day one at Quang Ngai

the g is silent

so i just spent a lovely weekend in Da Nang. met all of the old volunteers, some of whom are on their way home and also most of the new ones coming in.
we had orientation yesterday for all the placements in the Da Nang house which is where i was supposed to be placed but as the day went on it appeared my services might be required elsewhere!
the ladies in the Quang Ngai house put out an appeal for an extra pair of hands and so i sat and thought about it and thought about it and in the end i went with the decision i'd already made within the first 90 seconds, and so here i am in 'real Viet Nam', Quang Ngai.

ok, so first off, Da Nang is a pretty big city. it's touristy and incredibly noisy and a bit touristy and a lot like any other city in the world.
and i'm a county bumpkin really so that was one really big reason.
the rest was just gut instinct. it was six of one and half a dozen of the other but my gut was just telling me that if i had the choice, Quang Ngai was the place to go.

so we all piled into a scorching hot car and headed off on the 3 hour journey south.
and woohoo, i was right!!!!

it's amazing here. i saw stars for the first time since i left home. we cycle almost everywhere (mostly on dirt tracks), we have 2 inch long geckos crawling along the walls& ceilings all evening chatting away to each other, we have a massive upstairs balcony that looks out onto paddy fields and .... we're the only white folks in town!
deadly!
they all think my septum ring is the most hilarious thing they've ever seen and none of us have experienced celebrity status like this, "hello, what is your name, where are you from, hello, hello" - everywhere! it's great craic.

and the placement, the work, i think it's going to be wonderful. (phew!)
this morning we went to Binh Hoa which is a sort of meeting place for disabled children and their parents and siblings where they can play games, get some physio and we give them fruit and milk aswell. it also seems to be a great support for the mothers, they are such hard workers and disablity is such a taboo in this country that they must have a lot to deal with.
every monday and tuesday morning, they will carry their children or load them up onto a moto or bicycle and make the journey out to Binh Hoa for just an hour and a half - and it seems to be well worth it to everyone.

this evening then i took my first ever english class.
it was mad!
there were about 15 students, from 13 to 37 all with only a little more english than i have vietnamese and they were great fun.
we asked questions and played a game and man it was so hot. hot hot hot!
but it was good fun and i'm looking forward to next week when we'll be talking about travelling, entertainment (i think they meant hobbies and interests..) and jobs.
great! ha!

we have breakfast here at 8, lunch at 12 and dinner at 5. so far so good on the food front, it's all quite tasty and there's a bit of everything. we eat out of tiny little rice bowls though so i'm not sure how much i'm actually eating in one sitting. i leave the table full anyway, have no doubts!

this evening though as we ate dinner it started to rain a bit, which apparently is really very rare here, i obviously took it with me! the Aussie ladies were delighted until Doreen looked out into the hallway from the table and noticed that it was flooded.

completely!

the drains in the two ground floor bathrooms had blocked and we were ankle deep in water throughout the house for about an hour! it was madness, we had buckets and brushes and jugs and towels trying to get the water out onto the street, happily, we don't have a front door per se, just a pair of galvanised shutter-doors on guides so the whole living area opens out right onto the road.
we all sleep on matresses on floor here and poor Dave's room is on the ground floor and so his matress got soaked. bedlam!
but it was sort of fun all the same and no real damage was done. there are pics around somewhere, i'll do a bit of uploading soon enough. wait til you see this place, it's real picture postcard stuff!

so that's all for now, i'm off up to get in under my mosquito net and sweat the night away under a [rotating] fan, if i could only train myself to breathe in as the fan crosses me!

til next time,
tam biet