Hello there,

I hope that this finds you all well. Things here are good, and I have now finished my in country training and started my new job this week. I think that I may have been learning the wrong language over the last 3 weeks though, as the UN seem to have one of their own altogether! Quielty confident though that I will get the hang of it though...

The In country training was great, it was largely taken up by language lessons, which I was really surprised to find that I loved. I wish I had felt the same way about French lessons at school! We also got up to speed on the programmes that VSO are running on HIV and Disability which were really interesting and a good grounding for what we have ahead of us. 2 of the volunteers have now headed for Ho Chi Minh City, and the 4 of us left here in Hanoi started our jobs on Monday!!

I am slowly starting to find my way around the city, though I am usually found clutching a map trying to work out a bus route. WhilstI am getting more used to the traffic there is absolutely no way that I am risking riding a bike in it. Well I say that I am getting used to it, whilst walking to work on Tuesday I was surprised to discover that in times of high traffic the mopeds use the pavements too. I was going to let them know the errors of their ways, but most were laughing so I couldn't help but do the same thing too.

I am still amazed some of the sites on mopeds incluing a family of 5, 6 pigs, small children who can barely walk standing on the seats loosel clutching their parent as they weave through traffic, though my favourite sight so far is definitely the two nuns that i saw in crash helmets.

Things are very sociable still, and I have quickly fitted into a network of other volunteers, and people working in the NGO sectors. My current task - other than the new job - is to find some accomodation, but I think that might be sorted by this weekend - fingers crossed. So things are good, it all feels like an adventure still, and I can't quite believe still that I am living here. It has got to sink in at some time!

Take care,

Jean