Part I, Vietnam:
When Josh and I spoke with Ms. Vanderpool’s class a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that my first year in Vietnam was really difficult. This was mostly because there was so much happening, culturally and in my day-to-day life, that I didn’t understand. My lack of understanding ultimately manifested in a lot of frustration, which turned into anger, and eventually into sadness and isolation. My time in Vietnam taught me a lot. Perhaps more than anything else, it taught me that without honest, open and respectful communication, human understanding, empathy and forward momentum are all made infinitely harder, if not impossible.
During my first year in Vietnam, I couldn’t understand why I had to fight my way through check-out lines at the grocery store, to the front of the produce stand at the market or even to the next free stall in the public bathroom. I didn’t understand why the older women at the market wanted to charge me three times the standard price of an item, even after they learned that I wasn’t just another tourist on holiday. I didn’t understand why my Vietnamese co-workers never apologized when they made a mistake, or why they never said “thank you,” even when I seemed to be saying these things to them multiple times a day.
