So now a very hot steamy day here and the adventure continues!
Well life is never still here in Hoi An. The past 10 days have flown by and I have only two more weeks to go which is very sad indeed.
So where do I begin? After the successful training session for the team at Tien Phuoc, Jo asked if I could attend a meeting with the education dept and the head of the peoples committee the red cross and the primary school heads. I must say I feel very important here and a great privilage to be involved with this part of the Swim Vietnam's operation and the plans for the future. It is really an experience to do meeting here they do love to talk and discuss and are very eager to have as many meetings as possible in a short period of time! It is all too funny let me say.
So after the important first meeting it was then onto the primary school to discuss the location of the new pool. Within 5 mins of arriving at the school all the teachers we had at training just appeared from nowhere so lots of shaking hands and they were very pleased to see us ( i am now going to have to really work on learning Vietnamese now!! Not easy let me tell you!). So the area was decided upon and then was the meeting to discuss the timeline for the preparation of the area to put the pool. The pools hold 66,000 litres of water so they are extremely heavy and the ground needs reinforcing. Amazingly though it will only take them 10 days to do the preparation, put up a fence and roof over the pool(construction gets done really fast here)
After this meeting we had our last meeting of the day which was just to go over what we had already discussed then onto lunch. Amazing food as always. Then the new teachers wanted to meet with us before we left oh and guess what, they were drinking beer!! Its is very funny they love to talk and celebrate everything. By the way Tien Phouc is 100km form Hoi An and takes 2 hours to get there oy joy oy!!!
The next big meeting I had to attend was with the Foreign Affairs and other ngo's and Peoples committees of Quang Nam Province. Very important meeting as the Government are now supporting Swim Vietnam and providing money for the program. They intend to work with Swim Vietnam to provide every primary school with swim lessons. This is a massive step forward. The meeting itself was interesting due to the fact it was all in Vietnamese so I had Trung translating for me. I was there as a representative for Jo as she was in Singapore on business.
So this brings me to last Sunday. The monster swim for the vunerable children of Hoi An. (yes i was also teaching and assisting and the pools as well!!) The teachers did us proud 8 of them supported Rudy the organiser who set out to swim 10.2km. One of our teachers Liem did the whole distance just amazing, three teachers Chien, Vu and Long made it to Palm Gardens about 4km and the rest only to Golden Sands which is under 1km. Swim Vietnam have received a cheque for 20 million VD ($1,000 USD) which is great with more to come.
This brings me back to this week. Have been in the pool helping out and also meeting with Jo and the pool supervisors and implementing procedures for the pool and programs. I am going to have a few days off not doing anything and just resting which will be great.
Just loving being here in Hoi An with all my Viet friends and being part of something worthwhile.
Bye for now....
Tanya
President
Water Skills for Life
