Time for action, you can make a difference

Hi everyone, most of you have followed me from the beginning, last July to be exact, when I visited Vietnam, and was inspired to create a charity for children with disabilities in developing countries. Ability Beyond the Horizon, *http://www.abilitybeyondthehorizon.org* was created with your help, ideas and support. Without your encouragement, I would never have thought I could make this happen.

We now have a fully functioning non profit corporation in Florida. We have a powerful, capable, and devoted board of directors. We have two projects blossoming in two different countries, India, and Vietnam, all in less than a year. Ability Beyond the Horizon will make huge differences in the lives of children with disabilities, with your support, these children may be able to attend school with their non-disabled peers. What this means is that children with disabilities will have an opportunity to be successful in their communities and in life. We are beginning with visual impairments, but we plan to expand to support infants and toddlers of all disabilities, so that every child with a disability may have the greatest opportunity for success.

Money from the developed world, like the US and Europe, is incredibly powerful. You can hire a teacher in Vietnam for part time work, for a month for $40. That teacher will be able to work with 10-15 students. Many people think that because they are not Wall Street gazillionaires that they can't make a difference. In the developing world, any contribution, even $10 has an impact. Our first goal is to get the $750 that the US government requires to file for 501(c)3 status, which allows all contributions to be tax deductible and for us to apply for grants. We have 400 in the bank from contributions already, thanks to those who gave in advance. We NEED to get to $750 first, then your money will go to hiring staff in Vietnam and India, setting up operations in those countries, and getting me over there to recruit and educate. I am working for free for Ability Beyond the Horizon, but there are operating expenses. I know the economy is difficult right now, any contribution you can make will be unbelievably appreciated. Lets show people that we can make a difference, even when times are scary, we will still make a difference where it is needed. This is your chance to have an impact on the world's stage.

In the developing world, people with disabilities often have no opportunities for the same things we take for granted every day, like an education, or a supportive family that believes they are capable of success, where would you be if you did not have that opportunity? With our help, and a quality education with their non disabled peers, these children can move closer to having the opportunities we all enjoy.

Many of you have contacted me along the way to ask me how you can help. We're building a ship of opportunity to take people in the developing world beyond the limitations of their horizon, so that those with disabilities can become part of their society in meaningful ways. We have built the first ship, its small, but capable, and more will follow. We have gathered the crew; now we need your help to provide the power to get it sailing, your support will put wind in the sails. You can donate directly from the website, at the Get Involved link at the top of the page. Its through Paypal, which is the same bank Ebay uses. You can also send a check made out to Ability Beyond the Horizon, 5789 St. Joe Rd, Tallahassee, FL 32311

If you have any questions at all, please write me here, or call me at 850-766-2814.

Lets make a difference for children with disabilities, lets do our part to provide education and opportunity to those who live in countries without the means to allow for the success of people with disabilities. In addition to your financial support, you can also make a HUGE difference by telling the people you know, your word of mouth is priceless. Forward this message onto your friends, and friends of your friends. This is an email forward to be proud of. Be sure to remove the FW: from the subject line when passing this along, as people tend to just delete those. I know we can do it, and I look forward to moving toward success for these children with your support.

~Mickey

Ability Beyond the Horizon is growing by LEAPS and BOUNDS!

My apologies for how long its been since an update on the idea formerly known as the "Vietnam Project" and now formally referred to as Ability Beyond the Horizon. These past couple months have been explosive for ABH, I'd like to bring you up to speed so you can be as excited as I am.

We're now a registered not for profit corporation in the state of Florida. Thanks to Jake Kiker of Williams, Gautier, Gwynn, Deloach & Sorenson, P.A., we now have a fully fleshed out corporation, he and his staff have done incredible things in a very short while for the children of Vietnam, and for no pay.

In addition to becoming a fully realized corporation, we also have an incredible board of directors. I will introduce you to them in the next update, but its a dream team of six individuals plus myself, who are pillars in their respective fields of expertise, and we are so fortunate to have them and their broad range of talents working on Ability Beyond the Horizon.

Thanks to a good friend who I had lost touch with until very recently, we also have dedicated web space now. Vikram Aggarwal of http://www.mayin.org/aragorn/ has generously donated 3 years of web hosting for Ability Beyond the Horizon in order to ensure its success. Couple that generosity with that of Shawn Laasch and his web designing abilities, and Ability Beyond the Horizon will have a website to be proud of very soon!

