Sorry for not updating my blog! There have been so many things happened after my arrival, i.e. the Earthquake in Taiwan cut the internet cable of Vietnam, i have to get used to living in the severely cold weather in Vietnam. It made me sick for a week. I also had to arrange the permission to conduct fieldwork, find the way to access the field and people...
Yeah, I arrived in Hanoi at 11a.m. on the 31/12/2006. As some of you expected, my mother and my uncle received me at the airport with great hugs. We then took a taxi to get home. My big family had been waiting for me there and I was flooded in kisses and hugs. All of my nephews (younger than 4 years old) could not recognize me and made a distance from me. However, in the evening, they all reminisced about me and started to play with me.
After a small snack at 3 p.m, my father and I rode a motorbike to go to my research settings. It was a great feeling to see Hanoi after one and half year away. For me, everything seems to be the same, but the air is more polluted. At my research settings, life still continues although a number of houses have been destroyed. Trucks and lorries traveling at very high frequency makes the area more dusty.
The next day was the New Year's Day, I went to the field and took some photos. I have tried to approach the local people and I now have some contacts already. Some people seemed to be suspicious about me. Fortunately, one day I sat in the kiosk of a head of a quarter. By talking informally with the woman, I found out that here is the house of the head of this quarter. The woman seemed to be friendly with me and I felt that "this would be my key household!" I wanted to exclaim with joy but I tried to calm down, kept the story going on and explored more information about the project. Finally, I met her husband who is the head of the quarter and presented my research project. He agreed with me and promised that he would provide me information and relationships as much as he could. It was GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to cry because I have gained access to the research setting!
See you later!
Hoang Shark!
P.S: I also visited some friends of mine. Joined the wedding of a friend. It was also great! Please see the photo above ;)
