“…In truth, grief is a great teacher, when it sends us back to serve and bless the living. Thus, even when they are gone, they are with us… We remember them now, they live in our hearts; they are an abiding blessing.” - Gates of Prayer, The New Union Prayer Book
I’ve been home from Vietnam two-and-a-half weeks. I expected that by now I would have had ample time to reflect on the trip, gather my thoughts and write some terrific final chapter to the Kindergarten story. But the truth is I’m still steeping in the experience, still putting my thoughts together, and finally realizing that the Kindergarten is just one chapter in a bigger story.
My journey to Vietnam started with the loss of a brother nearly forty years ago; my involvement with PeaceTrees and the Vietnamese people will, I hope, continue for many years to come. I love the fact that something rooted in sorrow has now spread its branches in joy, and am reminded of a quote by John Welwood: "…the heart cannot actually break, it can only break open. When we feel both our love for this world and the pain of this world—together, at the same time—the heart breaks out of its shell. To live with an open heart is to experience life full-strength." This trip was filled with moments of open-hearted, full-strength wonder.
The images that stay with me are a patchwork of contrasts: shimmering emerald rice paddies and the jumbled concrete buildings of roadside towns; a profusion of butterflies and streets buzzing with motor scooters; older faces lined with stories and younger faces shining with possibilities. Over and over I saw juxtapositions of rural traditions and urban commercialism, old and new, east and west. But the images that remain most vivid – the ones I see when I close my eyes – are those of children. They are images of eager eyes, shy smiles, laughter, curiosity, delight, and hope.
And then there’s the David Warner Kindergarten. Being in A Xing, being able to see the results of so many people’s gifts and efforts, was both humbling and exhilarating. I wish everyone who was part of the project – donors, supporters, encouragers – could have been there to share in the celebration. For me, the school represents a timeless community of family and friends. It is peacemaking at the most basic level. It is tangible compassion. To all those who made it possible: my deepest, heartfelt thanks.
So… now what? The trip is over, but the work is not. There is more to do at the David Warner Kindergarten. The kitchen has been built, but the school needs funds for food. The fence has been built, but families still need microcredit loans that will create economic growth and self-sufficiency. And as always, there are more people to meet, more trees to plant, more friendships to forge.
I hope everyone who has been involved with the Kindergarten will consider making a PeaceTrees trip, and I hope everyone with an interest in PeaceTrees will let others know about the good work that is being done. I invite you to pass along my blog link and the PeaceTrees URL. The more people who are aware of the needs and opportunities, the more good we can do together.
I’ll still be posting a link to my photo albums, and there may be more stories and updates to share in the future. But for now I turn the page with gratitude, and look forward with hope and anticipation to the next chapter. Thanks, one and all, for an extraordinary and joyful journey.
Love,
Sue
19 April 2007
04 April 2007
And the Food Award Goes to...
By all rights I should have gained ten pounds on this trip. If you've never thought of Vietnam as a dining destination, think again. The cuisine is complex and sophisticated; richly-spiced, but not spicy-hot. It reflects French and Chinese influences, but is distinctively different from either.
In celebration of our most memorable meals, here are my award-winning favorites. I'm ready for an encore any time. The envelope, please...
Best presentation: Prawns poached in young coconut milk, served in a hollowed, husk-encased coconut with a couple of decorative green onion 'straws'.
Best sound effects: the staccato *pop*pop*pop* of moist towelette packages before every restaurant meal. Do like the locals do: squeeze the packet in one hand, smack it with the palm of the other. POP!
Best soup: Pho, of course. Beef. Huge bowls of it, accompanied by fresh basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, and chopped red chili peppers.
Best meal: The feast prepared by Mr. Duc’s wife, Gai, in their tiny Hue home (see “Hue a la Duc” for details). Next time, I want cooking lessons.
Best special effects: A whole fish, battered and deep fried, festooned with some of the scales, served in the upright and swimming position. The waiter used his chopsticks to artfully remove a chunk of the delicate white meat, which was served in a thin rice wrapper with fresh vegetables.
Best supporting garnish: hard-cooked quail eggs, cut in half and arranged in concentric circles with cashews on a meat dish.
Best foreign actor: Baguette – it’s what’s for breakfast. Pack the peanut butter and pass the Laughing Cow cheese.
Best spring roll: The classic Hoi An roll, wrapped in shredded threads of dough and deep fried. It’s the crispiest!
Best performance by a single ingredient: Snake – inside and outside, tip to tail, start to finish. It's a living reptile AND a dinner! It’s an entrée AND a beverage! It’s also skin fritters, and soup, and spring rolls, and stir fry... oh, and let’s wash it down with one of those snake blood shooters. Supper of champions!
Best beverage: The ever-popular café sua nam – drip filter coffee served with copious amounts of sweetened, condensed milk. The runner up in this category is the also-popular Huda brand Very Light Lager Beer. Huda best? You da best!
Best ice cream: Anything but durian fruit. Honest – I thought it was supposed to taste better than it smelled. WHY would people eat something that has the intense odor (and I'm being charitable here) of old laundry? "Gosh, this is foul... let's eat it! No, wait -- let's turn it into ice cream!"
Most exotic fruit: This is a tough category - so many contenders! But the award goes to the dragon fruit. Hot pink on the outside, it has a starkly-white flesh that is peppered with tiny black seeds. It's somewhat flavorless, but when you're that beautiful, who cares?
Best dessert: What? You mean there was dessert?
In celebration of our most memorable meals, here are my award-winning favorites. I'm ready for an encore any time. The envelope, please...
Best presentation: Prawns poached in young coconut milk, served in a hollowed, husk-encased coconut with a couple of decorative green onion 'straws'.
Best sound effects: the staccato *pop*pop*pop* of moist towelette packages before every restaurant meal. Do like the locals do: squeeze the packet in one hand, smack it with the palm of the other. POP!
Best soup: Pho, of course. Beef. Huge bowls of it, accompanied by fresh basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, and chopped red chili peppers.
Best meal: The feast prepared by Mr. Duc’s wife, Gai, in their tiny Hue home (see “Hue a la Duc” for details). Next time, I want cooking lessons.
Best special effects: A whole fish, battered and deep fried, festooned with some of the scales, served in the upright and swimming position. The waiter used his chopsticks to artfully remove a chunk of the delicate white meat, which was served in a thin rice wrapper with fresh vegetables.
Best supporting garnish: hard-cooked quail eggs, cut in half and arranged in concentric circles with cashews on a meat dish.
Best foreign actor: Baguette – it’s what’s for breakfast. Pack the peanut butter and pass the Laughing Cow cheese.
Best spring roll: The classic Hoi An roll, wrapped in shredded threads of dough and deep fried. It’s the crispiest!
Best performance by a single ingredient: Snake – inside and outside, tip to tail, start to finish. It's a living reptile AND a dinner! It’s an entrée AND a beverage! It’s also skin fritters, and soup, and spring rolls, and stir fry... oh, and let’s wash it down with one of those snake blood shooters. Supper of champions!
Best beverage: The ever-popular café sua nam – drip filter coffee served with copious amounts of sweetened, condensed milk. The runner up in this category is the also-popular Huda brand Very Light Lager Beer. Huda best? You da best!
Best ice cream: Anything but durian fruit. Honest – I thought it was supposed to taste better than it smelled. WHY would people eat something that has the intense odor (and I'm being charitable here) of old laundry? "Gosh, this is foul... let's eat it! No, wait -- let's turn it into ice cream!"
Most exotic fruit: This is a tough category - so many contenders! But the award goes to the dragon fruit. Hot pink on the outside, it has a starkly-white flesh that is peppered with tiny black seeds. It's somewhat flavorless, but when you're that beautiful, who cares?
Best dessert: What? You mean there was dessert?
03 April 2007
Hanoi and Homecoming
How strange to wake to frost in the garden this morning, instead of a fog of condensation billowing from a hotel room air conditioner. Add "weather whiplash" to the list of homecoming adjustments -- a list which includes "boy, it's nice not to have to squat," "here's 120,000 dong - keep the change," "please pass the pumpkin vines," and "hey, where are all my wonderful travel buddies?"
It would be unfair to Vietnam if I didn't describe Hanoi. It struck me as a city of contrasts: Chinese and Viet, ancient and modern, reserved and entrepreneurial, contemplative and crazy-busy. Vestiges of colonialism are still found in the cuisine, the French quarter, and the elegance of the Metropole Hotel. And yet this is the city of Ho Chi Minh: his government, his home, and even his preserved body (on display for the public, touched-up annually, with a better-than-Botox complexion).
