Yep - Raining still !!!

Wednesday 09/09/09 - something ominous about this date.......

Rain, Rain go away, come back another day………… yep! Raining again……

The parcels I sent from Australia still haven’t arrived and I think the man at the Grafton Post Office was onto something when he told me you cannot insure anything sent to Vietnam! Bugger !! as it had so many things in it to take to the orphanage………. I head down town in the rain to try to find a bookshop to get some large sheets of paper so I can get some words translated for the children at the orphanage. I also need to find a soccer ball seeing as the one I bought hasn’t shown up yet. I also need some blank CD’s so I can record ABBA for the kids --- YEP! That’s right – they love ABBA and Christmas Carols and Happy Birthday so I am going to write some CD’s to leave with them – that’s if I can find any. I also need to get a CD player but I am told I won’t buy one in Hoi AN and will have to go to Danang to get one – what joy!! 30 minutes or more each way on the back of a motorbike for a CD player in the pouring rain…… can’t wait!

I spent all morning walking the streets and cannot find any shops that even remotely look like they sell paper, CD’s or balls and after almost three hours and blisters from thongs rubbing on my wet feet (can’t wear anything that isn’t rubber) I come home empty handed. So frustrating to not being able to get what are basics to us…….. but I am learning that that is the way it is here……. What I wouldn’t do for a printer even…… the hotel doesn’t even have one and I haven’t found anywhere that does!!! I need a copy of my visa to give to the authorities so I can go to the orphanage and I will probably have to go to Danang for that too… my passport won’t fit through the fax machine without ripping out the pages… don’t think the Immigration officers will understand somehow…

We also have to organise a car to go to the orphanage as it will probably be raining still – three hours on the back of a motorbike in torrential rain is not my idea of a fun time… nor is it safe if you have any idea what the roads, traffic and road rules (NOT) are like here.
I spend the rest of the day working then read some more of “THE BOOK”. It’s depressing but explains why things are the way they are and so I need to finish it if I am to understand any of what is happening here. I am starting to realise that western thinking will not help these people, that you have to have some understanding of their history and culture and the suppression they have suffered to be able to help at all. What they wouldn’t give for just a little of what we have……., and yet I am starting to realise that maybe we aren’t the lucky ones in some ways………