Oriention... Vietnam... Go!

Greetings from Hanoi! As I near the end of my first week here, I figure it is about time I make my first blog post. Entering the blogosphere will be yet another cultural adjustment, so please bare with me as I learn. Here it goes...

Between August 9 and 16, I along with about 100 other SALTers, IVEPers and YAMENers enjoyed MCC orientation in lovely Akron, PA. (quick acronym translation: SALT = Serving and Learning Together, IVEP = International Volunteer Exchange Program, YAMEN = Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Program, MCC = Mennonite Central Committee). IVEP and SALT are opposites, meaning IVEP brings young people from around the world for a year of service in North America, while SALT sends from North America to a variety of global locations. YAMEN is a newer program that does South-to-South exchange, e.g., Africa to Asia. It was wonderful to share knowledge about our home countries with each other, as well our common excitement and anxiety. Here is an excerpt from my journal from August 10 that I think embodies the richness of insight I found could come with honest cross-cultural conversations:

I had a really interesting conversation with Maria (name changed) who is from Jordan about how she is really nervous about interacting with American men/scared about being around them at all. Apparently where she is from, people think that men in the US regularly grab women, stuff them in cars, drive them away and rape them. Unfortunately this very truly does happen... but not to the extent that Maria fears. So with very simple English, though hers is really quite good and she learning SO fast, I tried to explain that she does not need to feel severely scared for her safety while traveling to work or being there during the day. And then I was thinking about the frightening perceptions of the Middle East I have, and I tried to explain this and ask her if she feels scared being there all the time. She said no, and so I tried to make the connection that it's the same here - like I don't feel scared being out by myself and it's more about stereotypes and misperceptions. I don't really feel like I did a great job of explaining all this, but in the end she said thank you a lot and said she felt much calmer.

Noticing how her fears about America seemed so ridiculous to me but so real to her made me wonder how ridiculous my perceptions of other places around the world must be compared to the lived reality. The week was full of countless such learnings from other new MCCers and MCC staff. Along with the education, I felt it was a really valuable transitional space - not home but not my SALT location. There was also time for yoga on the lawn, a Latino dance party, and tons of photos snapped with new friends, including Edder from Colombia who is going to Goshen!



Then on Saturday the 16th, I was off for 33 hours of travel! We stared with a group of about a dozen travelers and at each stop along the way, it was time to say good bye to a few. As cliche as it sounds, it really seemed like we'd all known each other for much more than just one week! My dear fellow Hanoi SALTer, Hannah Forsyth, and I made the trip together all the way, and it was great to have a travel buddy the whole time.

We arrived nicely exhausted but in good spirits and with all our luggage. We were very fortunate to have a very uneventful and smooth journey. Hannah and I even got in a little bit of yoga with some new friends from Japan and the US during our layover in LA!


Since arriving in Hanoi, Hannah and I have been staying at the MCC House, a.k.a, Kim Ma House after the major street it is off of. This is where the country rep, Derek Hosteter, and his family, partner Ana and sons Lucas (4.5 years) and Chase (8 months), live. Paul Strietelmeier is a new three-year MCC who will be teaching university English classes is here for week too. Lowell Jantzi, the outgoing CR, is also here for about two weeks to orient us all. So far, we have all spent a lot of time at the MCC Hanoi office meeting the local staff and learning about MCC's experience in Vietnam over the past 50 years (all very interesting and inspirational stuff), spent a day riding around Hanoi on motor bike (see photo of Hanoi traffic below!) and visiting some important historical spots (the city will celebrate its 1000th birthday in 2010!!), and eating lots and lots of delicious food (with three to five different dishes every lunch and dinner, I have seriously not eaten the same thing twice!).



Altogether, the week has been very full, very disorienting, very orienting, tiring, exciting, meloncoly, happy, scary, and delicious. Sometimes I feel each emotion in turn and sometimes all together. Often I can't really tell how I feel... and then I simply exist and that's ok too. In any case, I am very glad that I am here and I feel sure I will continue to live bathed in a richness of emotions and experiences as long as I am here. As usual, the universe is very good to me.

Wow, I didn't really mean to write this much right off the bat! To conclude, here are some photos from Bat Trang, a village where families have been making ceramics for the past 800 years! We visited it this morning and toured the workshop where 10,000 Villages purchases all its Vietnamese ceramic ware. It was such a crazy feeling to see the finely painted blue and white tea pots and cups I recognize from the store at home... in their original home. The man who runs the workshop is the 18th generation to do so... what a feeling of rootedness to a physical place and to a craft. I can't even imagine. It was a beautiful experience to feel invited into that in a very small way with tea (or course), a personal tour, a free item for each of us, and a warm invitation to visit anytime we are in Bat Trang. I certainly plan on enjoying that invitation before too long.