Hanoi smiles are subtler, shyer, slower than in the south. In a few instances -- usually with older people -- my greetings were met with stares, nothing else. It made me wonder what else those eyes had seen through the years. There were 58,000 U.S. fatalities in the Vietnam War; if we had lost the same percentage of our population as the Vietnamese, that number would have been 10 million. Perhaps the cool formality I observed was merely a cultural difference, but I couldn't help but think that my American face might be a reminder of some long-ago loss.
Our hotel was located in Hanoi's old quarter: narrow streets, tiny storefronts, street vendors, souvenir shops, taxis, tourists, and the ubiquitous motorbikes. As with Saigon, just one false step differentiates a pedestrian from a speed bump. In search of some calm and quiet on our last full day, I went out for an early-morning walk around the small and lovely Hoan Kiem Lake.
Though ringed with commercial buildings and relentless, honking traffic, the lake and its surrounding park provide a small oasis of tranquility. At 6:30 a.m. there were already plenty of locals there, most of them senior citizens, doing tai-chi and playing badminton. My favorite was the little woman in her '80's who was all by herself, smiling widely and dancing at the lake shore. It looked like she was doing a cross between the Charleston and the chicken dance - whatever it was, it made her very happy. Made me happy, too. Would that I could greet each day that joyfully.
Centered and refreshed, I joined up with some fellow travelers to spending the day shopping, dining and touring. This turned out to be a far better option than packing, as a power failure left our rooms swelteringly hot. We visited the Temple of Literature (the lit-lover in me swoons at this concept -- can you imagine such a thing in the U.S.?) and dined at a place with fabulous Vietnamese food called KOTO -- "know one, teach one" -- that trains disadvantaged kids for careers in the catering and hospitality industries. Back to the hotel... still no power, so there was only one solution: ice cream. By the time we licked up the last delicious drips (coffee flavor - I learned the hard way to avoid the exotic fruits) the power was back on and it was time to dress and depart for our farewell dinner. I was privileged to travel with a great group - so many experiences, insights, and stories. The trip has been the richer for sharing it with all of them.
During the next two weeks I'll offer a final few posts. Watch for photos (these ones with captions), some notes on food, plans for future projects, and some closing thoughts after I've had time to reflect on and integrate more of our experiences. Thanks again for being part of my journey.
It would be unfair to Vietnam if I didn't describe Hanoi. It struck me as a city of contrasts: Chinese and Viet, ancient and modern, reserved and entrepreneurial, contemplative and crazy-busy. Vestiges of colonialism are still found in the cuisine, the French quarter, and the elegance of the Metropole Hotel. And yet this is the city of Ho Chi Minh: his government, his home, and even his preserved body (on display for the public, touched-up annually, with a better-than-Botox complexion).
Hanoi smiles are subtler, shyer, slower than in the south. In a few instances -- usually with older people -- my greetings were met with stares, nothing else. It made me wonder what else those eyes had seen through the years. There were 58,000 U.S. fatalities in the Vietnam War; if we had lost the same percentage of our population as the Vietnamese, that number would have been 10 million. Perhaps the cool formality I observed was merely a cultural difference, but I couldn't help but think that my American face might be a reminder of some long-ago loss.
Our hotel was located in Hanoi's old quarter: narrow streets, tiny storefronts, street vendors, souvenir shops, taxis, tourists, and the ubiquitous motorbikes. As with Saigon, just one false step differentiates a pedestrian from a speed bump. In search of some calm and quiet on our last full day, I went out for an early-morning walk around the small and lovely Hoan Kiem Lake.
Though ringed with commercial buildings and relentless, honking traffic, the lake and its surrounding park provide a small oasis of tranquility. At 6:30 a.m. there were already plenty of locals there, most of them senior citizens, doing tai-chi and playing badminton. My favorite was the little woman in her '80's who was all by herself, smiling widely and dancing at the lake shore. It looked like she was doing a cross between the Charleston and the chicken dance - whatever it was, it made her very happy. Made me happy, too. Would that I could greet each day that joyfully.
Centered and refreshed, I joined up with some fellow travelers to spending the day shopping, dining and touring. This turned out to be a far better option than packing, as a power failure left our rooms swelteringly hot. We visited the Temple of Literature (the lit-lover in me swoons at this concept -- can you imagine such a thing in the U.S.?) and dined at a place with fabulous Vietnamese food called KOTO -- "know one, teach one" -- that trains disadvantaged kids for careers in the catering and hospitality industries. Back to the hotel... still no power, so there was only one solution: ice cream. By the time we licked up the last delicious drips (coffee flavor - I learned the hard way to avoid the exotic fruits) the power was back on and it was time to dress and depart for our farewell dinner. I was privileged to travel with a great group - so many experiences, insights, and stories. The trip has been the richer for sharing it with all of them.
During the next two weeks I'll offer a final few posts. Watch for photos (these ones with captions), some notes on food, plans for future projects, and some closing thoughts after I've had time to reflect on and integrate more of our experiences. Thanks again for being part of my journey.
29 March 2007
11,000 Words
Our last day in Vietnam and finally I'm able to post some images from the past two weeks. We depart Hanoi tomorrow morning. Time to pack my bags -- more stories and photos to come once I'm home.
For now, I'll close with the lyrics to a popular Vietnamese children's song:
We come here to meet each other.
Our lives are happy but busy.
You and I live in harmony
Knowing we will see each other again.
For now, I'll close with the lyrics to a popular Vietnamese children's song:
We come here to meet each other.
Our lives are happy but busy.
You and I live in harmony
Knowing we will see each other again.
27 March 2007
Hue à la Duc
Hue is an elegant and vibrant city that has embraced tourism. It's a bit of a jolt after Dong Ha, Land of No Tourists Whatsoever, where we pretty much felt like rock stars (EVERY kid said hello, every group of teenagers stared and giggled, every adult smiled and waved). But while I was concerned that we might not get to scratch below the tourist trade's surface here, I could not have been more mistaken -- thanks to Mr. Duc.
Duc runs a one-man taxi service with a small motorbike - an upgrade from the cyclo bicycle-taxi he used to pedal around the city. Chuck met him several years ago during a visit to Hue and they've been friends ever since. Being friends of Mr. Chuck landed four of us a dinner invitation to Duc's home where we met his lovely family and ate a fantastic home-cooked Vietnamese feast of spring rolls, fish, squid, noodles and home-grown bananas. The meal was made more atmospheric by the muggy-hot weather, the hum of insects and evening bird calls, and by a power outage that left everyone in Duc's village using candlelight. We weren't just a world away - it felt like we'd stepped back in time.
This morning Duc recruited his friends and arranged a countryside motorbike tour for Chuck, Cindy and me. The back of a bike at 30 miles per hour, buzzing down skinny streets and country lanes along the Perfume River, is a perfect way to experience the area. We also got a culture-and-history fix, stopping at tombs of two Nguyen Dynasty emperors set in serene park-like grounds. As we strolled through the temples and ruins, butterflies danced in the trees around us and the air was sweet and heavy with plumeria. It felt alternately like Disneyland and holy ground.
Next we went from the sacred to the mundane to the exquisite: we left the tombs, zipped back to the hotel, stopped for a lunch where I ate my body weight in fried noodles, then lumbered off in a cyclo to visit Hue's best known landmark, the Citadel. Though seriously damaged during the Tet Offensive in 1968, 80 out of 300 structures survived and a number have been restored to their 19th century appearance with elaborate painting, carvings, mosaic designs and tiled roofs.
Tomorrow we depart Hue for Hanoi. We'll see Duc again before we go, and perhaps take another quick spin on the motorbike. (I LIKE motorbikes! Who knew?) I've put together a small photo album for him with pictures from last night's visit. (Yes - I can print them, but I still can't post them. Sorry!) How wonderful it's been to get beyond the surface and to have the privilege of seeing Hue from the inside out. Vive le Duc!
Duc runs a one-man taxi service with a small motorbike - an upgrade from the cyclo bicycle-taxi he used to pedal around the city. Chuck met him several years ago during a visit to Hue and they've been friends ever since. Being friends of Mr. Chuck landed four of us a dinner invitation to Duc's home where we met his lovely family and ate a fantastic home-cooked Vietnamese feast of spring rolls, fish, squid, noodles and home-grown bananas. The meal was made more atmospheric by the muggy-hot weather, the hum of insects and evening bird calls, and by a power outage that left everyone in Duc's village using candlelight. We weren't just a world away - it felt like we'd stepped back in time.
This morning Duc recruited his friends and arranged a countryside motorbike tour for Chuck, Cindy and me. The back of a bike at 30 miles per hour, buzzing down skinny streets and country lanes along the Perfume River, is a perfect way to experience the area. We also got a culture-and-history fix, stopping at tombs of two Nguyen Dynasty emperors set in serene park-like grounds. As we strolled through the temples and ruins, butterflies danced in the trees around us and the air was sweet and heavy with plumeria. It felt alternately like Disneyland and holy ground.
