Around town

Getting Official

Today we met with Do and Mike (Madison Quakers) and the Vice Chairman of the Women's Union to discuss the Microfinance program the MQI is managing in QuangNgai Provinance. The Women's Union is dedicated to improving living conditions for women in the poorest provinances and Quang Ngai is still one of the poorest. We will have further meetings with the Women's Union as well as with Ministry of Education officials in at the local level. They naturally want to keep track of what international groups are doing and figure out ways to leverage programs and align them with their internal goals.

A Tour to Ha Long Bay

The Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site that has become a major tourist destination of Asia. The bay is filled with unearthly limestone mountains and caves and the water in the bay is a deep emerald green. Tour boats are built in Vietnam to resemble ancient junk boats and the service level is high. It is quite a beautiful place and though somewhat crowded, still peaceful. I worry that the load on the environment is already causing problems of pollution and habitat. There were monkey and bird populations once,but they have moved away deeper in the islands and away from the constant tour boats. There is also a native fishing population who have turned from fishing to the service industry, selling everything from trinkets to fish. Some of the touring was ardous, climbing in and out of slippery boats and up and down uneven steps in the caves, but we had a wonderful time. In the cave the guide pointed out stalagmites that looked like Ho Chi Minh...In the U.S, we would have said they look like Micky Mouse I'm sure. Anyway, a very very beautiful place and a prosperous tourism strategy.

Education in Vietnam

Visiting the ancient university of Van Mieu we are reminded of the respect and value given to education in Viet Nam. This earliest place of higher learning was founded by the Confusian school during the period that China ruled VietNam. Scholars who passed the rigorous exams had their names engraved on the stone stiles which rest on the backs of stone turtles. Families bring their children here on a Sunday afternoon and direct them to rub the turtles head for luck in studies. During the war these stone tablets, weighing tons, were removed to a safe place where they would not be bombed. These days, education is compulsory for children up to grade 10, but there are so many children that they can only go half day. The schools run two half-day sessions. After 10th grade, children take competative exams and only a fraction of children can go on to higher learning, others to trade schools. Once you are out of the "pipeline," it's hard to get back in. Still the ministry of Education is always trying to improve and reform schools to build a better education workfoce. Some times it seems that everyone in Hanoi (adults) is either teachgin English or taking English classes.

Cheeseburger meltdown

Well, we've been in Vietnam over 10 days and we collapsed when we saw a place for coffee and burgers near the waterfront of the Western Lake (where John McCain was shot down during the war). So we went for cheeseburgers and it was great. We followed this indulgence with a swan paddle boat on the lake, laughing and talking with other swan boat paddlers. We are having a couple of pure tourist days and it is fun. Yesterday we went to the Ethnic Museum where 5-6 of the over fifty ethnic groups of Vietnam have built an example of their traditional houses on the musuem grounds. wonderful-I hope to post pics soon (uploading takes time) . Today we went past the Ho Chi Minh park, museum and memorial. Literally thousands of Vietnamese people visit daily and lines are around several blocks. We visited the One Pillar Pagoda, a small exquiste wooden pagoda dating to 1049 (It's been renovated and replicated a few times)and sits on stilts on a little pond. On full moon nights Hanoi lovers circle it holding hands.From there we went to the Western Lake, Hanoi's largest and visited the Tran Quoc Pagoda, originally built in the 6th centurey. It sits on an island o the lake and has been home over the years to several famous monk-teachers and is a burial center for them too. The centeral courtyard holds a tree grown from a fragment of the original Boddhi tree under which the Buddha achieved Enlightenment. A small group of monks live there and carry out the necessary rituals. It is less of a tourist sight and more of religious center with several smaller alters to various teachers and a very large elaborate alter to Buddha. People pray, burn incense, bring flowers etc. It is a very beautiufl place. I really had a sense of a very deep centuries old holy place. I did not take many photos for that reason. Tomorrow we will go to the Van Mieu, a temple built in 1070 to worship the beliefs of Confucious. It is considered the first university of Vietnam, an elite institution of learning and holds the names on stelae (stone diplomas) of over 1,000 who managed to pass the rigerous exams between 1484 and 1780.