To update you on our mission, we're thinking globally here. This started with just helping kids in the city of Hue, Vietnam that were visually impaired, and is quickly evolving. Ability Beyond the Horizon is thinking larger than that, we're looking at helping kids with disabilities in developing nations around the world. Vietnam is the first step, but children with disabilities all over the developing world can use our help, and as I've mentioned before, the little expense of it means that even those of us that are hardest hit by the economy can make a huge difference in these children's lives. Our money still is in some cases 10 times as powerful as their own currency. By doing so, you will actually be impacting the next generation of the world's population. Not just the children themselves, but the perceptions of the people around them, this will have a domino effect in the entire culture.

Our work here will directly increase peace, awareness, and compassion in the world. I will tell you how you can help very soon. Thank you to everyone for your continuing support, if we stay moving at this pace, and we will, we will have a full "roll out" of Ability Beyond the Horizon by end of March. I'm so glad you all have been here from the beginning to encourage the process along, and I look forward to your continued support as we see where this idea spawned in a coffee shop in Vietnam less than a year ago, takes us all.

~Mickey

Ability Beyond the Horizon

So what do you think as a name for our organization?

To understand the depth of the name, it is important to define horizon. A horizon is an edge, an edge that appears very real, but is really just the edge of our perception, knowledge, or awareness. The horizon caused our ancestors to believe the world was flat, that should we sail too far, we'd fall right off the edge of the earth. It took someone like Columbus, and others, to push the envelope and thus determine that the horizon was really only an illusion that concealed much possibility and potential, in his case, North America.

The context in which I'm using "horizon" in this instance, is in viewing a person with a disability. Many people around the world, including right here in the US, see someone with a disability and all they see is the impairment, the limit, the horizon. The reason I wish to name our group "Ability Beyond the Horizon", is to remind us that, should we push further than our immediate perception, should we dare to invest a little more energy, we may find promise, potential, and Ability. History teaches us that looking beyond the horizon is often a worthwhile endeavor. Through our organization, I'd like to draw the awareness of the people of Vietnam, and elsewhere the path might take us, toward a different horizon, but one that still promises possibility. Through early intervention services, and hopefully one day other services as well, I believe that "Ability Beyond the Horizon" can make a cultural shift in the minds of people, so that when they see the person with a disability, they learn to look past the immediate horizon, and see a person, a person that can make a meaningful contribution to the world.

Thanks to everyone that sent in your ideas for a name, there were many great ones, and many that bumped me along to this current name which literally woke me from a dead sleep night before last. I was so energized, I couldn't go back to sleep, and had to get up and write it down. I'm convinced that if it were not for your suggestions I would have taken a lot longer to discover the right name for our group. I think this one really resonates, what do you think, is this a name, an idea, that people can get behind and support?

Thanks for following along on the journey. Exciting things are just around the corner.

~Mickey

What's in a name?? I need your help!

Hey everyone, its been awhile since I left Vietnam. As promised though, I'm trying to put together a non profit for early intervention services. I've not dropped the ball on this, but it takes longer than I anticipated. But, thanks to the help of a couple attorneys, who are incredibly busy right now but still doing their best to help, I'm now at the leg of the journey where I have to figure out the governing laws of the corporation. One of the very first things to answer is the name! That's where I'm lost, so I'd like to enlist your help.

The name is so IMPORTANT, this is going to be how people first taste the idea behind the organization. It needs to be something that really tells the listener the flavor of what we're about, so that they are interested in hearing the details. It needs to be something that will inspire them to want to give support to, something they can be proud of, and sounds good when they tell their friends, so those friends will also want to be a part of it. The name is a very weighty thing, and its making me nervous, so I thought I'd ask for your help :-)

Here's what I don't want, I don't want Vietnam in the name, or vision, visual impairment, blindness, etc. The reason is, I don't want to limit the potential of the group. I don't plan to stay only in Vietnam if this is successful, I'd like to roll it out to other countries that need the help also. I also don't plan to stick with just visual impairments because there are many others with disabilities that also need services. We can use the word Foundation, but not corporation, corporation sounds too much like money hungry oil mongers. The main thread I've got running in my mind revolves around potential and possibility. Everything I imagine doing with the group in some way opens up the path for a person with a disability to realize their potential. Right now, potential is not fulfilled due to lack of opportunity/education. What I want to do is blaze that trail open for them so they can move as far as they like toward their potential. Sounds idealistic I know, but my thinking is, reach as high as I can, and even if we fall short, we're still much higher than we expected.

