An Interview with Wendy Mansell on her time in Vietnam – part one

LB – So Wendy how did you feel when you arrived in Ha Noi?

WM – Exhausted and emotional  from the flight (sat next to a complete arsehole, who took over the three seats out of the four) and very tearful to see you and Hwa.  Amazed at the taxi drive back and the sheer amount of traffic and honking of horns. It was very commercial around the airport but I could  still smell incense and felt I was somewhere exotic.

LB – How was the first day ?

WM -  Only a small hangover.  It was chilly in the morning and I was worried I had packed very badly.  We strolled to the local shops, along dirt paths, negotiating builders rubble with no pavements.  Women were sitting selling tea and roasting sweetcorn on the side of the main road. Lesley told me the construction fairies had removed the pavements that were there yesterday evening.  Then we had to cross said road….  after a huge amount of hesitation Lesley introduced  me (dragged) to the unique Hanoian way of crossing.   No green man, just walk and weave, no stopping, no reversing unless you want to die.  As I was walking down the lane I nearly garroted myself with hanging wires from the trees and poles, these are electric cables.  Health and safety not an issue.  I immediately felt people were friendly and smiling but not hassling you to buy anything,  I felt comfortable and safe.

LB – Later that day we went out with Huyen my Vietnamese teacher around the old quarter.  How was that?

wendy and huyen bonding

WM – So exciting, so overwhelmed with the noise and the bustle of the place.  So much to see and absorb. It felt really fortunate to be with Huyen ( a Vietnamese National) so we able to talk to people properly and ask questions at a deeper level than a regular tourist could.  It was fantastic to see Lesley conversing in Vietnamese,  it was an active lesson and I learned loads of new words ( Lesley jealous).

lesley having difficulty learning colours

We went for refreshments in a high rise cafe overlooking Hoan Kiem lake which has a beautiful pagoda in the middle, and has a fantastic view of the city.   I love the way that if you want anything specific you go to that particular street,  i.e  shoe street, toy street, hardware store street…. what a choice.

very friendly and welcoming....

LB -  So tell me about Saturday night please, because I don’t remember?

WM – From what I can remember we had a brilliant girls night out, with Suzanne, Martha & Jean.   We started off in a plush, beautifully decorated restaurant for dinner, ( Lesley tried to steal the candle sticks!).  After a mature getting to know you dinner with Lesley’s friends, the evening deteriorated into margarita fueled fun.

note the new friend - time to go home..

We ended in a bar in the wee small hours only to be shooed out by half a dozen officers of the law. The bar was closed down and we met a group of backpackers outside who advised us on the next illegal drinking den to frequent.  We hopped on a motorbike (sans Helmet) and arrived at a really cool bar, with only a small secret metal door letting us in.  It was packed.   We wiled away another couple of hours and found ourselves home at four am, where Lesley talked my bloody ear off for another hour.

LB – How was Sunday?

WM – Quiet.  However we wasted not time and went off to the Botanical Gardens where we saw at least 50 wedding couples having their photographs taken.  This is the best one, we couldn’t take our eyes off her.

classy or trashy? you decide!

Just in case you couldn't decide...

As we were walking from the Botanical Gardens we passed a skate park, where we were greeted by four boys from the Blue Dragon who were delighted to show off their skating skills.

Showing off - what lovely friendly boys

"love is in the air"all around the Botannical Gardens

Then off to the lake for a ride on the Swans, loads of mosquitoes at twilight … then dinner at Happy House floating restaurant.  Overdosed on spring rolls – delicious.

 

 

 

 

Hello we’re back…

What a lovely few days we have had.   Wendy loves it here ( thank god) and has been so complimentary about my adjustment and language skills it has given me a real boost.

Yes Lesley is actually quite good at Vietnamese. Really she is……..

‘Hello, how are you?’  ‘How much does that cost?’ These are the common phrases used multiple times every day  and  are not particularly  useful when you need to ask the way! …. anyhow  some pictures

FYI, animal lovers, since I have been here, Lesley has killed a budgie and has been so remiss that she has allowed the other to escape, so I reckon that’s the end of him as well! Perhaps it’s time to consider a different kind of pet?

happy tourists

Mum One and Mum Two skipping gayley through the Botannic Gardens

Hwa kept shouting out Mum One and Mum Two and then we suddenly realized why people were staring at us so we embraced the situation whole heartedly.

