The Moon in the Banyan Tree by Gael Harrison

Author:Gael Harrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: G2 Rights Ltd
Published: 2005-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Tien Yen, 5 January 2002

My dear Gerry,

We eventually got back to Tien Yen. The house is so cold, but Hang had cooked up a lovely meal, and, with my new hot water bottle and thick blanket and woollen socks, I should be OK.

It is all go here again, as forty teachers have come for training but there’s no Mr Hoan this time, only Hoa, Oanh and Giang. I have been busy, so have had little time to be introspective, and I still have a warm inner glow from my New Year in Hanoi.

Mo, the translator, is making things awkward as she is unwilling to translate and keeps challenging my ideas. I don’t think she understands her role, and perhaps she and I do not have natural chemistry, but so far I am winning and the local teachers are growing in confidence. Such a contrast to last September, when the same trainers from the Ministry just dismissed them. ‘They can’t do it,’ they said, ‘they don’t understand.’ They are now amazed at these girls’ natural talents.

I had to eat alone this evening as Bich told me that they would be eating a special Vietnamese dish. It was dog. I couldn’t believe that they would do that in our home as I thought it was a speciality that you went to a restaurant for. No doubt they gave the bones and scraps to Mr Darcy. The other thing that is annoying me is the public address system that, at about five o’clock every morning, plays rousing music and broadcasts local news and current affairs; it goes on and on, punctuated with operatic singers. I am harbouring evil terrorist thoughts, devising ways of blowing up the loudspeaker system that blots the skyline.

I am also probably hyped up with nerves as Agneta and the London VSO boss, Liz, arrived in the afternoon, just as I had launched into a drama lesson with the teachers. We were acting out ‘The Grateful Birds’, and the teachers just shone with enthusiasm as they acted their way around the room. I had the odd feeling that I was doing a ‘crit’ lesson from my college days. Later Liz and Agneta saw my room, then met Bich and all the assembled multitudes for dinner. They had to duck as the bats flew about the room whilst we ate our meal. They visited the quirky bathroom, and eyebrows were raised when I told them that Princess Anne was to be visiting. I remember the first time I had a shower; the shower head was awkwardly placed half over the wash basin. I dropped the soap and followed it as it slid across the floor and into the drain outlet. As I retrieved the soap, I was appalled to find that it had accumulated a black pubic wig!

Around eight o’clock that evening we went to visit my good friend Minh, the Keep Fit Queen, and we were all stunned when she showed us her plans. The end wall of the Keep

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