This week has been pretty similar to last week- lots of playing with the children at Peace Village! I have been tasked by one of the teachers to teach a girl how to play the piano! Imagine trying to do that without speaking! I've managed to teach her a couple of lines of a well known Vietnamese song, but she's learning by patterns rather than by reading the music- kind of cheating, but oh well! There seems to have been quite a few arguments between the children this week, and I've been left to sort them out by myself- I hate confrontations! I lost my temper a bit with one of the teachers today because he refused to help me stop a big kid from bullying the other children- I think a 'turn a blind eye' policy operates here. The boy was too strong for me to manoeuvre out of the room, and the naughty kids just ignore me when I try to tell them off- I don't think finger waggling has the same meaning in Vietnam!

I have started taking an xe om from my project to my accommodation each day with Alice, which has certainly made the journey more interesting! An xe om is basically a motorbike taxi, and is cheaper than a normal taxi. Me and Alice have to both get on the back of the motorbike behind the driver; it's a bit of a squeeze with three people on one seat- must be a funny sight! It's so much fun whizzing doen the highway with the wind in your hair- and so out of character for me!! Before you have a heart attack dad, I wear a helmet, and there have been no accidents! Although the roads are completely chaotic and seemingly lawless, it somehow works! The high volume of traffic and lack of lanes means that all veichles move quite slowly, and everyone is always aware of motorbikes (unlike the UK) as they easily outnumber cars. On Tuesday, the driver took a wrong turn so we had to gesture on a map while he was still driving, which was amusing in itself, but he then proceeded to complete a u turn and drive back the way we came- on the same side of the road!! So we were driving on a busy highway facing oncoming traffic! It was quite scary but with plenty of horn usage, the driver made his way through! This is just the way things are done in Vietnam!