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My first steps in Quy Nhon, Vietnam |
I am about a month in Vietnam now. Time to keep you a bit updated 
.
FYI:
I am in Quy Nhon, Vietnam, a VNCC: A Very Nice Coastal City. I am a “Junior Assistant” for BTC.
(Read more about this Junior Programme)
(Read interview with JP-coordinator)
In Quy Nhon, the Art of making Fisher Boats is intact!
Just a little impression of Quy Nhon’s little alleys and back streets…
My name is Ly, As Ly
From the very beginning when i was introduced in the group of young colleagues, they had already found a way to get round my difficult-to-pronounce-name. Would it be okay if they could call me Ly?
Though, some of them want to improve their english, so they try it with my real name. That’s why there’s also the name As Ly to hear around.
But do not worry; call for Ly, and i know you’re talking to me!
(In conversations at the table, though, you can hear lots of “Ly’s”: it also means “glass” (to drink from) and it’s the name of a certain flower.)
Me & my colleagues
I am very happy to introduce you: my project team VIE 0703511.
What do we do?
We are called a “provincial project management unit” (PPMU) and we support the water supply and integrated solid waste management in some rural areas of our province Binh Dinh.
Binh Dinh is divided into smaller regions: districts. In 6 of these we work together with the local governements (districts, communes, hamlets) and organisations.
We support the building of infrastructure, such as water pumps/water treatment plants/distribution networks (for water supply), or places to treat our waste (e.g. landfills). But … as always and anywhere, you cannot just “build infrastructure”… Are people interested to pay for the water in the pipelines? Sometimes they prefer to keep on using water from their own boreholes and wells … Or, should we just support the building of a place where we dump our solid waste, or a plant with high technology to make compost from our organic waste? In some cases the energy needed to run the machines is too expensive, or the landfill is just another end-of-the-pipeline-solution for our waste and will be filled up with waste after 15 years.
So what do we do, then? (and why am i here?)
Capacity building and awareness raising .
For example, for the waste problem: we see that the decision makers of the districts want to manage better the waste of their towns and villages, in a way that is “integrated”. It is not only about building a landfill to dump your waste, but about avoiding waste, reducing, reusing, composting, recycling, and if you really really need to: burn and/or dump. And a lot of different “parties” in our society are involved in this: the industry (e.g. who produces packaging for our food, who produces paint, …), the government (who makes up the law with rules we have to follow and ways to penalize if we don’t), commerce (e.g. who recycles our plastic bottles), citizen groups and the population (who buy or don’t buy packaged goods, who separate their waste), …
My colleagues and me thus work on a strategy and activities to “raise awareness” and “build capacities” on how we can manage our waste problem, together with the district government and organisations (people from departments of “agriculture and rural development”, “natural resources and environment”, “education and training”, …), the district women union, the district youth union, the district waste collector companies … . We will do this through trainings, visits to good examples, workshops and a lot of meetings and discussions. We will work with the Women Union, the Youth Union and the schools of the districts to organise campaigns and other activities to raise awareness amongst the people and find solutions for the waste problem (e.g. separation at home). A work of a bit longer than my 2 years here, ofcourse, but at least I can contribute!
The language of Vietnamese, and me
… I don’t really speak Vietnamese …
(Though i am taking a course, so it might improve to a certain extent…)
… and their English is not really exquisite …
(The situation is, if they speak English, it takes a bit of effort to understand what they are saying. For example: something pronounced like “hobbysto” – what makes me think my conversation partner is talking about a hobby store, but how can i understand this in our conversation about waste management? – is actually “hospital”. Or, what if they change all “p’s” for an “f” (since they might think a “p” is a “ph”)? Then you get this: “The froblem is on the folitical level”. They also tend to forget the last letters of the words: “You are very ni”, “You wan i in yo Ca Phé?”, “We nee to spea abou way we wan to ogani thi”.)
But after all: it seems my colleagues’ English improves incredibly quickly since I’m here!
