My work last few days of Free time.!!

Ok, I have have good and bad moments in Hanoi waiting for the Global Volunteer program to start. My room at the hotel has been good. Very quiet at night, nice hot water, no insects or bugs in the room, and safe. I do have a little problem communicating with the front desk most of the time, with effort, I can succeed. The hotel had Skype which was nice because I could call my bank for free.




Most of my day is spent walking around this area, reading my book, and talking to locals. If you go to the lake, and just sit, it is just a matter of time before some young person will approach you and want to speak English. Most are students but you can also get some unnamed offers too. (but not as many compared to past years). I talked to a young women who was a nurse and wanted me to come to her house and met her family. I decided against that, not that I didn't trust her, just worried that she might want me to help her financially. She told me her mother was handicapped too, so that would be difficult to turn down, but I have to set limits too.



At night, Pam and I have generally find some nice restaurant to eat at. We start out with no specific one in mind and just walk the streets, looking at different ones, until we find one that meets our price range and health standards. You can find some very expensive places and then some good moderately priced ones. For example, we found one that looked good but then we were told that we needed a reservation. I am sure that was out of my price range. Ha!! You should be careful of some of the food you eat, like uncooked vegetables or raw food, ice, and few other things, but I haven't been following those rules very closely. If the place looks busy, and semi-passable, I generally will try it. This morning, I was walking to the bank, and a street restaurant place looked ok. The woman spoke to me in fairly good English, I asked about the food and the price, and decided to try it. The hot cooked "pho" I think is always ok but it is the greens or garnish that you worry about. I also always add lemon which i think helps kill some germs. I found some great dried mango to eat last night.




Let me tell you my bank card story. As a prologue, after my bank got the paper work that they asked me to fill out regarding the fraudulent use of my debit card, they restored all that money. I was very happy. I would have been pleased just to get some of it back, so this was like manna from heaven. So now I was using my second debit card, which I had brought. I had used it once before already, after I had blocked the stolen one. And today, I had to pay for my four day stay at the hotel and switch hotels. Well, after inserting the card, and selecting the default acct. and amount, I get a message on the screen "We are retaining your card". My heart skipped a beat and I was just baffled. How could this be? Why? So, I had to wait for the bank to open-Thank heavens I had used it at a bank. Once the bank opened, the teller gave me back my card after I showed her my passport. I went back to the hotel to call my bank on Skype. It was only 10 minutes before closing in Portland!! I found out that my bank had accidentally blocked both my cards!! The bank put my on hold for quite awhile but then said they could unblock it-I didn't think that was possible. I had to answer some security questions first that weren't that easy. Ha! But now it works. Not the way I wanted to start my day.

Also, an update about Sister Tan. I found out she is back helping the Ethnic people and the police have released her from any restrictions. They just didn't want me to visit or come in contact with any Ethnic people, but I don't really know why. She worried about me and apologized for my short stay and problem. I was more worried about her but at least it is better now.

I got to talk to my brother David the other day while he sat waiting for his doctor. It was nice to hear his voice and get his update too. And then the next day, I talked to my sister Joan too, so even got more news. Technology makes all this possible but it can cause a problem too.

Weather is still great. Cool, about 70 everyday. Perfect. I think there is rain in the forecast, but they are probably wrong.

Hope everyone is well. Sorry this isn't that exciting.




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Location:Hanoi