So, do you all have any ideas? This is such an exciting time right now, and I'm hoping I can tap into your creative juices a little bit. No idea is a bad idea, please just start pumping them out, leave them in the comments or email them to me at visionteacher @ gmail.com pretty please. Obviously, I'll throw out most of them since I can only use one name, but I'm hoping somewhere in there will be the one that resonates with me, and really encapsulates what we're trying to accomplish. Poor Melissa last night was throwing out names left and right, and I was like, no, no, not that one, nope that's not quite right. So don't get discouraged! I'll keep you posted on the process, and hopefully will have a name for you very soon. I need it to go to the next step!

~Mickey

Wrapping up with final thoughts

Well I'm back home now. The flight was grueling. It turned out to be 48 hours total of traveling across the world. I flew from Hue to Hanoi, then sat there for about 11 hours, then flew from Hanoi to South Korea and sat there for another 8 or so hours. Then across the pacific to San Francisco, on to Houston, and finally touching down in Jacksonville, arriving around midnight. Melissa was there to meet me at the airport, and it was really nice to see her, obviously :-) We stayed in a hotel that night, and came home around 3 on Saturday. It was a long journey home, but pretty uneventful, which isn't a bad thing.

Being home has been strange, its largely like I never left. Life kind of dropped right back into normal pretty immediately, except that neither of us are working right now, which is making me a little stir crazy. We're both off for school, and start back in middle of August. Long update ahead, but its the last one, so hopefully we can all make it through :-P

So, Vietnam, without the risk of being censored. Most of you may not know, and I couldn't say it while there, but Vietnam has a tendency to be very interested in what people put on the Internet about them. They read emails, and shut down email accounts if they find what you're saying to be disagreeable. They randomly block things, like my phone, for no reason, at least no reason I could discern. Websites that they find objectionable they just filter out, and you get an error as if the site were down. All this is done without any appeals process or number to call. When my phone was killed, they just blocked it, I couldn't call anyone and tell them that I'm not an activist, I'm just trying to call home. They didn't send me a note saying that they've blocked it, I guess they figured I'd figure it out.

So anyway, my blog has always been true, but there have been pieces I didn't mention simply because I didn't want to risk the whole blog being shut down.

Vietnam is a great place, and now, hopefully due to my project, a place I'll return to, because I'll have to. Steve, the Australian I mentioned a few posts back says that Vietnam is a place that just gets in your blood, you can't help it, and some people just get bitten by the bug. I think I was bitten. The people there are incredibly hard working, kind, intelligent, and just great. The food is amazing, the country is beautiful, and the potential for growth is huge. That being said, it has a lot of problems, many of them are cultural in nature. This is one reason why I'm starting this early intervention project, so that hopefully I can do a small part to change the culture of at least a few of the people as it relates to people with disabilities.

The government is technically Communist, but that is in my opinion, communist in name only. Communism as its sold to the people involves everyone working together and as a community rising up, the weakest members being cared for by the strongest so that all prosper. In reality, communism by Vietnam standards is really a government that is riddled with bureaucracy, and corruption. A few benefiting from Communism, while the rest just struggle to get along. This isn't because the people are bad, they're not, its just that the opportunity is there so they take it. When the average household income is something like 25 dollars a month, its too much of a temptation when you can get $100 in a less than honest means. Its no different than the corruption that exists here from time to time, its just here with the dollar being more of a world standard, the bribe or enticement must be quite high to make it worth the risk. There, for someone in government, 100 bucks might be two months wages for a simple turning and looking the other way. Honestly, in your hearts, how many of you can truly say that if someone asked you to just briefly turn a blind eye for 2 months salary, that you would not be tempted. The thing with corruption is that it doesn't appear to hurt anyone at first, its just such a little thing, and its a minor breaking of a rule. But, when everyone is doing it, you get catastrophes, because it all adds up. That's the problem with Vietnam, people will cheat if given enough motivation, and from the outside coming in, when their currency is worth so little compared to world standards like the dollar or Euro, its easy to make enough motivation to entice someone to cheat, just a little... See that's the thing with Vietnam, its not bad, the people are great people, but they're surviving, and they have families to feed. The same could likely be said for any country suffering from government corruption, good people with a lot to gain for their families by doing something just a little unethical. You may notice that most of those countries riddled with these problems exist in places where they are fairly low on the world totem pole, the drive to succeed is very strong, and just like with high stakes testing in the US, when the stakes are high, the consequences great, or terrible, the drive to cheat becomes very tempting. When the stakes are high, humans historically do whatever it takes and think about ethics later. That is humanity as a whole, there are always exceptions, so please I'm not meaning you specifically, but if you doubt my statements about humanity, read a history book, United States History would be a good starting place :-)