(I hope my vietnamese will do so, too)
So, at work, we have an interpreter. She is Ngoc, 29, and i have great respect for her: she accompanies us everywhere we go for work, she constantly has to be concentrated on what people say in vietnamese, keep it in her head, translate (summarize) it for us, listen to our comments, translate again, listen, and so on. Meetings, discussions, interviews, visits, lunches/diners, … Ngoc is always on our side.
Lieve Van Gerwen said,
March 14, 2010 - 9:04 am
Ik heb met veel plezier en bewondering je verslag gelezen! Jullie doen daar met gans het team schitterend werk.
ranulph said,
March 14, 2010 - 9:23 am
Very nice to hear about this, Ashley. Thanks for including me. I always wanted to go to Vietnam, but missed out due to the death of my father in law. I have a cousin there at the moment.
Many people have difficulty hearing (and saying) the same set of phonemes that we hear. The confusion of l and r, for instance (flied lice). And also pronouncing final consonants. I always think it must be even harder for non-native speakers to understand: 2 shifts, rather than just 1.
Sounds like you’re doing really interesting work. I look forward to hearing more about it, as well as about life in Vietnam. Did you know you are doing reflective practice!
Willem Elias said,
March 14, 2010 - 9:34 am
dag Ashley, jij hebt het weer voor elkaar gespeeld , ziet er interessant uit;Als je terug bent laat iets horen, groet, Willem
Ruth and Cloë said,
March 14, 2010 - 9:10 pm
Ashley
we first thought they were building the new “ark of Noah” instead of a fisher boat. It seems like there is already some evolution so you’re doing a great job!
Xx Break a leg!
Hong Quang said,
March 15, 2010 - 2:10 am
27-year-old Henne Kam Ashley lives in Belgium. She has come to Binh Dinh for one month and worked as a volunteer at the province’s Department of Planning and Investment.
She likes learning about different countries and various cultures; she thus applied for a job at Belgium’s Development Cooperation Agency. Selected as a volunteer, she had an opportunity to work in Vietnam and decide to join the water supply and environmental sanitation project in Binh Dinh.
H.Ashley is now in charge of building strategies for raising the local people’s awareness of clean water and environmental sanitation in six districts where the project has been implemented.
“Vietnamese women always take care of their home,” she said. “Their awareness of clean water and environmental sanitation must be enhanced first through visual aids, the mass media, and meeting.”
Just beginning her work one month ago, she has no surprise when coming to Binh Dinh for she had learned about Vietnam’s culture and people.
Is that you?
ellen said,
March 15, 2010 - 9:29 am
Goh Ashley, … Weer zo’n geweldig avontuur waar je aan begonnen bent! Denk regelmatig eens aan een update van je blog zodat we ook kunnen meegenieten van wat je daar allemaal beleeft.
x ellen
joel said,
March 15, 2010 - 9:33 am
Hello “Ly”,
How are you doing overthere?
Your life and job in Quy Nhon seem to be so interesting.
Do you learn the local language (vietnamese)? How is it?
I wish you all the best. Good luck,
Joël
Hilde said,
March 15, 2010 - 11:25 am
Hey Ashley,
You look amazing good!
Here in Brussels we think you are participating in a very interesting project.
Keep on going!
many regards,
Hilde
ahennekam said,
March 16, 2010 - 11:02 am
Dear Hong Quang, yes, that’s me. You must have read that in the Binh Dinh newspaper last weekend? Nice to know some people research what they read about
. Though please keep in mind that reporters always change a bit what the interviewee said 
…
Eveline said,
March 16, 2010 - 11:22 am
Hoi Ashley, kan al meteen tellen qua pr!
Veel succes nog, we volgen je op de voet (kijk maar eens achterom
)
liesbet said,
March 16, 2010 - 3:54 pm
ashley ik ben heel trots op jou
Bang Tam said,
March 18, 2010 - 6:47 am
Quite sad when read Ms “Ly” remark about Eng pronunciation ability of Vietnamese. Surely, English is the foreign language in Vietnam and a little of people can speack and understance English. Our language are difference in phonetic, especially, our culture are difference so the way making a sentence are difference, too. Therefore, it is easy to know that Vietnamese can’t pronounce Eng as native people.
