Gecko

As I mentioned in my previous blog about how one thing on my
teams bucket list for Hanoi was to offer to wash dishes at a restaurant for a
day. Little did we know that we would actually end up working at a restaurant
for our whole time in Hanoi!
In the kitchen, in the bar, as waitresses… this is how it all began…

 

A very smiley man welcomed us in and ushered us upstairs.
His name is Phom. He spoke pretty decent english and was very welcoming. I was
actually expecting whoever worked at this place during Tet to be a grump, since
they obviously weren’t celebrating with their family. But it was in fact the
opposite of that – Phom was the happiest waiter I’ve maybe ever had. Another shocker of the day – they served both Vietnamese and American food! Yes please.

Our first day eating at Gecko, we were the only customers in there!

Yes, Gecko was one of the only restaurants open during Tet. And
yes, the food was pretty good.  But what
stood out to us the most was the people who worked there. They are just so special. So my team was definitely all in one accord
about where to offer to help out one day by washing dishes… Gecko!

They were delighted to have us by their sides helping out. Even
just by offering to help, they were so tickled that they sat us down to
complimentary tea. And then they took us upstairs and sat us down for
complimentary lunch. And more lunch. And finally, they stopped feeding us, and
let us get to work alongside them! The Gecko is a small place, so there weren’t
that many dishes to wash. Trang, a waitress and our new friend, told us that
they clean everything in the mornings so there weren’t any windows that needed
washing or toilets that needed scrubbing. After a few minutes of whispering amongst her and another worker, Son, she came to us and said:

I made my way up to the kitchen, Garrett worked as
bartender, and Carrie waited tables. And from that day on, we were
Gecko workers 🙂

 

Meet some of our wonderful new friends:

 

Son is
18 years old and works as the bartender, and for someone who speaks zero
English he communicated very well with us! He would always smile and bob
his head from side to side. It was adorable.  

 

 

This is Son.

 

Trang was never without a smile when she saw us. She’s super funny and full of personality. She spoke pretty good english, so we got to know her pretty well and love who she is. She also lobes photo shoots..

 

Trang smiling for the camera.

 

This is sweet Noom. She is Gecko’s accountant and has such a quiet, peaceful way about her.

 Dom is awesome. She is a waitress here and is also a student at a University. She spoke English really well and was such a friend to us.

I
always worked up in the kitchen with my sweet friends Diep, Di, and Bac Voot. Bac Voot is
the cutest older lady who chops veggies and washes dishes. Di
and Diep are both guys about my age who are the main chefs there. They literally work all day, and spend the nights there during the week. We spent a lot of
time going over English and Vietnamese words, just having fun, as we prepared
food. I was surprised at how quick they let me join in with them up there –
within the first 5 minutes (after offering me food to eat of course), they gave
me some spring rolls to roll on up. Random tasks they would have me do –
decorate dessert plates with chocolate syrup, roll the spring rolls, dry
dishes, chop carrots. I got to know them the best of my gecko friends since I spent the most time with them. Oh yes, I can’t forget to mention that they make a mean apple crumble.

 

 Diep on the far left with two other workers. When it’s slow, they like to play cards.