Donna Morgan's Journal
Goodbye Vietnam
1-Sep-2008
I’m sitting here in Hoi An for my last couple of hours in Vietnam and thinking about how I’ll miss this place. I’ve been a tourist for the last 5 days (and not really liking that at all) and so I keep thinking about Tuy Hoa.
I had a great time in Tuy Hoa. I had a class of High School kids who took me everywhere; to restaurants, to their fishing villages, to the paddy fields, to street food stalls, to see Buddha and who even helped me at the Home of Affection and infact on my last night they kicked me out of the room and took the street kids themselves and treated me to a farewell song of ‘goodbye teacher see you again’ rounded off with a very raucous joint High Sch/Street Kid rendition of ‘Peel Banana’ – I didn’t quite teach all of Tuy Hoa but it made its mark.
I had a classroom of Street urchins who were bloody naughty at the best of times but were tough and good at heart and showed me that no matter how crappy things seem at home, it’s nothing compared to what these kids live through every day. I also had 34 heinous 4 year olds who just wanted to play – and we did, we played skittles, we danced the limbo, drew pictures, blew bubbles, played balloon races, sung, coloured in and all fell down sweaty and exhausted at the end of it – all good fun if you want to be a kid again. And there were the deaf kids at the Disabled School who I had a great relationship with and all they wanted in life was to be treated normally and be given a fair go - maybe one day things will change here for them, I hope so. Then there were the kids at the SPC living their pitiful lives, starting at the ceiling 24 hours a day, being forcefed their daily gruel - there’s many things to say about some of the orphanages here but nothing could adequately describe the misery some of the days, so maybe some things are best left unsaid.
But despite some of the crappy things I’ve seen, the Vietnamese despite all their contradictions are great people: I’ll remember Su the little 7 year old neighbour who sat on the pavement each night helping his mum sell sugar cane and fruit juice; neither of us could understand each other but we played soccer, coloured-in, sung songs, peed in the street (he did not me) or sometimes we just sat in silence and watched the world roll by. I’ll remember the ordinary people of Tuy Hoa who I had great conversations with but never once understanding a word they said; I’ll remember dodging the drying rice on the road; making way for a bullock on the road; riding down the road and waving to a hundred people.
But most of all I’ll remember Chi and Kimmy. These two ladies showed me their lives and through them I saw a Vietnam where I slept rough in a rural village, I slept on the beach, I ate strange foods, I listened to the stories of the older people as they lived through wars and social reform, the list is never-ending and it’s a list that no tour operator in the world could ever hope to replicate.
And so it’s time to say a simple thankyou and goodbye to Vietnam.
Will I be back? Maybe, maybe not.
Previous Entry: Last days in Tuy Hoa • 24-Aug-2008
1-Sep-2008
I’m sitting here in Hoi An for my last couple of hours in Vietnam and thinking about how I’ll miss this place. I’ve been a tourist for the last 5 days (and not really liking that at all) and so I keep thinking about Tuy Hoa.
I had a great time in Tuy Hoa. I had a class of High School kids who took me everywhere; to restaurants, to their fishing villages, to the paddy fields, to street food stalls, to see Buddha and who even helped me at the Home of Affection and infact on my last night they kicked me out of the room and took the street kids themselves and treated me to a farewell song of ‘goodbye teacher see you again’ rounded off with a very raucous joint High Sch/Street Kid rendition of ‘Peel Banana’ – I didn’t quite teach all of Tuy Hoa but it made its mark.
I had a classroom of Street urchins who were bloody naughty at the best of times but were tough and good at heart and showed me that no matter how crappy things seem at home, it’s nothing compared to what these kids live through every day. I also had 34 heinous 4 year olds who just wanted to play – and we did, we played skittles, we danced the limbo, drew pictures, blew bubbles, played balloon races, sung, coloured in and all fell down sweaty and exhausted at the end of it – all good fun if you want to be a kid again. And there were the deaf kids at the Disabled School who I had a great relationship with and all they wanted in life was to be treated normally and be given a fair go - maybe one day things will change here for them, I hope so. Then there were the kids at the SPC living their pitiful lives, starting at the ceiling 24 hours a day, being forcefed their daily gruel - there’s many things to say about some of the orphanages here but nothing could adequately describe the misery some of the days, so maybe some things are best left unsaid.
But despite some of the crappy things I’ve seen, the Vietnamese despite all their contradictions are great people: I’ll remember Su the little 7 year old neighbour who sat on the pavement each night helping his mum sell sugar cane and fruit juice; neither of us could understand each other but we played soccer, coloured-in, sung songs, peed in the street (he did not me) or sometimes we just sat in silence and watched the world roll by. I’ll remember the ordinary people of Tuy Hoa who I had great conversations with but never once understanding a word they said; I’ll remember dodging the drying rice on the road; making way for a bullock on the road; riding down the road and waving to a hundred people.
But most of all I’ll remember Chi and Kimmy. These two ladies showed me their lives and through them I saw a Vietnam where I slept rough in a rural village, I slept on the beach, I ate strange foods, I listened to the stories of the older people as they lived through wars and social reform, the list is never-ending and it’s a list that no tour operator in the world could ever hope to replicate.
And so it’s time to say a simple thankyou and goodbye to Vietnam.
Will I be back? Maybe, maybe not.
Previous Entry: Last days in Tuy Hoa • 24-Aug-2008
