Hello all

Wow,

I really cannot believe how much has happened since I last posted. It’s been amazing to hear that people are reading this; it means so much to me when you email to give me your support. Thank you. It also gives me a chance to email back individually. So please do!!

It’s hard for me to remember exactly where I left off. I think it was maybe the end of my second week. I had found it quite tough but I think I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as school work was going. I really had felt that I wasn't going to see the outside of my hotel room or work.

After a week at the hotel, I packed my bags and went in search of a cheaper alternative. I found this in the form of a guest house packed into an alleyway so narrow you could shake hands with the person stood on the balcony opposite. They elderly couple lived in the room downstairs and I lived upstairs. It was really great actually with a balcony and on suite toilet and mini shower (it came up to about my shoulders...) for a whopping 3 pounds a night, I know, I know rip off.

It was also slap bang in the middle of the backpacking area with loads of bars just a hop away. It was really quite a cool place to live.

I was there for about 2 weeks, during which time I really started to get my head around the teaching thing. The weekends are still killer, I’m in at 6:45 and out around 7:00 in the evening. I plan the morning in the first hour and the afternoon at dinner time. That’s every Saturday and Sunday. By the end of the second day it’s a real challenge to give any teaching of much quality... Though I'm going to have a weekend soon when I do a full weekend of lessons I’m happy with.

I've also struggled a little with my adult class, I can't work them out and there's not much of a connection with us. I think they're not particularly happy with my teaching. I have had to teach myself a lot of things I knew in theory from my teacher training. So I think things will improve as far as that is concerned. My last class was tighter and more focused which was nice. I've also taken on an exam preparation class which is a real challenge and means about 11 hours less free time mid week. Which is a bit of a downer though, I’ll be earning lots more money and, again, its good experience.

The people I work with are great. I'm really lucky, I’ve come to realize, because I’ve been placed in a small school. It means things are much more personal and it’s a lot easier to make friends with people. After work we'll often go for food together which is cool. The teachers have been to some cool places and there's a really nice mix of personalities. So if I want to get drunk in a bar I can hang out with those guys, or if I want to go dancing in a nightclub, there are the ones that like to do that, if I want a quiet coffee there's people to do that with too. It’s nice and I'm glad, like I said, to be in the school I am.

I finally got teaching in the shelter for boys too. It’s called the Green Bamboo Shelter and it takes in boys who have lived on the street or whose parents can't provide for. I went at three o'clock on Tuesday as planned. I thought they would be expecting me, and I think they may have been but there were two other western volunteers and a third Canadian lady who is based there at the moment. I was surprised to see them and a little disappointed feeling that there really was enough help for the boys. I decided to teach the lesson anyway, and as I went up stairs I started singing songs with the few boys who were there.
"Ten tall gentlemen... standing in a row..."
You get the idea, anyway more and more of the boys turned up and one of the other volunteers to. By the time I was doing 6 little monkeys there was about 12 or thirteen boys sat watching. I really put my all in and I was exhausted from lack of sleep. I had been a little hung-over on Monday and struggled to sleep more than 3 hours ever since. I did about half an hour and I had 6 boys who were still participating. I gave them colors and we spent the next half an hour coloring and labeling the body. I hung out with 2 or 3 of them for about an hour after that too. All in all it was a nice day. I'm hoping I can develop the attention span of the boys and hopefully make it a regular thing in their week.

.... O.k. last bit of news here. I have moved in with a Vietnamese family. Much to the shock of Vietnamese and western people. I had come to the realization that I wasn't going to get invited into a Vietnamese persons home (there just isn't really a culture of doing so) so I made the plunge and went to my favorite all Vietnamese area Go Vap and asked around. I had made a couple of contact there the last time I was there... I had jumped on a bus and just got off and started talking with people at the market.

Go Vap is great. It’s truly working class Vietnamese area it does feel like part of a big city it’s got a real town vibe and there is a crazy energy about the place. I really love it. Partly because I feel in some ways its mine. There are no other westerners in the area. I have wanted to live there since I randomly got a bus up there to check it out. I told a lady called Kim who lives there selling lottery tickets about the fact I was looking for a place and she spent days searching for me.

She is quite a character, she learnt English so she could sing English songs when she was younger she is nearly 60 now but in her day she would sing to the American soldiers during the war, how she tells it she was very popular and with them!!

So she found me a place living with a young friendly and lively family. They are great there's lots of young people about listening to music and watching terrible Asian acting on TV. The house is really open and As long as I’m back for 12 there's no problem.

The only issue really is the local police. I have to bear in mind that I am living in a single party police state and the communist party still have a firm grip on the freedom and movements of its citizens (prior permission from the police is needed to stay at a friend’s house after 12 ... and in theory there's a midnight curfew). They want to check my papers and see my contract before I can fully move in. So despite the fact I've spent 2 nights there already I have to stay in a hotel for the next week until I get the all clear from the police. I really recent their meddling in the lives of these people and I'm looking forward to learning more about the state of affairs that lies beneath the surface of things here - something that’s more likely to happen now I’ve left the tourist bubble the government create.

Peace, peace and more peace for you all.
Keep me updated.
James.