We have loads to blog about but off to drink more wine.   Halong Bay awaits us tomorrow two days one night on a boat.  Wendy is a truancy officer in the UK but I’ve decided to break the law and pull Hwa out of school for two days.  Smacked wrists for me!

later  Lesley, Wendy & Hwa

The extended family at breakfast

Normal blogging to resume on Monday.

more from Hwa…

a hug for me i am a baby

have breakfet with my frends

 

 

From Hwa

Wendy and Me on swan boat

wendy  and lesley and me on a  swanboat

i was happy all the time

have a lovey time all of you

I did it!!

No not that! I rode my bike to work for the very first time.   Certainly got the adrenaline pumping.  Of course there was a huge accident, (not involving motorbikes thank god) where a coach hit a van which hit a car which hit a car, domino effect, but I made it!  I feel kind of liberated.   Dreading riding home though….

Hanoi International School hosts “International Week”

This week is “International Week” at Hwa’s school.  She had to go to school in national costume on Monday morning for the international assembly, parents were invited too.   It was so cool there are 42 countries represented at the school and each country had its own flag, and the kids looked amazing in their National Costumes.  The biggest contingent of students are from Korea followed by Japan, Vietnam, and then Australia.  Not many Brits but lots of Danes which I found quite surprising.

I had to take a picture of the Union Jack why do they all look so angry and why don't we have a National dress other than football shirts with David ' bloody' Beckham printed on them?

Hwa at the front of the parade line... proud to be Vietnamese

Korea - I love the National Costume

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friends Naree and Martha enjoying the morning

Japanese dancing

 

Hwa was the only one wearing the cai non

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Entertainment was Japanese Dancing, Vietnamese Dancing, Korean drumming and the Elementary kids singing.   It was all so well done but by far the cutest were these two little kids ( aged 5) playing the Violin.

They were tiny and must have practised a lot.

 

 

 

 

There was an International Buffet at the school that evening from 6pm – 9pm.   Lots of different restaurants were invited to participate and serve up food and there was more entertainment from the students.   There was beer too which was nice.

Korean Drumming

So Sunday got worse and worse…

I mentioned my concern about the mouse situation, and how secretly I thought the poo was too big to be from mice… well on Sunday night I shut all the doors and kept the landing light on.  I couldn’t sleep and it started raining so there was tapping noises and weird patterings going on all over the place; but then I heard a sound, lots of  scratching and it wasn’t the rain.  Through the light under the door I saw a large mouse and immediately screamed ( not sure why) and switched the light on – of course it ran like hell but I looked everywhere and couldn’t find the damn thing.   I shut the door and went to sleep (for the maximum of about two hours) in Hwa’s room.  The next morning I carefully opened the door and found the bottom of the door chewed off

I called Chau and he came round later Monday, he went all through the house again to find holes and poo and concentrated more in the kitchen.  It was like a movie he moved the fridge again but this time he removed the cover from the back which housed the motor and out fled a large brown rat!  It had been living in the back of the fridge under the motor for god knows how long.   I lost it and jumped onto a chair and we then proceeded to bang every cupboard until finally it came out from under the cabinets, it tried to climb and then jump up the window before running down the stairs to the basement.

By this point all the girls had come back and we all managed to scream and bang around long enough for it to flee out the front door.

Chau also bought two cage traps so if there are any other dirty yukky foul animals deciding to live in my house and give us bubonic plague they can think again.  I am still not mad enough to set proper killing traps, use poison or glue traps so if we catch anything Chau or Mui promised to come round and let them go.   I hope Wendy isn’t reading this before she leaves the UK otherwise she may not want to visit but it is so super clean round here, with the housekeeper and all … really                                                    

Good news from Oxfam

Gifts in action

Inspiring gift ideas for environmentalists
Plant 50 trees $30	Crabs $18

Restored mangroves breathe life into Mekong Delta

By safeguarding the forests, communities protect themselves and their environment.

