The first glimpse of a foreign business culture

I have attended more meetings here than ever before. Private meetings, business meetings, meetings with the Ministry of Health, advisory sessions, workshops, you name it. All have been very interesting in a professional and a educative way. You see, behavior in the meetings reflects quite well some aspects of the Vietnamese culture.

One common factor for all meetings is tea. Always. The second factor - business cards. In the beginning of a meeting, everybody is presented and business cards are given. Even when I'm a mere observer, I usually walk out with at least 5 business cards.

Some bigger meetings have simultaneous translation (a translator translates a speech or a presentation at the same time the actual representative is talking. The translation can be listened to through headphones). Especially at ministry level, many speak good English and translation is not needed. But, interestingly enough, when a native English speaker is talking, almost everybody reach out for their headphones. In other words, it is easier for the locals to understand the English of a Frenchman, an Indian or a Spaniard and more difficult to understand the Americans, the Brits or the Australians.

With great effectiveness comes also great need for rest. Anywhere, anytime you can find a person sleeping in any position. Also in the meetings. If a topic does not directly concern the person, he is most likely napping in his seat. Sometimes some take a more standard position and rest half of the body on the table. No snoring can be heard though. To balance the one's sleeping, there are always only 1 or 2 people active in the discussion, everybody else seems to be minding their own business.

Different groups of people are quite easily distinguished. If the leader of the group agrees on something, everybody in the group start nodding their heads and saying quietly "Yes, yes, yes..". Actually repeating of phrases is quite funny here. Sometimes a person says something funny 3 times in a row and only after the third time people laugh (I could have a say about the complexity of the minds of the Vietnamese but I continue observing it for now).

Telephones play an active part in the meetings. Not in productive way, though. The nicer your phone is, the more you want to expose it. Touch screen seems to be the "it" in phones now. It doesn't really matter what they do with the phone. Like one of our drivers has a Blackberry. A Blackberry. In the meetings, some play quite openly Tetris etc. Also talking on the phone is the norm and it usually doesn't require for the person to leave the table. In more general terms we can say that, just like everywhere else, disrespect for the person talking is there. Several gossips are being told while the project manager is explaining about new important strategies. Especially women have problems controlling themselves. One colleague said that the women have such a long tradition of gossiping so it's difficult for them to refrain from that. Yes, I know you think that sounds ridiculous but actually, I don't think he's too far from the truth. The amount of gossiping taking place among the Vietnamese women regarding everybody is impressive. Hanoi is like a village, anybody interested can know everything about you. There are eyes everywhere. And what eyes can't see, money can buy.

Tomorrow I will attend a full day seminar at the Ministry of Health. There are great changes taking place with the different UN agencies in Vietnam and now we're mainly briefing the Ministry about those. I'm expecting a long day, lots of discussion and a nice buffet lunch. And all of what was mentioned above.

Here we go

This is a new beginning. The working week is almost over and I am still alive. It has been very interesting to enter the scene and I have been welcomed with eager.

I found a cheap room in the center for 7usd/night incl fan, TV and refridgerator (yes, Hanoi is an expensive city, in other cities I've paid around 4 usd/night). I bought a bicycle and I know where I get food so I'm stationed.

Work has been interesting sofar. Apparently I'm the first intern the WHO Vietnam has had. That explains some of the hassle with my employment. The international staff changes a lot. My supervisor, Sylvain, has been here only for 3 months and he was the one initiating the internship procedure. Sylvain is a funny guy. He is French, a tall version of Mel Gibson. During the past 18 years, he has not stayed in one place for more than 3 years. Now he's already planning where to go next, probably Geneva or Africa. The assistant I share room with, Minh Ly, is giggling all the time but she is very professional. They both work 12h every day, sometimes Sylvain is here weekends as well. Crazy people..

Working here look good at least on the outside. I've already participated in several meetings and we've been driven there by our personal driver in a Toyota Land Cruiser. Naively, I love it when I'm going anywhere in my office clothes and tourists and locals alike stare at me. I love eating at a food stall in my skirt and say no to a motorbike taxi because I have my own transport. Stupid things really, but I love acting local.

You should hear the language they use here. Fine words and abbreviations. Thousands of them! Guess how many 3 letter abbreviations the UN has! 17 576!!! And they are used frequently. So, listening to people can sometimes be difficult because you have no idea what they're talking about. It's like learning a new language, really; trying to learn the most common abbreviations and to use them fluently.

In a good WHO style, condoms for men are distributed everywhere in the WHO building in two sizes as well as the special ones for women. The HIV/AIDS workers have sterile needles surrounding them.

These are the bits and peaces of my first week in Hanoi. During the weekend I'm going to be a tourist and tour around with my new bicycle (the Vietnamese colleagues couldn't understand why I didn't buy a motorbike). Have a nice weekend, guys!

Half way through

The time has come. My time for traveling is about to finish. I am sitting in a restaurant in Lao Cai at the border between Vietnam and China. In 2 hours my night train to Hanoi will depart, leading me slowly and inevitably to my new job at the WHO.

