Closing chapters
Posted: November 26, 2006 Filed under: koto | Tags: bavi, bikes, fundraising, Hanoi, koto, koto bike ride 1 Comment »
Like I’ve said before it’s starting to feel more and more like the end of the film.</p> <p>The old <a href=” alt=”" />KOTO at 61 Van Mieu is no more. The new KOTO at 59 Van Mieu, the focus of our work for over the past two years is days away from opening.
Last week I wandered around the old place. Anything of any value had been removed. Only the shell remained. The memories I have of that place are tremendous. Multiplay that by 200 KOTO trainess, 100 or so more staff and volunteers and thousands of customers. That place has touched so many lives.
Then I looked around the new KOTO. It was only just starting to look like a restaurant. There wasn’t that much to see but day by day it’s taking shape. You can already see that the roof terrace is going to be a big favourite. Overlooking the Temple of Literature I can see it being perfect for private parties.
Elsewhere a bar area gives KOTO a night feel that it’s previous version didn’t have. The new place will still have the day time coffee bar friendliness with a little evening sophistication thrown in.
In the end though it wasn’t ready for the KOTO bike ride. That was yesterday. The date of the after ride party will be scheduled as soon as the restaurant is ready.
As ever I nearly bust a gut over organising the bike ride but it was a great day. Going back over the photos and uploading them I noticed all the smiles of the entrants. This year we had double the turn out for last year and somehow it went off like clockwork. Largely thanks to the excellence of my colleagues particularly the Miss Oanh and Mr Huy who were just awesome once more.
I’m very happy it went to well. I have to admit I am even happier that next year’s event will have someone else organising it. I am tempted though to come back to Vietnam to take part as a punter. We’ll see.
All the bike ride pics are here. In addition, bloggers here and here are already writing it up and saying nice things. Thank you good people.
Next week is already shaping up. My final two days work should see me doing reports for my employer and for VSO but there’s no time. I’ve promised a newsletter and some website news updates before I go. Then over my Christmas break I’ll forward my final KOTO reports and suggestions back to Vietnam from the UK.
On Tuesday KOTO is doing me proud with a leaving do – fruit and pop with the trainees then beers and food with the staff. It’s only two more days and yet I still can’t imagine saying goodbye.
In the meantime, today was my first day in weeks when I had no responsibility and nothing to worry about. I’ve strolled very contendly around a curiously still-warm Hanoi.
My third and final bike ride done. The new KOTO restaurant all but completed There’s only a couple of pages left in this final chapter.
* Pics are all from the 5th annual KOTO bike ride – more here.
the big finish
Posted: November 12, 2006 Filed under: koto | Tags: fundraising, koto, koto bike ride, leaving 3 Comments »
If this was Our Man in Hanoi – The Movie we’d just be gearing up for the big finish.
Brad Pitt, because who else would play me? Would be strung out and nicotine deficient as he buzzed around the city on a xe om, battling the forces of darkness in order to save KOTO.
Okay so there’s no forces of darkness, and I’m no Brad Pitt but you get the gist.
This is the plot to date: former office worker goes overseas, falls in love with new home, re-evaluates life yadda yadda yadda. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It keeps you on the edge of your seat.
And now. Well in just under two weeks we have the KOTO bike ride. At the same time we are battling to get a new restaurant open.
Add to that, just starting at KOTO, as of two weeks ago, are 30 kids. All are from the toughest of backgrounds. They’re still finding their feet but I think they’re going to be a great class Right now though we’re still at the settling them in phase. It’s a very big, labour intensive job for the teachers.
Oh and I finish at KOTO. For good. In 17 days.
So this is how it’s panning out. As I just said, I finish in 17 days. The bike ride is in 12 days. We’re planning to have the bike ride party in the new restaurant. Will it be ready? Hmmm. That’ll be tight. I extended my stay here to see the restaurant finally opened. Will I see it during my time at KOTO?
Good question.
Because Our Man in Hanoi – The Movie has a big twist. As Brad (ie me) and his colleagues rush around the city righting wrongs etc, there comes over the hill the spectre of….APEC.
Vietnam is very good or very bad at getting events like this organised, depending on your point of view. In short, what they do is they just close everywhere and cancel everything that isn’t directly APEC related. For the most part they seem absolutely petrified that foreign guests might realise that there is just a little bit of traffic chaos here most of the time (really, there is, just a little). So they close the roads. Genius.
And building trucks? You know the kind that, err, builders use. To take away rubble from new restaurants? They’re banned. Delivery trucks, the kind that might say, deliver milk to a restaurant that sells a lot milkshakes and coffee – they can’t get near. And buses, the kind that might bring tour groups – well they aren’t allowed to park on the road outside anymore. Oh and visas aren’t being processed. The visa of the tourists, who sit on buses to restaurants, which park outside restaurants which make coffees and milkshakes.
So it goes on. The twist in the tale of Our Man in Hanoi – The Movie.
But what of the bike ride? It’s going to be big. Huge. Massive. It HAS to be big. We need it to be big because as ever we need the money. New restaurants, now so incredibly close after 25 months work from all the staff here, don’t come cheap.
But if we get that big bike ride and if we finish that restaurant, then those 30 new Class Ten kids are going to be part of something really special. KOTO is on the threshold of the holy grail of NGOs – sustainability AKA a FUTURE. Thanks to a big restaurant that seats lots of people, who pay good money, to eat great food, to pay for the Class Tens, Elevens, Twelves etc etc..
And, if somehow we make something happen out of all the madness above, the movie will draw to a close as Brad (ie me) xe om’s off into the sunset. He’s waved off by hundreds of happy kids spilling out of every door and window of the magnificent new KOTO restaurant. Brad laughs as he turns down a cigarette from the driver and they head for the airport.
THE END
FILMING IS ABOUT TO START ON THE SEQUEL TO OUR MAN IN HANOI – THE MOVIE. TO BE BE CALLED OUR MAN IN ****** IT’LL BE FILMED ENTIRELY ON LOCATION IN *******.
Okay okay, enough messing around. Just sign up to the bike ride. Go on. Come on make it a blinder. I want the happy ending. Do it.
Oh and If you want the hard sell then take a look at the picture above. That’s about two thirds of the kids helped by KOTO since this project started up. Helped is an understatement. KOTO gave them careers. Careers that paid for little brothers and sisters to stay in school. For parents to rebuild homes. For them to find safe places to live. More than that, it paid for them to have a life that wasn’t just about struggle. Something that I remind myself of every time I see them whizzing about on their motorbikes that they paid for themselves through their own hard work.
Click the picture to see the big version. Then read what I just wrote again and apply that to everyone of the kids you can see. How many families is that helped? How many brothers and sisters will be able to finish school? How many of those kids literally wouldn’t be alive without KOTO?
Now go sign up for the bike ride.
