I have been visiting Vietnam for the last week.  I love Vietnam, the people are friendly, the food is amazing and anything is possible.  There is a can-do attitude that is totally infectious, people never say no, working a 6 or 7 day week is the norm as are long days but no-one ever seems ‘grumpy’. There is always smiles, jokes and laughter.  Occasionally when you ask for something, they stop and pause but always will figure out a way to get you what you want, its like a mission that must be achieved.

I am sure that life is hard by Western standards, the monthly minimum wage is $145 USD (minimum wage increase 2015) but I don’t see any public display’s of feeling hard done by.  No moody youths strolling the streets in groups, no ‘attitude’ from any-one. In fact the opposite if I pause to long to try and cross a crazy street I get helpful young strangers who drag me across beside them.

I have been visiting the same tailor once or twice a year for the last 4 years. Every time we visit her one bedroom house gets more crowded,  The house converts to a shop during the day something that took me 2 years to realise.  The sofa’s get rearranged for clients to sit in and the tv gets pushed to one side, the one double bed is hidden in a back room next to the bathroom.  Every year another grandchild has been added to the brood and the number of people sitting around the shop waiting to run packages or pick up fabrics increases.  But she is invariably happy and proud of her newest grandchild, showing them off and commiserating with me that I haven’t got any children yet. This visit she advised me to try a new ‘husband’ 😉 😉 she thinks my current one “…while rich might not be working properly!!!!!”  Poor hubby may never recover from that one, he may have to find a new tailor.  They always seem happy, Grandma tailor feels that life is complete, she has abundant grandchildren and a good business.

Yesterday I had a few hours to myself, so I lay next to the pool on the 6^th floor of my hotel. It had one way glass between me and the street and I could observe every-one without them (thank-fully) observing me back!!! Watching the street and the people who were working and living there, I saw two main things; there is a sense of community and every-one had a job to do.

The sense of community was abundantly obvious in the way people interact; they know who their neighbors are and who regularly shows up and works in the neighborhood. They look after each other’s shops when they have to step away or are distracted. They wash their neighbor’s footpath if they are doing their own.  They talk and laugh constantly.

Even the kids have a role to play, when they arrived home / at the business from school they set them selves up with homework and ran errands. One about 7 years was off down the street to the food cart, bought 3x bowls of noodles and carried them all back to the shop on a tray for supper. An older one about 10 was sent off on the pushbike with parcels for delivery.  Every member of the family seemed to have a job, something important to do that contributed towards the smooth running of the family.

I have made a reminder to myself to get to know my neighbors better, I am fortunate that my local community is very open to interactions and over summer there is always opportunity for a chat over the fence while I work in the front garden.  An invite to the street Christmas party is always in the mail-box and a bottle of bubbles is always welcome at either of my next-door neighbors any night of the week.  For me this sense of community extends on-line as I have developed extensive on-line supports and friend groups, these are essential to me because I travel so much.  Like face to face friends they require constant investment and time to maintain that ability to make a 0200 phone call when needed.

A sense of community is what I am going to embrace and build in Antarctica, the 15 of us will have to work to create a community not just a group of work mates and being such a small number it is going to be more difficult then a large group were you can hide or disperse differences. Building the sense of community is going to mean accepting every-one and being mindful of each others needs as the station leader I am going to focus on this and try to build it even before we finally get together and met in mid November.