With the final week in Vietnam looming ahead, I reckon I should share a thought or two of my time here. My goal of this particular blog is one of stringing loose blocks of memory that stand in the foreground of December 2016. Some easily flow into the next, and some stand alone as significant without the aid of an accessory memory.
Just as it is tempting to heed the annoying tendencies of a roommate and forget the great joys to be had with them, large cities offer a quick glimpse to the poverty-stricken and smarmy activity to those unwilling to discover the gems awaiting the optimistic investigator. Let’s take a look.
Personally, the idea of living in a large city does not deploy waves of eagerness and ecstasy within me. In short, the never ending masses are irritating and ignoramuses while the lack of greenery and fresh air fail to lighten my mood. The latest vexation to haunt me in Ho Chi Minh City is the apparent shortfall in traffic laws regarding sidewalks. While I am casually drifting along at a steady pace to avoid the swelter, mopeds will skirt up onto the sidewalk and use it as a passing lane during heavy traffic. They then proceed to tap their horn as if I am the perpetrator daring to stand in their path. Maybe it is possible that my patience is tempered in this scenario…or maybe not.
I have been to a few mission trips helping the homeless in large cities, so maybe this has resulted in a tendency to notice those on the streets quite often. HCMC is not an exception. Many of them are disfigured and/or mentally handicapped. Some beg quietly while others attempt to sell cheap merchandise. I am still not sure what local sentiment truly is about the homeless and handicapped, but I did see a glimpse into the harmful nature humans can undertake with them. I was at a fruit market with one of my teammates, Sherese, one afternoon. It was a drizzly, dreary day, but I was excited to have some fresh groceries. We scoped out a stand with oranges (or some sort of small orange fruit variation) and proceeded to determine the price. The lady at the stand told us and instructed her assistant to acquire the weighing plate a few feet away. The assistant seemed to do everything she was told, but something she had done enraged her boss to the point of a vicious whack to the head that nearly resulted in a tumble. After closer inspection, it appeared that the assistant was mentally handicapped in some fashion. We left the stand with a heavy sense of sorrow for the woman who is probably subjected to abuse everyday. How many others in similar conditions have such little hope? I will never look at an orange the same way again.
If you are unaware, street food is popular in Vietnam. It is cheap and usually does not incite illness. There is a place I go to in the morning for breakfast right next to the hostel I stay at that serves hearty chicken noodle soup for about a dollar. Since it is cheaper than regular restaurants designated for rich tourists, locals frequent this street food stand regularly. One day, a man and his two daughters (no older than three) had just finished eating as I walked up and sat down on the cheap plastic seat with no back. He stepped down to the road and pulled down their pants while they squatted to pee on the road in broad daylight. He was prepared with a little bit of water that he splashed on the pavement to support the urine flow to the roadside drain. I surmise that this man may have been homeless or near to it. What I do know is that this man was used to getting by with the bare minimum.
So you might be considering HCMC an undesirable location by now. I mean – I did not even mention how a brief stroll around the block will result in multiple offers of weed and prostitutes. Poverty is everywhere, and people appear desperate for any method of making money at the expense of themselves and others. Even most of the normal hard-working citizens of Vietnam find it difficult to do much traveling outside their country as they scrape up enough to afford a moped for transportation ($1000-$2000). It is no riddle why they consider Americans rich and pay more attention to US politics than their own. Do not misunderstand me, Vietnam really is a great place with an abundance of toilet paper, air conditioning, and smoothly paved roads. However, they are not naive of the freedom and luxuries westerners are so fortunate to have from birth. I believe this is one of many reasons I have noticed a strong work ethic among them.
These negative aspects of HCMC are surface level, easy to spot, and leave many questioning why they would want to live here. I believe the good qualities of a city come out from understanding the people on a deeper level. Much good can be had from ministry with the desperate and the destitute, but this month we were teaching citizens interested in improving their English skills.
I have been volunteering at the Sunshine English Club in HCMC this month teaching english to groups of adults ranging from basic to almost fluent. They are mostly between 20 and 30 years of age. The teaching involves games, new vocabulary for the week, role playing conversations, and discussion with us teachers at the end. Priority is placed on ample time in conversation with the students to correct them and introduce them to new words and phrases. At first, understanding them was difficult, and I felt my teaching methods were ineffective. After much practice talking very slowly and listening for the way their accent distorted words, teaching has become much easier, fun, and effective. The progress of the students truly does amaze me when they have been learning English a mere month or two. They come to class with a driven attitude to learn and practice this foreign language that has the potential to drastically enhance their quality of life. Though it was difficult to engage in direct ministry with them, when we leave for Cambodia, I know they will know we took an interest in their lives and cared about them on an academic and personal level. Whether we were trying traditional Vietnamese food as they took us around the town on their mopeds, or conversing over our individual lives in discussions at class, we were as thick as thieves.
In parks in HCMC, university students are always looking to practice their english with foreigners. Without fail, be prepared to talk to locals if you walk slowly or sit down alone at a bench. From 4-5 pm our team would go to a park and talk to locals. Hopefully we could meet up with the same person the next day and eventually work our way into their opinion of Christianity. Unfortunately, I was never able to meet up with the same person. Though my time in the parks was not meritless; I did meet some men and women eager to learn about my culture and home, albeit different ones each day. Some were on such a low level of english that we could not go beyond basic formalities. One woman spoke extremely great english and had great understanding of Vietnam, but cast a hostile attitude of listening to anything about Christ. One day, I kept on getting more and more students crowding around me as I sat on a park bench. At the peak, I think eleven students were honing in on my conversations and patiently waiting their turn. I talked about where I was currently volunteering at, and this man named Philip (who spoke excellent english) started to talk about how highly he thinks of Christians because they volunteer at such and such a place to teach english for free. I was then able to tell him about my faith and the reasons I volunteer. He explained that he was Buddhist but enjoyed hearing and learning about other religions and cultures. Philip was an inquisitive fellow and asked me about the meaning of Easter. I have not seen Philip since, but I am confident that he has not terminated his drive to discover the truth.
One of my favorite moments this month was a two hour conversation I had with a friend of our ministry contact. She is not very familiar with the Bible but definitely does want to learn as quick as she can. I felt it would be beneficial for her to know some of the basic principles of living like Jesus, so I began to walk through the book of James with her. I tried to make it as simple as I could without watering down the powerful messages James portrays. She seemed to respond positively to the excerpts we went over and was surprised by the gentleness of our God. The big question she had at first was, “How do we feed Jesus?” or “What do we need to give Jesus?” I showed her Hebrews 8:27-28 and explained how Jesus only needs our love. He does not need animal sacrifices or a perfect life from us. He wants us to choose Him.
I am reluctant to leave HCMC and I will cherish the time I have had here. You can choose to see the sin in any city, as we are broken people, or you can choose to see the millions of individuals with potential to use their lives God breathed into them to bring Heaven to Earth.
Stay Classy,
Daniel
P.S. I am still in need of fundraising assistance. Anything you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!
Christmas Night View of Ho Chi Minh City
