Its Happy (Lunar) New Year in Vietnam...perfect for those new years resolutions that hadnt quite had time to be put into effect!

Greetings from Ho Chi Minh City, its been 2 weeks here now and time has just flown - after spending a few days with Jess, the other Ozquest group leader arranging plans, the fresh-faced group of 18 volunteers from melb, syd, bris and tassie arrived at the airport not quite sure what to expect...there were no taxis whisking these volunteers into a classy hotel, the 1 hr public bus in standard mayhem traffic into town saw the group (many of whom being first time overseas), fascinated at the goings on outside the bus windows in the hive of activity in the streets of Saigon. Seeing the reactions was priceless. Found out today just last week in Vietnam there were 342 reported road accidents. Hate to know how many weren’t reported - they are officially mad.

After a brief day orientation into what would lay ahead in the coming month, to the city, the good markets, fruit shakes and our favourite friend the pho - noodle soup - both groups split to begin our respective projects to get stuck into it.... aided by local volunteers from the Vietnamese chapter of Initiatives of Change, my group headed over the Saigon River to District 2 of Ho Chi Minh City into a quieter area with somewhat cleaner air, still being developed as a new district of the rapidly expanding city of (approx, noone really knows?) 8-10 million. Our project involved working at an orphanage housed at the Dieu Giac Pagoda (a Buddhist pagoda run by nuns, who were absolutely divine – the ‘head nun’ was the only one who spoke English and recently spent 2 years studying at the Steiner school in melb) - the orphanage housed around 120 children from a 4 month old to 20, who welcomed us with songs, huge smiles and plenty of hugs – the 2 boys in my group were a huge hit, especially with our addition of new soccer balls! Much delight was taken in our daily pick ups in our little yellow truck that ferried us to and from the orphanage. We gave a fresh (and very overdue) coat of paint to the entire facade of the orphanage and the kitchen/study areas, played and sang, ran some activities and games for the kids on the weekends when they weren't at school, helped prepared treats and food in the huge task of feeding the hungry hoards, and exchanged on a daily basis with our new friends our vietnamese volunteers - these guys are all passionate youth (from about 19-25) committed to undertaking social work in their own communities, many still students at the Foreign Trade Uni and trying to improve their English, they were quite inspiring really and gave up so much time for us , everyone learnt so much from each other over the 8 days.

And my group are excellent, some great characters and some beautiful people, have worked so well together and really looking forward to spending the next few weeks with them. The other group has a cook (but who needs him when we’re in Vietnam?!), but I have an Osteopath – she’s sorting my back out before the cycle tour! Last 2 days we’ve visited the War Remnants Museum (formerly know as Museum of American War Crimes), strange place indeed and seeing the long term impacts of Agent Orange ( we will also be visiting some orphanages before we leave of Agent orange vistims who still suffer deformaties and disabilities after generations) and this morning we took a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels – I braved the tunnels and was surprised the hips could fit through the tiny holes that were the gateways to the Viet Cong’s underground network of tunnels to hide form the Americans that spread from outer Ho Chi Minh City to Cu Chi, around 250km of them – so sophisticated, so claustrophobic…a strange feeling when walking through the part forest which was perhaps the most peaceful few moments of our entire trip thus far, on the same sit where a war had taken place. Jess and Jess, the other leaders (of course providing far too much confusion for any of our Vietnamese friends to get right, not that we can get any of the Vietnamese sounding anything like a language!) are both in the army reserves and Jess is a Police officer – so they happily fired a few rounds at the firing range at the tunnels site… certainly didn’t sit right with me and most waited in the bus…similar feeling to being offered to fire a few rounds after visiting the Khmer Rouge “killing fields’ just outside of Phnom Penh in Cambodia for “only $5US dollar”…

On a more exciting note, 4 day cycle tour beckons from tomorrow morning through the Mekong Delta ….getting out of the city and into the countryside, sleeping on an island, ferry trips, a few little walks in between – it will be about 80km each day which shouldn’t be too bad (we’ve got awesome new bikes), and there IS a support vehicle…just in case any group leaders are feeling a little underdone!! After returning we will head straight up to Hue in the Central Highlands to begin our second project with some construction work in some schools in hue province in a rural area – away from the humidity, the pollution and madness of the city.

This is perhaps the best time of the year to visit Vietnam – it is the Tet Festival, ushering in the Lunar New Year (on the 9th Feb) – It has also meant it is very difficult to get anything done (hire buses, accommodation, etc – “sorry, impossible, we cannot do that, its tet remember”. But on the fun side, there is red absolutely everywhere in the streets for good luck, flower festivals on every strip on land, guys riding around on their motos with cumquat trees between their laps (good luck for the new year), there’s little red envelopes being handed out everywhere with luck money, and treats and sweets galore – we were able to prepare many of these (and taste test them all of course) while at the orphanage. On the topic of food (of which the day revolves around of course), it is absolutely brilliant, our trip is going veg for the entire time as its easier and reducing the risk of sickness- but did take my 2 boys yesterday to get a ‘real hamburger’ which they ate in one continual mouthful I think…and I did have a mandatory steak and a beer on Australia day with jess before the group arrived, needed to boost the protein levels! Hope you’re all well and not working too hard ;-) Love Sarah xoxo