Thriving in a swirl of fresh and salty water, mangroves weave their roots together above the surface, creating what is both a protective barrier during typhoons and floods as well as the perfect breeding ground for a variety of fish, shrimp, and crab.

These hardy trees once dominated Vietnam’s coastline, but population growth, illegal logging, aggressive fishing, and shrimp farming have devastated the mangroves. Many never recovered from the US military’s use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. So more than three years ago, one of Oxfam America’s local partners, Can Tho University (CTU), set out to restore the forests. CTU made a pact with about 1,000 villagers in Long Hoa: if the villagers would replant the mangroves and hold off on fishing, shrimping, and felling trees, CTU would train them to use the resulting enhanced biodiversity to their advantage. Rather than fish from coastal waters, the villagers would learn the best ways to use spillover water from replenished forests to raise more fish, shrimp, and crab in ponds in their backyards.

The Vietnamese fish farmers were initially skeptical. Tran Huu Tri, for one, wasn’t convinced that the new methods held promise. But he soon discovered that the tidal water from the mangroves was rich in nutrients. “Now I don’t stock the shrimp. I get [them] from the natural environment,” he says. Tran estimates that he has doubled both his shrimp harvest and his income over the past two years.

All the while, the mangroves remain untouched and the community thrives, a development that nicely summarizes the conservation project: for everything the villagers give up, they gain much more in return.

A bad day…

It started off on Saturday night – well Saturday afternoon actually.   I ended up with seven kids in the house which truthfully was doing my head in … then my three girls, Nhu Y, Hien & Hwa decided to take glasses downstairs to the garage ( not allowed) Hwa used up a whole bottle of washing up liquid  making a concoction and they got black ink all over the kitchen floor and the basement.  Now why wasn’t I watching you may ask, well they are in an out of the houses like lightening and I was backing up my photo’s and doing some Vietnamese homework whilst they played.  I was cross, broken glasses, zero washing up liquid from a brand new bottle and a huge mess ( I’m freaking out about money at the moment i.e having to replace everything over and over again due to quality here and now kids).  I made them all clean up and in all honesty they did a really good job, then I asked Hien and Nhu Y to go home, I really have to set some rules here.   This was all pretty early on so after a trip to the supermarket I decided I wanted to do a movie night for the girls, something I have been meaning to do for a while, plus I wanted them to know they were still welcome here.

I used an online translation site and wrote out five invitations in Vietnamese for Hwa to deliver to her friends mum’s, which she did.    I chose Barbie because they are the only DVD’s that have Vietnamese subtitles and the movie was starting at 7pm and the night finishing at 9pm.  Hwa and I prepared the DVD’s (  she said she wanted them to be able to choose) and made popcorn and snacks.  No one turned up!  Nhu Y ’s mum sent a note back saying she couldn’t come but that was it.  – Hwa was so upset!

At 8pm Hwa just decided to go next door and get Hien here – which she did but Hien was called home 20 mins later.   Thank goodness there was one person though! I felt really bad for her, just because she had put so much effort into it, bless.

We woke up Sunday morning at about 7.30am and immediately I saw mouse poo on the bed and the backboard.  There was mouse poo in Hwa’s bed too and a large one in her sink;  Chau had scoured the house for holes and we thought we had a handle on the problem but obviously not.   My biggest freak was that the big poo was a rat and Hwa or I would get bitten in the night and get rabies!  Why oh why are they in our bedrooms.   The kitchen I get,  they have eaten the soap in the bathroom but there is nothing in the bedrooms to eat- eeeeeeeeeeeeuwwwwwwww .  This is gross and really making me feel dirty and freaked out.   Even the Vietnamese don’t seem to like mice,  they prefer cockroaches ( which I don’t obviously) but in the beds whilst you are sleeping is just too nasty to contemplate.  I did see a mouse the other night and we looked each other in the eye and they are ok, quite cute really, I just don’t want them touching me or my daughter.   If it is a rat I have to move out until caught we could get the black plague for god’s sake.