Next we went from the sacred to the mundane to the exquisite: we left the tombs, zipped back to the hotel, stopped for a lunch where I ate my body weight in fried noodles, then lumbered off in a cyclo to visit Hue's best known landmark, the Citadel. Though seriously damaged during the Tet Offensive in 1968, 80 out of 300 structures survived and a number have been restored to their 19th century appearance with elaborate painting, carvings, mosaic designs and tiled roofs.
Tomorrow we depart Hue for Hanoi. We'll see Duc again before we go, and perhaps take another quick spin on the motorbike. (I LIKE motorbikes! Who knew?) I've put together a small photo album for him with pictures from last night's visit. (Yes - I can print them, but I still can't post them. Sorry!) How wonderful it's been to get beyond the surface and to have the privilege of seeing Hue from the inside out. Vive le Duc!
26 March 2007
Gifts
When we visited the landmine awareness training center a few days ago we had the chance to talk with some young UXO victims. They told us a little bit about their experiences - some had been injured when friends played with UXO, others when items accidentally detonated in the hands of scrap-metal-dealing neighbors or family members.
The kids are great friends of PeaceTrees: they volunteer their time to help with land mine risk awareness training, talking with other children about the dangers and consequences of UXO.
With PeaceTrees' help these kids have received medical care and have been able to continue their education. Still, there are outstanding needs.
One young man who'd lost his hand, age fourteen or so, mentioned that he very much wanted a bicycle to get to school; his family was too poor to buy one (the cost is about $50 US). Enter Santa Claus, disguised as fellow-traveler Bruce, a Navy Corpsman here during the war. He talked to the PeaceTrees staff about the bicycle and said to "make it so." They did, and our entire contingent had the fun of being Bruce's elves and delivering the bike to the boy's countryside home two days later. His family has a small farm; they grow cassava, jackfruit and pepper (the spice, not the vegetable). Their little house is nestled in a lush and beautiful garden plot. Pushing the bike up the path to their home we were met with a warm welcome from the boy's mother, and then the young man appeared. He was, I think, a bit overwhelmed, but the moment he jumped on his shiny new bike he was right at ease. It will make his daily two-mile trip to school much quicker, and will also help him fit in more comfortably with the other kids - a problem for disabled children here, as elsewhere.
More kids' wishes will be granted thanks to a gift from my Southminster Presbyterian church family. They sent me on the trip with undesignated funds to use where appropriate.
Another of the UXO victims, Lai, has a mountain of challenges. He lost an arm, both legs and his eyesight to an explosion, and he has been a great advocate and supporter of UXO risk awareness training, especially with local children. Lai is a good student in his late teens, but his career options are limited. Improving his English language skills will open opportunities that can help him become independent. He asked for ideas and assistance for his studies; two of us have teamed up to hire a private English tutor for him for the next year.
The remainder of the "annointed money" is helping with school supplies at the last kindergarten we visited and with food at Compassion House, which will allow them to extend care to another few disabled kids. Thank you, Southminster - your gifts are blessing others.
And now - we're in Hue City. It was hard to say good-bye to Dong Ha. The monuments in Hue may be impressive, but more memorable for me are the monumental hearts, warmth and spirit we encountered over the past week. We went with the intent of giving, but I think we received the greater gift.
24 March 2007
Dong Ha Howdy!
We spent Friday visiting some of PeaceTrees' other local projects, several of which were in the rural farmlands and all of which are geared toward helping individuals or areas impacted by landmines and UXO.
We got our daily adorable-kid fix at another PeaceTrees kindergarten, this one in the countryside 25 minutes' drive from Dong Ha. As with the other schools we'd brought boxes of presents to share. Balloons and soap bubbles were the biggest hits with the kids; Madame Sam, president of the Quang Tri Women's Union, was partial to the balsa wood airplane. She, by the way, is fabulous. Her organization's goal is to bring social and economic development to women and families in the province. She represents a membership of 90,000 women; they partner with PeaceTrees to identify prospective projects. She's the one who recommended A Xing for the Warner Kindergarten.
After the kid fix we went further into the Dong Ha Boon Docks to meet some beneficiaries of PeaceTrees' microcredit lending program. It felt like we were walking into a Heifer Project catalog. PeaceTrees makes loans of about $170 -- more than many peoples' annual income -- to help the extreme poor to become economially self-sufficient. The recipients pay back the loan with minimal interest; the monies go back into the lending fund. The program has been extremely successful, and it's awe-inspiring to see what such a small amount of seed money can do.
The first family we visited was raising water buffalo. The buffalo are very valuable as "tractors" in the watery rice paddies. The family breeds them and sells the calves; they earn additional income through farming their own crops and through a rent-a-buffalo business.
Pigs are sold for meat. The pig owner is a 76-year-old former surgeon who lost fingers to a UXO explosion while serving as a soldier. He explained that their family's two sows each have two litters of about a dozen piglets per year. The piglets sell for roughly a dollar per kilo, enough for a reasonable income. By contrast one of the local women let us lift the two baskets of sweet potato leaves she was carrying to market two kilometers' walk away - the baskets hanging from a stick over her shoulder weighed 70 pounds and will sell for 45 cents. Not an easy living. She laughed as even the men in our group winced and huffed a little trying to lift and carry the load.
While we saw the loan recipients, neighbors poured out of their houses to see us. They don't get many -- any -- tourists. We had a great time visiting. It's amazing what one can do with charades and a digital camera.
Friday afternoon we visited two more PeaceTrees projects: the blind school (serving 37 kids who have lost their sight in UXO explosions or other events) and Compassion House, which is a center for homeless and profoundly disabled children. Agent Orange poisoning is still a reality here, and continues to cause birth defects.
We wrapped up the day with dinner and karaoke. We practiced a group number in the bus that seemed very fitting number after our countryside adventure: the John Denver hit "Take Me Home, Quang Tri Roads."
22 March 2007
Happy Birthday, David!
Today was the kindergarten dedication, and it was fabulous.
We drove Highway 8 to Khe Sanh then continued on small roads another 45 minutes up into the hills. The area is populated by Montagnards, the ethnic minority mountain peoples. Landscape, faces and clothing look different. Homes do, too: instead of the ubiquitous turquoise- or yellow-painted concrete of the lowlands and urban areas, these are usually built on stilts (with storage under the building) and have woven mat walls. A few more affluent structures had wood-planked walls, and occasionally we'd see one with a satellite dish - incongruous, to say the least.
As we got closer to the school we passed through a cloud of yellow butterflies, then - there it was! The little building is just beautiful. They did a great job on construction and painting, the pint-sized chairs and tables are nicely made, and the kids already have posters and artwork on the walls and shelves. The kids themselves are oh-my-gosh-the-cutest-things-I've-ever-seen, ages three to six with bright faces and heart-melting smiles.
An official dedication ceremony was held inside the classroom with the kids, teachers, DoFA and Women's Union representatives, and our PeaceTrees delegation. After the obligatory speeches we listened to songs by the children, then presented the teacher with a CD/cassette player, the keyboard, a box fan (it gets very hot in the summer) and a wall clock for the classroom.
Our delegation concluded the ceremony by singing the "Yellow Butterfly" song in Vietnamese and were met with very bemused looks, whether due to our language skills or the fact that the kids don't speak Vietnamese, I'm not sure. Then the party started: we gave out gifts, helped dress the little ones in their brand-new uniforms, and posed for group photos in front of the school.
When I gave my brief speech this morning I explained that although I'm the kindergarten sponsor, that in fact there are many people involved in the project. I explained that I was speaking on behalf of everyone who had helped to support and build the school. I shared a large, framed photo of the Wenatchee kindergarten kids and the audio cassette tape they'd recorded ("America," "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and "This Land is Your Land"), and told the children that they now have friends in America. I gave them a photo book documenting the David Warner Kindergarten construction and first day of school; it also has a photo of David and our Warner family. Finally I told them that on behalf of ALL their American friends, we wished the children and the teacher success, happiness, and good learning.
Once the ceremonial festivities were over we planted trees in the schoolyard. These were the dedication trees; it's a wonderful feeling to have the little school surrounded by a memorial grove. Our delegation includes five veterans, three sisters of men lost in the war, three high school kids, several educators, a future US Air Force pilot, and people from all ends of the political spectrum. We were focused on the common task of planting, and we dug and staked and tamped together along with people from the local community, placing memorial cards at the base of every tree and photographing each one. There was lots of love and lots of healing planted in the schoolyard today.
Incidentally, I was elated to learn that based on my go-ahead a few weeks ago, PeaceTrees has built the kitchen! They are also in the process of putting up the fence. Lunches are in, buffalo are out, trees and children are growing. There is much to celebrate today; my heart is full. Thank you, one and all.