Another frustrating aspect of Vietnam is that they eat everything. If it has muscular tissue, its fair game for the dinner table. It does at first seem a more realistic way to look at foods, we tend to split hairs here about eating a cow and eating a horse, when functionally they fill the same niche in an Ecosystem, but for some reason a horse is yucky, a cow is yummy, in Vietnam they both qualify as being steak. This attitude though, has caused their country to be destroyed from an ecosystem stand point. Since virtually nothing moving is off limits, you don't even see squirrels in the trees. They catch song birds and either eat them or sell them. Sadly, the only time I heard a bird singing in Vietnam, it came from a cage. This could be a metaphor for the country, even when presented with such adversity the bird still chooses to sing...

They throw their trash out everywhere, so the rivers are polluted with garbage, the streets are normally clean because they have people that come through every night with a broom and sweep them, but the habit of tossing trash to the ground pervades. So where there aren't sweepers, there's garbage. Vietnam actually has native tigers and monkeys, I never saw them, but they're there somewhere, in very small numbers. If I were to guess I would say that with some cultural shifts, and strong protections placed on their environment, the Vietnamese could have a lush country brimming with ecological diversity much like Costa Rica. At this point it would take a long time to get there, but its worth the effort I believe. One of Costa Rica's largest industries is tourism, the reason for it is that you are in an Eden when you go to the country, but the people believe in it, and so it happens. You have to start with the individual, their belief is what changes the reality, it must be a bottom up approach. If you can't convince the farmer not to eat the monkey, government intervention will not be very effective.

So there are a few issues with Vietnam, but in all, the country has many redeeming qualities which I've highlighted throughout this blog. More importantly it has great potential to continue its upward movement. Apparently it was far worse off in the 60's than it is now, so in 40 years they've come a long way. Hopefully in 40 more they'll surprise us all.

In terms of my project, all is set in Vietnam for it, now I need to get it working here in the US. So my first step is organizing a non-profit, and then getting set up to take tax deductible donations. At that point, I need to start generating money. I'll let you know when that's all set up, so those of you who have already offered money can do so with a tax deduction. Thank you in advance, truly, I never really expected money for the project to come from the blog, but I'm very glad for it anyway. It tells me that my idea may actually be viable. While in Vietnam before I left, I actually met with the ex mayor of Hue, who is an incredibly kind person, and is very interested in my project. So much so, that he's putting some of his weight behind it in dealing with other pieces of the pie over there, helping to grease the wheels so to speak. That's exactly what I needed. With his help, and Nhi, who I couldn't have made any of this possible without, I've got the project set up in a week. That's INCREDIBLE in a country where government is known for being slow to move, its nearly a slogan.

So being a teacher, I often ask myself, what did I learn?

Vietnam taught me that being cranky about things that are out of my control does not do anything except make me cranky. When the electricity was out for 6 hours of the day I could make a choice. I couldn't do anything about the electricity, but I could choose how I dealt with it, either by being mad and whining about it for the 6 hours, or moving forward and doing something else. A shoulder shrug and moving on did amazing things for my personal stress level. I'm a pretty easy going guy, but this helped me to be even more healthy with this aspect of life. So much we encounter is absolutely not in our control, yet its what brings us the most stress in our lives, and for what? My being ticked off never brought the electricity back faster, and once I realized that, and made the decision to just not get mad about it, life got so much more pleasant.

Vietnam taught me that antibacterial soap is not necessary for survival, I never saw any, and I didn't see the black plague taking out the populace. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to wash my hands after going to the restroom, but is it truly necessary to use industrial strength space age super cleanser on the floor when Vinegar does just as well? Vietnam taught me to save my money and use the vinegar.

