My First Meal Back (and other thoughts on food)

So even though Chuy's won the "what do I eat" poll (I'm guessing the kids arranged to have that poll stacked because that is what they wanted), we in fact had ... Vietnamese for dinner. I couldn't face Chuy's, Rudy's or, to be honest, any other Western food. Instead, we had Bun Bo for dinner. It was made from memory so I missed several things, which is why we are trying again tonight with Hue pancakes and the marinated beef from a Bun Bo recipe for spring rolls.
Thoughts on food? The portion sizes in the US (well in Texas everything is bigger) are HUGE as is the emphasis on protein. When we had Bun Bo on Tuesday, we had what I thought was twice the amount of meat that four people would have had in DaNang. And we ended up eating almost half what we would had we eaten it as steak.
The other huge food revelation was how HARD it is to avoid all of emphasis on food (and unhealthy food) in this country. I was NOT hungry when I got off the plane and had no need to eat. But after standing in the airport (and walking from D terminal over to C37 in DFW for the exercise), I started thinking "I want that" - pretzel/cinnamon bun/bean burrito/pumpkin spice latte.... I didn't want it but all of the sights, smells are so hard to avoid that its no wonder that people eat more here. It isn't a matter of will power or self control - the system is stacked against you, even when you have that.
Which is why we will be eating Vietnamese-style for a while at home - it is just easier to manage a healthy diet this way. And a side trip to Chuy's will be all the more special because of it.

Our final team activity

On Sunday we had one last team activity. A group of us pooled together some money to buy bicycles for the children at the orphanage we visited. It really was a loaves and fishes sort of thing. We put together enough money to buy eight bicycles (at a street price of 1.2M VND each) and then with other sources and some good bargaining, turned this into 14 bicycles, including a smaller one for the little kids, and supplies - mostly brakes and things. So on Sunday, we arranged for at truck and two taxies to take us and the bikes to the orphanage.
It was the BEST thing we did in my opinion. I know we were in Vietnam for business reaons, to help Vietnam small-medium business jump start themselves by access to our collective IBM experience. But personally, the part of the trip that moved me the most, and that I think we had the biggest impact with, was at the orphanage.
Many of the kids remembered us from our visit the week before. It was great to see them again and to spend time with some of the mentally disabled kids (we didn't get to do that the other time as we went after work then instead of Sunday afternoon this time).
There are lots of photos - I think that Tom put a bunch up on our IBM AdTech blog. Once I get home and have access to a working computer again, I will add some of my pictures. In the meantime, it is the home stretch as I am in Narita on a yuch-o seven hour layover. In 24 hours I will be re-learning how to use a knife and fork (but I am bringing chopsticks just in case I can't cope.....)

My Vietnam Birthday

I have uploaded pictures to Picasa from our network drive via Robyn's computer (I am crippled without my laptop and have returned Nguyet's to her because our assignments are technically over). I'll worry about the link later - but if you follow the links to my albums from other places on my blog, and look at my public albums, you will find the album for my birthday.

Yesterday was my birthday and I had the best possible away-from-home birthday. My CSC family and several of our interpreters went out to eat. We were going to go to a restaurant with "grown up" sized chairs but I changed my mind at the last minute and we went for skewers, Hue pancakes and Saigon beer from a street vendor/restaurant while sitting on little tiny plastic stools (think nursery school/creche sized). We had several rounds of "Mo, Hai, Bat, Yo!" to the amusement of the locals.

Friends Don't say "Thank You"

My friend and interperter, Yen, and I hare working hard on this one. Yen is a wonderful person - she is beautiful, intelligent, friendly, compassionate and generally a GOOD person. She has been helping me with all sorts of thing, not just translation. The lesson that she is helping me with now is "friends don't say thank you"
It all started when Yen was helping me run an errand, for which I was very grateful. I kept saying "thank you" and she was almost in tears. Imagine my horror when she said

STOP SAYING THANK YOU. It makes me think that you are not my friend!

I was mortified and humbled. Things that friends do for each other hear are so commonplace and accepted that they do not feel or have the need to say thank you. It is just the way it is. Whereas in Western society, we are so used to the "what's in it for me" approach that we feel that we have to say thank you for everything.

Chalk that one up to one of the more humbling lessons of this trip.

My Projects in Da Nang

As we are starting to wrap up I guess I should be able to articulate what we have done here. I have been working with several different groups, including the Institute for Information Technology in Business (ITB), part of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce & Industry, with DongA College (with Robyn) and with Hai Van Cement (with Nigel). At least, these are the ones for which I have deliverables. I have also helped Daniel from Mexico with the Port Authority (we all attended a meeting on ERP with them and I helped Daniel with some network security stuff) and with the English Language Institute at the University of Da Nang (with Siobhan and Deborah). So we have all been busy!
Our projects have covered open source and OpenOffice/Linux education, sales training, ERP planning, project management and change management best practices, curriculum development, elearning recommendations, distributed database design, backup strategies, network assessment, strategic MIS planning and more.
The more is stuff for other blogs - like trying to learn a Viet folk song to sing at the Khai Phat (Dan from Canada's customer) birthday party last night. Let's just say that we will all pay good money to keep those videos hidden!

What we are doing Sunday

I should post this on our official IBM site but maybe I'll copy it over after we get photos.
Friday is our last official day but we are all staying on for Sat/Sun to spend the weekend together (except Dan Chan who is racing home to his wife Peggy and their 5 month old daughter Karina). As one of our last hurrahs, Tom is organizing the purchase of as many bicycles as we can fund to give to the children at the orphanage we visited last week. There are 12 children there who walk to school for probably 30-45 min each way. We are hoping to get money from the team for 12 bikes, but given the way kids double up here, we are looking good with the 7 that we have budget for so far.
I signed up for two bike at $1.2M VND each (about $85 USD each) instead of spending a night at the "Furama", a lovely resort on the beach. It seems like a better use of my money. And I'll go do 2-1 drinks on Sunday night with Siobhan at the Furama anyway.

My laptop is dead, sniff

and that's why I haven't posted anything in a while. If it is any consolation, the blogs that I have written in my head are wonderful. If I ever get them transcribed, you will love them.
In the mean time, thanks to Sven's wonderful interpreter Nguyet, I have managed to borrow a laptop that I can use to do public work. Very interesting that when I called all of the help numbers that we were given by IBM and ABV (our NGO) every conversation started with "I would love to help, but here is why I can't....". With our local interpreters (now friends first, interpreters/guides/lifelines second), the conversation went "Hi Heather, Nguyet is coming by with a laptop. She needs it back on Thursday but its yours until then."

We are almost wrapping up - tomorrow is our last work day so everyone is in full panic mode trying to get their assignment reports ready to present. Saturday/Sunday we have a weekend together as a team (our last, sniff) and then we all start dispersing on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday.
It has been the most amazing experience. I would not have traded this for a great many things.