Photos- more doors etc
Back to Hanoi again for the final volunteer pilot seminar at the university. Halleluya, halleluya. The bouncing, English evangelical out of time melody emanating from Hanoi cathedral is a reminder of the emotional skittering and adjustments to be made on our return to England. The plastic stools for the Vietnamese congregation spill out in the form of a cross on the cathedral forecourt. On the steps a young woman with a massive facial growth is begging.
The meeting at Hanoi University is well attended; two experts in the field have travelled far to be here and the thoughtfulness marshalled by the Western and Vietnam lecturers is impressive. At the conclusion we all have homework to do but this is the precursor of packing up and leaving. My writing is limping. I am a tourist again. My plans for returning to this beautiful country straggle uncertainly. My aged mother is unwell and needing care. The rearranging of our family Christmas acquires a tideflow; the Hanoi street sellers, the giant repeat illuminated hammer and sickles suspended above the shop stores, the friendships here, thinning tributaries.