In between we are doing some business and visiting. Yesterday we had lunch with Phong who heads up an NGO that focuses on rural poverty and in particular AIDs education today. We also met with representatives of the Canadian NGO that helps spoonsor a scholarship program in Vietnam. Next week we will go to the Women's Union. I deeply appreciate these other opportunities to visit people in their workplaces and see their committment to building opportunity and social justice in Vietnam.

Cabbage for breakfast

Food is often a challenge when traveling, but I am really enjoying most foods-lots of veggies. We have cabbage for breakfast with different kinds of egg and noodles. I love pickled papya, dragon fruit (a kind of giant kiwi) good ole tofu, lots of green veggies, Pho soup, sweet green paste buns-yum. The only food I've regreted is fried chicken blood. I had to try... and I stay away from dog meat...too sad. I noticed in the country side that people like animals-dogs, pigs, cats, goats and they wander freely and enjoy affection and kind treatment--up to a point! Then they become puppy casserole...

The countryside

It was wonderful to get out of the chaos of Hanoi and see the deep green of rice fields and slower pace of life in small towns. They are just putting the bright green rice seedlings in the ground and plowing wet fields with water buffolo. Parts of the trip went through the hills and steep mountains looking like ancient Chinese scrolls. Everyone had gardens, small and large and rice fields small and large. I was impressed with the govt. program of building infrastructure in the rural areas. Good main roads went everywhere and secondary roads were passable, even dirt ones. There was till a lot of traffic but fewer motorbikes and more animals, ox carts and ponies, many more bikes loaded up.Everyone had electric service and some kind of water. Only waste disposable needed attention. There is a Vietnamese joke that westerners are opposite Vietnamese in that we kiss in public and piss indoors. There were many traditional houses, but they are quickly being replaced by the typical 2-3 story narrow home with an open public living room downstairs and sleeping private rooms upstairs. The front of the house is painted a bright color and sometimes the sides are painted as well if people have the money. The open room is very open and usually filled with family, neighboors etc. There is not a lot of privacy and I am sure a Vietnamese person would feel lonely in our country with its many closed doors. I finally hear birds for the first time. I miss hearing birds at home.

To the countryside

We left Hanoi on 2/16 to go North to the town of Tuyen Quang. Our goal was to visit with the family of "Mr Nam," the NVA cadre who was in charge of overseeing US POWs (including Marge) during the war. He had other duties I am sure, but one of his main ones was to help US soldiers see the error of the war. "Hoai Nam" was his nom de guerre and it means "Remember the South." He was very kind to Marge and she has tried (with many obstacles) to stay in touch with his family. He died in an ambush and his remains were never found (more on this significant fact later). Marge had visited the family last year and she was welcomed as a family member by Mr Nam's widow, daughter and many brothers and an elder sister. As friends of M., Tinh (our friend and translator) and I were also welcomed into people's homes. We were invited to tea, to lunch, to dinner, to tea again, to a family banquet, to tea again...At one point we were taken to a bedroom to sleep so we could then have energy for more food and talk! At each meal we were reassured that the vegetables were "pure" and not treated with chemicals. The government has done a good job of informaing people on this issue.

The entire family was eager to meet to meet Marge. Those who could not travel to see us, called to talk to her on the cell phone. Tinh helped translate cell messages. We were surrounded by relatives including those who traveled hours by train to look at us. We also traveled into the deeper countryside to visit his eldest sister, Thuan and her husband Thinh who stilled lived in the area that was traditional family land. On Tuesday we traveled with a family group to visit the "substitute grave" of Mr Nam who has a marker in the family's plot. This was a request of the widow and we felt honored to participate. There are still many, many MIA Vietnamese from the war and families are very disturbed to not know where their loved ones are buried. Mr Nam's family has gone on 3 expensive excursions to the south to find the location of his body which was buried hastily by comrades at his death in the mountains. They have had some luck finding comrades who were present and know the approximate area, but it is in a steep ravine and overgrown. They plan to go back and hire a spiritualist who may be able to talk to his spirit. They are very disturbed by not knowing. If they find the location the government will assist them to relocate the remains or they may bring back earth to the family plot.

