Can't believe it, finished project number 1 in Hai Doung and about to start on my four weeks at the children's hospital tomorrow. Had a much better week last week and our classes definitely improved as we got to know the children better, and learnt more about how to communicate with them through lots of pointing and miming (I'll be amazing at charades by the time I get back after all this!) and a few pathetic attempts at Vietnamese. Ironically, the children it was easiest to talk to were the deaf and mute kids who use sign language, of which I now know substantially more than I did previously!

Had very mixed feelings when we left of both wanting to stay and carry on working there, as there's such a frustrating attitude among the staff who just assume the children can't do anything, when they really can, and teach them accordingly. Apparently, the trouble is that the children get free food and accomodation, so their parents have absolutely no incentive to prove that they could cope with a main stream school, and the staff are very happy to teach the children for the week before their exams and leave it at that, so the final result is that they learn barely anything of use at all.

Anyway, despite being slightly sorry that it was over, we had a great last day cooking a dish from our home country, which was obviously easy for the locals and the Koreans, but it took us Brits a while to persuade our coordinator that the chance of finding anything vaguely English in the local market was fairly non existent. Nevertheless, we managed to make some delicious pancakes using chopsticks and a round pan over an open fire which made a very nice alternative to rice for once! It's also very nice to be back in Hanoi, which has a lot to see and a lot to do, and the weather isn't too hot for once so things are definitely looking up!

love you all xxx