Train from Da Nang to Hue - Passing time on a platform

The three hour trip was delayed by an hour which wasn't so bad, hanging out in the waiting room and on the platform offered much to pass the time..


RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

A young girl of nineteen and her mother broached a conversation, and as I wondered how often I might strike up a conversation with a total stranger and if I did why I would, the girl returned with a gift for me. It has to be the most random act of total kindness, it is a marble egg with two Vietnamese girls painted on it..How wonderful, how unexpected, how kind.


TIPS FOR TRIPPING OUT ALONE WITHOUT GLASSES

I had come prepared with snacks, but it turns out a good piece of advice to anyone traveling alone is IF you need glasses you should wear them when buying food. The taxi had stopped at a bakery for me and I chose a triangular bread roll with what looked like lettuce and tomato peeking from within, so good, a sandwich, and then what looked like a cinnamon roll with walnuts on top..healthy enough lunch I thought.
Thing was when I decided it was time to eat I put my glasses on. I had in my hands a bread roll with bright green sugary stuff inside and a twisty bun covered in shiny ground up dog meat..not appealing at all...luckily there was a stall selling Cam Ga so I gave them my food and bought, for 75 cents, a tasty dish of chicken and rice.

THE SINGLE WHITE FEMALE

After the chicken and rice I hung out near a large group of Vietnamese people, kids, mothers, fathers and little babies. A couple of parents waved me over, but I just waved back, and then they shook their child and turned him in my direction. They made him wave at me, so I waved back. Then again they beckoned me, they seemed to be offering me their child in pantomine, "Come, come" and insisting. I was a bit scared to be honest but the kid was really cute! The parents then talked to the child and pointed at me, smiling and turning him to me again, but this time he cried....
Ah ha! I got it, they told him unless he behaved they would give him away to me..Me,
the white woman, one of the ones who come to Vietnam and take babies!!!
I reckon that is what is was all about, now single white females have a whole new reputation to fight off..taking cute Asian babies off to live in luxury some where there is no Cam Ga!

OGCDC

On arrival at Hue I went directly to the Medical Centre for Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children where I met with Professor Nguyen Viet Nhan and found out about the work he does here in Central Vietnam. That's a whole other story and one I hope will be published in Gaia Magazine. The professor was, twelve years ago, working in research into multifactorial congenital and environmental birth defects that can be attributed in some part to the use of Agent Orange in the surrounding countryside. Even though the children are two generations away from the spraying he was working off maps from the US Military and making the connections. However it occurred to him that research or not, links to Agent Orange or not, these children needed help so he, with the support of the Dean of the Hospital, set up an organsation to deliver practical, long term and professional help to the rural and urban community affected by birth defects including cerebral palsy, heart defects, cleft palates and autism..It was a most profound afternoon, and I left feeling both hope and despair, things like this shouldn't happen but when they do there are some amazingly giving, talented and qualified people who dedicate their lives to helping change the devastating actions of others.