Well the journey has come to an end. I’ve been home for
about 48 hours and I have to say it feels great to start settling back in. I
haven’t pin-pointed what the best part about being back is, whether it’s the
accomplishment and knowing that I did what I set out to do, or the idea that
there really is no place like home and only time will tell. But for now I have
been thoroughly enjoying familiar company, a room to myself, and oh yeah: eggs,
bacon, and orange juice…
The last few days of my trip went by in a flash, partly
because I put some 10,000 miles behind me and partly because the lack of sleep
made me delirious for a large portion of it for sure. After spending the night
in the Bangkok airport and checking in for an early morning flight at 3:30 AM,
I sat with my fingers crossed for two and a half hours before I was given the
last seat on the plane to Bangkok (second time this trip). I ceremoniously
sprinted with haste and joy through the airport to what seemed like the
farthest terminal in the whole place, positioned myself in seat 26B and watched
the Bangkok skyline disappear out of the window. It was at this point that the
end of the trip really started to set in. When you are hanging in the balance
between leaving and staying it really is impossible to prepare yourself to
leave completely. If you do you are setting yourself up for disappointment. So
I learned that if I prepared myself to stay and by chance made a flight, I
would be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed. So as the plane took
off I realized that my time on this adventure was coming to a close.
I started to think about all of the great people that I met
on this trip, weather it was the passerby in transit to and from…
Like Ted from Fairbanks, Alaska- who I shared a hotel with
after we were both marooned in the Tokyo-Narita Airport. Ted was about 28 and a
construction worker in one of the coldest parts of what I call home, and
vacations in Thailand every year to escape the 20 below temperatures.
Or John the movie extra who lives in Manhattan and owns a
condo in Chiang Mai, Thailand. John had to be pushing 65 and was wise beyond
his years if that’s even possible. While sitting in the Bangkok terminal, John
got approached by the gate attendant and told him he might have to have me
carry on a bag for him as he had too many… and at this point we struck up a
conversation for the next 3 hours about everything under the sun: family,
travels, even which movie actors he had worked with were legitimate talents…
(Harrison Ford was number 1).
And Niew, a worker at the hostel that I stayed at in Bangkok..
She showed me the ropes when I looked helplessly lost one morning in the lobby
and was completely responsible for showing me the cultural side of the city, as
I somehow landed in the highly developed area of Siam Square- the mecca of
malls. Hell, she even got me to try a blood clot in one of the thai soups that
we had at an outdoor market. Bangkok wouldn’t have been the same without her
help.
And then there are all of the amazing people that I met
during my time Volunteering in Ho Chi Minh…
Matt, Kev, and Andrew. My roommates, and what I consider to
be some close friends. I was unbelievably lucky to have shared a room with
these lads over the past 29 days, and I hope its only the beginning of great
things to come. I would put them up in a hearbeat back home, so if you’re
reading this consider it my personal invitation to visit me in the states. I
know they would all say likewise.
The girls of peacehouse 3. In a lot of ways, all of them
were what made my time there the most memorable… Girls have a certain way of
creating plans that guys don’t, everyone knows what I’m talking about.. And
without all of them who knows, I may have spent 4 weekends and countless nights
at Peacehouse 3 -not necessarily a bad thing- but instead I realize all that I
saw because I didn’t. I had a genuine sense of guardianship for all of them
whenever we would go out on the town, or take our trips, and I think it’s
because for 29 days they were all kind of like sisters. I didn’t always enjoy
having to share bathrooms with them but hey, you can’t have everything.
The little guys that I taught, especially the orphans from
Tanh Binh. They probably taught me just as much as I taught them, and I wish I
could have packed them in my suitcase.
The local volunteers. They were responsible for teaching me
as much about Vietnam as anything else. Our hour long conversations about
everything from goals and aspirations to Britney Spears and K Pop were
enlightening… Everyone that I came into contact was such a kind, and warm
person and I will never forget all that they showed and did for me.
The VPV staff. I really wasn’t sure what I was getting myself
into when I started my teaching experience and I thanked my lucky stars every
single day that pure happenstance landed me with this great organization. They
didn’t have the most when it came to resources, quite the contrary infact, but
what they did with what they had is nothing short of remarkable. One of the
keys to life I’ve found.
And last but certainly not least Thao. Amazing doesn’t begin
to describe the job that she did. It’s a pretty thankless job and it takes a
pretty special kind of person to do it well. I respect everything about her and
I know that she’ll continue to become even more worldly than she already is.
My initial motivation for going on a trip was to see
somewhere new, but it was without question the people that made this trip
worthwhile…
Throughout this process its often hard to measure the impact
that you’ve made on these peoples lives, both educationally and otherwise.
There were times where I would return to class at the start of the week and
find that my little guys at the boys shelter didn’t absorb what we had done last
week, and sometimes that was disappointing when I thought about how much I had
wanted them to succeed. But when I told them that it was my last day and I
wouldn’t be coming back and they physically tried to stop me from leaving I
knew it was much more than just grammar and vocab that I was doing there. I
wasn’t just a teacher to them; I was a moving playground, a source of candy and
stickers, and in a way an older brother for a month. And the local volunteers
which I spent every afternoon with, having conversations and learning from them
just as they learned from me, were no different. The presents they made for me
and the email they wrote me asking if I could continue teaching them even from
my home in America, told me that I wasn’t just a foreigner looking for a way to
see their country, but that I was someone they respected and wished would stay.
This is my last official post from my trip, and I leave it
with a video of some of the highlights from the past 42 days abroad. It’s been
the trip of a lifetime…
Oh the places we go from David Daly on Vimeo.
And with that I say: Good Night Saigon
