Round Three

Today we had another meeting with some folks at a government agency to get information we need and such. Once again it was conducted almost entirely in Vietnamese. Once again, I asked them who I should contact at the local level to get more data and lay the groundwork for the socioeconomic survey work we have to do here. And once again, after our local guy translated my question, I was greeted with blank stares and shaking heads. (How do you say “I have no clue” in Vietnamese? I think I’ve heard it a few times since I’ve been here.) So…I’ll just keep working on that secondary source data. To say that this is frustrating would be an understatement. Kind of like how my internet connection at work is now virtually useless. No particular reason, it just doesn’t want to connect. Oh, happy day! Everyone else is hooked up through the network, but since my computer isn’t on the network, and isn’t going anywhere near it, I still need to use the dial up. The price I pay for a functioning computer!

I got an e-mail the other day from the Pakistani guy I met in the Dubai airport telling me that his wedding was this weekend and that he would still like to invite me. I thanked him, but said that sadly I was still in Vietnam and would be unable to attend. I think it might have actually been kind of fun, to be honest. But if the house staff thought that my nonexistent unauthorized guests were “inappropriate”, I can’t imagine what they would have thought of me going to the wedding of some guy I met in the airport. Not that I’m overly concerned with what the house staff think of me – after August 10^th, they’re not my problem anymore. Hurrah for that, eh? Such a shame about all that – I would have liked to have more positive memories. No sense dwelling, though. That’s just the way things go sometimes.

We went to a restaurant down the street for lunch yesterday, a Vietnamese place with everything on the menu from turtle to frog to snakehead fish. There was a page of veggie-type things, so I ordered from that. I clarified with the waitress that there was, in fact, no meat and no fish in what I’d just ordered, which was sautéed sweet potato buds with garlic. She nodded and said something about potatoes, and I nodded and was glad that we were all on the same page. She brought out a bunch of stuff, and told me that my potatoes were taking a little longer, and I said okay – first of all because there was nothing to do about it, but also because it’s quite rare here for everyone to get their food at the same time when going out to eat. Then she came out with a plate of greasy french fries. I also ended up getting my sweet potato buds with garlic, which were actually greens, but I was a little confused and embarrassed – when I travel, I certainly don’t want or expect to find “American” food, so I felt bad that they went to the effort of making them when the other food we’d ordered was perfectly fine – although I let everyone else have the braised frog. Not really my thing. We then stopped for ice cream at this little outdoor café in the park in front of our building. The old PM gave me a guidebook for Vietnam, and D has the same one in French. This café was in the book, so we’re slowly but surely checking things off the list!

D and I went back to Ben Thanh and she got a couple of fake watches – one for her, one for her dad. If my skin weren’t so über sensitive, I would have considered it, but I took a pass. Probably best that way. But it’s amazing what you can get a Gucci watch for…

As I was reviewing data in a government publication earlier today, I was noticing that the numbers didn’t quite look right. In fact, they were definitely off. So I went through and did my own calculations, and for whatever reason, the government statistical data is inaccurate. Well, I don’t want to be the one to tell them, do you? I’ll just use my own calculations so that the numbers are correct and leave it at that.

The regional director for Asia is here today – he’s a very nice guy. Today is only the second time I’ve met him, but we’ve done stuff over e-mail prior to this, so I knew who he was. He’s one of those guys who travels all the time – he has an apartment in Hanoi that he said he’s in for, maybe, 20% of the time. I really couldn’t do that, I don’t care what kind of job I was offered in exchange. I don’t see how it’s possible to balance work and life when 80% of your time is spent on work. It seems like the end result must be that you have no life, or at least one in which you’re not really able to be present. Some people are built for that kind of life, but…wow. If you’re not spending the majority of your time in any one place, then where is home? And how do you know? Not that I’m exactly old, but as I get older, I seem to get more and more clarity about what I do and don’t want my life to look like. Sometimes it’s by experiencing what I don’t want, but it’s all valuable.

The local guy that we hired to work on my sector is turning out to have been a good choice to hire. We still have some communication issues, but he’s been great at tracking down information we need, and generally has been a huge help. Hurrah for a good hiring decision! (My very first hiring decision, come to think of it.) Although he needs guidance and doesn’t really take much initiative per se, when I give him step-by-step instructions on the kind of information I need, he’s on it. Things can always change, I suppose, but it’s an encouraging start. In any case, he’s definitely enthusiastic and works hard – can’t complain about that.