Vietnam taught me that possessions do not bring happiness. I've seen people in Vietnam that have less than the poorest people in the US, and they were happier than some of our most wealthy. One of the happiest people I met slept on 8 chairs pushed together in a 95 degree heat with near 100% humidity with just a fan every night, and never complained about it. Not only did he not complain, but when I offered to get him a bed, he didn't want it, he liked sleeping where he was. This wasn't modesty either, Nhi discreetly inquired, and he truly didn't want the bed. Weird...to me. I never saw anyone taking anti depressants, or ADD medication, I don't entirely know why, except that they just seemed like a happier lot of people. I have my opinions, but without having depression I can't really understand what the friends I know with depression are going through, so my credibility in commenting is not very high, all I can say is that in Vietnam, I didn't see it, I'll leave you to individually draw your own conclusions.

Vietnam for me held a mirror against the US, its not just a political difference, but almost in every way their culture is opposite ours. Even their language being based on tones and not phonetic, at the very root, Vietnam is different from the United States. In seeing those differences I feel like it has made me a better person. I think both of our cultures could take much from each other, not destroying our own culture in the process, but improving it. From the Vietnamese, we could borrow individual happiness and satisfaction as well as a work ethic that is unbelievable. From us, they could borrow environmental awareness, and personal freedom, and a little bit of time for their selves, hobbies are a luxury there. Vietnam shifted my outlook, and I think for the better, and I hope permanently. I truly wish that the next time something happens that is out of my control, I will choose to shrug my shoulders and move onto a choice that is in my control rather than ruining my day over something that is out of my hands.

Thank you for going through this process with me. Writing a blog has been something that has been incredibly helpful for me to organize my thoughts. I've gained more insights and delved deeper into my feelings by taking the time write them down than I would have just visiting the country. I would never have done that without having readers to read them. So thanks for sticking with me. I know I get long winded sometimes, I've gotten the complaints from some of you, but its been incredibly helpful for me, and so thank you for suffering through on my behalf :-) I intend to keep the blog up, and I'll probably shift its focus to updates on my project. Updates will be few I'm sure, definitely less than weekly. I hope you'll continue to read, and I hope my insights through this experience brought at least one insight to you. I'd love it, in fact, if you had any particular insights or creative musings to have them emailed to me, or left in the comments. What were your thoughts on this whole experience? Please take the time to "blog" about it to me if you like, I'd love to read it. Its the least I can do after putting you through all this over a month or more, and maybe you'll gain insight that I had not considered yet. I love you all, and thanks to everyone for reading, and I hope to bring more interesting information your way as time moves forward.

~Mickey

Wow! major change in plans...

Ok, so life has significantly altered course. So much so that the last post ended with me saying, "nearly half way there" or something like that. Well guess what, I'm actually going to be home Friday night at 10:50 or something. Its crazy and I'm still reeling. I'll explain all that in a bit, first, as promised, I'll update you on all the happenings with the project I alluded to in the last post.

I've mentioned before about an Early Intervention program for the country and how they really need one. Early intervention is when a specialist gets involved in a family of a child with a disability at a very early age, the earlier the better; in order to support the child, and family, and facilitate the typical development of the child as best as possible. Children with disabilities, without early intervention, often enter school significantly behind their typical peers. Those with early intervention, are often much closer to being on track, if not completely at grade level. Vietnam, much like our own country 50 years ago, and often less than that depending on where you look, view people with disabilities as essentially useless and incapable. This, we know is not true. Those in the "know", know that people with disabilities can often perform the same tasks that those without can, and often times with the same efficiency, but they often need accommodations.

In any case, Vietnam has a pretty dim view of those with disabilities, including those, and sometiems especially those, with visual impairments. The rub of it all, is that its kind of a self fulfilling prophecy. Because they do not expect the people with disabilities to succeed, the "village" does not invest in that person, just like with any person, an investment by those around them is necessary in order to reach their true potential. An investment of education, support, and love, are all critical to the full development of any individual. Because the society does not believe they can do anything, they don't educate the people with disabilities, and thus do not provide opportunities for success. So, guess what? The people with disabilities in Vietnam are often useless to society. No surprise when you look at it in that light. This isn't because they have to be, but because of insurmountable barriers erected by their cultural belief system. This is where my project comes into play.

