walk to Tây Mỗ, so I stayed in and napped while most others in the house went into Hà Nội to see a water puppet show or get a taste of the local nightlife. Steve-o and one of the other volunteers (Sebastian, I think?) started out drinking at a bar and apparently got invited by the owner to join him and his family for dinner and came back with a great story that I'm sad I missed. I hung out with Steve-o and Sebastian when they got back and chatted with them a bit and then called it a night.

I woke up super early the next day at about 5:45am, as I had the day before, partially due to jet lag, partially due to heat, and partially due to going to sleep early. But that allowed me to enjoy a nice relaxing morning before heading into work for the first time. It was originally intended as just a trip to show me how to get there and meet with the organization for the first time, but the organization had a retreat planned to Ba Vi National Park and they invited me to join. I'm not going to turn down any invitation extended by the Vietnamese during this trip, so I quickly packed a bag when I found out, and then headed out with Mai (from VPV) to find my way to ISMS. The trip involves a walk to the main road, about half a mile, and then two bus rides. It's very confusing and I now have a sheet of paper with the correct words to ask the driver/ticket man to make sure I get off at the right place. I think I may just get a bicycle, though, and ride into town. The trip will be shorter and easier. A little scarier, especially when I get to the large intersection in the middle of Hà Nội, but it appears to sometimes be directed by government workers and I can always just follow someone else.

When I arrived at ISMS, I met a few people and then was ushered into a meeting room where I met Linh, my project director, Sarah, an ex-pat originally from Texas who is on the staff, and one of the directors (whose name I can't remember). We discussed several things that I might work on - some data analysis, report writing/editing, and possibly English lessons for the staff. I have a desk on the second floor (the building has 5, I think) next to Sarah in the "Research Department". Fortunately, unlike my house, my work is air conditioned. If nothing else, that should motivate me to go to work every day. Sarah sent me some documents about projects they've been working on, and until lunch I was reading through those. I then had lunch on the job during which I was repeatedly asked if I needed a fork or spoon. No, I can use chopsticks like you. I'm not quite as good, but I can get the job done without making a fool of myself. And how would I learn if I didn't try to use them, anyhow? After lunch I actually started to do something useful, checking the English on a summary for the website of a project they launched recently for educating young and pregnant women about HIV testing during pregnancy. In my first pass-through I found many areas where article usage was incorrect, and I want to read the report the summary is based on to check on a few of the concepts they are trying to convey in other parts. Although I hope that the majority of my work is not editing documents, it was nice to do that and feel useful on my first day, especially since it introduced me to some of the HIV-related work they've done.

An hour after lunch we were told it was time to go! Sarah and I both used the bathroom and turned off our computers and went downstairs... where we waited in the heat for about 30 minutes before we actually left. I'm going to have to get used to this Vietnamese time scale - I'm typically a very punctual person, and I usually expect others to be the same and then get frustrated when they aren't... so I'm going to have to adjust my expectations here. 1pm usually means 1:15 or later, or wait til 1pm to get ready to do whatever it is that's supposed to happen at that time. Or be ready on time and just plan to wait around for a bit. I'll be carrying a book everywhere I go from now on, I think.

So, we finally got on the bus. Despite having just eaten lunch, we had many snacks, including my first new fruit!

This is a mangosteen, or in Vietnamese, Măng cụt.

After about an hour and a half, we arrived at Đầm Long, which means "dragon lake". Sarah and I shared a room at the hotel, which had air conditioning, a TV, and a refrigerator! Such luxury! It was the first night I slept with a blanket, and probably the only for a while.

I loved the view of the resort out our window:

We rested and ate dinner, during which I had a bottomless glass of Bia Ha Noi, a local lager. Dinner was followed by more drinking and karaoke and I got to try another new fruit. I forget the Vietnamese name for it, but it's known in the English speaking world as rambutan. It has a crazy red skin and green spiky hairs. I think I'm gonna like my job.

The next morning we went for a walk through the forest, and I got to see monkeys outside of a zoo for the first time! I also saw lots of deer and some very crazy looking bugs. I took a lot of pictures of them, but these are my favorites:

These monkeys were uncharacteristically cooperative for this photo.

The monkeys were exciting to see at first, but they had no fear of us... and started growling at us when we were encroaching on their territory. Two other people from the group reported getting attacked - one was a little girl who was just over 3 years old, and the other was an adult, who was bitten and got her dress torn. So, I'm less excited about monkeys now.

These were the least skiddish deer I've ever seen. I assume they're used to getting food from people and are thus not really afraid of us.

And what's better than a monkey or a deer? How about both! Monkey ON a deer! The deer did not tolerate this behavior for very long, and when another monkey tried to also hitch a ride, it was quickly ejected by the deer kicking its butt into the air.

We continued on down along the path and got to the Swan Boats on the lake. Sarah and I shared a boat and paddled around for a while, taking pictures of the others in our group and lounging out on the water. We returned to the hotel, took a nap, ate lunch, and then we were off to the next stop!

We visited an edge of the Ba Vi National Park and our driver dropped us off near the top of a mountain, which presented a gorgeous view.

I also found many of this really cool fuzzy caterpillar in both places. It's about 2 inches long and the hairs stick out about half an inch from its body.

This is a really cool website with many insects found in Vietnam; I was able to identify a butterfly that I found, Cyrestis thyodamas, or Bướm cánh bản đồ in Vitenamese, but I couldn't find my caterpillar (they don't have caterpillar pictures) or this weird spindly-legged and barely visible insect that spanned about 3 inches (length and width).

Our group moved to a slightly different location on the mountain where we played in a waterfall for a little while.

Looking up:

Looking out:

And then we headed back into Hà Nội! I got a ride home from the same director that was in my meeting (I really should figure out his name) to find my normally packed house apparently completely deserted. It was a little lonely, but it did give me lots of time to do this blog update and upload a few photos (which takes an absurdly long time with this computer).

I'm not sure what I'll do today, but I'd like to get some groceries, some better shoes for the shower (I've been using my cloth flip flops), a bicycle and helmet, some other clothes for work (now that I know what the standard is for the Vietnamese staff members), a book to help me learn Vietnamese, perhaps some shelves to put my clothes on, and possibly some more cash. I also need to get some change, as my smallest denomination right now is 20,000 VND (roughly 1 USD, but that's too large for many things that expect exact change). I think I saw one of the other volunteers leaving the house a few minutes ago, so I may not be alone after all.

Love,

Jen