Marge has tried to communicate with help from Tinh, about the scholarship she is setting up at Earlham, but it is a somewhat abstract concept. They do feel honored by her attention and tried to understand her scholarship gift, hoping maybe a family member could benefit. The family enjoyed trading stories about Nam and hearing from Marge about his kindness to her during her time in the mountains in captivity. Marge is feeling saturated with emotion and memories and I am just feeling honored and thrilled to be participating in experiences that would be impossible for me as a tourist.

One quite interesting fact about the province of Tuyen Quang is that it is recognized as the "birthplace" of Revoluntionary Vietnam and the place that Ho Chi Minh meet with the beginings of the People's Revolutionary Government in 1945 under a certain tree that still stands in the area.

Taffic! unbelievable. Scooters by the thousands, bikes by the hundred, women carrying poles laden with everything-fruit, nuts and eels...Like a swirling river. To cross the street, Marge and I hold hands and just venture out. No real traffic regs. Like Moses parting waters traffic flows around us and we calmly move forward...

city scenes

A little tourism in between errands. Visit to the Lake of the returned sword quite wonderful A popular venue for weddings, old people hanging out, outings. Consider a romantic place.

Honoring HoChi Minh

Vietnam is a youthful country. Most people were born after the war and it is ancient history to them. However, Ho Chi Minh remains a great hero-stuff of legends. I don't think I will go inside his mausoleum since the lines are very long. It would take hours. Last night I watched a TV spectacular -live show tribute to him. It was a combo of Los Vegas style numbers with dancing girls and more solomn choral arangements by young men in glorious military uniforms ( a lot of gold braid). The backdrop was a huge videoscreen surrounded by flowers. On the screen, a kind of giant book appeared with Ho's profile on one side and many photos and videos of his life on the other. We saw him as a yong radical, in the jungle, meeting villagers, meeting with world statesmen, etc. His face is full of intelligence in these old photos and his demeanor with people very kind. I think he was a truly great leader for his people. I do wonder what he might think of the show. In one number young girls in pink satin traditional dress swirl around carrying giagantic tulips. In another-MTV style-a sexy young woman sings very intensly (not sure what she sang-but the chorus was his name repeated with passion!) I was struck with the usual western hegemengy of TV culture. The look and feel of the show resembled the cheesy "Live Specials) we know too well. But the life ofHo Chi Minh shines above it anyway.

Arrived

We flew Korean air and it was quite luxurious, overfed with Korean food. Especially enjoyed the bimiabop soup. We arrived in Hanoi near midnight but the streets were still busy-many motorbikes piled high with flowers, fruits veggies as people made their way early to markets and deliveries. We are staying in the old quarter, a jumble of narrow streets and chaos of houses and shops- a jumble built over jumbles dating back to the 13th century. Marge is already jumping into her Vietnamese and people are enjoying that. In general people are very friendly. Not a big city feel yet. Our brains are messed up with a 10 hr difference, but we will meet with Doh today and venture out and about.

