Doing Actual Stuff

Hello,
This is Laura writing to you. In answer to questions regarding what I do after Ashley goes to sleep, I would like to answer as follows. Those of you who know me know that, for many years, I have harboured a desire to become a professional boxer. In Australia, unfortunately, the boxing industry is owned by capitalist pigs and features an extraordinarily strong gender bias. In Vietnam, what with it being a communist country and all, neither of these exist. This means that I have finally been able to pursue my dream. Each night I go out and take part in a boxing match. Most nights I win. This should not surprise those of you who have seen me at parties rolling up my sleeves and making you feel the muscles in my arm.
yours,
Laura Butterworth, M.D

P.S
You may notice that I now have "M.D" after my name. I recently became a doctor. Please consider me for your next medical emergency. I charge very reasonable rates.

P.P.S
If you do not believe I am either a boxer or a doctor, I will beat you silly, then I will use my doctorate skills on you to fix the damage I've done. And then you'll have to endure the shame of admitting you were wrong on both counts. Ha!


Now here's the Baron's post;


so today we actually went and visited aid projects. we were collected at 8am by our minibus and everobliging apheda host, sharon. he had managed torearrange our schedule slightly to allow for the dayto begin with a quick trip to see a waxen ho chi minh,which we had been unable to do yesterday to greatdisappointment. i did not feel the need to queue up,get ordered around by vietnamese men in militaryuniforms in order to get my glimpse of a dead body, soi stayed on the bus. those who went, including laura,were greatly thrilled with what they saw.from there we began our journey to a province about 90minutes from the city. on the way sharon briefed uson the projects run by apheda in vietnam, which waspretty fascinating. they're currently running aprogramme for victims of agent orange (who are largelyactually 2nd and 3rd generation victims, who suffer anarray of disabilities), programmes for HIV Aidssufferers, a corporate social responsibility programme(which sounds amazing), a revolving loans programmeand lots of vocational training type things.we began by visiting an amazing complex, run by anamazing woman is part of the women's union. her workwas recognised by the government and they gave her alarge sum of money with which to build an awesomecomplex, from which they run vocational trainingprogrammes, and which also has dormortries to allowparticipants in the training programme to live theirduring their training. after explaining theprogrammes to us and answering lots of questions, theypresented us with an array of gifts, including localsweet foods, and embroidered bags produced by thecentre.they then took us to see some of the trainingprogrammes. the first class we visited was a group ofabout 30 young people (aged 15 -26) who were beingtrained in embroidery. the work they produce at theend of their training is amazing - large lengths ofcloth for korean kimonos. the programme producesproducts contracted by companies, so they dont sellthe end products themselves. one of the girls who hada disability had been trained their, but then wasstaying on to work their, and was saving $15 US amonth to send back to her family. the students werelovely and tolerated our intrusive questions well. wethen sang them Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree(clearly that wasnt my idea!) and then sang us a songabout liking being at school. it was pretty awesome. several of the students had disabilities or healthissues. the programme ensures that jobs are availablefor the students at the end of the programme, orassists them to work from home if they need to. Thetransition to employment is 100% except with the youngpeople with disabilities (72% success) some of whomare prevented from working by health issues.from this room we went next door to what is usually acrochet class. today there was only one girl, who hada disability thanks to her father being a soldierduring the war. when i say crochet i dont meanscarves and doileys, they make entire garments toorders from manufacturers. the cardigans and dressesthey'd made were really amazing. this girl talked tous a bit about her training at the centre - her familylives only 2km from the centre so her mother drivesher to and from work each day as she is unable todrive due to her disability.having talked to her the staff then decided to presentus all with one these amazing crocheted cardigans,which take 2 days to complete each. the awful part isthat there not necessairly something any of wouldwear, or at least not laura or i. it was a reallybeautiful gesture, and there were many tears.from there we visited a group who were being trainedin polishing gems. when i say gems, i probably meanfake gems, all that diamante type stuff. it was quiteamazing witnessing the process of shaping andpolishing these little sparklers.unfortunatley by this time the tailoring class hadgone to lunch, but we had a brief look at their classrooms and i actually got quite sentimental aboutindustrial sewing machines.this was our cue to head to lunch too, where wefeasted on the most enormous feast i've ever seen. which given that last night we had a vegetarian indianbanquet, is truly saying something! the mostimpossible amounts of local dishes just kept rollingout, with a special range for the four vegetarians. quite amazing.after a lengthy amount of time eating, we then headedback to say our farewells to the those we'd met in themorning. from there we headed to a nearby HIV Aidsclub, which has a number of members in the area whoeither have or are related to someone with HIV. theprogramme director told us about the club, whichoperates as a support group, and also seeks to raisecommunity awareness and overcome discrimination. several of the club members were there, including oneman who has HIV, who explained to us that antiviraldrugs are not an option for HIV sufferers due to thecost. by the sounds of things they stuggle tomedicate the associated simple illnesses that arecommon amongst sufferers. an older lady told us shehad lost her son to aids a few days ago. he hadbecome addicted to drugs, and had sold all thefamilies possessions to feed his habit, leaving themwith nothing with which to support him when he becameill... it was a very emotional experience.having had a very moving and mind opening day, wenaturally needed to stop for some shopping on the wayhome, and visited a village famous for its ceramics,where i bought some very adorable and frighteninglycheap bits and pieces.the bus ride continued, with the group deciding theyneeded to sing union songs, and then rewrite one suchsong to be about solidarity with APHEDA. i told youthis was going to be a noisy two weeks. Sharon didsing us a nepalese song (his native country) which wasquite impressive.and now i'm back and really need to go to bed, astomorrow we get picked up from the hotel at 4.30am tofor our flight to hue. arghhhh.and then the riding begins.maybe i should just come home now!