Return from Hoi An

Its Sunday and I've been to bed twice already. The train journey to and from DaNang was not as bad as expected. The carriages were air conditioned and the "hard sleeper" beds were surprisingly comfortable for what was effectively a wooden door laid flat with an inch of foam matress on top. Breakfast was provided in the form of a Vietnamese pot noodle which tasted much like an English pot noodle and a lunch or evening meal was also provided looking very much like airline food served with chopsticks.

We were an hour late leaving DaNang and so arrived in Hanoi about 5.30am. I'd had about five hours sleep on the train and took to my bed in our new hotel for another three hours as soon as we checked in. A cockrel somewhere in the neighbourhood tried to deny me this last sleep, but my body overruled him and I was out like a light.

Hoi An was very much a holiday resort. The hotel VSO had secured with some kind of discount deal had everything, pool, gym, bars and an enormous breakfast buffet. We ate well and drank well and did a bit of work in between. The biggest thing I got out of the four days was to meet nearly all the other volunteers working in Vietnam and learn what they are doing and what they think of the country.

Its a relatively small number who have actually achieved any competence in the language, so I feel better about that. Most work through interpreters, all have some tales of frustration to tell including the odd occasion where the bag has been packed to go home before normal sanity has returned and tempers cooled. I have much to look forward to!

Measurement and evaluation is a hot topic with VSO at present. I have a feeling of Deja Vu - all those months of projects at Boots trying to work out the ideal measures to fit everything without the process taking over the world. It looks like we are about to do it again. I'm still trying to understand where it is lead from. I suspect donors wanting information to reassure them their money has been well spent are the core cause of this interest, but there is some truth in the need to understand how things are going. I hope I can find something which works and does not take too much effort.

Nerves are a little in evidence. Tomorrow is my first day at work and where I find out what the reality is. I'm still looking forward to it, but there is a little anticipation creeping in. Undoubtably I will return to this. But today I leave you with the question - what is prestidigitation?