I greatly appreciate your comments on this issue. Through your comments, we know what is mistake in our pronunciation.
Thank you so much and wish you having a good life in the hospitable Binh Dinh province.
ahennekam said,
March 18, 2010 - 10:18 am
Dear Bang Tam
.
. In any case, you must know that I appreciate a lot the vietnamese in my surroundings. And as Ranulph Glanville already suggested in his comment above: if you know some one’s linguistic culture, you understand where the different pronounciation (e.g. not pronouncing the final consonants) comes from. Thanks to the Vietnamese course I’m taking I see that in Vietnamese you don’t pronounce the final consonants for example, so that explains why Vietnamese do the same in English. And afterall, since everywhere in the world English is most of the time pronounced according to one’s linguistic background (even in my own country 
), this issue of “Pronouncing English” is very relative 
. Maybe I was focusing a bit too much on it 
.
Thanks for your comment on my blog
I’m sorry if it seems a bit offensive towards the Vietnamese when I say their english is a bit difficult to understand for me… please see it as the first impressions of a foreigner who is new to the vietnamese culture
Thanks for your interest anyway!
Good luck
Ashley
Leen said,
March 21, 2010 - 4:28 pm
Pff dat Engels Ashley, das vermoeiend om te lezen zu
nee jong, super-interessant en ik kan al niet wachten tot je hier terug bent met al je verhalen en foto’s (of mss tot ik daar ben??!)
Gisteren was het eetfestijn van Dwagulu-Dekkente en iedereen (270 mensen) was heel tevreden met het lekkere eten en het was weer een supergezellige bedoening! Voilà daar ben je nu ook weeral van op de hoogte
Hou je daar goed!!
Corine said,
March 24, 2010 - 11:57 am
Hello Ashley,
Bedankt voor deze boeiende nieuws!
Ik vind dat heel tof voor jij!
Veel succes en nog veel verhalen te lezen, aub !
Ta bonne humeur et ta joie de vivre font oublier tous les accents du monde
Bernardo from California said,
March 28, 2010 - 3:07 pm
Dear Ashley, Thanks for keeping me in your mind and share this wonderful initiative with all of us. It took me a while to read it as I am working in a project in El Salvador.
I give you my best and warm wishes for a succesful and enjoyable stay in Vietnam. It happens I have Vietnamese friends living near Los Angeles, as their community is very large here. So in case you need some kind of support/advice I would like to share your blog with them.
Waste and water management is probably one the immediate big problems coming with developing nations into globalization and a big problem in Los Angeles as well as this area is very dry and imports water from many miles away.
It happens I attend some seminars with research/entrepreneur groups related to the University of California where I took the MBA. I will send you a link to some low cost interesting sustainable initiatives I might find out there. There is one in specific, a company developed a very cheap way of treating water from wells in India maintained by the locals. Keep me posted. Hugs
alain said,
April 25, 2010 - 9:01 pm
amai amai. ben onder de indruk , nichtje. doe het goed daar hé
Emma Swift said,
September 1, 2010 - 12:58 pm
Hey Ashley,
I stumbled upon your blog through a google search for “living in Quy Nhon”. I am spending a year here (just arrived three days ago) on a Fulbright grant from the US, and am working at Dai Hoc Quy Nhon, teaching and researching.
I was wondering if you are still in town here, or if you have moved on. It would be great to start making some friends around town, so if you are here, shoot me an email if you would like to get together for coffee or something.
Or, if you have already left, maybe you have some good contacts in town I should know about?
Hope to hear from you!
Cheers,
Emma Swift
emmaswift@gmail.com
Dave Martin said,
November 30, 2010 - 5:03 pm
Visited the same boat-building yard, Qui Nhon I think but later on this year than you did. See my blog if interested. It’s There’s a Qui Nhon post there.
Regards etc…Dave Martin
Dave Martin said,
November 30, 2010 - 5:06 pm
Try again…sorry…My blog’s called buzzjourneys and its: daveinsoutheastasia.blogspot.com There’s a post on Qui Nhon in there