Morning Star Center

Today we got down to our first interviews with the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) we will be working with.

My first NGO was the Morning Star Center. The Morning Star Center is an educational, daycare, and treatment facility for children with autism, cerebral palsy, and other mental and learning disorders. It also provides education and treatment support for the children’s families.

This is a particularly important service in Vietnam, owing to the perceived increase in the number of children suffering from mental and physical disorders over recent years. It has not been possible to find reliable data on the number of children suffering from disabilities, but the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 6 percent of the Vietnamese population suffers from physical or mental handicaps. Similarly, there is conflicting evidence on contributing factors and causes.

The interview was at 0900, so I got up, got ready, and organized my thoughts before embarking on a morning rush-hour cab ride to the Morning Star Center in the downtown Hanoi area

 I wasn’t really sure about what to expect or how the interview would go, given the language barrier. But, our Volunteers for Peace (VPV) program coordinator, Ms. Mai, came along to fix any scheduling problems and help communicate. Vietnamese is a hard language to learn without an actual speaker to practice with or good learning software. Thus, our group knows only a few elementary phrases.

Well the interview ended up going quite well. The director of the organization was not there, so I interviewed her assistant. She wasn’t able to answer some of my questions, but we covered a lot of the essentials needed to draft a business plan.  The Assistant Director was open, and I felt very welcome to walk around, see what was going on, and so forth. One of the largest problems the Morning Star Center faces is a lack of personnel – teachers and staff - with enough training or the right specialized training needed to help the children. However, the overall ratio of staff to children was fairly decent especially considering Morning Star’s funding comes completely from donations, tuition, and limited grants. It is not directly funded by the Vietnamese government in any way.

Compared with some of the other organizations we are working with in Vietnam, (which frankly seem to be completely going in the wrong direction or are questionable in practice) the Morning Star Center has good infrastructure, a dedicated staff, and is making great strides to accomplish its goals in improving the lives of the children it reaches.

-Matthew Allen Stewart

Pictures from Vietnam

Hoa Lo Prison: Hanoi Hilton?

In English the name Hoa Lo, translates to "fiery furnace" or even "Hell's hole." But, if you visited Hoa Lo Prison today you would find a wall dedicated to pictures of smiling US servicemen decorating a Christmas tree and playing a friendly game of volleyball.  Hoa Lo Prison is widely known as the “Hanoi Hilton” in the United States.  It was home to Senator John McCain and many other US servicemen taken prisoner during the Vietnam War.

The prison was originally established by the French in 1896, when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina.  It takes its name from the concentration of stores that used to sell stoves along the street in pre-colonial times.  Today, it fits neatly into the neighborhood. In fact, it is so unobtrusive, it would be easy to walk right past it.

Inside, the prison has many displays dedicated to the Vietnamese revolutionaries who died in atrocious conditions long before the US action. Displays are captioned in both Vietnamese and English, enabling visitors to view the original cells, complete with leg-irons, and the horrors of life in the prison. There is a memorial for those who perished there. 

 As most Americans know, between 1964 and 1973, the prison’s inmates included several captured US servicemen, such as Senator John McCain and Douglas 'Pete' Peterson, who later became the first US Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. During our visit, we came upon the picture of Richard Tomat, a native of South Carolina who was shot down while serving as an Air Captain in Vietnam.

Two rooms of the prison-museum are devoted to the US servicemen who stayed here.  It is amazing to see the story of their plight told from the Vietnamese perspective.

The Hoa Lo Prison became famous in the United States for the 1987 movie, Hanoi Hilton, which graphically depicted the appalling conditions: prisoners survived on watery soup and bread. They were isolated, starved, beaten, tortured for countless hours, and paraded in anti-American propaganda. While wandering through the dark, damp cells, you cannot help but wonder what went through the minds of those who were imprisoned here.

 Today, the rooms on the US action in Vietnam display US prisoners’ personal effects, along with posters honoring peace demonstrators for their “show of solidarity with the Vietnamese people” against the US government.  There are also pictures showing the Vietnamese people “rescuing” Senator John McCain when his plane went down in water.

According to the Vietnamese account:

The United States government carried out sabotage warfare by air force, and naval force against the north of Vietnam from 5 August 1964 to 15 January 1973.

Thousands of planes were shot down, hundreds of United States pilots were arrested by the North army and people, some of them were imprisoned here.

During the war, the national economy was difficult but Vietnamese government had created the best living conditions to US pilots for they had a stable life during the temporary detention period.  

Some of pictures and objects on these two exhibition show some details of US pilots’ life when they were temporary imprisoned at Hoa Lo Prison.