21 March 2007
Old Trees, New Trees
According to the "Lonely Planet" guide to Vietnam, "there is no conceivable reason to go to Dong Ha." I beg to differ. We're staying here for a week, and we're off to a great start.
Between a full schedule and limited Internet access it's been impossible to make any posts for a couple of days. With any luck I'll find somewhere to load photos to post tomorrow. I hope so, because one picture will save me about 1,000 words - and I suspect this entry will be five or six pictures' worth!
It's Wednesday afternoon here. Early Monday morning we said good-bye to Hoi An. We left town just as kids were heading to school, so the streets were full of bicycles: we passed hundreds of girls in their white ao dais (a graceful tunic-and-trouser outfit) and boys in their blue pants, white shirts and red bandanas, all walking and peddling to school.
Our route took us through Da Nang, then out for a brief tourism detour to My Son to see the Champa kingdom ruins there. Dating from about 750-1300, the brick ruins are nestled in a jungled valley. Looking at the ancient carvings, sculptures and temple buildings brought to mind a favorite quote from a Carl Sandberg poem: "We are the greatest people, the greatest nation. Nothing like us ever was." If only the bricks could speak.
We crossed Hai Van Pass, lunched at Lang Co, stretched our legs with a walk on the beach, then settled back in for the three hour trip to Dong Ha. We got here at about 5:15 and had just enough time to get cleaned up for our welcome dinner, where we met our hosts from the Quang Tri Province Department of Foreign Affairs (DoFA) and the rest of the PeaceTrees in-country staff, Miss Ha and Miss Hang. We were also joined by two short-term travelers who will share our activities in Dong Ha, one of whom is my good friend Bill Groth. It's great to have him here, especially to share in the Kindergarten dedication.
On Tuesday - yesterday - our work began. First up was a visit to Friendship Village, a community of 100 homes built by PeaceTrees on the former US Marine Corps base at Dong Ha. We traded songs with the kindergarteners there: they performed traditional songs for us, then we reciprocated with "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," "If You're Happy and You Know It," and "I'm a Little Teapot." (By the way, when it came to dances and hand gestures, the Kindergarteners had it over us by a long shot. That itsy-bitsy spider thing isn't as easy as it looks.) We had a great time with the kids - we brought toys, took pictures, asked them their names, and thought about packing them up and taking them home with us. SO cute, and utterly charming.
I had brought along copies of photos I'd taken on my last trip; I had a group shot with about ten kids, and had enough prints made for all of them.
One of the village girls was in charge of delivering the photos to the right people, and apparently she was successful: just as we were getting ready to get on the bus, a grandmother with a conical hat and big, broad smile came running up to me, grabbed me by the hand, and ran with me down to her home. There was one of the girls from the picture -- her granddaughter, I think. How wonderful to see her again and snap another photo to share, and to see her house. Like many of the homes we've seen it's very simple: three rooms, concrete, minimal furnishing, and at least four people live there. But there is electricity and water and a kitchen garden - and a big improvement from the homes that were there before.
Just before leaving Friendship Village we stopped to look at the trees I'd planted there two years ago. These were special trees -- memorial trees planted on behalf of my friends, and also one that Chuck and I planted for my brother David. In two years they've grown from three-foot-high seedlings to 12-15 foot trees. What a wonderful feeling to see them thriving.
We spent the afternoon visiting the Danaan Perry Landmine Education Center, first visiting with some of the young landmine and UXO victims who have been assisted by PeaceTrees, then planting new seedlings. Two thousand trees later we were muddy, tired, and happy: we know that in just a year or two, these new trees will be tall and strong, providing shade and enriching the air and soil.
Today was also a tree-planting day, but it was less achievement oriented and more relationship oriented. We planted at a local high school; the grounds there were cleared of UXO by PeaceTrees deminers. The kids were excited, nervous, and shy - for many, we were the first foreigners they'd ever met. We joined the English class and sat at the benches with the kids while the teacher gave a short lesson (not entirely sure what it was about -- let's just say that pronunciation wasn't his strong suit). Next we planted together. I had a group of about ten girls, all 16 years old, who joined me in the sticky red mud to plant, stake and tie the trees. We had little language, but much laughter and lots of great big smiles all around. We washed up in the cement courtyard of a restaurant across the street - the girls and I took turns pulling up the water from the well and a fellow traveler scrubbed shoes. It's five hours later and my shoes and socks are still soaked.
Last stop: a resettlement camp. Flooding last year displaced about 100 families. A German NGO has built homes for them in a nearby village; PeaceTrees is doing the UXO removal and environmental restoration. It was a full-fledged community event, with the assistant mayor, many local villagers, and even a few stray cows joining us in planting 100 trees.
They'll provide shade around a sports field that will be built there in the near future.
Tomorrow is the kindergarten dedication in A Xing. I can't wait. We stopped at the market to get a few classroom supplies -- mats for the floor (the children can use them for seating or naps), a nice big wall clock, and a CD-cassette player. We'll be sharing music with the kids tomorrow and hopefully capturing a few of their tunes to bring back. I look forward to celebrating with the community, seeing the children, and planting a small grove of memorial trees. Ready, set, grow!
Between a full schedule and limited Internet access it's been impossible to make any posts for a couple of days. With any luck I'll find somewhere to load photos to post tomorrow. I hope so, because one picture will save me about 1,000 words - and I suspect this entry will be five or six pictures' worth!
It's Wednesday afternoon here. Early Monday morning we said good-bye to Hoi An. We left town just as kids were heading to school, so the streets were full of bicycles: we passed hundreds of girls in their white ao dais (a graceful tunic-and-trouser outfit) and boys in their blue pants, white shirts and red bandanas, all walking and peddling to school.
Our route took us through Da Nang, then out for a brief tourism detour to My Son to see the Champa kingdom ruins there. Dating from about 750-1300, the brick ruins are nestled in a jungled valley. Looking at the ancient carvings, sculptures and temple buildings brought to mind a favorite quote from a Carl Sandberg poem: "We are the greatest people, the greatest nation. Nothing like us ever was." If only the bricks could speak.
We crossed Hai Van Pass, lunched at Lang Co, stretched our legs with a walk on the beach, then settled back in for the three hour trip to Dong Ha. We got here at about 5:15 and had just enough time to get cleaned up for our welcome dinner, where we met our hosts from the Quang Tri Province Department of Foreign Affairs (DoFA) and the rest of the PeaceTrees in-country staff, Miss Ha and Miss Hang. We were also joined by two short-term travelers who will share our activities in Dong Ha, one of whom is my good friend Bill Groth. It's great to have him here, especially to share in the Kindergarten dedication.
On Tuesday - yesterday - our work began. First up was a visit to Friendship Village, a community of 100 homes built by PeaceTrees on the former US Marine Corps base at Dong Ha. We traded songs with the kindergarteners there: they performed traditional songs for us, then we reciprocated with "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," "If You're Happy and You Know It," and "I'm a Little Teapot." (By the way, when it came to dances and hand gestures, the Kindergarteners had it over us by a long shot. That itsy-bitsy spider thing isn't as easy as it looks.) We had a great time with the kids - we brought toys, took pictures, asked them their names, and thought about packing them up and taking them home with us. SO cute, and utterly charming.
I had brought along copies of photos I'd taken on my last trip; I had a group shot with about ten kids, and had enough prints made for all of them.
One of the village girls was in charge of delivering the photos to the right people, and apparently she was successful: just as we were getting ready to get on the bus, a grandmother with a conical hat and big, broad smile came running up to me, grabbed me by the hand, and ran with me down to her home. There was one of the girls from the picture -- her granddaughter, I think. How wonderful to see her again and snap another photo to share, and to see her house. Like many of the homes we've seen it's very simple: three rooms, concrete, minimal furnishing, and at least four people live there. But there is electricity and water and a kitchen garden - and a big improvement from the homes that were there before.
Just before leaving Friendship Village we stopped to look at the trees I'd planted there two years ago. These were special trees -- memorial trees planted on behalf of my friends, and also one that Chuck and I planted for my brother David. In two years they've grown from three-foot-high seedlings to 12-15 foot trees. What a wonderful feeling to see them thriving.
We spent the afternoon visiting the Danaan Perry Landmine Education Center, first visiting with some of the young landmine and UXO victims who have been assisted by PeaceTrees, then planting new seedlings. Two thousand trees later we were muddy, tired, and happy: we know that in just a year or two, these new trees will be tall and strong, providing shade and enriching the air and soil.
