Roll with it.

I’m quickly learning that despite one’s best efforts, there’s a lot you simply can’t control here in Vietnam.  Just when you think you’ve worked things out (work, life, what you’re eating…) a curve ball flies in and changes the state of play. The thing is, there’s no point in trying to maintain control – you’ll only end up furious, frustrated or in a flap. And most importantly, you might end up missing the best this crazy country has to offer.

So, to help calm my controlling tendencies, I’m trying out a new motto. Not original, not complex, but helpful. “Just roll with it.”

“Just roll with it” got a good test run on my field trip last week. I rolled with it when I found out the beef I was devouring for lunch was horse. I rolled with it when I realised my hotel mattress was infact a plank of wood (although I was careful not to roll over). And I rolled with it when asked to sing a traditional Australian song to a group of Tay ethnic minority people at livelihoods workshop (see below for the warm response to a horrid rendition of ‘Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree’).

"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree"
- a hit in any culture.

Although I think best practice at rolling with it came on the first day of the field trip.

Up at 6am, ready to travel to the village for my first interview around 9am. Have been running through the questions with the translator all night. Dictaphone is charged. Culturally sensitive clothes are on. It’s on! That is until my colleague declares at breakfast that it’s off. No village visit, I’m going to a workshop delivered entirely in Vietnamese instead.

Roll with it.

Lunch is finished and there’s a change of plans. Get the translator, get the driver – you’re off to the village. It’s on! Stop to see the good people at the office of the ‘local authorities’ (commonly known as a word that starts with ‘c’ and rhymes with ‘pommies’) for their permission to visit the village. You guessed it – it’s off. Nope, hold that thought – take three of the bored cronies from the office with you – and it’s on! So into the car we pile - the driver, the translator, the three cronie kids and me - off for to the village for the interviews I'm so desperate to get.

It’s three incredible interviews and a million photos later, and I’m finishing up the last interview when a commotion breaks out between the travelling party. Before I know it we’re being rounded up into the car, and my 22 year old translator, Thahn, has no idea what's going on as we fly off at a million miles an hour into the sunset.

Roll with it, roll with it, roll with it.

Finally we stop. We're ushered out of the car and across a field to a small mud brick house - and we still have no idea what's going on. Inside the house the reason for the rush becomes apparent.... exotic birds. Of course! Turns out the cronies' mate sells the best exotic birds in town - and we have a driver who has a penchant for said exotic birds. Ha! Thank you driver for your effective use of our paid time.

For the record – those mockin’ birds wouldn't sing, so the driver declined to purchase them – which brought him frightfully close to blows with the proud bird seller. They obviously didn’t know how to roll with it.

All eyes on the prize.

Only problem, that mockin' bird wont sing...