Webspace of Amanda, Joris and Annabelle

Monday the 2nd of April started as any other day for the past few weeks. It was difficult to get up but in principle we slept well. We thougth we were tired Amanda did feel a bit of a different and wanted to go for an other check for the hospital. Joris wanted to call first since last week Thursday we already went to the hospital to return after a few hours checking.

 

At 9am we went slowly to the hospital. Once we arrived at around 10am we were told to go to the monitoring room. Arriving there the mid-wife wanted to hook up the monitor but once she checked the dilatation: already 5 cm! We were directly taken to the delivery room. Amanda had to changed her clothes, the epidural was set and she was hooked on all kind of monitoring instruments.

 

From 10am to 13pm things went very fast. At 13pm the dilatation was already 9cm. The mid-wife was getting a bit nerveous since they had also 2 Ceasarean sections planned for the afternoon but the natural birth of Amanda would get priority.

 

Then from 13pm untill 16pm not much happened though. We listen to music. Chatted on the internet and Amanda tried to sleep a bit. Once at 16pm the Doctor realized not much had happened he indicated that if by 16:30 nothing had happened he would have to do Ceasarean since it was taking too long. This was quite a shock: all had gone so well and now he wanted to start cutting.

 

The mid-wife encouraged Amanda to push and put all her energy in it. When the doctor came back at 16:30 indeed the 10 cm had been reached: "okay...I go change now". With in 4 minutes of pushing Annabelle Lucetta van Etten was born!

 

16:38; 3480 gram; 51 cm....lots of hair....10 fingers; 10 toes....

 

Both mother and baby are doing well but tired....

 

We are amazed by the wonder of birth and having a wonderful daugther like Annabelle.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A passionate debate was taking place in the Programme Office this afternoon: “Where should the Christmas tree be placed?”. A small group was fiercely defending the opinion that the tree should be place in the room where most of our colleagues are sitting. An other group indicated that this would deprive those not having their desk in this room from the delights of the tree. Finally a consensus was reached on putting up the tree on neutral territory: the corridor.

The interesting aspect of this little discussion was not really that the placement of the tree was discussed, but that there was no question about whether there should be tree at all. In a country where less then 7% of the people have a Christian religion (and more then 80% have no religion) it is just amazing how many Christmas decorations you see when you go around Vietnam. The 25^th of December is not even a public holiday but everywhere you go, you are reminded that Christmas is around the corner.

 As Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) tops the bill in terms of decadency in this country, it is also the shining example of overwhelming Christmas decorations. In the central district of the city all shops, irrespective of whether they sell spectacles or motorbikes, have some kind of reminder of the Christmas season. The amount of decoration might vary from a few simple Christmas lights to complete snowy landscapes but one doesn’t have to look far to see that Christmas is a huge deal in this city. The luxurious hotels all try to compete for the fanciest Christmas decoration and present huge displays complete with full-sized candy houses and a sled pulled by deer and Santa in the driving seat.

 The Christmas decorations brings out a very basic characteristics of the Vietnamese: pragmatism and the ability to combine, at first sight, conflicting, beliefs and systems.  There is no problem  to go to Church; a Temple and a Pagoda all in the same day. There is no problem to combine Communism with Capitalism.

One day before Christmas, the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee will open an exhibit around the Cathedral with wonderful lit displays causing a beautiful grid-lock of motorbikes with adults and children wearing red Santa heads. A continues twinkling of camera flashes adds to the magic of hot-Christmas nights in central Saigon.

 Just a few years ago, Christmas was a no-go event for most Vietnamese. Being Catholic or Protestant meant that you would not be able to join the Communist Party and as such would not be able to enter into a large number of professions. With increased opening up of the country and an economic growth which has reached 8.5%, there is no way of stopping the Christmas madness now. Although not (yet) officially recognized as such by the government it can be expected that next year even bigger and fancier displays will be prepared and even more motorbikes with little red heads will line the streets.

Santa has been banned from Vietnam for quite some years, but he now is back in full force. The Vietnamese are welcoming him with open arms.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a very prosperous 2007!

Sad Puppy

Last night we went to visit a friend of ours to have a coffee and meet with his partner and new-born son who had just arrived from France. He lives in the same district as we do but since we were a bit tired we took the car. I parked near the entrance of the street where our friend stays. The street itself is just a small alley-way which would not accommodate our vehicle.

Around 22:00 hrs, we returned to the car to find that both mirrors-covers had disappeared. Without its masculine mirrors, the car looked like a sad little puppy. The covers of the mirror had been forcefully removed while the inside mechanisms of the mirror were hanging down from the side of the car.

Nothing else was gone or damaged though. Even the little symbol of high-quality German engineering was still shining brightly on the hood. After a little search we even found the left-side mirror laying on the ground still in perfect condition.

 Ahhh...big problem

The next morning when I came down and left for work Thanh, our driver, was very surprised and even a bit angry with me: “What happened? Why you didn’t park the car in a safer spot?”. He looked disturbed. Almost like he had a arm or leg torn off himself. He felt ashamed to be driving around in a damaged vehicle and was not in his normal happy mood.

We called the insurance company to ask for approval to get the mirrors fixed. The insurance-guy came to the office: took pictures; wrote a bit in his book and wrote something on the car to identify the damage.  No problem. Everybody happy.

The driver was send off to our Mercedes garage to get the mirrors fixed. A new car mirror for our vehicle was not available though. The spare-parts had to be ordered from Germany and this will take at least 3 weeks. Total costs: 840 USD. While at the garage our driver called me: “Ahh...big problem: the insurance company will not pay for the stolen items such as a mirror. Only if the whole car is stolen they will pay you”.

My mirror?

Thanh, called me just after lunch: “Mr. Joris, I have found your mirror-cover. We can buy it back for 3 million VND (about 200 USD)”. My initial reaction was to call the police and send them to the crooks who had stolen my mirrors. Thanh responded: “If you go with the policy I don’t want to go with you and I don’t think you get your mirror either”.

Our driver had not yet seen our mirror with his own eyes but he was assured it was exactly the same thing. In addition, it was still financially more attractive to deal with these guys then wait for 3 weeks and pay much more.

It turned out that the people who wanted to sell us the mirror back could not actually fix it back on the car. It became a pretty bad deal as we were not assured whether the mechanism could actually be repaired and we had to find somebody who could mount the whole thing back on the vehicle. So rather then going to our initial contact person who had promised us our mirror, we decided to go to the street which is the center of the mirror business in HCMC.

The first shop where we stopped confirmed that they indeed could repair the internal mirror mechanism and re-install the mirror parts we had collected from the crime-scene. Repair: 300.000 VND. So what about the missing mirror? A phone-call was made which lasted less then 10 seconds: “Yes, we can get you your mirror back: 2.5 million”.

Impressed by this efficiency I started to smile. I was imagining a big guy sitting in a hot-warehouse cluttered with mirrors; cigarette hanging from his mouth; covered in a little layer of sweat: the Saigon Mirror Hotline. The Godfather of the Saigon Mirror Mafia. He keeps a list of all mirrors collected and just waits for the call. Probably the same guys who steal the mirrors in the evening, will jump on their motorbikes to deliver the goods back once the victim has made himself know and has expressed his intention to purchase the mirror back.

After some harsh negotiations we came to a price: 2.2 Million (about 140 USD) for our old mirror, fixing everything back on the car and repairing the mechanism. I was quite pleased with the result of the negotiations and smiled. Thanh looked at me disturbed: “Why you smile? That coffee you drink last night is very expensive”. He is right, but at least I had a chance to get acquainted with the Standard Operating Procedures of the Saigon Mirror Mafia.