I'm going to start a program for early intervention for children with visual impairments. What this will do, is facilitate a specialist getting into the home at an early age and hopefully educate the family about their child. With the family being one of the basic building blocks of a society, the hope is that by educating them we can slowly work to change the attitudes of the culture bit by bit. My hope is that we can start with blindness, but develop a model that works for Vietnam that can be expanded out to all children with disabilities. With the specialists entering in the home early, we can perhaps keep the child with the family even through school, getting away from the current institution model that's the norm. The child can be supported while growing up, keeping up with his/her sighted peers, and ultimately fulfilling a successful role as a contributing member of society, helping to alter the opinions of those around him or her regarding disability.

So the logistics of the plan now need to be ironed out. Usually, for a project like I'm thinking about starting, I'd need to move to Vietnam. I really don't want to do that. I like Vietnam, but we have quite the life established in Tallahassee, and I don't want to leave that behind. Luckily, I've got Nhi, my interpreter. It turns out that the students in the class aren't the only ones that I've swayed to "the way of the force" during my time here. She's interested in being the feet on the ground for me in Vietnam and to keep in contact with me in the states. This is a very fortunate happening, and the only way really that this would be possible. She's perfect for the position. She's very plugged into the community here, she speaks both languages, she already has connections with the school after this summer working with them, and she's been educated by me for the last 4 weeks or whatever it is. We already work well together, and she's a very assertive individual, read, she gets what she wants without ticking people off. I couldn't sculpt a better fit for the job. Next, I've picked two of my students to be the first "early interventionists" in Vietnam. They've got a good bit less education than we need to have in the states, but they have a will to learn, and a desire to make a difference. I think we can work with that, and fill in the gaps in knowledge as we go along. At this point, I'm working from the idea that any family education is better than no education. No education, literally in some cases, causes the child to never be taken out of the house, or given any opportunities. Sometimes friends of the family don't even know the child is alive. Some of them come to the school at 12 and can't even speak! So getting to the families, I think, is a priority for effecting real change for the people with visual impairments in Vietnam, and hopefully disabilities as a hole ultimately.

Nhi and I have worked out a rough budget for a 6 month pilot project. I will provide the direction for the project, the over seeing of the reports and education of the staff, as well as fundraising. Nhi will be the supervisor, and the liaison to the community, and says she might be able to drum up some local money as well. All in all a rough budget for 6 months for the project looks like about $1000. Is that crazy or what? I'd like to raise some additional funds so that I can make a trip back out here about once a year, to deliver more education, but that will be next spring at the earliest, so I don't really factor that into the budget yet. Nhi doesn't want any money for her work, yet. She wants to see how the funds go first and if there's money left over she may accept a stipend, but she won't promise. I think she's crazy, I didn't realize I was the only one willing to work for free around here, her job will be much harder than mine. I've told her this, but she really wants to do it. So I'll let her :-)

I'm very excited about this opportunity and hope that I can get it off the ground and cruising. Nhi thinks it has a good chance at success, and she's familiar with these kinds of things, she already works with two other projects dealing with much bigger budgets than we'll start with. Though, who knows where it'll end up if we roll it out for all disabilities, and then nation wide... But we have to start small and manageable. So for now, and the next couple years it'll be pretty small, maybe...

Moving along, I went to Hoi An this weekend, it was ok... I really didn't care for it too much, it was extremely hot, and the people were desperate for money and would come out to the street to pull you into their shops. It was very hassling. I did take a cooking class while there, and I'm excited about that and the opportunity to cook some neat things when I get home. I learned how to cook fish, or any meat really, in a banana leaf, I learned how to cook a meal in this little ceramic pot that I now need to buy before I leave here :-) And I learned how to cook what is pretty much their national meal, pho, which is a soup that's delicious. So dinner parties at my house when I get home! :-) My poor banana plants are going to regret my trip to Vietnam.

