the end to another beginning.

As the end of the semester approaching, it still haven't hit me yet that everything will change and I might have to adapt to the lifestyle back in the states. Now, only a week left, it is becoming harder to let go of hanoi knowing I wont be able to relive this experience ever again, or the same way. Taking this experience and UCHANU to the states is harder said than done. Keeping in touch with someone is my biggest weakness, more so when they are so far away. However, all the memories and the people I met in Vietnam, I can never forget. They have become a part of my learning experience and it is something that I will be able to take with me for the rest of my life. There will be friendship that will last and there will be some that wont. Another thing I will be able to take with me is the experience I had working on Nghe An's project. It gives me whole different perspective about doing this type of charity work and how meaningful it can be. To be able to personally visits the place and see everything for myself, it gives me another purpose for helping people. Not simple just donating money, I was able to understand the difficulty, the life, and the joy of these people. I can actually connects with them heart to heart over short simple conversation. The ways people treat me in Vietnam is something I want to do the same in the states.It is so easy to get to know a stranger on the street in Vietnam and they can easily become some really good friend down the road, because they treat you with their heart. That is something I appreciate about Vietnam culture and it is something I wan to do with the people I meet down the road.

being exposed to many different type of experiences here in Vietnam, I am able to find a purpose for myself in the work I want to do in the future. Coming back and living in Vietnam is something I never though about before. But after this trip, I'm seriously considering of coming back here to work after I'm done with school. I learn that there are so much I can be doing in vietnam. I am very privilege to have a lot of things that others don't, and Vietnam provides me those opportunity to give back to those that are less unfortunate. Definitely, after this trip, charity/ volunteering work is something I want to continue doing for the rest of my life. working at hoa binh thanh xuan and fundraising for Nghe An make me realized how meaning work like this can be. the smile and the joy i see in each individual just make the work all worthwhile. I cant put into words how much this trip have changed me and I wont be able to let go any of this experience. I now have a better understanding of my culture, heritage, and identity. And that is the knowledge that I will always take with me wherever I go and will guide me to do more things that I haven't done before.

Group Work.

Working in group meaning you will have to work together and accept each other differences in ideas and working styles. There will always be a person that lead and the rest will follow. Even though having more people working on one project supposed to mean less work and more fun since it is a group work. However, sometime it is draining to make sure the group work is continue rolling and everyone is happy. Communication is such a big part in group work and that is our group weakness. We often time cannot contact certain members for update to see where can we go from the project or forgot to update on each other what is going on. This makes thing a lot harder in which the team have to wait on that individual in order to continue working. Another thing is delegating tasks among team players and be supportive of each other. Since we have 5 members in our group, work usually being separated into groups of twos and one person is left out. This creates clique in among members and i think it does do some damages to the relationship of the team work we are trying to build. Building good/friendly relationship among team members is harder than getting the work done. When the whole team is not having the same passion for the work we are doing, it gets tough when we want to make the product into something great. Working in group is like picking lottery for me, I might have the best members in the world, or I might not be. It takes effort and understanding from everyone in order to keep the team going strong and be efficient.

When working in group, I am not the creative person when it comes to brainstorming for ideas. I like to execute it better than coming up with it. So that is usually my role when working in group, I"m just "free-floating." I would just bounce around, check up on people, and doing little things that people need me to do that can help them get the job done. I tried to work with everyone and have everyone be a part of the experience as much as possible. Of course, when doing things like translation I like to work by myself, it just a lot easier and more time efficient for me. I am demanding at times when working in group because I do like to have things done at a certain way, sometime it's not a thing. Because of that, I often take over too much load work that I should be letting others take over since it is a group project after all, not mine. working in group is always a challenge for me but I do enjoy it every time since it is a different experience each time. All of the challenges and dramas during the process were all worth it when our team members pulled everything off in the end. It is always a very fulfilling feeling that I get each time at the end of the project work.

