Why Am I Going to Vietnam?

In less than two weeks I'll be in Hanoi, Vietnam. I'll be teaching English at the Technical College in Hanoi, and also looking up Vu and Tawny, two Vietnamese-Americans working in Hanoi with Maryknoll trying to develop some crafts projects that would help individuals that they're working with--the physically disabled, unwed mothers and street children among them--perhaps earn some income. I will only be in Hanoi two weeks, and am planning on going out to Halong Bay on a boating excursion for one of the two weekends I'll be in the country. 

Why am I going to Vietnam? Well, this year Stephen's going to Ireland while I'm in Vietnam. Every other year I try and let him return home without me, because he has a very different kind of trip when I'm not along--one that's more focused on visiting old friends and family, and less focused on running his wife around Ireland. Still, I think Stephen would be happy if I were joining him and, although he's very supportive of me going off to Vietnam, he's also a bit sad about it and a little bit concerned--will I be safe? Will I want to keep popping on planes and heading back to Asia every couple of years? I just don't know and neither does he, but I'm very grateful that he's willing to go along with it all...

When I was twelve my dad moved us all to Busan, South Korea, where he was an engineer for a Korean company and I attended American high school even though we lived "on the economy", which meant out with the Koreans and not on a military base, although we did live in our own little expatriate enclave. Living in Korea did something to me. First of all, when I returned to the States at fourteen, I never quite fit in. Lots of my friends in high school wound up being other kids from other countries and cultures rather than the dominant culture. In college I went on to study Japanese and got an Asia studies degree, and later spent some time in Japan trying, unsuccessfully, to be a nanny to a wealthy family in Sapporo (another story for another time). 

Ultimately, I put my Asian studies degree aside and wound up running an arts and crafts supplies store, later heading into more of a life of service, becoming a campus minister taking the students to Guatemala, Haiti, Israel, Native American reservations, Appalachia--all kinds of immersion experiences. I lived in Detroit for a while, where I worked at an historically Black college, and then in Chicago,where I lived in the very diverse--and also very Korean at that time--neighborhood of Ravenswood. I loved the differences I encountered in the people I lived and worked with.

In some ways I just can't get the whole Korean thing out of my system--I drag poor Stephen to any assortment of Korean restaurants (he has come to love hot stone bowl bi bim bap)  and have tried to hook him on Korean films and soap operas (unsuccessfully). And I guess, as I am approaching "the big 5-0" I feel myself wanting to get back to Asia at least one more time; this time, I hope, to do some good in a manner in which I was not able to as a teenager, or a recent college graduate. I want to contribute, however minutely, to some healing between Vietnam and my own country. I want to help their young people gain the skills necessary to live lives that are enjoyable, productive and fairly compensated. I want to learn about a new Asia culture while revisiting values and world views that aren't so unfamiliar, after years of study and interest. And, finally, I want to use my artistic skills to perhaps effect some good. 

I leave for Vietnam April 30th. I will keep you all posted on what I find there, and in the interim, ask for your support and prayers as I embark upon this adventure...