Vietnam...

Vietnam is a country; it’s not just a war. That’s what I learned in my five day stay there. I experienced a rainbow of feelings in this country as I met some great local people, witnessed first hand the effects of war, and tried hard to justify things in my life as poverty stared me in the face yet again.
I had the opportunity to meet a man, Duyen, who has spent some time living the in the United States. In fact, he attended a college in Illinois and finished his business degree in St. Louis at my university. He returned to Vietnam and started his own traveling company. He currently lives in Hanoi with his wife. Together, they invited me to stay with them for two days and I had a truly wonderful time. Duyen showed me around Hanoi on his motorbike, treated me to some of the world’s best street food, shopped with me at a local fair/market, and took me to get a Vietnamese body massage. He was very generous and we shared excellent conversation about the differences between American and Vietnamese culture, as well as how they are both changing. He and his wife were very welcoming and took great care of me. Duyen has a cousin who lives in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon); his name is Tham. I met with him on my second day in Vietnam and he showed me around there, helped be get a plane ticket to visit Duyen, and invited me to stay with him at his condo for the night so that he could take me to the airport in the morning. From his condo, we walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner (I love Vietnamese food), and when we returned to find that the power was out :( I met his girlfriend and her family. I had a great time with both of them and greatly appreciate their generosity in treating me to an amazing experience in their country. They made it very personal and unforgettable. I can only hope to be able to return the favor someday.
I spent the first day in Vietnam, and the morning of the second day, visiting schools for handicapped children. Two of the schools I visited were deaf students and I had a good time interacting with the kids. It was difficult to communicate without knowing sign language, but Vietnamese sign language is a little different from American, regardless. I am still inspired to attempt learning to sign. It is one more way of communicating with people… why not give it a shot? The other places I visited were homes for handicapped children, most of whom are innocent (as most of them were) victims of Agent Orange. I cannot even put into words what it was like to see such a large number of children, lying helplessly and lifelessly in cribs and day beds as a result of a was that happened so many years before their life began. I was very intrigued while studying the Vietnam War in high school and was eager to visit Vietnam because of that. What I found was an eye opening experience that changed my perspective on associated things. Even as a nursing student and as healthcare worker in a hospital for two years, the site of these handicapped children, in the orphanage they live in with a pitiful excuse for care, still got to me. Sometimes, I feel like my experiences in Nursing have guarded me from feeling “normal” feelings at times and that they may have desensitized me to certain aspects of the world. However, Vietnam proved that wrong, but not right away. The idea of the Vietnam War still intrigues me but for very different reasons. Being there, and NOT because of the Vietnamese people, makes me nearly feel ashamed to be an American because of that war. I have developed new opinions and new perspectives. Better than that, and thanks to Tham and Duyen, I was able to see Vietnam as a country, a culture with heart-warming people, and not just a war.
Vietnam was a very personal experience. I was having dinner with a professor on the ship as we were sailing to Hong Kong, and he asked me without knowing about my experiences there, “If you could go back to any of the countries we have been to so far to live there for three months, which one would it be?” I thought for a minute about the fantastic cultural experiences I had in Africa and how emotional I was when we left that port. I thought about how much fun I had in Malaysia just ‘going with the flow’ of things. And I reflected for a minute about Vietnam. If I had to choose a country to live in for three months, I’d pick Vietnam.