Well here I am in Ho Chi Minh City. Well actually I'm in the airport. We have a two hour lay over here before our next flight to Danang so I'll jot down some thoughts while I have time.

So, my first impressions of Vietnam? Well, it's HOT and HUMID! A huge change from the 2 degrees in Melbourne this morning! The humidity hits you like a freight train and it's hard to take a deep breath, the air is so thick. And it's raining. The sky is a mix of dark clouds with some blue sky.

As the plane approached the landing strip, I noticed the high density of housing, and all the different colours of the houses. Blue, yellow, red, turquoise... It was like a rainbow! We went through customs and I was super keen to try out my Vietnamese but the Customs Officer didn't say one word to me so I thought it best to keep my mouth shut. I've been entertaining Julie and Thurza with being able to understand all the flight numbers coming over the PA. I'm so glad I took those Vietnamese classes, it will really add to this whole experience.

The flight here was very comfortable aside from a small hiccup on the plane when my entertainment system didn't work (which isn't a huge deal but hey I wanted the option of watching a movie if I felt like it!). It's Makin Law, if something is going to go wrong, it will happen to a Makin (or at least my husband and I). My first taste of it and I hope it's the last!!! Anyway, a quick change of seats and I was set.

The total flight time from Melbourne to HCMC was just under 9 hours. I spent time reading over a great resource called "Inclusion Made Easy" which is a practical guide for development workers to outwork disability inclusion and mainstreaming in projects.

After reading this guide's definition of each of these terms I have a much better understanding of what we are going to evaluate.

So you all understand what I'm talking about over the next couple of weeks, here's a quick definition of each:

Disability Inclusion (Disability Inclusive Development) occurs when the entire community, including people with a disability, benefit equally from development processes. Inclusive development envourages awareness of and participation by all marginalised groups. DIsability-inclusive development respects the diversity that disability brings and appreciates that it is an everyday part of the human experience. Disability-inclusive development sets out to achieve equality of human rights for people with a disability as well as full participation in, and access to, all aspects of society.

Mainstreaming Disability is an essential strategy for addressing the inequality experienced by people with a disability. When disability is mainstreamed in a project, it means that all facets of the project include a disability perspective and are fully accessible to all persons with disabilities. It is where the project ensures that people with a disability are included in every step of a project, from planning, design, implementation to evaluation, and that their needs are considered as part of the project, not separate to it.

Mainstreaming is what will ensure long term transformation, not just short term success. It's about making sure that every part of the project considers people with disability, their needs and involves them in decisions related to the project.

Oh, and on a side note, to save me from typing out 'people with disabilities' and 'children with disabilities', from now on I'll use acronyms PWD and CWD.

I went back and read some of the evaluations of this project to date and asked myself - are we just doing special things for PWD (which is very important for disability inclusion) or are we also mainstreaming disability as a cross-cutting theme in our work? I am really looking forward to exploring this in more detail over the next couple of weeks. We've been discussing it a bit here at the airport and are all really keen to see how the project has succeeded in disability mainstreaming.

So now we wait at the airport. I've just watched the sun go down and the horizon is a beautiful orange colour. We'll get to our hotel in about another 3 hours, by then it will be about midnight Melbourne time. I'm not overly exhausted but the luxury of sitting on a plane and in airports will be over tomorrow when the work begins.

Till then xx