The challenges of working in a different culture. Or, Sometimes I want to tear my hair out.

Volunteering at the E&C Center is going pretty well so far.  I like the mission of the non-profit, and the people that work there well enough.  I also think I'll be able to make some real progress while I'm there which is great.  That being said, the challenges of working in a different culture are very real and often completely mind-boggling to me.  I could sit here for hours giving examples, but for now I'll just describe one major issue I've run into:

One of my main tasks at the E&C Center is to identify possible sources of funding from international donors, and then write and submit the proposals.  My first day there I asked if they had any potential leads, who their current donors were, etc. All I got was a few confused looks and multiple people pushing me towards the computer saying "you find funding, okay?"...or..."we have free internet here"...or..."you get us money and then we use it!"  And then they all went back to their skyping and facebooking and whatnot.  So I sat at my computer, and started researching (which went really well actually, and I found lots of good leads). That was last Wednesday.  Yesterday afternoon I was talking to Jenny (the other non-Vietnamese volunteer), and mentioned my research and she said, "Oh, well why don't you just pick up where the last VPV volunteer left off? She left us lots of materials."  To which I responded, "WHAT????" and stared at her dumbly. It turns out there was another VPV volunteer at E&C Center before me and she had done lots of research and even submitted one or two proposals.  And yet the employees completely failed to mention anything about all this existing research, even when I specifically asked them about it. 

Frustrating, no?  I felt like tearing my hair out.  

Somehow they don't make the connection that having me unnecessarily start from scratch is detrimental to the organization's progress.  At least now I have all the files from the previous volunteer, and I can pick up where she left off. But seriously, if Jenny wasn't there to clue me in I doubt if the Vietnamese employees would have ever mentioned the existing files!  That's some serious inefficiency right there! 

But, like we were told in our orientation, some things in Vietnam are just different and we have to work within their system. So that's what I'll do. Even though their system sucks.

NB: If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with this, it would be much appreciated! 

A few Hanoi pictures...

hanging out in VPV dorm

Hoan Kiem Lake at night

Our first pho in Vietnam! Australia, Canada, Germany and USA all represented in this pic.

Pho ga

Ice Cream and Fondue at Fanny's...yum

Hanging out/dance party in the park

I rode a motorbike and survived

Chaos. That's the only way to describe the roads in Vietnam. There are no rules, practically no stoplights and absolutely no respect for staying on the correct side of the road. It's incredibly overwhelming for all us foreigners but the locals aren't fazed at all.

in the Old Quarter, happy to be out of the ridiculous traffic...

                                                  
Until today I had only ridden in buses and cars and that was scary enough. But this morning when I walked into work, Luan (one of the coordinators at E&C Center) told me I would go with her to the Korean Embassy in the afternoon. For some reason I totally assumed that we'd take the bus. It wasn't until we were about to leave and she handed me a helmet that I realized I was going on the motorbike with her.  I totally freaked out (internally), but kept my cool on the outside.  We hopped on the bike and got going, and it wasn't as bad as I had feared. There were only a few times I thought we might hit someone/get hit by someone else. The worst part was when we hit big bumps I thought I was going to fly off the back of the motorbike.
But we got to the Korean Embassy and back to the office just fine. I'm not exactly excited for my next motorbike adventure, but at least now I know what to expect and I know it's something I'll (probably) survive.

My attempts to capture the crazy traffic. It's kind of hard to tell, but just imagine that none of those motorbikes are slowing down at all...they just all honk and swerve around each other.They also swerve around the ladies selling goods on bikes, like the one in the second picture. I'll take a video at some point...

Finally, my volunteer placement!

After months of questions about what I'll be doing and where, I have an answer.  I'll be volunteering at the Center for Support and Development of Education and Culture...E&C for short. My work will mainly consist of finding possible sources of funding and getting information about them, writing/editing RPFs, teaching English to staff and other volunteers, and helping out with specific projects (don't know what projects yet).

Check out their website!  http://vhgdcongdong.org.vn/vhgd/index.php?lang=english 

The English site is still being built, but it's pretty good so far...much better than most NGOs in Vietnam.  I'm going to meet the director and office staff tomorrow with my coordinator, then I start working on Tuesday.  I'll post more details once I start volunteering!

Ha Long Bay...and Vietnam is CHEAP!!

This weekend 15 VPV volunteers decided to go to Ha Long Bay, about 4 hours from Hanoi.  We left early Saturday morning and just got back this afternoon.

                                          On the bus at 7:00 AM...

Ha Long Bay is incredible...such a beautiful place!  We spent one day and one night on the boat. Since there were so many of us, we had almost an entire boat to ourselves  We spent a few hours cruising through the bay before we reached the first stop: an island full of caves. It was cool, but I've seen better caves before.  The actual islands are what I found the most captivating.  We then stopped again to go kayaking. That was awesome, especially since we went right before sunset. The sun was going down as we arrived back at our boat.

While sailing the bay most of us spent our time relaxing on the roof of our boat...

We had dinner, then chilled and played games for a while. Traveling with people from all over the world is so interesting - we played that game where everyone gets the name of a famous person, puts it on their forehead without looking and then has to guess who they have (does anyone know if this game has a real name?). The hard part was making sure that everyone actually knew their "famous" person.  Everyone knew people like Britney Spears and Jackie Chan, but not everyone knew Kim Jong-Il or Celine Dion.  It made for a lot of laughs.

Another great thing about this trip was the price.  For an overnight stay on a boat, four meals, three excursions off the boat, and the bus ride to and from Ha Long Bay it only cost $30 per person. Thirty dollars!! I can still hardly believe it. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. Full album will be on Picasa soon...

                                               Lunch on the boat

Pretty

Islands and houseboats (families live on them!)

              Kayaking! we kayaked here, but I didn't bring my camera so I took pics of other kayakers instead

In Vietnam!

I got to Vietnam yesterday around 10:00 AM after almost 20 hours of travel from LA.  It was tiring, although everything went smoothly.  I was picked up by one of the volunteers from VPV (Volunteers for Peace Vietnam) and they drove me back to the VPV dorm.

It's hard to describe the chaos that is Vietnam...especially the roads. There are absolutely no rules on the roads, and I'm surprised anyone survives more than a few years. But obviously their driving "system" works well enough because everyone seems to get around okay. I'll try to take pictures of the roads at some point.

We are having orientation today, and right now we're on a break. I'll find out my volunteer placement in a few hours, so I'll try to post about that later today. For now I'll leave you with the only pictures I've taken so far- I took these this morning at the fruit market near our dorm, and on the road walking back.


Buying fruit at the market

Me at the fruit market

Walking down the road...


Countryside near our dorm

Leaving tomorrow!

My first blog post ever!  I'm sure no one is even going to read this post, but this blog is just as much a memoir for me as it is for friends and family to follow. Sooo, here goes.

I'm in LA right now, and leaving for Vietnam tomorrow!! It's exciting but also nerve wracking at the same time.  I've been packing and repacking my suitcases for the past few hours, trying to get everything in the perfect spot so it all fits.  I barely have enough room for all my things right now, so it looks like I won't be buying (m)any souvenirs during my travels...I don't know what I'd do with more stuff! Any ideas?

LA has been pretty fun, here are a few pics from the last few days. My next post will be from Vietnam!

                                          Union Station

                                          downtown LA

                                                     Mom and I at Avila Adobe (oldest house in LA)

                                           Santa Monica Pier

                                            Sunset over Santa Monica