I’m struggling through with the Vietnamese lessons, trying my best to humour our teacher and learn the vast number of totally useless vocab items she expects us to retain throughout our ‘survival course’. I mean, when in Buddha’s name am I going to have to say (or indeed listen to anyone uttering) the following in Vietnamese: ‘I am from Russia/China/Japan/Holland/USA/South Africa’. As far as I’m aware I’m not becoming Dutch any time soon and anyone who isn’t Vietnamese is likely to address me in English, wouldn’t you think?! Anyhow, that aside, I’m being selective and filtering the info – taking the 3 or so useful phrases from each lesson and writing them phonetically to aid pronunciation and my failing memory.
Orphanage visits are the new highlight of my week – feeding the babies twice in the morning as well as playing games with the toddlers and providing much needed love and hugs all round. The worst part is leaving and seeing them crying when you put them back in their cots. Swimming with the guys and girls from the blind shelter is also on my schedule. It’s always fun, especially when we take the girls who have better English skills and are more socially interactive. It’s nice to help people, with them in turn helping me feel I’m doing something more worthwhile with my time than watching ‘How I Met Your Mother’ on Starworld.
A xx
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