Good news...?

So, it looks as though I’ll be back here in the fall for a few months, starting at the end of September. Wow…talking about getting what you wish for! I’m excited about the opportunity and all that – those are definitely good things. Besides, getting more experience with this kind of stuff means that it will be easier for me to get more work in the future. But the thought of being away from home for a few more months is somewhat daunting. I think I’m going to stroll by a hotel this evening and see if they might be able to accommodate a long-term guest. It’s a place that caters to business travelers, it’s an all-suite hotel, they’ve got a gym, etc. It’s not far from the office (I think – that’s why I’m going to walk over tonight, to get a feel for the distance), but it’s slightly outside of tourist land. I think, though, that coming here knowing I’ll be here for a few months will be a little different from how it’s been now – the incentive to go out and meet people will be a little higher, because three months is a long time to have trying to make it home by 7 pm for “Alias” re-runs on AXN be the only thing on your social calendar.

But that’s still a little nuts to think about. Gah!!

I was actually ready at 7:30 on the dot this morning, I was kind of pleased about that. Of course, I had to wait around a little for the PM, as he’ll often say “I want to leave by such-and-such a time”, and I’m ready at that time. Then I wait. Sometimes 15 minutes. Sometimes 30 minutes. I usually give it about 15 minutes before I call and ask if he’s ready. I’m not trying to be irritating, but if I’m up and ready at a certain time because he told me to be, and I’d much rather have an extra 15 or 30 minutes of sleep…well, then I think it’s only fair that he be ready when he told me to be ready.

I’m being bratty, aren’t I?

I have heard very little about the project in Pakistan, and I’m not quite sure what I’m actually going to be doing when I get back there. Kind of makes me wonder why I’m going back, when I could probably stay here longer and do more good. Internal company stuff, I suppose. I told my boss that I know I need to get over my penchant for making long-range plans, but old habits die hard. I should, however, be able to plan to have more time at home in the spring. There’s a professional certification exam I want to sit for in May (?), and there’s no point in me taking the exam, and having my company pay for it, if I don’t have adequate time to study and prepare. Makes sense, no? Well, that’s what I told my boss, and he seems to agree for the time being. (Again, I save all these e-mails, because you never know when someone will have a momentary memory lapse.)

I don’t know if I remarked upon it yesterday, but I was quite pleased that my excursion didn’t coincide with the daily rainstorm, as it usually does. I don’t know how I do it, but it seems that within 15 minutes of me stepping outside to do or see something, the skies will open up and the rains will start. It’s quite clever of me, actually, if only I were doing it on purpose. Instead, I tend to guess as to when the rains won’t come and hope that I’ve guessed well. I’ve learned to cope with the disappointment that so often accompanies that hope. It’s odd to live in a country with two seasons, “wet” and “dry”. The temperature doesn’t change much year-round, from what I understand, it’s just that half of the year is punctuated with heavy rains, and the other half of the year isn’t. Again – not just a clever name.

Heh. One of the other guys here is trying to unwrap his chair now. So far, he’s doing pretty well…

I also have finally gotten a cell phone number for use here in Vietnam. Since I’m leaving in a week (for the first time), it’s not necessarily of major consequence, but I’m going to hang onto the SIM card and use it when I get back. In any event, the number is (84) 90-954-0907. Also, and again, this is for future reference, the office address here is 26 Ly Tu Trong Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Since I’m likely to be staying in a hotel of some sort, any mail should be sent to the office address. I don’t know if customs here will be quite as…er, thorough, as they are in Pakistan, but still, I think avoiding sending me bags of diamonds is probably still a good idea.

I know, you’re thinking “But Mandy, when can we send you these bags of diamonds???” Well, we’ll figure something out when I’m home. We’ll find a time, I promise.

The guy from the phone company is here and working on figuring out what the deal is with our phone lines here. Apparently, he has “Auld Lang Syne” as his ring tone. I know this, because it broke the silence here as he was testing the line. Not really what I would expect to hear in the middle of summer in Vietnam. Festive, but still not what I would expect to hear. Well, many things are often not what I would expect.

Part of the project here involves conducting a social assessment of the areas in which we’ll be working. This basically involves lots of surveys and data gathering. I’m currently reading the Mekong Delta Poverty Assessment, written by the Australian Agency for International Development, and it looks as though there have been many, many surveys conducted in this region over the past years. However, since we don’t know who conducted the surveys or how they asked the questions, we still have to do more surveys. If you were someone living in a poor area and constantly being surveyed about why you were poor, wouldn’t you grow tired of people descending on your home to “help”, when little ever changed, necessitating the arrival of even more people to ask you why you were poor? I think that, after a while, I’d be tempted to mess with people. Tell them I was poor because of the rice gnomes or something. (“Step 1 – Steal rice crop, Step 3 – Profit!”) Well, poverty is always a complex problem, wherever and however you try to address it, so it’s not surprising that people have been working to alleviate it for years, and are likely to do so for years to come. I suppose that’s why I have a job.

I guess I hadn’t really thought about doing this kind of work until I stumbled into it, I always had more of an environmental inclination. It’s fortunate, then, that I like it. But as I’ve said, I know there are many other things I could also like to do for a living, like writing, photography, or psychological counseling. I can’t tell if this means that I’m indecisive, that I have multiple personality disorder, or that I’m just versatile.