Ron and Sally Jo Blog

We are in Hanoi to work in the MCC office doing the same thing we did in East Africa a year ago, archiving old MCC files.  However, in East Africa we were familiar with both the geographic area and most of the programs and most documents were in English. We have never been in this part of Southeast Asia; so the culture is new, we don’t know much about MCC programs here, and most documents are not in English. There has been much learning.

We are staying with the MCC Country Reps while here. They live in a 4-storey narrow house in a row of taller houses. We have about a five minute walk to the office through unbelievable streets. We begin by passing a wall blackboard where community messages are written, past a small shop where people are always sitting drinking tea, then walking through an open cemented courtyard area where in the mornings the older people play volleyball and in the afternoons children play various games. Then it is through a tunnel path where Ron needs to make sure he bends his head if he doesn’t want to get bonked by the cement rafters. We walk through another alleyway where in the morning tables are set up with a small eating stand. Motorcycles are often passing us. (It appears that most people have a motorcycle. There are always ramps up steps or up to front doors so that the cycle can be rolled in.)

By now we are on the “main” street of this community. The street is about the width of a one lane road. Small shops selling everything line the street on both sides. Most have open store fronts. On the edges of the road sit vendors selling everything else that can’t be found in the shops! On what is left of the road, people are walking amidst motorcycles travelling both directions and sometimes a car tries to get through. We are learning to walk slowly and steadily as close to the vendors as possible trying not to be afraid of the motorcycles beeping behind us and the ones coming towards us! On this street one can find vegetables, fruit, meat (including live chickens), fish, tofu, small restaurants, household goods, clothes, a nail shop, and even a dentist with two chairs in front of big windows. “Street food” is very inexpensive and very good so several times we have eaten out at night.

We turn down a small alley and arrive at the office, which is also a 4-storey building. When we arrive we remove our shoes and put on slippers. Our working space is on the third floor though we found files on all four floors and had to carry them to our work area. Much of the material which we do not want to keep is burned. Ron even destroyed an old computer disk. Some material needs to be photocopied or scanned. The rest we put in boxes to be sent back to the head office in Akron, PA.

The MCC staff has been very friendly and helpful. We have lunch together every day. We are becoming more proficient with chopsticks! The cook is wonderful! We have had delicious meals. Most are accompanied with fresh garlic. We have managed to eat several cloves with a meal but the others will eat a head of garlic with their food. Fruit completes the meal—mangoes or apples (which are more of a cross between an apple, pear, and peach). We have also had dragon fruit which is very good and hard to describe. The Rep is teaching the cook to make cookies and cake.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2015 at 10:44 am and is filed under Vietnam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.