Night at the Opera

I have been suffering a lot recently in Viet Nam. One particularly painful event was a recent night at the Ha Noi Opera House for a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra. The Opera House is a beloved landmark in Ha Noi. And also a relic of French colonialism. But as usual, the Vietnamese people seem to take what comes their way, make it their own if it didn't start out that like that and not get too stirred up about it. Today it is enjoyed by Vietnamese locals, foreign residents and tourists alike. It's located in the "Old Quarter" at the centre of the city, and I always bike past it on my way to the Action for the City office.

The plaza in front, free of all those pesky lanes, signs and rules that usually govern traffic, is always an exciting place to pass through.


Here is Hannah and me in the washroom, preparing for to head into the theatre. We are obviously very classy (taking photos in the public washroom mirror) and very Asian (notice the photo fingers). Or not.


We were also joined by our dear friend Lana, a one-year volunteer from England who I work with at Action for the City. Sadly she is leaving to "ve nuoc" (return to home country) very soon:( One of those unfortunately cut-short friendships peculiar to we globe-trotting, wealthy Westerners I talked about in my last post.

Yes, we had special matching bracelets for the night. They are wood lacquer art, a specialty in northern Viet Nam. I bought one. When Hannah saw it that evening, she decided she would like one too. So we went to the shop near the Opera House where I'd bought it. Then on the way out, decided we'd better get one for Lana too.


Finally, here is the orchestra. I thought they were wonderful, though I'm not much of a musical judge, and it was lovely to hear and see some classical music being created.

Lana and me on one of the Opera House's many balcony where we waved to our subjects (no nasty colonial overtones intended!) and then posed for the media core.

Hannah and I join Bac (Uncle) Ho's orchestra. As in Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of modern Viet Nam. You see him everywhere. Posing as we are with his likeness is probably not very PC... but in lots of his pictures, Bac Ho looks like he's laughing on the inside about something no one else knows (yes, like the Mona Lisa), and I bet he wouldn't mind having two "nguoi tay" (Westerners) join in the music.

It was all together a lovely evening and one of those times, which have been occurring more and more frequently, when I realize ways I really like living here and things I'm going to miss when I don't anymore. I just started looking through the mass of "re-entry" material MCC was graciously provided... and started feeling a little freaked out about how this SALT term is actually going to END. There were points over the past 10 months in which I really thought it never would. And I remember remarking to a friend half way though, You know, if I left right now, I'd don't think I'd miss anything. Well, fortunately (though maybe I did not think so then) I did not leave in January, and now... well, I'm starting to get kind of tearful when I think about going and worry that maybe I didn't enjoy being here enough for most of my term.

Your prayers and positive energies for me as I begin the process of leaving and returning -- for calm, comfort, reconciliation for internal and external conflicts, good goodbyes, realistic expectations for homecoming and working through all the logistics of returning to North American life -- would be much appreciated as I enter the re-entry period.

I'd just like to say a hearth felt thank you to all of you who email, write letters and skype with me regularly or irregularly. Every little bit counts, it really does. The love and support from friends and family at home that has remained steady from beginning to (almost) end of my term really has been and continues to be a most wonderful gift. I hope I can pass it back to you and to others in the future.

work: part 2

So as promised (a long time ago), this blog will explain my work at Action for the City (www.vidothi.org/en). Yay! Action for the City is a Vietnamese NGO which I usually describe as doing "sustainable urban development" or something of the sort. Its mission is this:

To improve the quality of life for all in Hanoi and other cities by increasing community participation, bringing common voices to policy-makers, and using a variety of creative forms and media as tools for social change.

It works at this mission by focusing in three areas:

(1) Environment: We work to slow down the process of climate change and create a healthy environment for all. (2) Social development: We work to reduce urban poverty, promote equal access to social services and advocate for disadvantaged groups. (3) Creative urban living: We work to bring out and celebrate the creativity of individuals and communities for a sustainable lifestyle.

In practice, these goals take the form of projects like working with local farmers to produce and market organic vegetables (healthier for the farmers, consumer and environment and also increases income); organizing university students to evaluate the food safety at street food shops and spreading the information among their peers (though they're delicious, food poisoning from such places is quite a problem); holding workshops for local offices about "greening your workplace" led by foreign specialists on behaviour change; organizing a Green Transport Day on which people are encouraged to go by foot, bike or bus, as opposed to private motor vehicle; and running a massage clinic that employs visually impaired massage therapists.