Today was also a tree-planting day, but it was less achievement oriented and more relationship oriented. We planted at a local high school; the grounds there were cleared of UXO by PeaceTrees deminers. The kids were excited, nervous, and shy - for many, we were the first foreigners they'd ever met. We joined the English class and sat at the benches with the kids while the teacher gave a short lesson (not entirely sure what it was about -- let's just say that pronunciation wasn't his strong suit). Next we planted together. I had a group of about ten girls, all 16 years old, who joined me in the sticky red mud to plant, stake and tie the trees. We had little language, but much laughter and lots of great big smiles all around. We washed up in the cement courtyard of a restaurant across the street - the girls and I took turns pulling up the water from the well and a fellow traveler scrubbed shoes. It's five hours later and my shoes and socks are still soaked.
Last stop: a resettlement camp. Flooding last year displaced about 100 families. A German NGO has built homes for them in a nearby village; PeaceTrees is doing the UXO removal and environmental restoration. It was a full-fledged community event, with the assistant mayor, many local villagers, and even a few stray cows joining us in planting 100 trees.
They'll provide shade around a sports field that will be built there in the near future.
Tomorrow is the kindergarten dedication in A Xing. I can't wait. We stopped at the market to get a few classroom supplies -- mats for the floor (the children can use them for seating or naps), a nice big wall clock, and a CD-cassette player. We'll be sharing music with the kids tomorrow and hopefully capturing a few of their tunes to bring back. I look forward to celebrating with the community, seeing the children, and planting a small grove of memorial trees. Ready, set, grow!
18 March 2007
Laying the Groundwork
Inch by lovely inch we're making our way inch up the "S" of Vietnam.
I so appreciate having a couple of days to get the flavor of the place before diving into our work in Quang Tri Province. Quang Tri will be a rich experience for many reasons, but not because of its natural beauty or its architecture, as it was essentially deforested and levelled during the war. For that reason I'm especially glad that we're starting our trip with visits to areas of natural, architectural and historical significance. I think it will provide a helpful frame of reference for better understanding Quang Tri.
Today we took the 6:00 a.m. flight from Saigon to Da Nang, where we were joined by in-country PeaceTrees staff members Miss Ha and Miss Hang. We made only a brief stop in Da Nang -- to purchase electric keyboards ("organs") for two schools, including the Warner Kindergarten. Teachers in Vietnam are required to learn basic keyboard skills in order to lead the children in music lessons, so the organs will be put to very good use.
We're overnighting in the beautiful town of Hoi An. For those who have been to Belgium, Hoi An is a kind of Vietnamese Bruges -- a former major port and trade-route town that had its waterway fill with silt, essentially freezing it in time. It is rich with 200-year-old Japanese and Chinese-influenced architecture and has a lively and thriving marketplace; I spent the day feeling as though I were walking through one big post card.
Tourism is flourishing in Hoi An; there are many more foreigners here than I remember seeing two years ago. Shops are abundant and vendors are often insistent, but the town is vibrant and beautiful nonetheless. People have been welcoming and eager to talk. Our 20-year-old lunch waitress joined us at the table and giggled uncontrollably when my fried spring roll exploded into rice noodle confetti. Old women with betel nut-blackened teeth grinned broadly when I smiled at them, and teenagers sharing a streetside snack of miniature sea snails invited me to sample a bite. Laughter is easy to share (and easy to cause, but that's OK, too).
I'll drift off to sleep tonight (hopefully not in my rice bowl) with Hoi An playing like a beautiful slide show in my head, grateful for today's adventure and eager to head to Quang Tri where we'll step out of tourism and into real life.
I so appreciate having a couple of days to get the flavor of the place before diving into our work in Quang Tri Province. Quang Tri will be a rich experience for many reasons, but not because of its natural beauty or its architecture, as it was essentially deforested and levelled during the war. For that reason I'm especially glad that we're starting our trip with visits to areas of natural, architectural and historical significance. I think it will provide a helpful frame of reference for better understanding Quang Tri.
Today we took the 6:00 a.m. flight from Saigon to Da Nang, where we were joined by in-country PeaceTrees staff members Miss Ha and Miss Hang. We made only a brief stop in Da Nang -- to purchase electric keyboards ("organs") for two schools, including the Warner Kindergarten. Teachers in Vietnam are required to learn basic keyboard skills in order to lead the children in music lessons, so the organs will be put to very good use.
We're overnighting in the beautiful town of Hoi An. For those who have been to Belgium, Hoi An is a kind of Vietnamese Bruges -- a former major port and trade-route town that had its waterway fill with silt, essentially freezing it in time. It is rich with 200-year-old Japanese and Chinese-influenced architecture and has a lively and thriving marketplace; I spent the day feeling as though I were walking through one big post card.
Tourism is flourishing in Hoi An; there are many more foreigners here than I remember seeing two years ago. Shops are abundant and vendors are often insistent, but the town is vibrant and beautiful nonetheless. People have been welcoming and eager to talk. Our 20-year-old lunch waitress joined us at the table and giggled uncontrollably when my fried spring roll exploded into rice noodle confetti. Old women with betel nut-blackened teeth grinned broadly when I smiled at them, and teenagers sharing a streetside snack of miniature sea snails invited me to sample a bite. Laughter is easy to share (and easy to cause, but that's OK, too).
I'll drift off to sleep tonight (hopefully not in my rice bowl) with Hoi An playing like a beautiful slide show in my head, grateful for today's adventure and eager to head to Quang Tri where we'll step out of tourism and into real life.
17 March 2007
Southern Hospitality
Still have a case of the jetlag woozies, so this will be brief. But what a couple of days!
Got into Saigon yesterday mid-morning and had a low-key, get-acclimatized day that mostly revolved around food. More about the culinary adventures in a later post. Lilac-colored soup and durian (a.k.a. the fruit that smells like old gym socks) ice cream deserve a page of their own.
Weather-wise we're enveloped in heat and humidity. Take a wet wool blanket, run it through the dryer on high heat for 15 minutes, then roll up in it like a spring roll and you've got a pretty good idea of what it's like. Thankfully, though, it is sunny: there's a regional draught that has been bad for agriculture, but great for visitors.
Exploring a slice of the Mekong Delta was today's agenda, and it was fabulous. We started in the town of My Tho, an hour's drive south of Saigon, where we boarded a boat and set out onto the 3-kilometer-wide Mekong river and made several island stops. Our "mini-tours" included fruit-tasting, a local music performance, a honeybee "farm," horse-cart travel, small boat travel, and a brilliant lunch-time feast at an unnamed restaurant that disappeared back into the greenery as we floated away. It almost felt as though we dreamed it.
Most striking for me was the travel through the palm- and mangrove-lined canals. We were on traditional boats -- long, narrow and wobbly -- being paddled and poled by local women (the boats, not us). We didn't speak; the stillness felt heavy in the humid air. Foliage formed a tunnel around us and spots of sunlight played on the water and reflected back, dancing on the greens above. The only sounds were insects, birds, and the soft splooshing of paddles in the brown water. There were abundant butterflies: large, iridescent black ones; small ones of orange and brown and yellow. I was impressed both by the beauty of the place and also by the maze of waterways. To my eye all the palm and mangrove trees look pretty much alike; it would be impossible for me to tell one waterway from another.
Tomorrow morning we'll depart the hotel at 4:00 a.m. and fly to DaNang at 6:00. I'm glad for today's brief chance to see the rural south. It will provide a point of contrast to other areas and help to paint a more complete picture of Vietnam.
A last note. While we were having our day on the Delta, one of our group members was having a very different experience. She lost her brother in the Vietnam War and today had the opportunity to visit the place where he gave his life. It was a healing journey for her, and she told me she left the spot feeling profoundly grateful for the opportunity to be there. From talking with some of the vets who are also with us, I think it's a healing journey for them as well. More than I realized, PeaceTrees is a fitting name. The first seeds that we're planting on this trip are seeds of healing and renewal in ourselves. I look forward to watching them grow.
Got into Saigon yesterday mid-morning and had a low-key, get-acclimatized day that mostly revolved around food. More about the culinary adventures in a later post. Lilac-colored soup and durian (a.k.a. the fruit that smells like old gym socks) ice cream deserve a page of their own.
Weather-wise we're enveloped in heat and humidity. Take a wet wool blanket, run it through the dryer on high heat for 15 minutes, then roll up in it like a spring roll and you've got a pretty good idea of what it's like. Thankfully, though, it is sunny: there's a regional draught that has been bad for agriculture, but great for visitors.
Exploring a slice of the Mekong Delta was today's agenda, and it was fabulous. We started in the town of My Tho, an hour's drive south of Saigon, where we boarded a boat and set out onto the 3-kilometer-wide Mekong river and made several island stops. Our "mini-tours" included fruit-tasting, a local music performance, a honeybee "farm," horse-cart travel, small boat travel, and a brilliant lunch-time feast at an unnamed restaurant that disappeared back into the greenery as we floated away. It almost felt as though we dreamed it.
