Have a Heart, Give a Heart

I went out today hoping to visit the Ho Chi Minh museum to brush-up my knowledge of the revolutionary leader and national hero. In the end, Jessica and I became so caught up with other tasks that we ran out of time for the museum, which will have to be shelved for another day.

We took the bus into town around lunchtime and went to eat at a newly-opened rooftop restaurant called SH Garden, accessible by a very old-fashioned lift shaft in a bare, dark entrance hall. Despite being hot because of the sunshine spilling through the large windows, the restaurant had a nice, relaxed atmosphere. The menu went on for pages and pages and could really do with being cut down to make it easier to order. They used a thumbs-up system indicating the most highly recommended dishes, which were plentiful enough to make a complete menu on their own. We followed this guideline and ended up with some fairly good dishes.

Downstairs was a home design shop called PS, or Products Simplified. They sold candle dishes, napkin rings, notebooks, clothing, teddy bears and more, all with simple designs with an emphasis on colour. All the products in the shop were available in four shades, and four shades only. Referred to as 'flavours', these were a nutty brown 'chocolate chic', a deep pink 'sexy strawberry', a khaki green 'cucumber cool' and a provincial yellow 'crazy bananas'. The four complimented each other nicely and the overall effect was very stylish. Jessica loved it so much she handed over sixty dollars there.

The highlight of my day came, unexpectedly, in a visit to the Vina Capital Foundation (VCF) office, where our friend Annie works. VCF is a US non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that operates numerous charitable programmes in Vietnam in the field of children's health. The first of these was Heartbeat Vietnam, a grassroots campaign to provide life-saving heart surgery to impoverished children at a cost of $1,000 per operation. Since 2006, it has provided surgery to over 2,600 children. I spoke to Mimi, the director of development, about the possibility of me doing some voluntary work for them. I told her I wanted to do some 'hands-on' work so that I could meet Vietnamese people and come to better understand the poverty and social problems in the country. She suggested I might want to help out at some of their rural outreach clinics that take place throughout the year, but also said that she would pass on my details to other NGOs that they work with which may be more appropriate for me, such as a shelter for vulnerable children, a hospitality training school for street kids or a women's refuge for unmarried mothers. Mimi also mentioned the possibility of me working in other parts of Vietnam. I feel really excited about having these opportunities, although I think it will be a few months before I can fully commit to voluntary work because I will be hosting guests over Christmas and into the new year.

Following this meeting, I asked Jessica to help me re-write my CV when we got home as Mimi had asked me to send it to her. I last updated my so-called 'CV' about a year ago when I last applied for a job (amazingly, I got it). I cringed to re-read this pitiful attempt, even more so at the thought that other people may have read it too. At that time I'd never had a paid job and was too embarrassed to mention my paper-round, so I tried hard to spin a few hundred words out to give the impression that I had some real work experience. Reading it brought back many depressing and frustrating memories of trying to cut-through into the job market for the first time. A year later, I have more to say for myself and luckily had the assistance of a professional at hand. In her training work, Jessica charges $500 for a two-hour session of CV-improvement so I was sure to make use of her advice! She taught me not to be shy about putting down 'small' achievements, to show pride in the things I've done and to show that I'm a fun and interesting person. After all, I can't compare myself to somebody with a ten-year-long career; I am a recent high-school graduate but I've still done a lot of things in my little life that are worth telling people about.