Number 6

I've been numbering the posts rather then coming up with cutesy titles. Too much effort to be creative every day. My new favorite newspaper is the Bangkok Post. They have great headlines like "Dentist Extracted From Lawsuit" and a feature where people write in about old wive's tales and a doctor responds to them. My favorite today was if a Chinese woman uses a serving spoon to eat when she is pregnant her baby will be ugly. The doctor's answer was that he did not believe there was any scientific evidence to substantiate that claim.

OK, today I met with Bruce for a couple hours to discuss what exactly I will do in Vietnam. The daunting nature of what I thought it involved went fairly quickly to overwhelming. If I can truly accomplish even half of what he wants I'll be really impressed. But that's why I get the big money...

It seems I'll be developing policies for opening a clinic, training the professors to run it, the students to participate in it, come up with policy statements on things like conflict of interest, interviewing, supervision of students, case selection, file management, time management recording, confidentiality issues as well as drafting all the forms needed to run the clinic. We had been promised a room to set the office up in, but that may or may not be available. Basically there's a completely clean slate and I'm supposed to fill it in a little under three weeks. I also have to deal with the Dean of the Law School, the faculty, local attorneys and a number of NGO's in Hanoi. And the people who have been there keep telling me how jealous they are that they can't go.

I've been reading more here then I've read in years. Mark, who is working with the Law Clinic here at Chiang Mai University has given me a bunch of documents that he did for them so I'm trying to modify them to reflect the legal and cultural differences in Vietnam. I'm learning Power Point as I need to know how to modify his and ultimately make my own to use in Vietnam. I finished redoing all the drafts I had done where I used words that were too big or too esoteric for translation. I found that if I pretended I was writing for my PD clients I could do it. I'm not complaining at all just explaining.

Every day I teach Moon a new English word. She wants them to be "fat" words which means long words. Yesterday I gave her cornucopia and today was facilitate. I also taught her to call Bruce a putz which she did at their meeting and just about made him wet his pants. Wendy often asks the different Thai employees if they're working hard so I taught them to answer her with "hardly working". The good thing is not only do Wendy and Bruce not mind the fun and teasing but they seem to relish it when the Thai's join in.

Saskia (one of the young teachers) is leaving tomorrow morning to return to Singapore so we went out for a farewell party. We went to a place on the River Ping, which goes through town. You board a long boat which holds enough tables for about 40 people and is essentially a restaurant. It's actually docked at a bar/restaurant and you sit at a table and order. They bring the food and when you're done eating you take an amazing trip down river and back through the lit up river front. We had about 8 different Thai dishes all of which were really good. Appetizers, salad, soup and the ubiquitous bottled water. Wendy brought a couple bottles of wine. There were 12 of us plus an American named Kim, who lives in Chiang Mai and has helped BABSEA out, and his Thai girlfriend. They were both really nice and friendly and seemed to know everyone.

When we got back to the dock some of the people went back to the house and the rest of us went to a jazz club. There were two Thai guys playing acoustic guitar and singing American songs. They were playing Layla as we walked in, transitioned to a little Neil Young and played a number of recognizable songs. After awhile the old folks took a tuktuk (three wheeled motorcycle with seats for 3-4) back to the house. On the way I got to see the Night market all lit up, the old city with it's moat and huge old temples, and a long stretch of the river front from street level. This is a really nice city. The more I see the more I like.

Tomorrow, Mark, Justin and I are going in the morning to Doi Suthep, the big famous temple up on the mountain that you can see from miles away. I'll take my camera. Then it's more reading...