So back to my imminent departure. Bob's visa through some mistake in processing runs out this next week. We've really taught a lot in the 15 hours a week we're teaching right now, so Gabby elected to not have Bob change his visa and instead just make this our last week of teaching, and since Bob is leaving, she thinks I may as well go too... Now some side info, is that she's really unhappy with my wanting to start this early intervention program, she doesn't think it'll work and she's kind of mad about it, though wants no part of it, even though I asked her out of courtesy if she wanted to be a part of it. I was very happy when she said no. So I think that's part of her getting me out of here. The thing is, she's planning to leave herself, so I don't really see why she's annoyed by it, but whatever, its not about her. So anyway, she set me up to leave Tuesday morning and spend two days in Hanoi before heading out. I don't like Hanoi much, and there's no extended trips I can really take that would be functional and not hectic in two days. So, I've changed my trip and am flying to Hanoi Thursday morning now. I had to buy my own ticket to Hanoi, which is 50 bucks but its worth it to me. I'll leave Thursday night and get back to Jacksonville Friday night at 11ish. Its pretty amazing. I'm having a party for the people at the hotel on Tuesday that I set up last week, we're bussing them all out to the beach for 3 hours. That's another reason why leaving Tuesday morning was a no go. I'm going to miss something I was very honored to be invited to. Nhi's family is getting together for the "death anniversary" of her father on Friday, and I was invited to attend. I was very honored, and looking forward to going, I guess I won't be now. Gabby is just determined to do whatever she can to screw things up for me it feels like, its been an ongoing theme of this trip. When I get my feet on the ground in Florida I plan to write her an email outlining her lack of professionalism and how I think she could do a better job next time. Communication skills will be top of the list! But, since she's in control now of my stay here and my leaving, I need to play nice for a few more days.

So that's everything so far, I've added a couple pics, haven't gotten them all up yet, but there's nothing too earth shattering.

This guy was sleeping along the edge of the river, he doesn't live there, I guess it was just a mid day nap...









This lady worked in the market, I snapped this when she wasn't looking. Women are I think, the hardest working people in Vietnam. They are tireless and must work until they die because I see exceptionally old looking women working their tails off right along side 20 somethings. I have huge amounts of respect for them.

Oh and I forgot to mention, my phone thing I had worked out so I could call people like mom and dad, at their houses, yeah, that got killed. After I came home from Hanoi the phone just quit connecting to the server, I called tech support and they said the signal is not coming through, which means its been blocked. Very annoying, and seemingly deliberate, though I can't figure out what the motivation would be. So anyway, that's why I haven't called anyone, I still check email though!

A few more days, and much to do, hopefully I'll get good things accomplished between now and then. Until next time...

~Mickey

I get out of the city, and its exactly what I needed

So last week, I was sort of getting into a funk. People were annoying me, I was being uncreative, unmotivated, and just feeling generally not well. So, I was planning to visit Hanoi, which is the capital of Vietnam, old seat of the dreaded Viet Cong during the war days. My purpose for the visit was to try and get a visa to India, to see my great friends Anubhav and Nandini. I've not written about it here because I didn't want Nan's knowing about it. Anubhav and I were trying to make it a surprise, but sadly its not going to work out :-( So the cat is out of the bag, and I'm a little bummed about not making it to India, but I think Melissa and I will try to get it next year or something. Sorry Nans, I tried.

Hanoi is a hell for someone that doesn't like to be hassled. It was a little different from Hue. In Hue when you walk down the street the motorbike drivers try to get you to rent their motorbike and their guide services, or the cyclo drivers try to bike you around. That gets annoying, but in Hanoi, they'll follow you down the street. A pack of them, when there's no way you'll be able to use all their services, they just follow you until another victim happens along. I also had a horrible experience with the cab drivers, and hotel owners trying to cheat me out of money. I'd get a price for the trip before getting into the cab, then we'd get there and the guy would start whining about it being so far, and he wanted more money and so forth. One guy tried to give me half the change I was owed hoping I wouldn't get the exchange rate down in my head. That guy nearly didn't get paid at all, and I think he sensed that so came off my change. Then the first hotel room that cost me 20 bucks, a fortune for what I actually got, tried to charge me 5 bucks for a small bottle of water. So yeah, my experience with Hanoi, its busy, its dirty, and the people are greedy. It does have some pretty spots though, and I've been told I didn't get a fair look at it having only really spent 24 hours there. The rest of the time was on Ha Long Bay...

It is an amazing place, and my photos don't do it justice at all unfortunately. I paid $60 for 2 days and 1 night on a "junk" that toured the bay. Its extremely touristy, far more than is my typical pursuit but since I don't have my own boat and there's like 2000 islands in the bay its pretty much only accessible by taking a tour. The Lonely Planet Guide Book says that its really hit and miss on the tour you'll get, and the price is extremely variable. One person on my boat paid 85 for the same tour I paid 60 for to give you an idea. Our boat was probably mid range, we had decent rooms, but it wasn't very "new". I guess it is called a Junk. One room leaked, the girl that paid 85 got that one. She slept in a puddle that night. I didn't even know it rained, so boy did I feel like a jerk the next morning, being oblivious the rain. The food was excellent, but we had to run the German roaches off the table as we ate. They kept trying to walk onto the table with us, it was pretty gross, but we needed to eat, so we dealt.