As we say in US politics, “to the victor belong the spoils” - and the opportunity to write the history?

- Dr. Sarah Tenney

Friendship Village

Today I learned a lesson in life that no school could ever teach: a lesson about how the toll for what they call “the sins of our fathers” must be paid by the children instead of the men and how the innocent suffer for the transgressions of those before them made against mankind. War, in all its glorified destruction, does not always end when the last bullet is fired and the white flag raised.

Today I visited Friendship Village, a small compound where 130 Vietnamese children live together. In this village, there are no parents, only children a small staff of underpaid and overworked individuals who care for them. The children that abide here live in worn down houses with no doors and play with broken toys that are reddened with rust. It is these kids, these innocent and helpless children, who pay the price for a war waged decades ago by their fathers and grandfathers. Some children cannot speak, some cannot hear, other children are missing limbs, or have such severe deformities that it shocks you at first sight. All are so intellectually challenged that they cannot learn.

The children in this village share one thing in common: they were made this way by Agent Orange. Agent Orange was an herbicide used by our country to defoliate the jungles and destroy the food supply of the enemy. This herbicide contains deadly dioxins that became so deeply embedded in the soil and water they will continue to wreak havoc on the bodies of the Vietnamese people for generations to come.

Understanding all this, I had to ask myself if the leaders of our country knew what they were doing when they authorized the use of Agent Orange in Viet Nam—I found the answer is yes. By the early 1960s our government understood what the consequences of this deadly agent would be. But, of course, war is not about saving lives, it is about taking them, and if the children of countless generations must suffer for the failed promotion of democracy then so be it…right? I am not one to be easily upset; tears are not easily coaxed from my eyes. Yet, as I walked through the village and played with the children I felt my stomach churn, and my heart felt as if it were being ripped from my chest—I did not know whether to vomit or cry…knowing we lost the war but managed to defeat the youth of this small nation.

In all of my education, all of the books and lectures, I somehow was not taught about this part of war. What a strange thing to teach students about the Viet Nam war, but fail to mention the 8 million Vietnamese who live today with the effects of Agent Orange. Why do I feel guilty? It wasn’t me who did this to these people. I can’t blame the soldiers, they were just following orders…and after all, they too suffer the consequences. We still lose veterans to Viet Nam. It is not bullets that kill them, but cancer, from a liquid they were told was safe to use by men that knew better. You know why I feel guilty? Why I feel hate for what we did? Because good men did nothing to stop it, and that is all that it takes for evil to prevail—or in this case children to suffer. And now that I know, what can I do? I am just one person, just a number. All I can do is make these kids laugh and be happy even for just a moment, so maybe they can forget that their parents dumped them in a broken down “Friendship Village” and abandoned them for life. In Vietnam, deformity is believed to be a reflection of sin. Thus, these children are seen within their home villages and families as “evil.”

The lesson I learned today, is something that can never be untaught, and I feel it will weigh over my head and heart for the rest of my days.

 -Devon C. Smith

Traffic

Looking back, it’s hard to believe I’ve been in Vietnam for four days. Only last Friday, we were flying at about 3600 feet above Taiwan exhausted and with another 6 hours to go before I would set foot in Vietnam. The wait to get here seemed to last forever. Now, I am amazed at how much has been packed into such a short time in country, not even one fourth of our time here.

As soon as we landed, we were off to a fast pace, beginning with one of the most interesting and/or crazy taxi rides I have ever had. You would be surprised what a good cure for jetlag Hanoi traffic can be.  There were motor scooters, cars, carts, trucks, and you name it flying at us from all directions. Vietnam seems to be without any clear method of traffic procedures, lanes, or rules of any kind. Needless to say, within a couple of minutes of leaving the airport I was fully awake!

We soon arrived at the volunteer center, where we ran into a great and diverse group of people. Some of the volunteers had been there for months, while others like us had just arrived. We made friends quickly and joined several of the volunteers from Australia, Germany, and Switzerland for one crazy weekend excursion.

Bright and early Monday morning we got to work, starting with our orientation. After lunch, the Volunteers for Peace Vietnam (VPV) program coordinator met with us to discussion the project.  Our task will be serving as liaisons between VPV and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the Hanoi area. Our first job will be to help the NGOs draft business plans. The VPV coordinator gave us a list of 14 organizations involved in various areas related to economic development.  Since she needed a couple of days to set up our initial appointments with the NGOs, we got to work doing background research on the NGOs and their functions. We spent yesterday and today using the Internet and talking with other volunteers to research the NGOS to identify the demand for their services, the possible challenges they face, and how they might be helped through the use of volunteers. 