Most striking for me was the travel through the palm- and mangrove-lined canals. We were on traditional boats -- long, narrow and wobbly -- being paddled and poled by local women (the boats, not us). We didn't speak; the stillness felt heavy in the humid air. Foliage formed a tunnel around us and spots of sunlight played on the water and reflected back, dancing on the greens above. The only sounds were insects, birds, and the soft splooshing of paddles in the brown water. There were abundant butterflies: large, iridescent black ones; small ones of orange and brown and yellow. I was impressed both by the beauty of the place and also by the maze of waterways. To my eye all the palm and mangrove trees look pretty much alike; it would be impossible for me to tell one waterway from another.
Tomorrow morning we'll depart the hotel at 4:00 a.m. and fly to DaNang at 6:00. I'm glad for today's brief chance to see the rural south. It will provide a point of contrast to other areas and help to paint a more complete picture of Vietnam.
A last note. While we were having our day on the Delta, one of our group members was having a very different experience. She lost her brother in the Vietnam War and today had the opportunity to visit the place where he gave his life. It was a healing journey for her, and she told me she left the spot feeling profoundly grateful for the opportunity to be there. From talking with some of the vets who are also with us, I think it's a healing journey for them as well. More than I realized, PeaceTrees is a fitting name. The first seeds that we're planting on this trip are seeds of healing and renewal in ourselves. I look forward to watching them grow.
15 March 2007
Changing Planes
I'm writing this somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, south of Tokyo and north of Yap. I like long flights: it feels like I'm suspended not just in air, but in time. There's a peculiar freedom to cocoon or contemplate, for which I am especially grateful tonight.
This trip is starting on an unexpected turn. Many reading this will already know that my mom, our much-loved and aptly-named Marvel Warner, passed away quietly on Sunday with close family in song by her side. Dad passed four months ago; my sister Marci and I delight in thinking they're dancing together again.
Last year, at age 82, Mom joined Toastmasters. Earlier this month she was working on writing her tenth speech. Marci shared it with me and I want to include an excerpt here.
"Have you ever felt lonely? Discouraged? Miserable? I have.
My mother's adage was 'Don't sit around feeling sorry for yourself! There's always someone that needs help more than you do. Help them instead!'
I really had to apply my mother's words when we got news of the loss of our son in Vietnam. It was inconceivable that he was gone. He had packed more living into his 21 years than most people do in 70. He had a real joie de vivre, and my husband and I determined that as a family we would maintain that joy and try to share it.
We had lived on an island - both literally and figuratively - but John Donne wrote, 'No man is an island... Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind.'
Now we began to reach out... there are so many ways we can help if we are not marooned on our own little islands of self-interest."
Mom was so excited about my involvement with PeaceTrees and the kindergaten project that we all agreed the best way to honor her would be to continue on the trip. An now I get to take her words to heart as I go in joy and with her blessing.
We flew north out of Sea-Tac Airport tonight then made a tight clockwise circle right above our old family home on Mercer Island. I think that in a sense, Mom, Dad and Dave are all traveling with me... they're just on a different plane.
This trip is starting on an unexpected turn. Many reading this will already know that my mom, our much-loved and aptly-named Marvel Warner, passed away quietly on Sunday with close family in song by her side. Dad passed four months ago; my sister Marci and I delight in thinking they're dancing together again.
Last year, at age 82, Mom joined Toastmasters. Earlier this month she was working on writing her tenth speech. Marci shared it with me and I want to include an excerpt here.
"Have you ever felt lonely? Discouraged? Miserable? I have.
My mother's adage was 'Don't sit around feeling sorry for yourself! There's always someone that needs help more than you do. Help them instead!'
I really had to apply my mother's words when we got news of the loss of our son in Vietnam. It was inconceivable that he was gone. He had packed more living into his 21 years than most people do in 70. He had a real joie de vivre, and my husband and I determined that as a family we would maintain that joy and try to share it.
We had lived on an island - both literally and figuratively - but John Donne wrote, 'No man is an island... Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind.'
Now we began to reach out... there are so many ways we can help if we are not marooned on our own little islands of self-interest."
Mom was so excited about my involvement with PeaceTrees and the kindergaten project that we all agreed the best way to honor her would be to continue on the trip. An now I get to take her words to heart as I go in joy and with her blessing.
We flew north out of Sea-Tac Airport tonight then made a tight clockwise circle right above our old family home on Mercer Island. I think that in a sense, Mom, Dad and Dave are all traveling with me... they're just on a different plane.
08 March 2007
Breaking the Language Barrier
Is there anything more humbling than trying to learn a foreign language? In my mother tongue I am a reasonably competent adult. I can use a full palette of words to express complex ideas, listen for nuance and paint verbal images. By contrast, in Vietnamese I can say "Here is the yellow butterfly," and even then, I'm probably mispronouncing it. Not exactly the stuff of great conversation.
I have now spent two weeks of quality time with the CD "Sing n' Learn Vietnamese." I walk around the house humming the tunes to "Who Do You Love" and "Mr. Toad." They're in my head when I wake up in the morning; I can even play them on the piano. But the words? Stubbornly, tenaciously, utterly elusive. They just won't stick.
Part of the challenge is that Vietnamese is a tonal language. There are six tones. To further complicate things, each word is only one syllable. So each syllable can be pronounced six different ways, and each one is a different word. "Mother," "horse," and "rice seedling" are dangerously similar (ma, ma, ma), and I'm sure there are other syllables that are even more hazardous. I'm afraid to think what could happen when I try to read something on a menu.
But - and I'm going to wax philosophical for a minute - it seems to me that language barriers, while they're frustrating at times, also offer the gift of a different kind of communication. Sometimes it's tempting to hide behind words. Instead of connecting us, they can keep us at arm's length. We use them to portray ourselves the way we want to be seen; we use them to keep the conversation superficial. By contrast "conversation" without a common language can strip away all of the veneers and allow people to meet at the most basic, real level. Instead of exchanging pleasantries, we can exchange looks and smiles. Instead of speaking with our words, we can speak with our hearts. That kind of communication is so rich.
I recently ran across a quote from Fred Rogers (yes, that Fred Rogers, from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood) that sums it up beautifully: "The older I get, the more convinced I am that the space between people who are trying their best to understand each other is hallowed ground."
Perhaps sometimes our shortcomings are really just strengths in clown costumes. If that's the case, language-wise, I've got a whole circus traveling with me. And I think we're going to have a wonderful time.
I have now spent two weeks of quality time with the CD "Sing n' Learn Vietnamese." I walk around the house humming the tunes to "Who Do You Love" and "Mr. Toad." They're in my head when I wake up in the morning; I can even play them on the piano. But the words? Stubbornly, tenaciously, utterly elusive. They just won't stick.
Part of the challenge is that Vietnamese is a tonal language. There are six tones. To further complicate things, each word is only one syllable. So each syllable can be pronounced six different ways, and each one is a different word. "Mother," "horse," and "rice seedling" are dangerously similar (ma, ma, ma), and I'm sure there are other syllables that are even more hazardous. I'm afraid to think what could happen when I try to read something on a menu.
But - and I'm going to wax philosophical for a minute - it seems to me that language barriers, while they're frustrating at times, also offer the gift of a different kind of communication. Sometimes it's tempting to hide behind words. Instead of connecting us, they can keep us at arm's length. We use them to portray ourselves the way we want to be seen; we use them to keep the conversation superficial. By contrast "conversation" without a common language can strip away all of the veneers and allow people to meet at the most basic, real level. Instead of exchanging pleasantries, we can exchange looks and smiles. Instead of speaking with our words, we can speak with our hearts. That kind of communication is so rich.I recently ran across a quote from Fred Rogers (yes, that Fred Rogers, from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood) that sums it up beautifully: "The older I get, the more convinced I am that the space between people who are trying their best to understand each other is hallowed ground."
Perhaps sometimes our shortcomings are really just strengths in clown costumes. If that's the case, language-wise, I've got a whole circus traveling with me. And I think we're going to have a wonderful time.
Community
This week as I've been finalizing my packing list and thinking through last-minute details, I keep coming back to one word: community. What is community? And what does it mean in the context of this trip?
Normally when I think of community I think of shared geography or common interests: my neighborhood, city, family, friends, church. But I'm starting to recognize that community is something bigger than any of those.
Community. Communication. Communion. They're all related, from a root that means "shared by all." As I make this trip, it strikes me that while I'm the one getting on the airplane, the experience is being shared by all -- not just during the two weeks that I'm in Vietnam, but also before and after.
