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