Christmas Miracles

So yes it really was a Christmas to remember. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. All smiles and craziness with excess and festive spirit in abundance.

Christmas Eve was like a fairytale. The KOTO Xmas Eve dinner, was, despite our concerns, a major triumph.

From the outset it was so very special. We were ushered into the downstairs cafe area and were plied with egg nog and luscious fingerfood - including some fantastic sushi.

Seasonal music played in the background as the kids had a ball. Although they don't really "get Christmas" you could see them starting to catch the vibe as the night progressed. Glitter started to appear on faces, Santa hats were found - two even donned full Santa outfits and "ho ho ho-ed" while giving out presents

Before long we took our table. Salmon starters and a big turkey meal and then it was the crunch - it was time to sing.

We'd been practicing songs all week with the kids. They were getting it, albeit slowly, but the results were mixed to say the least. Would putting them in front of a big group of people inspire them or would it just scare them into an embarrassing silence?

It wasn't just the kids that were working who were there that night. Others showed up on their nights off - just to take part. Eventually, they all trooped into the restaurant and lined up in front of expectant diners.

The boss gave them a build up. The music started suddenly, the kids
tried to catch up - then the music stopped again. Embarrased silence time. Ok take two (don't panic).

Mary's Boy Child starts again - the quiet first bit is a little wayward. Then the beat starts and they are away. Voices start to get a little louder.

Smiles replaces nervous frowns - before long even hips are swaying.

The first song finishes and there's a massive cheer and a standing
ovation. Now we go straight into jingle bells and the diners stay on their feet. Some are singing along, some are clapping - some are even dancing and the kids are starting to love it.

Before long we're on the last song - by this time the trainees are having their time of their lives. They're clicking fingers, they're holding hands, they're little faces are beaming. And I'm in the back somewhere, there for moral support but it's me that can't get the words out for the lump in my throat and I'm so proud of them all.

And the music stops and the place goes wild. The kids are bowing and blowing kisses and lapping it up and us volunteers are melting into the background and letting them have their moment. What a special bunch, what an amazing experience. What a Christmas Eve.

So after shaking the hands of all the kids, I retire back to my table. There's one kid who I call "20 Questions" (Meester Steve, what time you get up, have you had breakfast yet, what do you eat, when do you eat lunch, why you not married etc) - anyway, he joins me and he says: "Meester Steve I think you miss your family".

I confided in him that I did a little, but that KOTO was my Hanoi family and I was very happy to be here. He looked me in the eye and says: "I miss my family too - but I am very happy at KOTO"

Then, of course, I'm nearly in pieces again and I give him a hug before we manage a more manly playfight and a high five.

Before I knew it, it was 11am and the plan is to swap the restaurant and go have a beer or several in the centre of Hanoi. We get on the backs of motorbikes and we're off. For about 200 yards we speed away and then we hit traffic. Every motorbike for miles around is heading for the lake at the town centre. There are Santas on wheels everywhere. The young people of Vietnam are doing what they do when they want to celebrate - they get on their bikes and they drive around till it's over.

So eventually, I'm in the middle of a crossroads and nothing is moving in any direction. It's a seasonal snarl up and it's time to get off and walk. It's beautiful, just crazy - madness everywhere. The crowd around the Catholic cathedral is like Glastonbury. And we bob and weave on foot, all the way to the pub.

From that point Christmas Eve and Christmas Day kind of blend into
one. I finished Christmas Eve at 3am Christmas Day. Christmas Day was wrapped up 5am Boxing Day.

Hangover still present, Boxing Day ended in the nicest possible way. A group of ex-pats had clubbed together to provide pressies for an orphanage in town and we showed up (with Santa) to deliver.

There were games, food, toys and lots of smiles and we had so much fun. Just beautiful.

Today Turkey nachos (that's a new one) are on the menu at KOTO, I'm knackered and I'm back at work. Oh and Newcastle United yet again failed to win last night.

But, man....Christmas was fun.


Boxing Day fun

It's beginning to look a lot like Chiss Miss

Cracking a smile.

For the first time in a couple of weeks I'm feeling close to my best.

Flu wiped me out. Ba Vi finished me off. And, just as I was starting to feel fighting fit again, food poisoning hit me over the weekend.

So I was starting to feel a little cheesed of with it all. But I'm back.

I made my way into work yesterday feeling about 50pc. I saw the day out and in the evening my flatmate and I made our way into town and recharged our batteries with a warming bowl of pho and then coffee and ice cream by the lake.

This morning was a lot better. I took myself off into town to pick up a parcel from home - complete with snowy scene Christmas cards and some sweets to share with the staff.

Then, this afternoon the Christmas spirit got the better of me. I took a look around the drab training centre and set off in search of Christmas deccys.

Christmas is funny here. There's just a single day off and it's still a very western idea but growing in popularity. I didn't want to impose western culture on anyone, but, hell, I wanted to feel Christmassy.

