I think most of you know this, but just in case you don't I have taken a bit of a journey in the last week, and left the UK to work with VSO for a couple of years. I have taken a placement in Hanoi, Vietnam andwill be working for UNAIDS in a couple of weeks time.
Leaving home proved to be a lot harder than I ever expected. I was very sorry to leave great friends, and a job that I essentially loved. But it was time for a change and a new challenge so here I am.
VSO are pretty organised here, and I am on a 3 week in country training course, and so far so good. The most important lesson so far seems to have been how to cross the road, which can be summed up as absolutely terrifying. To cut a long story short it appears to rely on other vehicles dodging you as you walk very slowly. I have arrived with 5 others; 2 of whom are from the UK, 2 from Holland, and 1 from Canada. They are largely involved with a variety of social work, and they will be working with other local NGOs. 4 of us will be based in Hanoi, where there seems to be an amazing social scene in one way or another. People seem super friendly across the board.
We have started our language lesson , which end in fits of thegiggles, and my losing the ability to speak. Everyone I have met tells me that I can only hope to master the basics, and I suspect they're right, but we'll see.
The food as suspected is absolutely marvellous, and coupled with thedelicious beers, any hope that I had of getting into shape over hereare rapidly disappearing.
There seems to be quite a commitment to language lessons from VSO and I can continue them for quite some time. My senses seem to have been hit on every front, and in all honesty Ihave been pretty exhausted, which I suspect is down to the sheer hardwork of packing everything up and leaving, the emotion of it andfinally the jet lag. I am doing my best to be sensible about things,and not take on too much. So far so good.
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