8.10am Nhu Y comes a calling,  I didn’t want to let her in, we hadn’t showered and were eating breakfast but after ten minutes she came again and I just couldn’t say ‘no’.  Bless she had bought a DVD of ‘Barbie’ Xmas Carol with her so we had ‘movie morning ‘ instead.  Only problem for Hwa was the DVD was dubbed into Vietnamese and no English subtitles.

The weather today was cold – really cold.  The i-phone said it would be 70 degrees but there was a drizzle and wind that made it really cold for the first time since we have been here, this sort of weather is miserable at the best of times but an uninsulated house and a ceiling fan that won’t turn off because it is broken exacerbated the problem… my mood was slowly sinking

The girls wanted mango to eat so I started cutting it and sliced into my hand, blood everywhere.    Five minutes later I fell down the stairs quite badly.  I was lucky I didn’t break my arm on the damn hard marble spiral stairs, I couldn’t save myself but I have some pretty nasty bruises in the making.  I then managed to cut myself again so have two hands covered in band aids and a really sore, back, arm and ankle.

I had to get more blankets for the beds so we went out to the old quarter,  not in the mood to shop I did manage to buy some stuff but scowled at everyone, not the best way to negotiate prices so I came home feeling ripped off.    Honestly the weather is grim, foggy , fine mist and damn cold.  I bought a heater a few weeks back thank goodness, so that helps, and I managed to get Mui round to disconnect the fan so at least we aren’t freezing.

Please let tomorrow be a better day.

 

Facebook problems and a general update on life in Hanoi

 

There have been rumors circulating about Facebook ( which is the most widely used social networking site here in Vietnam) is about to be shut down.  Looks like it has on my ISP – so now I have, no Facebook and no Twitter available at home, the place I do all my updating.   Twitter works at Blue Dragon but to be honest with organizing the sales table for the Xmas Bazaar for them this year and other projects I never think about Twittering.

My first day at the Embassy yesterday was fantastic.  What I really love about it there is the level of expectation from me,  there isn’t any hand holding, everyone is super busy and they just assume that I can do everything they ask me and so far so good.  I was on an hour long conference call yesterday and am helping set up a two day worshop about trafficking and predators for the Vietnamese Ministry of Police.  A lot of the stuff I am working with is classified so I don’t want to blog about it, but this work is exactly what I want to be doing right now and I am so happy to be a part of it.

Other than that not much other news.   I have a wonderful team of people helping me here,  Ha the housekeeper is just fantastic and we have such a laugh.  Mui our Xe Om is reliable and trustworthy and Hwa goes to school on her own with him every morning, which gives me a whole hour to get myself together before going to work, a luxury I really enjoy.  We have a new  babysitter Chang who is a student at Hanoi University with Huyen my Vietnamese Teacher and Hwa loves her.  I went out for a drink with Amy last night so it was her first time babysitting, and unlike past sitters there were no tears and a squealing level of excitement that she was coming round.  The fact she has so much patience and seems to like playing with the damn pollypockets endlessly is a definite bonus, and makes her number one in Hwa’s book.

Hwa’s friends are round here all the time, which makes this a very lively, happy, and noisy household – I love it although I am always grumbling about having to clean up after them ( don’t want them to think they can get away with it).  Hwa  is out already  with Hien who came round at 8.10am.  They scoot and ride bikes round the lanes,  I am terrified they will get run over by a car or motorbike ( thankfully it is pretty quiet here ) but Hien is 10yrs old  and I have watched how careful she is.  To be honest I feel I  have to let Hwa have some freedom, she needs and loves it.  I much prefer when they are all playing here but as their friendships develop Hwa is going round to their houses too. Nu Y lives round the corner, Hien next door so I always know which house they are in.  I still get anxious though but I think it would be naive not to be.

No new pictures to post but there will be loads next week when Wendy arrives.  We are meeting her at the airport  on Thursday  and this is her first trip to Vietnam so it will be great to get get her to blog on how she finds it.   Everyone’s perceptions are different and it will be really interesting  to see what she thinks.   Anyhow ‘the girls’ have just arrived and they REALLY need the computer… MUM IT IS REALLY important, WE REALLY REALLY NEED IT .. and so on and so on – four against one I have to go xx