So I filled my backpack with tinsel and "Merry Christmas" signs and returned on the back of a scooter with a Christmas tree and festive wreath under my arm. Luckily the kids were on a class break when I got back.

In seconds, they took the tree and reef from me, and the little Father Christmas I had bought. They emptied my bag too and set about decorating the place. Before long they were hanging scarily off ladders sticking tinsel to the ceiling and I sat watching, beaming like a fool.

I don't hold with a religous Christmas particularly, I'm not that bothered about presents. But I hate moaning about Christmas too. I love Christmas. I love being with my family. I love eating too much and I even love the crap TV.

Christmas should mean something. Even if you are somewhere where the culture is very different. You can still make Christmas special.

And of course, with Christmas approaching, I am missing my family more than ever and I would love to be with them all at this time.

As for my own plans, Christmas Eve will see us (a small group of volunteers) having a late dinner at KOTO and seeing in midnight over a Tiger Beer or eight. Then the 25th itself will be a rare day off. There's a pub in town promising "the works", so that's where I will be.

For Boxing Day, a group of ex-pats are off to visit an orphanage with the aim of playing Santa, playing games and singing a few songs. The same group have really supported KOTO so I wanted to help them on their quest too.

So, amongst all the trainees wishing me: "Merry Chiss Miss", I am starting to feel festive and Christmas 2004 will be one I will never forget. If I'm honest right now I would swap it for a festive season back home with my folks but I know I will look back very fondly.

I've included the picture above just because someone sent it to me and it's a rare shot of me cracking a smile at Ba Vi.

Merry Chiss Miss one and all. Have a good 'un.

Mum, Dad, family (and that means you too Beccy Lou) I'll be thinking of you.
xxxx

The Story of the Ba Vi Bike Ride

Do Mo Lake on route

I'm sat right now in an internet cafe in the centre of Hanoi. I have a day off.

I needed the day off. By the end of the Ba Vi Bike Ride I was absolutely exhausted.

Here is the story of the Ba Vi Bike Ride...

First off I should point out that the bike ride is KOTO's big money raiser. Last year it raised 20K - similar figure this year would make a big dint in the 80,000k we need to relocated the restaurant.

Up to now our friend at the Australian Embassy did the organising. This year it was down to me. In all I had around two months to organise the event. Subtract from that a week off with the flu and a two week diversion setting up the "Build a New Home for KOTO" Scheme and you can see the pressure we were under.

As it got closer and closer the panic grew. It's a big job. Forty two cyclists, three support vehicles, three more motorbikes and even an ambulance. I also personally travelled the route (there and back) twice.

In the final week before the Saturday start, on a couple of occasions I tried to stay late to try and get ahead with the preparations. Twice the computers let me down and I had no option but to go home. On Thursday, I had to attend an event at the Sheraton where the KOTO trainees were cooking for a group of delegates - we sold a few bricks, calendars and cook books too. But that was another late night and there was still a huge amount to do for the bike ride.

Come Friday night I had no option but to work till it was all done. I left at midnight, got home, tossed, turned and managed about three hours sleep before being back at the training centre at 6am on the day itself.

Soon it was wall to wall cycling lycra. We registered them, gave them a t-shirt, we fed them and me, my boss and the Australian Ambassador (no less) made speeches. Then I had to apologise ...we'd missed out the last page of directions in the packs (OUCH).

They were quickly printed and handed out and they were off. I was held back because the Ambulance hadn't showed. By the time it arrived I was playing catch up. My motorbike driver and me set off in pursuit.

It wasn't long before my phone was ringing. I was the central contact. There were lost cyclists, lost support vehicles, etc etc.

We had lost a young kid cycling with one of the schools - I was also cursing two of my flatmates who had got lost and needed finding (why me, why now, why them, why did they have to do this to me?).


The kids show the way

And so it seemed my master plan was crashing around my ears. I found the lost cyclists and gave them an escort right the way to the morning tea stop. By the time we got there the rest of the cyclists had gone.

And this was how the day panned out. I swept up at the back while the rest of the day unfolded without me. I had no idea what was going on ahead.

Eventually, after six hours on the back of the bike we swept those slowcoach cyclists over the finish line and there were all the rest of the entrants. Smiling, having lunch and generally (seemingly) having a good time. I had spent weeks in panic but half a dozen people came over to shake my hand and say "good job" and how much they had enjoyed the event.

Trouble was, I was still too tired and too worried to smile. I still had to get all the bikes on a truck and the cyclists on a bus and get them home.

The cyclists somehow we managed. We got them back to the reception. More about the bikes later.

So after another hour and a half on the road we got back to the KOTO restaurant. By this time I had added sunstroke and dehydration to being absolutely knackered. I had also not found the time to eat in over 24 hours. I was on the verge of collapsing on the spot. I made a speech which went something like: "thank-you, thank-you, thank-you, you've done a wonderful thing today and raised money for a fabulous cause, please stay...drink...I have to go now. I need to sleep"

And with that I went home to bed and slept - and switched off my mobile phone.