My community includes those of you reading about the trip and those who have encouraged and supported it. It includes fellow travelers and the people we will meet in Dong Ha, Quang Tri and Hue. It includes other PeaceTrees partners and participants. It includes the children in Mrs. O'Donnell's Kindergarten class in Wenatchee, Washington, who have recorded songs for me to take and share. And it includes a group of Marines who served forty years ago, and a group of Vietnamese children who will probably be around forty years after I'm gone. In the words of Wendell Berry, "We clasp the hands of those that go before us and the hands of those who come after us."
So as I finalize my plans and packing lists, I'll be remembering that I'm just one member of a much bigger community - one that goes beyond borders and transcends time.
"There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community." - M. Scott Peck
Normally when I think of community I think of shared geography or common interests: my neighborhood, city, family, friends, church. But I'm starting to recognize that community is something bigger than any of those.
Community. Communication. Communion. They're all related, from a root that means "shared by all." As I make this trip, it strikes me that while I'm the one getting on the airplane, the experience is being shared by all -- not just during the two weeks that I'm in Vietnam, but also before and after.
My community includes those of you reading about the trip and those who have encouraged and supported it. It includes fellow travelers and the people we will meet in Dong Ha, Quang Tri and Hue. It includes other PeaceTrees partners and participants. It includes the children in Mrs. O'Donnell's Kindergarten class in Wenatchee, Washington, who have recorded songs for me to take and share. And it includes a group of Marines who served forty years ago, and a group of Vietnamese children who will probably be around forty years after I'm gone. In the words of Wendell Berry, "We clasp the hands of those that go before us and the hands of those who come after us."
So as I finalize my plans and packing lists, I'll be remembering that I'm just one member of a much bigger community - one that goes beyond borders and transcends time.
"There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community." - M. Scott Peck
01 March 2007
A Fence for Water Buffalo
PTVN has let me know that kindergarten fund contributions have exceeded the project cost. Good news? Absolutely! The facility itself was only the first need; now we can tend to the details.
First, a little more information on the school. The village of A Xing is comprised of seven hamlets. Each hamlet needs its own kindergarten, but they share a single, larger primary school. With the addition of the David Warner Kindergarten three of seven hamlets now have facilities for their pre-primary kids.
Following are excerpts from an email "interview" with PTVN's in-country representative, Quang Le (more aptly called Saint Quang Le... you'll be hearing more about him in the future).
SWB: Where will the children go to school once they've "graduated" from Kindergarten?
Quang Le: They will go to the primary school that is located nearby.
SWB: How many students are attending?
Quang Le: 35 children.
SWB: Do the children have to pay to attend the school?
Quang Le: No, it is free.
SWB: Will the building also be used for meetings and other community functions?
Quang Le: It depends. The local authority can borrow the kindergarten to use for other hamlet multi-purposes when the school is off (or not in the school days).
SWB: Has the school been furnished and equipped with needed supplies?
Quang Le: They still need some more, especially one organ (keyboard) to serve for the music time. The average organ will range from $50-$100 USD.
SWB: Is there a plan to maintain the facility?
Quang Le: No. It does need to be painted each year.
SWB: Are there any special items (classroom or playground equipment, etc.) they might need?
Quang Le: There are three main items that the kindergarten really needs:
- A kitchen (children have to go back to their home for lunch, because the kindergarten has no kitchen). There is a project proposal for building a kitchen for A Xing kindergarten. It costs $1000.00 USD.
- Playground. The kindergarten now has no playground. They hope to have something like slide, see-saw, wheel... and it costs $700.00 USD minimum.
- Fence. Without fence, water buffaloes often go inside and damage the kindergarten.
A fence for water buffaloes? As Dorothy would say, "We're not in Kansas anymore."
Happily, the current Kindergarten fund surplus should go a long way toward meeting the needs identified by Quang Le. We hope to purchase and deliver the keyboard for the dedication ceremony on March 22. We should be able to approve the kitchen and fence... maybe even some playground equipment.
So thank you, one and all. In with the lunches, out with the water buffalo!
First, a little more information on the school. The village of A Xing is comprised of seven hamlets. Each hamlet needs its own kindergarten, but they share a single, larger primary school. With the addition of the David Warner Kindergarten three of seven hamlets now have facilities for their pre-primary kids.
Following are excerpts from an email "interview" with PTVN's in-country representative, Quang Le (more aptly called Saint Quang Le... you'll be hearing more about him in the future).
SWB: Where will the children go to school once they've "graduated" from Kindergarten?
Quang Le: They will go to the primary school that is located nearby.
SWB: How many students are attending?
Quang Le: 35 children.
SWB: Do the children have to pay to attend the school?
Quang Le: No, it is free.
SWB: Will the building also be used for meetings and other community functions?
Quang Le: It depends. The local authority can borrow the kindergarten to use for other hamlet multi-purposes when the school is off (or not in the school days).
SWB: Has the school been furnished and equipped with needed supplies?
Quang Le: They still need some more, especially one organ (keyboard) to serve for the music time. The average organ will range from $50-$100 USD.
SWB: Is there a plan to maintain the facility?
Quang Le: No. It does need to be painted each year.
SWB: Are there any special items (classroom or playground equipment, etc.) they might need?
Quang Le: There are three main items that the kindergarten really needs:
- A kitchen (children have to go back to their home for lunch, because the kindergarten has no kitchen). There is a project proposal for building a kitchen for A Xing kindergarten. It costs $1000.00 USD.
- Playground. The kindergarten now has no playground. They hope to have something like slide, see-saw, wheel... and it costs $700.00 USD minimum.
- Fence. Without fence, water buffaloes often go inside and damage the kindergarten.A fence for water buffaloes? As Dorothy would say, "We're not in Kansas anymore."
Happily, the current Kindergarten fund surplus should go a long way toward meeting the needs identified by Quang Le. We hope to purchase and deliver the keyboard for the dedication ceremony on March 22. We should be able to approve the kitchen and fence... maybe even some playground equipment.
So thank you, one and all. In with the lunches, out with the water buffalo!
27 February 2007
Geography 101
Some of the places we'll be visiting next month aren't on the typical tourist's itinerary. Actually, some of them aren't even on the maps. With that in mind I thought it might be helpful to provide a quick geographical snapshot. Some of this will be rudimentary for some folks; bear with me.
Vietnam is shaped like a big S. Trace the S from bottom to top, and you'll pretty much have our itinerary.
Ho Chi Minh City (which everyone still calls Saigon) is located at the bottom of the S. It has a population of about 7 million, all of whom, apparently, drive motorscooters. Crossing the street is a lot like the old video game Frogger, in which you dodge the vehicles and try not to go splat.
Hanoi is at the top of the S. It's smaller than Saigon - only about 3 million people - and is the capital city. I look forward to visiting temples, gardens, and the tiny, crowded shopping streets.
We'll be spending the majority of our time in the middle of the S, where you see the cluster of little black dots on the map. From Saigon we'll fly to Da Nang, then cross Hai Van Pass and spend the majority of our time working in Dong Ha. We'll also spend some time touring in Hue before we fly north to Hanoi. These areas were the northernmost provinces of South Vietnam, and many of the place names will be familiar to US veterans who served there.
For those of you who are data-junkies, you can get lots of factual details about Vietnam at http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/vietnam.htm. If you're more interested in a contemporary portrait of the country and its people, try the book Vietnam, Now by David Lamb. Or check back here from time to time, and I'll do my best to tell you all about it.
25 February 2007
So What is PeaceTrees Vietnam, Anyway?
It's a lot more than a tree-planting organization.
PeaceTrees Vietnam (PTVN) is a Bainbridge Island-based non-profit organization "dedicated to reversing the legacy of war by working alongside the Vietnamese people to build the capacity for a safe and healthy future for the children and families of Quang Tri Province" (whew! that's a long one!). They do this by...
- Sponsoring land mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance, which is done by professional teams to UN standards. The UXO team leader's name is -- and I am not making this up -- Major Bang. He's pictured here with a 60mm mortar and other UXO that has been collected in a Quang Tri field.
- Providing medical and economic assistance to accident victims and their families
- Offering land mine risk awareness training for children
- Sending twice-yearly citizen diplomacy delegations to build friendships with the Vietnamese people
- Sponsoring community and environmental restoration projects such as building homes.. and planting trees. These are the types of projects our volunteer team will be doing.
PeaceTrees' work is done in Quang Tri province, which was the northernmost province of the old South Vietnam. Quang Tri is slightly smaller than Seattle's King County, yet more ordnance (mines, bombs, shells, etc.) was used there during the Vietnam War than in all of Europe during World War II -- about 15 million pieces. Given that roughly 10% doesn't detonate (a US Department of Defense statistic), it's easy to see why UXO remains a serious, life-threatening problem in Quang Tri. Children, farmers, and the poor (particularly those who try to make a living as scrap-metal dealers) are at the greatest risk. This is what PeaceTrees is working to change.