My work with ACF for the past five months has been focused on the last two of these projects. For Green Transport Day, I have worked at creating the structure for the event and putting together invitations and educational material for the NGO offices that we are targeting this year. The day originally was scheduled in May, but has now been changed to September 22 in order to coincide with World Carfree Day. So I won't be here to see it happen. As usual, things change a lot and do not turn out the way I had expected. Oh well.

Me at the AFC office

The concept map for Green Transport Day, which I am attempting
to turn into a proposal for a potential partner organization

I also teach English to three recently trained massage therapists at Just Massage (www.justmassage.org.vn), which was opened by AFC in 2007. I meet with the students, Miss Hoa, Mr. Dan and Mr. Thang, and also Miss Dung, an older therapist who speaks more English and helps me teach, once or twice a week for 2.5 hour classes. Here, we practice the English they need to know in order to serve foreign customers (about half their clientele)--things like "please take off your clothes!" and other such helpful phrases--and work on basic vocabulary like introducing oneself, common adjectives and talking about dates, times, etc.

From left: Miss Dung, me, Miss Hoa and Mr. Thang. Mr. Dan was absent for this photo op

They are eager to learn and enjoy encouraging each other and laughing together. "Septovember," "twelveteen" and learning to sing and dance the "Hokey Hokey" provided some recent laughter breaks. Often I quite forget that they can't see, or not very much anyway. Like when we were learning colours, I asked them to name one thing for each colour and then they'd learn a new noun as well as the colour word (e.g., a tomato is red). Later I realized, Oh! Maybe they've never seen the colour of a tomato! Oh dear. But they didn't have much trouble coming up with items for each colour and didn't act offended by the task... so I hope it was ok. Mostly, there is just less pointing and pantomiming than in one of my usual Vietnamese conversation and more touching, like having them feel the proper index-finger-extended-skyward Hokey Pokey hands.

Perhaps because they are visually impaired, because they are massage therapists, because they are Vietnamese or a combination of all the above, they are very touchy in general. Which is great for me really, as I dearly miss my hugging buddies at home and sometime feel chronically under-touched. So I usually get felt up (just by the girls!) at some point during class. There are comments on what I'm wearing--Oh, what a beautiful skirt! Is it from America? Or Ah, today you wear pants like ours! (linen drawstrings)--they can't believe my hair is not permed, and recently we discovered belly buttons, which I explained in English by tapping the buttons on their polo shirts. Class almost always ends up being fun, even when I arrive grumpy about having to interact with people first thing in the morning. I usually leave with a smile.

So perhaps I'm making AFC sound like a really great organization... and (in my humble opinion) it really is. I am continually amazed by the inspired, committed, brilliant half-dozen young Vietnamese women who make up the regular staff. There are also local and foreign volunteers like myself who pass in and out regularly.

Staff pic from this fall (before I started). The guy... I don't really know who he is.
Sometimes I see him around, but his work remains a mystery.

From my perspective anyway, this group accomplishes that oft talked about but uncommonly achieved goal of integrating knowledge gained elsewhere into a local context in a healthy way. Most of the staff have studied abroad in Western countries and somehow have avoided acquiring that unfortunate disdain for their own culture, which is often the result of such education. And now have returned to their home community because they love it and desire to make it a more wonderful place to live.

Observing them and noticing how naturally their actions seem to flow from this place of love and understanding is inspiring. And makes me realize that, at least for a long long time, that will never be me in Viet Nam. Or in most other places around the world either.

I like my work, at MCC and AFC, and feel like it's generally helpful, but I always feel I am a guest, just passing through. Which is guess is the nature of a SALT term, as it's only one year. But with almost all the foreigners I know here, there is always this feeling when you're forming a relationship that, sooner or later, one of you is going to leave, and it will probably be sooner. Even for people who have lived in the region for many years, there's always this time in the future when you'll go back "home," a stash of your possessions stored at your "permanent address" or in your parents' basement, which you'll be ruined with when you return to your "real life."

There's something that feels unsustainable about such a lifestyle. But also... I'm learning so much. I feel I'm becoming a better person for my experience here. I begin to understand how people don't want to stop once they get started on traveling and living abroad. But do I catch a whiff of addiction? Always looking for your next hit of challenge, the kind that rocks the foundations of your beliefs. There's something exhilarating about it, like being caught exposed in a thunderstorm. Am I living vicariously off the thrill off others' "exotic" lifestyle? But is it also selfish to just "take" the experience and learning the I gleaned here back to my home community for its own enrichment?

These questions of HOME and ROOTEDNESS and WOULD I EVER WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN? tug at my mind as I take part in this ultra-mobile globalized lifestyle, available only to the small and highly privileged percent of the world's population I belong to.

