Day 44- Reflections

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

Day 35- Good Morning Vietnam

I lay sleeping soundly in my plywood bed when I heard the 7:00 alarm start to ring. Time for Kevin to get up. Matt and I have another hour of rest before we roust to start our day and our teaching duties, as has been the routine for the past few weeks… We all have separate school assignments, and Kevin’s daily rustling on the bunk below me typically serves as my 1 hour warning to start my day. As I lay there somewhere between consciousness and the dream which always escapes my memory when I wake, I realized that the alarm had been ringing for some time. No matter, Kevin will get it, probably just needed a few more moments of sleep from our late evening cooking extravaganza last night. It was at this point that the whole bed started to shake. When paired with the audible creek of the steel joints which I have become so accustomed to, there was little to no chance of me sleeping through this. I peered over my outstretched legs, which clearly extend past the end of my bed to look at Matt on the top bunk next to me: still asleep. “Kev, time to get up.” No response... “Kev, time to get u-“ it was at this point that I swung my head over the side of the steel bedframe and my sleepy exterior nowhere resembled the alarm that I felt internally. “Matt, GET UP!” I frantically careened off my bed and onto the tile floor, barely keeping my balance… Matt did the same. We both looked at Kevin for no more than a second, which seemed like an eternity. Kevin lay there wide awake, looking into the abyss…convulsing. As I threw on my shorts and a t shirt and bounded down stairs, sometimes 5 or 6 at a time, the only safeguard against waking up the whole house was the soundless concrete under my feet. I knew Thao would be up, she always went to the market early to buy fruit for the morning breakfast. She would be in the kitchen. Just as I made it to the main landing, the words just flew out of my mouth subconsciously “Kevin needs a paramedic.”

Confused as to what that could mean, she looked at me with a puzzled look on her face. “Um… ambulance, doctor, help…” I said. That one was universal. We ran back up the five flights of stairs together and I hardly noticed the sweat that was now forming on my brow from both the stress and the sudden wave of activity. We found Matt sitting next to Kevin, whose seizing had now slowed to more of a twitch. Unresponsive. Thao had seen all that she needed to evaluate the situation.. “I’m calling emergency” she said as she hustled out of the room. “Get his kit out,” Matt said, and I grabbed for everything that looked remotely like a blood sugar meter and strew it out on my bed. The look on my face had to be the same as the one I had seen so many times in the past four weeks on my students faces: pure bewilderment. Why hadn’t I asked him what to do before? After a moment of struggling with one of the parts, I bent over and pricked his finger. Within a few seconds blood began to rise from the tiny poke. I put it on a strip and fed it into the machine… ‘ERR’. “I’m going to go wake the girls, one of them has to know how to do this”. When we returned Kevin looked more like he was peacefully asleep rather than in a fight against his own body. None of the girls were familiar with how to use a meter. Matt pulled out his IPad and began frantically typing, and I tried to illicit some sort of response from Kevin. “If Thao is calling an ambulance we’re going to have to get him downstairs to get him to the hospital…” said Chess. Made sense. “But what if they can treat him here?” Matt said, looking up from his IPad momentarily. “Yeah, they might just be able to come up here and give him an IV or something…” I said. Sometimes throwing more people at a situation only creates more confusion. Just then Stephanie walked in the room with a can of Pepsi. And sometimes all you need is that extra mind to come up with a solution…

We cracked open the can of Pepsi and stuck a straw in it. We were able to wake Kevin and sit him up. He looked at all of us with the most confusion and helplessness that I have ever seen, but couldn’t bring himself to say anything. “We’re going to have you drink this, ok?” said Chess, “It has sugar in it and it’s going to be good for you”. But as she motioned the can to his lips he turned away. “Wait, don’t do that..” I said, “I remember last time when I talked to Kevin after he told me that he is aware of what’s going on around him but he just can’t do or say anything… Maybe he doesn’t need that…” Just as we were again about to meet at a crossroads of indecision and confusion, I could hear Thao’s voice from below. “David! They are here…” As I ran out of the room to the stairwell I saw two EMT’s and a paramedic, clad in all white carrying a gigantic suitcase. Thank god. After a moment of translation they pulled out a blood sugar meter and took a reading: 1.3. “That’s very low,” Matt said, “according to this website its on a scale of 0-9”. They worked quickly and administered an IV with glucose and saline to Kevin’s outstretched left arm. And as I sat at the bedside, holding the gravity drip I watched one of the most miraculous recoveries I’ve seen. In a matter of moments Kevin went from ghost white and barely able to hold his own head up, to completely conscious and functioning. “Is this really happening, or am I dreaming?” He asked.

“It’s real, how do you feel right now?” I said.