Leafy lanes

That of course should have been the end of the story but it wasn't. It turned out my two colleagues were stuck at Ba Vi with the bikes. They were stuck there for five hours all told. The truck had not turned up. They rang me and, of course, I wasn't answering.

They got back about midnight and dropped the bikes off. In time for all the cyclists to pick them up the next day.

It was mid Sunday before I heard about this and I felt really embarrassed that they should have to put in these extra hours without me. I felt so bad about turning off my phone.

I went into work on the Monday and explained to them how sorry I was, how thankful I was for their work and what great jobs they had done. I expected them to hate me. They didn't, they smiled and said "my pleasure" and shook my hand. And I just hugged them back. I was so proud of them all - between us we had pulled off the Ba Vi bike ride.

I was feeling better but it was only later that day when I totally relaxed. The boss called me in and thanked me for all my work and said it was a great day, then emails and notes started to trickle in from cyclists saying what a fantastic time they had had.

I was overjoyed. And so relieved. It wasn't a classic of organisation but we did it. It was the single hardest thing I have ever had to do. I can't say I was proud of the job I did, there were too many little mistakes that we made, but I'm proud that we pulled it off.

And I'm going to be really proud of the Ba Vi Bike Ride 2005.


All smiles at the end.

Back in the saddle

The view from the Dyke Road

Okay - so here it goes. The great big, humongous Ba Vi Mountain Bike Ride takes places this Saturday. That'll be a 5am start for me.

It's been a frantic week so far. Only half the riders had registed by deadline leaving me flapping a bit. But I tracked them all down and one by one I've wrestled their registration documents out of their paws.

Allowing for late entries and late drop outs we should have around 45 entrants - one more than last year. And yes for that I will be a little smug, all things considered.

Then again, I did some quick calculations and I reckon that in order to beat last year's final total each cyclist has to raise around $300 which sounds like a tall order. Then again one cyclist rang me the other day to get our bank details as he had a thousand euros to pay into our account - so you never know.

Anyway, enough, this was all just an excuse to include some nice pics taken from the route. These were taken on a typical Hanoi foggy day when I first tracked the route by motorbike. On Sunday we did it all again on a beautiful clear autumn day.

Wish me luck - lots of things can still go wrong.


Village Kids



Strange Fruit

Buffalo Flu

Hanoi looking lovely on my way to work

Okay so you guessed it – after tempting fate with my last post, the last two weeks have been something of a no-fun zone.

For the most part it was flu that has left me under the weather. It meant missing the best part of a week of work, and even this following week it has left me short on energy and feeling generally run down.

This has been against a backdrop of preparations for the Ba Vi Charity Bike ride that is so important to KOTO’s finances.

Basically, if I have learnt anything then it’s that next year we start the planning in January. This is the first time that KOTO has arranged the bike ride in its entirety without assistance from its Embassy friends. To add to the change, it has fallen to me, the new boy in town, to co-ordinate it all.

The good news is that despite the new arrangements we are on course to match the efforts of previous years. The bad news is that probably it would have been nice to surpass them.

But what we do have is 44 confirmed cyclists, we have around 20 corporate sponsors. The cyclists t-shirts are printed, we have three support vehicles, the route is agreed and we have the plan for the day taking shape.

There’s just over a week to go. On Sunday I, for the second time, will check the route out on the back of a bike just to make sure. I hope that wobbly looking bamboo bridge is holding up.

In between KOTO duties over the weekend I do intend to relaunch my social life. I have barely left my house in two weeks.


Spot the bouquet and spot the Vietnamese lads letting blokes down everywhere

Actually the last big social occasion was the big KOTO wedding. It was a lovely do. As tradition dictates there are two events – at his and hers.

Hers was a swanky Hanoi watering spot. His was back in his country village. The day was beautiful, as were the happy couple. Call me a soft old git but the lump in my throat wasn’t just from the onset of flu.

The countryside was beautiful. It’s strange the way the new and the old combine here. In particular, for some reason, no social occasion is complete without Boney M music. So the happy couple were toasted to a background chorus of “Ra Ra Rasputin”. Strange, but a lot of fun.

I think my favourite day this week was Monday. Despite still feeling a little rough I decided that I could no longer stay in bed and got up for work. Just being outside again was fantastic. I shouted my Hallos to all the shopkeepers, bought by Banh My Chung (egg butty to you), waved at all the kids and breathed in the rapidly cooling autumn air.

When I arrived, most amusingly one of the trainees was singing “You are my sunshine” and in my good mood I joined in. Before long there were half a dozen of us howling it out the front of the training centre. I eventually made my excuses and departed for my office giggling like a five year old.

The pressure of work has been a little intense. Or at least that is how it has felt what with me not being 100%. It’s not a stress thing, just the weight of expectation.

So apologies to those people who want to buy bricks who I have not responded to yet. Don’t worry, I will.