First day on the job

March 26, 2008
First day in Vietnam and I am on my own. Eric has suggested that I come to the hospital for lunch or afternoon if I can rest up some. So that was the plan. I changed some money; $100 is equal too 15,000,000 dung. The calculation of what something is worth is a little tough for me now but a 1,000,000 dong is about 6 bucks.
The hotel used to be called Hanoi Towers before Somerset. The strange thing is that before that it was the notorious “Hanoi Hilton” where prisoners of war were kept. This place had been a prison for over 100 years ago and the French built it originally. The French imprisoned Vietnamese and tortured them until they left about 1960. Of course the Americans have strong feelings about this place too. They have torn down most of the prison to put up this modern hotel/retail complex; but there is a small museum. I have not gone in yet; but did take some pictures of the outside. There was a busload of Americans coming to visit and also many Vietnamese bring gifts of flowers and incense.

I had breakfast here and the waiter tried to help me with my Vietnamese. Everyone is so friendly. I have had trouble with Taxi drivers. This time I was supposed to go to K2 which is one of two campuses of the National Cancer Center. This is located south of Hanoi. The taxi driver called the doctor there for directions. He drove me quite a-ways and then he stopped at what was clearly a hospital. I got out and he left and when I went in they indicated that where I wanted to go was about another kilometer down the road. I walked and found my way to what looked to be the end of the alley and then went in. I found Dr Eric and the doctors doing the fellowship, and they showed me around. See the pictures and you will notice that it is mostly open air. Rooms crowded with beds and 2 people to a bed. Sometimes families were staying in the courtyard.

I had lunch in a little restaurant right there with the other staff and I got a couple of great pictures of that.
People are very impressed that I know any words of Vietnamese and pleased and I can understand a few words of what people say. They had already spent the morning on rounds and in the afternoon there was a lecture and introductions and then a case to present. I had a great time with the discussion and people are very interested. It is interesting and sad about what they have and don’t have. They have a Cobalt machine for radiation and said that they are going to get a linear accelerator. However, the electricity was out from the time I got there till about 4PM. On the other hand they did run out of some TB drugs that they needed for a patient at the other hospital.
I will post some of the pictures on line for you all to check out.