“I’m ok…”

Thankfully Kevin is ok and didn’t have to go to the hospital. They got his blood sugar up to 7.5 after the IV, which is within the 6-9 range that he told me he needs to stay in. Kevin has type 1 diabetes and it turns out that after our late night cooking he took some insulin right before bed which is routine, and went to sleep. The problem was that he took too much and the result was that it broke down the sugars too quickly and he crashed by the time he woke up. I have to say I felt pretty dumb that I didn’t act faster in that situation, and even dumber that I didn’t sit him down and have him properly explain procedure when he crashed a few weeks ago. Lesson learned. Luckily Matt and I were there though, who knows what would have happened had Kevin been alone in the room as per the previous two months before our arrival. Nevertheless I now know how to use a blood sugar meter. What a crazy way to wake up. Good morning Vietnam…

Day 20

What a busy couple of days… It has been a while since my last post but I’m back for updates. Its amazing how the days fly by when you are only teaching 4 hours a day and exploring as much as you can for the rest. I’m starting to get the hang of the whole teaching thing and its nice to feel organized when you walk in the classroom even if its only with games for the kids to play.

Yesterday was a particularly big day here in Saigon. We had class in the morning, where I was teaching at a girls shelter. This was particularly fun because up until that point I had only taught all boys. The girls of this age group were way more advanced than the boys and way better behaved. They were also extremely shy though, probably because im the strangest looking human they have ever seen haha.

After morning class ended Matt and I had a personal tour of a few Saigon gems that are close by our hostel. Firstly we visited a Pho restaurant, which is a native Vietnamese noodle soup- amazingly delicious. The typical Pho is served as noodles, beef and broth with a plate of bean sprouts, kale, and a type of basil which you add and spice up with chilis and chili sauce. I tend to overdo the chili sauce and start sweating every time I have it…

From there Matt wanted to get iced café which we have heard so much about so Thao, (our guide and one of the staff at VPV) took us to one of the coffee shops nearby. According to Thao, while most of us back home go out to bars at night to socialize, the Vietnamese go for coffee- so she was a reliable source for good coffee. I’m not a huge coffee drinker but I was thoroughly impressed by the whole experience. We walked in through a massive set of plain double doors into a small oasis in the middle of the city. Tropical trees, a waterfall, a stream you have to hop across on rocks just to get to the tables. And the coffee was equally as well crafted.

The afternoon lesson was a group of university students who wanted to practice their interviewing skills. And even though they struggled mightily with it all it made me happy that I knew they were improving. Within a two hour period I knew they were better prepared than many of their classmates, and within a couple of weeks, hopefully they will be ready to apply for jobs in their fields of study.

Yesterday was Andy’s last day and so we had a big night out on the town with the whole group. It was great to get the whole crew together for a night. I’ve gotten really close with the 14 of us that are still here and I’m sad to see Andy go. This weekend we booked a tour of the Chu Chi Tunnels, which are to the North of Saigon. The chu chi region has a network of miles and miles of underground tunnels that were used by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam war. I’m looking forward to crawling though some history tomorrow…

Day 16- First Day of Teaching

I feel like I finally started what I came here to do. Today was my first chance to teach English to anyone and it feels nice to actually do something philanthropic… So much of what I have done in the past 16 days has completely revolved around what I want- what I want to do, see, experience. Its nice to have such freedom, but I’ve come to realize that without a purpose in our lives (though to this point it has been experiencing all that I can) the sense of accomplishment seems to fade away. I’ve done so much in the past couple of weeks but I guess I don’t like everything being so egocentric all of the time. Today that changed completely.

We officially started our teaching duties this morning and it was awesome. One thing that I didn’t realize is that English tutoring was also available to anyone who sought it out, regardless of age or level. This afternoon a group of older kids (calling them kids feels a bit weird since they were 19, 20 and 23) came to the Peace House for 2 and a half hours for a lesson. It makes sense that you could get English lessons at any age… The lessons are really open format which is hard because there is no structure whatsoever, and on top of that you have no idea how much English any of them actually know. We played a few get to know you games really just learned about one another for the first 30 minutes. I found out Thao and Phoun were both at university and lived with their parents. They were both studying some form of business- Thao studies marketing and commerce and Phoung, real estate. Its great because with my own background in business I think I was able to give them some good business practice. Hung was no longer in school but was preparing for interviews which if passed, would allow him to go on to flight school and become a pilot.

I found it pretty inspiring that those three had such big dreams and were really tackling them head on by studying English in their free time… It was honestly fun to talk to them. I thought that Phoung knew little to no English, but it turns out was just extremely shy and didn’t like speaking in front of the group because she was self conscious. Makes sense. So when the lesson devolved from structured practice to just conversation (which is extremely useful because just putting them in a social setting where they are forced to use English with someone who has lots of practice, is a great way to learn) I had a great talk with her about everything under the sun. Food, music, movies, sports, school… I feel like I know her so well. We used spare sheets of paper to draw pictures or just pantomime clues to each other until we were on the same page. And it was pretty fun to teach her about my home and learn about hers. Im going to really enjoy teaching here.