So I guess this turned into a post about more than just my work. But my favourite times in life are when all parts of my life seem interconnected, each enhancing all the others. During the good moments anyway, I do feel I am living that way here.

Blarggg!

Just a note to say, yes, I'm just alive, though my recent life has obviously not included blogging. This makes me want to say Blarggg! (see, I've even forgotten how to spell "blog") because it's been on my TO DO list for quite some time now. Someday soon, really!

In general I've been doing quite well, so please don't mistake my lack of communication for a personal crisis or anything. Hope this finds all my loyal readers (if you're still checking this site at all) well and happy and enjoying springtime wherever you may be. Hopefully soon you can add "reading a blog entry from Rosabeth!" to your list of blessings.

WORK: part 1

So as you may or may not have noticed, I have avoided talking about my actual JOB here in Viet Nam so far on this blog. This is mostly because, until maybe two months ago, I had little confidence that if I wrote something, it would be accurate for very long; i.e., my job has changed a lot.

When I left home, I thought I would be doing two part-time jobs: (1) English editing at a government publishing house and (2) English editing at the National Committee for the Advancement of Women (NCFAW), a government agency. Since then, my job description has changed 100%.

Within the first week, I was asked if I'd be ok with switching from the publishing house to assisting Max Ediger, a long-term MCCer. This was fine with me, and it's worked out quite well. I worked pretty irregularly at NCFAW until the end of the year. They were undergoing some big administrative changes, and it was basically just a bad time to have a volunteer. No one's fault really, but still no fun for me. So in January, I started working at Action for the City, a local NGO that does sustainable urban development work. I've been really impressed with and inspired by the organization... and also feel it's quite hard to work in community organizing when you're a foreigner to the community.

So my week looks like this: 2 days at MCC, 2.5 days at Action for the City and 1/2 day of language study. This post will be devoted to work at MCC, with a "part 2" following, which will explain my work at Action for the City. So...

It's about a 15 minute bike ride from my house to the MCC office. After making my way along half a mile of crowded market street, I am always reminded where to turn:

After letting myself in the locked gate, parking my bike and changing from street shoes to the requisit rubber sandals, I am greeted by Chu Nhung (left, office handyman) and Chi Oanh (office administrator).

On the way to my work space on the third floor, I stop to get a drink and say good morning to Co Tu, the best cook in Viet Nam who MCC has the good fortune of employing.

My next stop is Max's office, where we set the direction for my day's work and generally "cut the breeze" as you say in Vietnamese--something like chatting about nothing of import.

And then it's on to the office I share with the two Vietnamese project officers. In the picture below is Co Vinh (left) and Co Bay. Co Vinh actually just retired (a sad event for everyone at the office), so now it's just Co Bay and Co Van Anh (not pictured). I wanted to get a picture will all three of them, but apparently it's very bad luck to take a picture with three people, as that's the number of insense sticks you put on a dead anscestor's alter. So here's just the two... looks pretty luck to me, but you never can tell for sure.


And here's me hard at work! Or at least enjoying my tea.


So what do I do all day "at the office"? What a convenient phrase, eh, which usually requires no explanation. Well, my work for the year has mostly stemmed from the Center for Justpeace in Asia workshop I attend with Max in Nepal in October (see Nov 11 post). The theme of the workshop was "Our Stories/Our Challenges," and it brought together NGO and CBO (community-based organization) workers from all over SE Asia to share their stories and challenges, building solidarity and collaboration.

Since then, I have been working on articulating the common challenges that came up--for example, internally displaced people due to war, international NGOs arriving to "help" but with thier own agenda, reintegrating ex-combatants post-war, dealing with the violence of the economic developement that often follows the end of a war, and many more--and then gathering together the stories that were shared by workshop participants, as well as stories from affiliated friends, which illustrate those common challenges. The goal is to have a publishable book by the time I leave.

Right now, that goal seems pretty doable if I keep working steadily. We have all the stories collected and now are working on editing, writing background material, the introduction and organizing it all. Max if often traveling, which makes it kind of hard to work for him, but at least when he's around, I feel quite energized and interested in the work. In any case, I've been exposed to many very intereting stories and learned a lot about the past and present conflicts of SE Asia. I think the content of the book is pretty powerful, I just hope other people will read it!

And when I start to feel a little crazy after looking at a computer screen for too long, there's always lunch in the middle of the day! Hooray for lunch! Co Tu has been working all morning and she never disapoints. Below is a picture from Ana's (wife of CR) birthday lunch, so it's a bigger crowd than usual, but you get the idea.


So there you have it: a day in the life of Rosabeth at the MCC Viet Nam office! Check back soon (hopefully) for a report on Action for the City!