- Matthew Allen Stewart

Independence Day – July 4, 2011

Obviously, we have had the day off to celebrate. As I sit here typing, our new friends from all over the world are sitting on the front steps outside the Volunteer barracks waiting to join us in celebration of our independence. 

We arrived on Friday evening and never got even a moment’s rest before we were packing up our book bags to go downtown to see Hanoi for the weekend.  The first thing that shocked me was the way the Vietnamese people drive! There are mopeds everywhere and no such thing as traffic laws.  You cross the streets by walking, not running, so that the mopeds can drive around you. Traffic NEVER stops!

We stayed at a hostel in Hanoi for only $6 a night. Everything here is extremely cheap compared with prices in America. One American dollar is the equivalent of a little over 20,000 Vietnamese dong (VND). People bargain for just about everything here, which can be fun if you learn a few tricks.

Saturday morning we left the hostel and went to have our first meal in Vietnam. It consisted of a bowl of noodles with diced pork (I presumed it was pork) and mint leaves. It was not very filling but hopefully I will get used to it, seeing that I’ll be here for four weeks. After lunch, we went on a city tour and checked out the shops and observed the way of life in Hanoi. The people’s living arrangements are very simplistic. People live in their shops, and I didn’t see many air conditioning units at all. The average temperature this time of year is 98 degrees. We had dinner - which consisted of noodles and pork again - across the street from the hostel that night.

The next morning we woke up and met up with our friends from the volunteer barracks for a long day of touring that consisted of a tour of an old king’s temple, a seven-mile bike ride, and a river trip.  The king’s temple was very old and had been around sense the 1600s. It had shrines set up on the inside that were quite interesting. The doors were made about knee high, so that you had to step up to enter into the temple in a bowing manner to show respect. Had there been anyone worshipping we were instructed to take our shoes off to show respect as well.

After leaving the temple, we crossed the street and began our seven-mile bike ride through the countryside. We saw the homes that people lived in along the roads during the ride. There was rice set out on the road to dry everywhere, so we literally were forced to weave around the rice sections. We then left the main road and began going through the villages on pathways covered in hay. Just when we thought that we’d never see cold water or food again, we suddenly stopped at a small store. A tiny old Vietnamese lady greeted us with large bottles of water that cost about 10,000 VND each. Our guide purchased some fruit called lychee, which is like a large grape but it is covered with a rubbery shell you have to peel off. It was great!

After riding another 3.5 miles though rice patty fields, we arrived at a restaurant where we had lunch. Following our meal we went on a three-hour boat ride. There was rice growing along a large majority of the river and we went under several mountains through caves. Our boat was a small metal boat very similar to a John boat that a Vietnamese woman paddled with her feet.

It was an incredible first three days here in Vietnam. I already feel as if I’ve been here for weeks. I cannot wait to see what comes in the next four weeks.  Getting used to the food and the heat here is already well worth the experience of being in this country.

From Hanoi,

Keegan Bailey O ‘12

Volunteers for Peace Barracks

It is 5:30 am and already hot. I am sweating so much it would be useless to put on makeup.  Needless to say, there is little – or no – air conditioning in the Volunteers for Peace Vietnam (VPV) barracks.

Even as I whine quietly into my cà phê, I feel humbled by the extent which Americans truly are “rich and spoiled.” We wake up every morning and simply expect to have running water. This is not the case for the rest of the globe. This is not the case for the VPV barracks!

In America, we expect everyone who comes to our country to speak English. I find that when we visit other people’s countries, we still expect everyone to speak English.  If you don’t believe me, try shopping for a bath towel in Tay Mo.

For days, the cadets and I have been sending our family members and friends instructions for using a Vietnamese standard bathroom. We forget how lucky we are, even in the outskirts of Hanoi, to have one.

Actually, the cadets have adjusted amazing well. Perhaps they see our accommodations here as only a small step down from Stephen’s Barracks. They are not even using the mosquito nets that should go on their beds. In fact, they are having so much fun, they are only slowing coming to realize our “home” here would be a big step up for many Vietnamese.

We all agree the food is good, although we are not entirely sure what it is. It is impressive the way the cook here, named Mrs. Cuc, manages to pull together a variety of traditional Vietnamese dishes to suit the tastes and satisfy the appetites of 40-some young volunteers twice each day.

Despite the heat and the relative hardship, everyone here, volunteers and VPV staff alike, seem to pull together as a team in a joint effort to make a difference.

-Dr. Sarah Tenney