We made it from Laos to Hanoi late yesterday afternoon. The lady at the front desk at the Hilton recognized me and we were quickly ushered up to the executive floor. They treat us like royalty here although we're staying on HHonors points. We walked 4-5 blocks to a restaurant I have a frequent diner card for. If someone would've told me that there would ever be a time in my life I would be comfortable in Hanoi there would've been a strong argument...but now Hanoi is in our comfort zone. Dr. Duc Nguyen, a geriatrician friend, has written a book called Caring For the Elderly in Vietnamese. He called from Texas to let me know someone would be bringing me some copies for meetings we are having with government officials today, and he gave me the guy's phone number so I could contact him. Assuming he knew English, I called...we had a most interesting non-communicative phone call, but fortunately the guy at the Executive Desk at the Hilton bailed me out by calling him back. The books arrived just as we got back from dinner. I awakened in tears thinking about the plight of people in general in Laos. This poor country has needs everywhere. We went to a training center for women where they were sewing on the manual foot pedal machines like my grandmother had. People in the rural areas are especially isolated. Everywhere we went we were asked for help. We will assimilate our visit and consult with some others to develop a plan for our next visit. The 54 hours we were in the country were really not enough...but we were made to feel very welcome and we were given access to surprisingly high ranking officials. Dr. Intong and Sensack (Tui) did an especially good job of making sure things went smoothly and that we ate extremely well. How many of you have eaten fish from the Mekong River?
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