From MARG NELSON: I recently received a mailing from Madison Quakers, Inc. which included a talk given by Phan van Do, their representative in Vietnam, in Kyoto, Japan, at a meeting on Peace Museums. Below some excerpts that Friends might like to read as Pat and I prepare to go to Tinh Khe.
War and Peace, Hatred and Reconciliation
People usually do not know the value of things like peace they possess or know how to protect it well until it is lost...
My native village is a fishing village by the sea [in Quang Ngai] where the fishermen used to sit on the beach in the late afternoon to enjoy the breeze from the ocean and to talk about their catch or look into the sky to forecast the weather of the following day while we, the children, used to be playing games on the sand and having a lot of fun. We only lived a simple life, a normal life full of love and care, as beautiful and tranquil as a picture. Nobody had the idea of war or peace.
Then one evening in 1963, from nowhere the war suddenly came over my village. The very first thing that a little 11-year-old boy like me saw is that well-armed soldiers came into my house and caught my father, tied his hands behind and pushed him away in the dark. I did not know why and where they took my father to, but by intuition, I saw his death. My father was shot after that without any court.
My family then including my three sisters, my brother, and I, after burying my father, had to move away... We had to move from place to place to avoid death. Then a year later, in 1964, my house was burned down, my brother, 20 years old then, was killed in a joint operation by the South Korean soldiers, Americans and the South Saigon army in my native village. His body is still missing. He is the third man in my family killed in war: my grandfather was tortured to death in the Saigon regime prison in the late 1930s during the French time, my father by the VC and my brother by the South Koreans. Each side of the war took away a life of my dearest.
My life was even worse then. My childhood was a wandering boy, playing with gun shells, grenades, bullets as toys...with other boys in the village imitating the real war we saw. We really had no idea of peace. ...my sisters and I lived in misery during that time after family was destroyed by the war. I hated all those who turned my family upside down. [However,] I did not know exactly who to hate because all the sides of the war too part in destroying my family.
...The war has ended but hatred, war wounds, losses, humiliation, and a silent call for revenge inside the survivors and the victims still live on and sometimes flare up too poignantly in one's heart to control everyday. How can you easily forget the painful past... How can you forgive your enemies...? There are still after-effect problems of the war... all are affected in different ways, physically, mentally, and morally ruined.
So how can you bring peace into our broken hearts and what can you do with hatred and reconciliation? Peace museums are a good idea... But I wonder if governments around the world are humble enough not to use their power to provoke hatred and revenge against the former enemies...by the displays in war crimes museums...
In my opinion, why don't we rely on and learn from each other, for example from this conference, to turn more and more war museums where hostility is nourished and passed down to young generations into peace museums or turn war statues into peace parks? Besides, why don't we try our efforts to bring relief to the victims both physically and mentally to reduce their pains right now? ...That is the real practice of reconciliation in dignity and that is my pursuit in the struggle for peace.
Thank you, Phan van Do Hanoi, August 28, 2008

Phan van Do is assisting us in our visits on behalf od Madison Quakers. I feel honored to meet him.

Going to Viet Nam or more common “sent to Vietnam” was an ominous phrase for my generation. For us (young in the 60s)Vietnam was a war, not a nation, not a people. We started out the idealistic sacrificing, young people- loving generation of Kennedy’s rhetoric (not necessarily actions or policy) and ended as the nightmare children who tried to blow up recruiting centers and screamed obscenities at our parents, those blind and fearful adults. It lingers. Friend W. an experienced Asia traveler says, “I’ve never gone to Viet Nam-too guilty.” But, the younger gen of backpackers swarm Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, wealthy tourists go and crawl into the tunnels’ used to defeat the clumsy giant Americans.

So I am trying to catch-up in consciousness and with my memory and me. It is my trip to me as much as my trip to Vietnam. I’m going with M. who was there during the war in Quaker service. I once lived with other young people who returned from the war as volunteers in service. Their scars, their knowledge went deep too. I am in the role of “traveling companion” to a Quaker woman on mission. M. shapes the itinerary and journey. I am slowing finding my journey inside of hers. I am grateful for her entrée past the barricades of tourism. I am a willing follower at this point.

I am reading of course. It’s what I do to understand. First I read Lady Borton’s book Beyond Sorrow, meeting the culture on its own terms, opening to the traditions of village life that served Vietnamese people for thousands of year. Then I read a book by a recent American traveler, immersing herself in the urban, today, entrepreneurial world of young Vietnamese. She even, unwisely, has an affair with a young Vietnamese mechanic…all the stupid and endearing behavior of youth, but she is perceptive, observant. I appreciated her story opening today’s Vietnam in the cities. It reminded me that there the ‘new generation” of youg and ambitious Vietnamese, less interested, like all youth , in the past and looking to the future with excitement.

Leaving on Tuesday with excitment of my own!