Arrival in Hanoi 27th June - 3rd July

I departed from Heathrow for KL on the 27th June, having met up albeit briefly with Tom Peachey (one of the OCEPpers in Hanoi) in the departure lounge. The flight was overnight to Kuala Lumpar and then on to Hanoi a few hours later. During my stopover, I discovered from Thao Nguyen, the director in Ho Chi Minh City, that she would not be able to direct, something that had been on the cards for a few days but had taken this long to confirm. The plane for the second leg was delayed by a few hours giving me a little time to explore the confines of KL airport.

I arrived in Hanoi a few hours later than expected and was taken to Classic Hotel where the BC had put us up for the duration of the camps. Everybody else had arrived previously and were already more or less settled. Minh, our Vietnamese manager met us at the hotel and took us out for Pho on the south side of Hoan Kiem lake.

Pho is a traditional Vietnamese breaksfast dish that like favourite breakfasts the world over can be consumed whenever and whereever. It is basically a broth with rice noodles, meat, bean sprouts, veg and mint leaves, seasoned with lime juice. A delicious combination- definitely one of the better bits of Vietnamese food I've been introduced to.

The following day we had to go down to the BC offices, situated in a very plush annex of one of Hanoi's 5-star hotels. The BC have a language school, library and net cafe downstairs, all adorned with posters and pictures advertising the UK, whilst upstairs they have a UK style office floor.

This was our chance to meet the YGCP volunteers who were making up the Vietnamese side of the project. The YGCP is a Glocbal citizenship programme run by the BC (and curiously and regretably, I believe, now abandonned), which aims to equip young people with skills in working across cultures. The YGCP had put in a lot of effort planning and executing the leg work for the community projects which were to make up the first two weeks of our time in Hanoi. We spent the morning getting to know each other (YGCP and OCEP) and starting to work through the plan for the Friendship House Orphanage. We were taken to the orphanage itself to look around and help with the planning.

This meeting involved sitting round a table exchanging pleasantries and smiles across the language barrier. The Grandmother of the house welcomed us, offered us tea and explained about Friendship House and the way the orphanage worked. Basically they have just over 20 children in the house ranging from 8-17years old. They are composed of orphans and children whose parents have been jailed, often for drug related crimes. They are in turn cared for by a number of Mothers who also come from difficult backgrounds. The mothers live in the orpahange and constantly work with the children. Friendship house has an astonishing success rate in as much as several of its alumni have subsequently gone on to univsersity and have found jobs in business and- one hopes- a place in the world.

The 30th June was spent similarly, visiting the venues for all our activities, meeting the important people who need to be flattered and planning some of the materials for Friendship House.

The projects ran as follows:

• - Friendship House
  
• - Nguyen Dinh Chieu school for the blind
  
• - Chu Van An school English Camp
  
• - Viet Duc school English Camp
  
• - V-Resort Outdoor Camp
  

1st July we spent planning the remainder of the time at Friendship House and Nguyen Dinh Chieu. In the evening, however in a fever of excitement we went off to one of Hanoi's ex-pat bars, Jaspas, to watch the England match. The place was packed to nursting point with ex-pats, the majority clad in some for of England regalia, down to the St. George cross faces being painted at the door.

Sunday was spent recovering and Monday was a final planning day to polish off all the preparations before we began.