Shortly about practicalities. On Monday my plan is to a) find a cheap flat, b) meet Hugo, a Mexican living in Hanoi who has some of my things stored and c) repair my shoes to be office-appropriate again. Then, on Tuesday, it's D-Day. My working time is 8-12 and 13-17, Monday to Friday. My Vietnamese telephone number is +84 1666 544 001 but my Finnish number is working as well (once I buy a new cheap phone, my very old Nokia finally gave up so I only have one phone working right now).

My trip all together went very well. I had enough days to cover what I wanted, I didn't get sick and I only suffered minor scams. I also had the chance to talk to people about Hanoi and Vietnam in general, which almost made me a bit worried.

Vietnam has a terrible reputation among travelers. Ask anybody and he will tell you about the time when he was charged the four double price, when he was kicked you of a bus for not paying extra or when he was pickpocketed by some ladies selling candy. Two couples I met left Vietnam earlier than planned because they couldn't stand it anymore. I am told the Vietnamese are a race in itself. They will frustrate and annoy me and I just have to bear with it.

Hanoi has also got varied feed-back. Some love Hanoi, its old streets and its good food. Some hate Hanoi, the dirt, the noise and the hassle that is there 24/7. I have been asked why on earth I would want to work there. Well, it was Ms. Fortune that dealt me this card and my personal opinion about a place usually varies from the common one so I'm not worried. This is an adventure. We wouldn't want it to become too boring, would we?

I am constantly thinking about subjects I could discuss here. Unfortunately Internet access isn't very common in the more remote areas so posting here has sometimes been a small challenge. From now on, I will be in Hanoi and I will maybe even answer the messages I have received.

Time's up. Wish me luck.

Lost and found

Hello dear people. You may have your ideas about why I haven't written here in a while. Well, I have been in Laos. After leaving the capital, Vientiane, where I posted my last entry, the Internet has been either very expensive or non-existent. In fact, electricity has been non-existent.

Laos is many tourist's favorite country here in South-East Asia. It has beautiful nature, friendly people, some nice sights and lots of drugs. It was terrible to see the 20-something tourists in the two main tourist cities in Laos, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang. The kids were drinking like maniacs, having opium shakes, shouting on the streets and wearing mini-mini-skirts and shirts that show a woman's bra. Especially the thing about clothes surprised me a lot. On every single guide book about Laos the importance of conservative clothing is highlighted. I felt ashamed when the locals were staring at a group of girls with only a bikini covering their upper body. It's one thing to have the liberty to wear what you want and an other thing to make everybody around you uncomfortable. I might add that nowadays I swim with a t-shirt.

What had the most positive impact on me was a little different. There are so many places with no organized tourism. I left the "tourist route" and headed north towards the Vietnamese border, stopping at several places on the way. First I stayed in a picturesque city called Nong Khiew (a city in Laos is a village with a couple of thousand people and one paved road). I loved it there. It was so authentic. Dirty children, animals, bamboo huts, no electricity (the line had broke the previous night), 5 tourists and mountains surrounding it all. The city reminded me a lot of Moyogalpa in Nicaragua, a place that is very special to me, so being in Nong Khiew brought several beautiful memories to me and I was happy.

An other thing that impacted me greatly was a trek that Melanie from Texas and I made in the mountains of Muang Khua. Muang Khua sees some tourists that quickly pass through town. We found a teacher in the city that took us on a two day trek. I can not tell you how amazing it was. We walked IN rivers, it poured with rain, our guide continuously had to cut the vegetation to open the path etc. We passed several villages and we stayed overnight in one. The last time a foreigner had entered the grounds was over one year ago when an Israeli passed some of the villages. Approaching the village was magical in itself. We met the first person about half an hour before the village. Then the mountain almost came alive. The villagers shouted from one rice field to another about our coming and soon we had 20 grown-up's who appeared from nowhere following us. Dogs barked at us. Some children started crying at the sight of us. Old women grabbed our hands. We were asked to heal a man who was coughing blood.

We stayed the night at the chiefs house. The chief and his five brothers' families were the only ones with electricity - they had electric light after nightfall and so the fire was only used for cooking. The children laughed at anything we did. Men made tools out of old bomb shells. We were of course dead tired after the 7 hour trek so we needed to sleep. The chief had been very serious and calm during the hours that we had sat in his house. When preparing for going to bed, I removed my contact lenses. Then suddenly, the chief was next to me, faster than lightning, and he grabbed the lens container from my hands. And so he sat there carefully examining everything I had brought with me. Until 1 a.m.

So many great things have happened during my time here and I still have one more week to go. Tomorrow I'll head towards the "magical" Sapa in northern Vietnam. The unlucky thing is that my camera finally broke. I was counting on that it would work until I reached Hanoi but that didn't happen. The thing is mainly unlucky because the camera broke in Laos, the country that has zero people able to repair a camera (the photo shop keepers keep saying "Thailand, Thailand"). So, I'll try to find a repair shop in Sapa and use my phone in the meantime. I'm not devastated about this camera-thing so no worries. Be good!