After the lesson concluded and we scarfed down some pork, steamed rice and some sort of omelet thing. The crew hit the streets for a night time walk and we bought an extensive collection of bootlegged dvds… 75 cents a piece. Down time is pretty necessary here and we are all looking forward to sharing our favorite movies with each other…

Day 13- Teaching 101

Almost 2 weeks away from home in strange places and it seems more like 2 months.. My theory is that the days have been so jam packed that they seem 2 maybe 3 times longer than they would normally. I think back to my time in japan and it seems like forever ago. There are a few things that I miss from back home, there aren’t many times that I find myself wishing for something that I’m used to but occasionally I do. I think the biggest thing believe it or not has been American breakfasts. Go ahead and laugh, I do. It sounds absurd to say but its true, I miss eggs and hash browns and a tall glass of orange juice. Here they have orange juice but its more like orange flavored water and its definitely not the same. The best parallel I can make is if someone who loves chocolate milk to crack open a yoohoo. Its just not chocolate milk. Here the breakfasts consist of a large loaf of bread, butter which looks more like the color of mustard, and vegemite (must be the aussies). There is also usually some fruit to go along like today was dragon fruit which looks like its straight out of the movie Avatar. But since I know I cant have the bread, ive been sticking to peanut butter on whatever fruit is there and a big bottle of water. I’m hungry 20 minutes later…

It makes for a long mid morning before the lunch break but today was an exception. The whole group of us went down to District 8 to visit one of the schools that VPV sends volunteers to. I didn’t really know what to expect but my thought was that we would sit and observe a class and just familiarize ourselves with the Vietnamese education system. As soon as we walked in the door we were swarmed by a group of 15 to 20 little Vietnamese boys. It didn’t take long before they were crawling all over me and seeing how many I could carry, or touching the girls hair and challenging all of us to thumb wrestling contests. They were the most outgoing people I’ve met yet on this trip. I half expected them to be reserved and unsure of us Westerners and our foreign dress, look and behavior…but they weren’t at all. They taught us today, not the other way around. We ended up playing a bunch of games with the kids for in total about 2 hours and it was pretty eye opening. They were all boys and roughly 7 or 8 all the way up to 15, with varying levels of English but surprisingly all could carry a broken conversation with us. I had a nice long talk with Hoang who was 10 and he asked me why I was so big, I told him because I ate little boys like him and he just laughed and said that wasn’t allowed. Towards the end of the session we all got laminated bookmarks as a gift from the kids. Each one had a picture on it that was drawn by one of them and coincidentally I got one drawn by Hoang. He was actually a much better artist than I am and I asked him and he said he loves to draw. All of the kids sleep in the same room that we were sitting in. It couldn’t be more than 30 feet by 10 feet. I haven’t really understood under what circumstances they came to the school, or as they call it- Peace Home- but I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time with these little guys.

It was hard to get much more exciting than the morning… after lunch we had a lesson on how teaching/schools work in Vietnam. It was a pretty basic lesson on how best to go about instructing a class and the jist of it was tons of repetition. Using very basic ideas and beating them to death with different vocabulary and different pictures to really drive home the point. We will each be paired with a different volunteer everyday and put in different classrooms as well with the idea being that the more exposure that each of the kids can get to different instructors the better.

Tomorrow morning we leave early for the Mekong Delta where Andrew, Matt and I will be staying for the next couple of days. The bus ride is only 3 hours and we have a boat tour, floating village, and some pretty awesome habitat to see so we are all excited. There will be lots of pictures im sure, which have been lacking the past couple of days. I wont have access to a computer however, so see you all in two days time…

Day 12- Ho Chi Minh City: The “State of South Vietnam”

Today was ‘heavy’ as Matt put it. Lots of walking, touring and exploring. Some of us also woke up a bit ‘dusty’ from the night before, but with all there was to do, once we stepped out the door we pretty much didn’t notice it. A group of the local staff took the 19 of us + 4 or 5 of the orphanage volunteers out and about to acquaint us with the city. We were a giant herd of foreigners roaming the streets.. not inconspicuous at all. Our first stop was the War Memorial Museum which was extremely interesting and somewhat sad. The museum held a very strong anti-American sentiment which is understandable, and it was pretty intense. There were several exhibits that really made you cringe.. the war prison exhibit and the agent orange exhibit had some graphic photos and some really horrible stories to them.. And being one of only two Americans in a group of about 30 it was tough to own what our culture did to the Vietnamese culture during that time period, regardless of the motives or rationale. I know none of the staff or other volunteers thought anything about Sarah (who is from Baltimore and just graduated from the University of Maryland and is headed back for their med school program) or I but it was still an interesting feeling. And I did get a few questions from people about the war and all I could do was answer them the best I could.

After the War Memorial Museum went to the post office and the Royal Palace which is where the King of South Vietnam lived until 1976. The palace was huge and lavish in its own kind of outdated way. Then we went to a couple of markets which the boys essentially sat and had a pineapple smoothie and ate strange fruits (stay away from the derrien, it tastes just like it smells) while the girls shopped for fake handbags and failed miserably at bartering.

Now we are back at home base and winding down for the night. Tomorrow we’re heading to the schools to observe some of the classrooms, and this weekend a group of us are going to explore the Mekong Delta. I’ve gotten to know almost all of the other volunteers on some level and its pretty cool to hear their back stories. Some have traveled a lot, some not at all. Each story is unique and it makes you realize how big the world is. Im already starting to dislike the Aussie accent though… foreseeable challenge number 4…