Good Morning Vietnam!

October 10 2007

Two days (and counting!) to Vietnam (and Cambodia!)

Vietnam

War torn, ravaged, broken
Guns bombs blasting
Hiding, hidden lives

Schoolgirls in white
Waiting
Walking through roads once stained
In red
Soaked in the rain

Outsider watching from inside
Sweet milk and coffee
Sugar from cane
In the fields walking, waiting, hoping

Asking for forgiveness
Of an (un)forgotten war
Wishing all of this had never happened
Wondering when wars will truly end


I am afraid to say that we are tired. The shipboard community is excited to get to Vietnam…but almost everyone is tired of the port days and then just 2 days at sea. We barely have time to get our laundry taken care of (okay, so we don’t actually do the washing or even folding…the ship’s crew does that) but putting it into the bag and thinking about it has clearly stressed out many of our students. Seriously, people do need more than 2 days to recuperate from the Great Wall (oh Beijing, why must you get all of us sick?), the food and drinks in Hong Kong, plus the papers and exams due or given during this time. August has been particularly stressed. He is loving the voyage thus far and has already asked me when I think we can sail again. He was asked to help coordinate a panel on the Vietnam War, its relevance yesterday and today, and connection to the Iraq War. It was a great panel (cultural pre-port). All 5 faculty members were excellent, thoughtful, moving, informative. Those of us who went really got a lot out of what was said. I thought (and other folks voiced this) of how we were coming into Vietnam, a country we bombed and innocent and civilian lives we destroyed, as visitors. I felt shame and embarrassment and was amazed by how they welcomed us. They were on a road to forgiveness (but thank the Buddha that they were not about forgetting) and wanted to share with us their culture and history. How amazing it is to think of a people who fought against so many for thousands of years from the Chinese to the French to the Khmers to the U.S. and others along and in between the way and emerge to have their nation state.

In Vietnam, I saw folks who were willing to talk about the war. How complicate it was for them. How it is over but how they worked (and continue to work) so hard to heal themselves and their country. Our taxi driver told us about particular dark periods during and after the war…so many people were killed. Our tour guide spoke of how his own family was divided – his father who fought with the Nationalists (north) while his uncle fought on the side of South Vietnam and the U.S. How Ho Chi Minh himself wished only the best for his people and that freedom was what he longed for, not a far between brothers and sisters. So many students really were affected by what they saw in Vietnam, particularly the War Remnamts Museum. Learning about the atrocities our solders committed sent a chill down my spine. What affected me the most was when our tour guide reminded us that every family in Vietnam today has been personal. Iy touched by the war. Someone was killed and / or maimed, raped, etc. from each family during the war between the Vietnamese and the U.S. I wonder if we could forgive them the way they seem to be able to be nice and hospitable to us.

Vietnam amounted to two days for us. Most of those days were spent at Ho Chi Minh City (what folks also call Saigon). We went to the historic Rex Hotel for massage, lunch, and drinks, followed by a trip to the Ben That market (indoor, big, fun!) where we got fitted for our handmade clothes I was so nervous because again, I was charged with negotiating prices for our group. We had so much fun once we learned to cross the street that we actually were going to brave crossing the city’s busiest section where we had to cross about 14 lanes altogether of non-stop traffic that looped in a circle. No one stops although they are supposed to go around you but really…I think they get special prices if they ran tourists over. In any case, we actually did not need to cross this street but rather was instructed to go into a cab where we met with our tailor who sewed our lovely new clothes. After this, we went back to Ben That market and ate at Pho 2000, a place made famous by Bill Clinton on a previous visit to the country. The pho was good (we had an even better one on our last day in another part of town) and with the egg rolls, drinks, etc., I think we paid about 2 or 3 dollors each. Yum! As usual, the downpour came down upon us and we went home looking like wet cats but feeling very satisfied.

On the second day, August and I got up and went to the War Museum. This is a place everyone should go to. I hated the war even more than I thought possible. I felt so sad and ashamed at a person’s capacity to do hateful, racist, murderous acts against a fellow human. There were moments when I realized that those who did this to the Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians killed and attacked did not see them as people who deserved to have a life. At the same time, I was so happy to see SAS students there who went without being forced to go. They simply wanted to learn about the war through the eyes of the Vietnamese. A young woman who I talk with once in a while came up to me and said that she felt genuine sadness and helplessness at that moment. It surprised me a little because she is known as one of the party (but responsible) women on the ship who likes to have a lot of fun. That was the first time she and I talked of things other than Brangelina, what club she went to at the ports, and what she bought in the markets. She and I spoke of how we were fortunate to see the war through the eyes of the Vietnamese and not just through the eyes of the U.S. and wondered if it can ever really be possible for those in the states to get this perspective unless they traveled to Vietnam. It was a very special moment for me to talk with her and made that trip all the more wonderful since I have been longing to make connections to students beyond judicial matters.

August and I by the way were being driven around by an awesome driver who served in the South Vietnam Army and later during their war against Pol Pot in Cambodia. He was so knowledgeable. I wish that we had more time with him but we had to go back to the ship. We took his card (it has a working email etc.) so for those of you going to Vietnam, ask me later for his info. He gives tours and you will not be disappointed. I will skip the next few days because that will be in the Cambodia entry. For now, I’ll tell you about our last day in Vietnam.

We came back late at night from Cambodia tired, hungry, dirty but really appreciative of all the things we experienced there. Because it was raining and because we did not want to go through the hassle of negotiating a price to get into the center of town, we decided to stay on the ship, have the box lunch dinner they prepared for us, and wash the deet of our clothes. The next day, we got up very early to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels trip. August was the trip leader for our group of about 35 SASers. He was really good, particularly letting folks know that while the tunnels have been turned partly into a weird pseudo amusement park atmosphere where at the end, you can even shot the guns both sides used during the war, folks really needed to remember that people actually died there and that people were fighting for their lives and for their beliefs – on both sides of the war. The tunnels were really interesting – again, I could not help but think of the resilience of the Vietnamese. They built the tunnels for over 20 years using things like small bowls and small gardening shovels (that ones you use to build sand castles when you were little). They lived and worked in these tunnels and used them against the French and the U.S. As one of the students said, it was quite ingenious. We got to go inside the tunnels (they had a couple that they enlarged for western size!) so I crawled inside. It was hot, dirty, and dark – quite an experience! The students we were with were thoughtful and considerate. Only a few tried to shoot with the guns. The rest were really engaged in thinking about all that they saw and learned from. I think that what was so great about this port was even though there were so much shopping, massages, great food and drinks at cheap prices, and numerous bars and clubs, many of us were still able to engage in the history, culture, and everyday life of the Vietnamese. So many of our students spoke of a growing sentiment against violence and war and they even began exploring the similarities between Vietnam and Iraq. They also began exploring things such as some flaws in the U.S. educational system, what bias means, and what privilege looks like. We ended our trip with one final bowl of pho and a promise to each other that we will definitely return to Vietnam!