Here's the dining room, looks really snazzy, even the roaches think so....






I met some great people, and I'm actually going to catch back up with them this next weekend when I visit Hoi An, so that should be fun. Aside from the roaches, and the leaky room, we had a great time. The chemistry of the 8 of us was great, and we just sat on the deck at night chatting about anything and everything. Much of it was American politics, Americans are not favorites in the world community right now, and these were international people. They think we're inept bullies and are terrified of what trouble we'll get into/cause next. I just sort of ducked my head, and didn't really know what to say about it, I didn't get us into the mess. They seemed to understand that, and felt sorry for me I think. The collection of nationalities represented were, 2 Australians, a family of folks from Denmark, a lady from London who is originally from the Ukraine, and a girl from Southern California.

There was a fantastic cave in the bay, I'll put a pic up, but go to the gallery to see more, you'll find the link at the end of this post. It was very awesome. We also went on a kayak trip, that would have been my time to get some great pictures, but it was a wet adventure so the camera stayed on the Junk. On day 2 we headed back to Hanoi, and I jumped in a cab for the airport, to argue more about money with a greedy taxi driver.

Despite the weird things here and there, this weekend away was great medicine for me. I've felt much better these past two days, and I look forward to this next weekend when I catch back up with my new friends. I would tell you their names, but honestly, I don't remember :-) This is typical of me, names just slide right off my brain, I'll never forget their faces, but their names just don't stick. I'll know their faces when I see them again though. Friends are made very fast when traveling, you don't know much about them, but you really enjoy the company for what it is, and then you move on. Kind of strange really. I'll spend an entire day with someone, and then at the end of it, I know I'll never see them again, where else would that happen except in a foreign country where one is starved for speaking one's native language?

Today I was invited to ride out to Nhi's village with her. She's my interpreter and she wanted to drop her neice home with her family and pick up some veggies while there. Talk about going off the tourist track, people stared at me, people waved and yelled "Hello!". It was really funny, they don't see white boys too much out there. I've put up some pics from the experience, I didn't take any at Nhi's actual house, but a few coming in and leaving. I try to be discreet with my photography, I don't want people thinking I'm making a specatcle of their lifestyle, so I left the camera in the bag. She took me upstairs to what was basically a shrine to her two late brothers and father. They had a whole room dedicated to them. She lit some incense for them, and told me a little about each of them.

In Vietnam the major religion is Buddhism, but really its more like ancestor worship, with a side of Buddhism. Every house, every store, has a little shrine where they have incense burning, and some offering bowls where fruit or vegetables are placed. Its usually the man of the house's duty to tend the shrine each day, though anyone in the family can do it. They have big dinners on the anniversary of people's passing all the way out to great grandfathers and who knows if beyond. Its very serious stuff here. I think they look to their passed ancestors for guidance and wisdom, and for them to look out for their family still alive. I've not verfied this officially but that's the sense I get.

In any case back on track. It was a great honor to me to be invited to Nhi's house, I really enjoyed it, and hope to go back. I didn't really say much, there's a large language barrier, so I just followed Nhi around while she picked vegetables for her dinner, and asked questions.



Here's what it looked like on the way to her house.












Some women washing their clothes in the river.





I think that's enough for now, I feel like I've been writing this forever and there's not much substance to it. Sorry Dr. Lewis :-) My next update will probably deal with the idea of my starting some sort of program here, that's going to be its own post though, so I'll leave you all with this piece to digest for a couple days, and when I get my thoughts together on the next mire I'm about to get into, I'll give you a synopsis. I miss everyone, nearly half way through though!

~Mickey

ps. Here are the latest pics, hope you enjoy, I don't have them captioned yet, but I'll try to get that done soon...
http://picasaweb.google.com/visionteacher/Hanoi
http://picasaweb.google.com/visionteacher/HanoiHaLongBay
http://picasaweb.google.com/visionteacher/MotorbikeTourOfHueNhiSVillage