In the eleven years since PTVN was established...
- 370 acres have been cleared of more than 13,500 explosive items
- 13,000 children have received mine risk education training
- 600 accident survivors and families have received assistance
- 30,000 indigenous trees have been planted on UXO-cleared land
- a former battlefield has been transformed into a village of 100 homes
This March we'll be adding the David Warner Kindergarten to the list of completed projects. Not bad for a local grass-roots non-profit, is it?
A few final notes. The organization was founded in 1995 by Danaan Parry and Jerilyn Brusseau. Jerilyn is a Seattle native who, like me, lost a brother in Vietnam. She is also the creator of the Cinnabon recipe -- for this reason alone, I suspect many people consider her a goddess. But her work with PTVN is what puts her on my "hero" list. To Jerilyn and those who work with you at PeaceTrees, my heartfelt thanks.
PeaceTrees Vietnam (PTVN) is a Bainbridge Island-based non-profit organization "dedicated to reversing the legacy of war by working alongside the Vietnamese people to build the capacity for a safe and healthy future for the children and families of Quang Tri Province" (whew! that's a long one!). They do this by...
- Sponsoring land mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance, which is done by professional teams to UN standards. The UXO team leader's name is -- and I am not making this up -- Major Bang. He's pictured here with a 60mm mortar and other UXO that has been collected in a Quang Tri field.- Providing medical and economic assistance to accident victims and their families
- Offering land mine risk awareness training for children
- Sending twice-yearly citizen diplomacy delegations to build friendships with the Vietnamese people
- Sponsoring community and environmental restoration projects such as building homes.. and planting trees. These are the types of projects our volunteer team will be doing.
PeaceTrees' work is done in Quang Tri province, which was the northernmost province of the old South Vietnam. Quang Tri is slightly smaller than Seattle's King County, yet more ordnance (mines, bombs, shells, etc.) was used there during the Vietnam War than in all of Europe during World War II -- about 15 million pieces. Given that roughly 10% doesn't detonate (a US Department of Defense statistic), it's easy to see why UXO remains a serious, life-threatening problem in Quang Tri. Children, farmers, and the poor (particularly those who try to make a living as scrap-metal dealers) are at the greatest risk. This is what PeaceTrees is working to change. In the eleven years since PTVN was established...
- 370 acres have been cleared of more than 13,500 explosive items
- 13,000 children have received mine risk education training
- 600 accident survivors and families have received assistance
- 30,000 indigenous trees have been planted on UXO-cleared land
- a former battlefield has been transformed into a village of 100 homes
This March we'll be adding the David Warner Kindergarten to the list of completed projects. Not bad for a local grass-roots non-profit, is it?
A few final notes. The organization was founded in 1995 by Danaan Parry and Jerilyn Brusseau. Jerilyn is a Seattle native who, like me, lost a brother in Vietnam. She is also the creator of the Cinnabon recipe -- for this reason alone, I suspect many people consider her a goddess. But her work with PTVN is what puts her on my "hero" list. To Jerilyn and those who work with you at PeaceTrees, my heartfelt thanks.
22 February 2007
David Warner Kindergarten Dedication
With the help of many amazing family members, co-workers and friends, a two-year fund-raising effort through PeaceTrees has been successful: the David Warner Kindergarten is now a reality.
The school is located in the tiny mountain village of A Xing, Quang Tri Province; it's not far from Khe Sanh and close to the Laotian border. The ethnic minority population makes a meagre living through farming; the average monthly income for a family is under $6 USD. Having a school for their 30-35 kindergarten-aged children not only helps the kids start their education; it also allows the parents more opportunity to work while the kids are in school.
Construction on the school began late last summer, after the site was cleared by a PeaceTrees- sponsored EOD (explosive ordanance disposal) team. Six pieces of ordnance were removed from the small plot of land. The building itself was completed in the autumn and the village children are now attending classes. Our PeaceTrees delegation will meet the children and plant trees on the school grounds during our March visit. I'm using a "Sing 'n Learn Vietnamese" CD to try to master (massacre?) a couple of Vietnamese children's songs; I look forward to singing a lively verse or two of "The Cat Who Climbed the Betel Tree" with the kids -- or at least giving them something to laugh at. Meo, meo, meo!
The kindergarten will be dedicated on March 22, which would have been my brother's 61st birthday. For my part, I am overjoyed that David's name will be inscribed not just on the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Wall, but on a building where a new generation is learning, laughing, growing – a place of potential, possibility, and hope. The dedication plaque will read:
The David Warner Kindergarten
Dedicated March 22, 2007
A gift to the children of A Xing
honoring the life and service of David Howard Warner
from his family and friends
If we are to have real peace, we must begin with the children.
– Gandhi
Built in partnership with PeaceTrees Vietnam
Peace – Friendship – Renewal
To every one of the amazing donors who made the kindergarten a reality, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Your compassion is touching lives... it has certainly touched mine.
Thirty-nine Years, Three Weeks and Counting
The journey started a long time ago.
In 1968 my brother David was killed while serving in Vietnam. Several years ago I began researching Dave’s time in the service and learned that his former Commanding Officer, Chuck Meadows, is now a retired Marine Colonel living on Bainbridge Island, just a 40-minute boat ride from Seattle. Now really, what are the odds of THAT?
After exchanging several emails Chuck and I, along with my husband Jeff, met for dinner in late spring of 2004. It was an amazing evening. Chuck shared stories, photos, maps and memorabilia to give us a picture of what the Marines of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines were doing in Vietnam in 1967-68. In particular, he talked about their experiences in the Battle of Hue City where Dave last served (military history buffs will know this is a Very Big Deal). During the course of the evening we also learned that Chuck was Executive Director, and is now Board President, of a non-profit organization called PeaceTrees Vietnam.
In 2005 I had the privilege of traveling to Vietnam as part of a PeaceTrees citizen diplomacy delegation. It was humbling and deeply rewarding to travel in David’s footsteps with the same commanding officer after thirty-seven years, but on a very different mission. Our group of twenty-three people spent two weeks visiting PeaceTrees-sponsored projects. PeaceTrees’ core values of peace, friendship and renewal were at the heart of the trip. We were eagerly welcomed and warmly received by our Vietnamese hosts, and we planted more than 2,000 trees, along with seeds of friendship and understanding.
This March I will be returning for my second trip with Chuck Meadows and PeaceTrees volunteers. This trip is a special one for me because we’ll be dedicating the David Warner Kindergarten in the tiny mountain village of A Xing. Joining us on the trip will be the little sister of another one of Chuck’s Golf 2/5 Marines, Cindy Humphrey; and a good friend and veteran who served in Hue City, Bruce Gant. Together with thirteen others we will immerse ourselves in the beauty and grace of Vietnam, celebrate friendships, roll up our sleeves and work.
Let the journey continue!
In 1968 my brother David was killed while serving in Vietnam. Several years ago I began researching Dave’s time in the service and learned that his former Commanding Officer, Chuck Meadows, is now a retired Marine Colonel living on Bainbridge Island, just a 40-minute boat ride from Seattle. Now really, what are the odds of THAT?After exchanging several emails Chuck and I, along with my husband Jeff, met for dinner in late spring of 2004. It was an amazing evening. Chuck shared stories, photos, maps and memorabilia to give us a picture of what the Marines of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines were doing in Vietnam in 1967-68. In particular, he talked about their experiences in the Battle of Hue City where Dave last served (military history buffs will know this is a Very Big Deal). During the course of the evening we also learned that Chuck was Executive Director, and is now Board President, of a non-profit organization called PeaceTrees Vietnam.
In 2005 I had the privilege of traveling to Vietnam as part of a PeaceTrees citizen diplomacy delegation. It was humbling and deeply rewarding to travel in David’s footsteps with the same commanding officer after thirty-seven years, but on a very different mission. Our group of twenty-three people spent two weeks visiting PeaceTrees-sponsored projects. PeaceTrees’ core values of peace, friendship and renewal were at the heart of the trip. We were eagerly welcomed and warmly received by our Vietnamese hosts, and we planted more than 2,000 trees, along with seeds of friendship and understanding.
This March I will be returning for my second trip with Chuck Meadows and PeaceTrees volunteers. This trip is a special one for me because we’ll be dedicating the David Warner Kindergarten in the tiny mountain village of A Xing. Joining us on the trip will be the little sister of another one of Chuck’s Golf 2/5 Marines, Cindy Humphrey; and a good friend and veteran who served in Hue City, Bruce Gant. Together with thirteen others we will immerse ourselves in the beauty and grace of Vietnam, celebrate friendships, roll up our sleeves and work.
Let the journey continue!
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