Last Friday when I went to the office, I was told that a 78 years old grandfather of my Vietnamese colleague had died and we all, the whole unit, about 10 people, shall go to the funeral on Friday morning. Well, I thought, quite an experience, as I had seen the funeral next door some weeks ago. We took a minibus and stopped in a flower shop, where a huge flower decoration was waiting for us. The home of the grandfather was quite close, in Old Quarters of Ha Noi. The funeral had blocked the traffic and took place on the street, under a tent. There was a queue to the tent and where we had to go. We had to kneel down in the front of grandfathers picture, this is how we expressed the consolidations to the relatives. We also bowed to all the relatives, whom we recognised from white rags around the head or white dress. Afterwards we were served tea, and cigarettes.

This all because the Vietnamese respect old people so much. Could any of you imagine going to your colleagues grandfathers funeral just for a sympathy?? Quite interesting, but to be honest, I hope not many relatives of my unit members will not die during next 2 years… I was told that the office rule is that we go to funeral of family members, which means her your closest family (sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers…) and the next generation, including the parents in law also…

Luckily there was a happier party yesterday, my Finnish colleague celebrated her birthday, and we had a nice Finnish-British get together in her house which is in the neighbourhood. And afterwards a family from our hometown, living her since 1998 and even before that, came to visit us. So we could continue talking how many common friends we have in Kajaani! Quite many, more and more every time we meet.

I think Toivo will creep next week instead of crawling (I hope I got the terms right, had to check them from www.ilmainensanakirja.fi). Those who are more aware with terms which come to development of babies, please correct.

Well, we have also found out that there is absolutely no social security in this country which surprises us because this is still a Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. So sometimes I wonder why this is called SocialistRepublic any more if individuals are left on their own when they would most need support. Luckily the family community is strong but if you do not have money, there is not much to do. So the ideology is not clear to me yet.

Time to go to sleep…Have a nice week, we too. And keep in touch.