Back to old ways

It has felt a little strange today to be on my own again for the first time in two weeks. Mum had given me specific orders to have a lie-in today as we had been up early every day during her visit. So although I had gone to bed early and woken up naturally at 6.30am, I made myself go back to sleep again for another two and a half hours. In hindsight I think I overslept last night and have had a numb headache all day as a result. In the morning I did a little bit of organising of my things, thinking ahead to when I will need to pack my stuff to leave in six weeks. Most of this was throwing away old leaflets and other scraps of paper that I have hoarded. Later I cycled into Phu My Hung; tomorrow I will be going to the Anh Linh school for the last time so I've made a pass-the-parcel for the kids as a treat. I bought a box of dominoes from a stationary shop as the main prize, with the smaller prizes between the layers of newspaper being sweets, balloons, colourful erasers, a funny pencil and a bookmark. I used the copy of the Times that my mum had brought with her as the wrapping paper. The date of the paper was Thursday 28th March, the day she arrived.

Nguyet's lilies

I also had a nice message from Nguyet to follow up our meeting in Hanoi. She sent me some photos of the lilies my mum had bought for her, which had opened up beautifully. "Our feeling is as pure as these white flowers," she wrote.

I have begun to make some plans to keep myself occupied over the following days. Tomorrow morning I may be going to the countryside to meet a businesswoman who has done a lot to help poor people in Vietnam over the past three decades, to interview her. I was helped in making this arrangement by Jessica's friend Yeannifer, who is staying at the house with us at the moment.