Nghe An

It was a busy week fundraising for Nghe An. Due to the short amount of time we had, it is amazing how we pulled everything off. This is my first time ever done something like this, gathering donations and personally delivering it to the students and family. We raised money by asking family members and do fundraising events. Even though fundraising events did not raise as much fund as collecting donations, but it was good in raising awareness to everyone about the work we do and what is going on outside of Hanoi. I had a lot of fun and it was priceless seeing the smile on the kid faces. Coming to the school, we overestimated the jacket size for the kids. Even though some kids are in 3-5 grade, they are still very small like they were in 2 grade. Everyone was the same size, so some jackets were too big for the kids. Nevertheless, they still had a big smile on their face holding on to their new jacket, might of been the one and only new jacket they ever received. I quickly collected 300USD donations from family members, in which not a lot in the states, but it made a big difference for these kids. Some have to walk for about 3-4 hours to come to class and they have to do it 4 times a day. Again, seeing these kids make me feel how lucky I am to have more than 1 jackets to keep myself warm and have a car to drive to school, while these kids only have their legs and little skinny body to keep them warm and move about from and to places.

What struck me the most was when we went to each student's house to give them the gifts and money. one family had 4 small little children about 5-13 years old. Their dad left the family for other woman and so leaving the mom to take care of the kids. She has to work elsewhere and can only come home every other 2 days or so. So the kids have to take care of themselves with no adult supervision. I can imagine how they have to go find food, cook it, and take care of each other at night. some family was speechless when they saw us. It was one heartfelt learning experience in which most houses have nothing but a bed and a table inside their house. Some don't even have a door to keep their house secure. I have always knew there are poor family living everywhere, but this time I am actually witnessing it. It's a different feeling. I felt helpless in a sense in which I dont know how much this 200,000 dong can last them until they are back to where they came from. From this trip, I fully understand how important this type of work is. It might be a small gift but it can make a big change to someone's family.

Transportation

I went home this week to attend my cousin wedding. I flew to Saigon first then took the bus back to Nha Trang that night. It was my first time taking a sleeping bus which was quite comfortable. Each one get our own bed and there are tv and restroom installed on the bus. I slept comfortably until we arrived to Cam Ranh. This type of transportation and service were not available while I was living in Vietnam before 2000. Now it is so simple to travel all around Vietnam. It seems like now more and more people can afford a flight ticket to travel from Northern Vietnam to Southern Vietnam. New airports are opening up to accommodate the demands. There are more busses that travel all around. There are taxi everywhere and offices that sell bus tickets all over the place. Travel have become more convenient and affordable. Development provides access to many thing but one important one is transportation. It allows people to migrate and move about elsewhere that they can have better opportunity to work and live. It allows goods to be transport all over the world. Not only that, banks are another thing I noticed that is developing. There will be probably about 3-5 banks that I can spot within a 2-3 kilometers. Bank is also a form of transportation, money transportation. Bank is a symbol of development in which development is about economically blooming. People now actually uses the services that bank provides and have money to put into bank accounts. In my hometown a bank have just opened across from my house. Before people will have to travel out of my town to a bigger city to go to the bank, but now it is across the street! Living in America, a "developed" country, we can easily gain access to a lot of things. Same thing is happening in Vietnam that I am spotting every time I look around while chilling on the motobike. More and more things are becoming available in Vietnam that have never before. However, all of this also comes with changes in lifestyle and needs. Development is like a long ass domino chain, once you knock down one domino, the whole chain will be effected. Once development creates or introduces all of these new things, there will be other things accompany of these new creations.

Southern Trip.

The Southern Trip didn't feel complete to me since most of the time we are doing our own thing and Gerard and Lena are also missing half of the week. It's the last big trip, so I was sad that we were not able to be together and live it up! The thing I like most about this trip is the time the spent at the local house. We get to experience the simple of the the locals. The area was so peaceful with the river across from our house and the cool breeze. Went to go catch some fishes for lunch, ate rat meat, and be able to see the stars at night. The best moment is when we came back from catching fish and found the host's daughter watching her cute music videos. After showering, some folks gathered around the TV and watched it with her. It reminds me of when I was young, waking to from my afternoon nap and while waiting for food, I would turn on the TV to watch cartoon or music videos. The life was so simple and peaceful, I forgot about that moment for a while. Same reason why I like our time at the village the best because that's when all of us are together doing things together.

As for development, Phu Quoc is definitely wont be the same next time I come back. When we were exploring the north side of the island, we stopped at this small shop to enjoy the beach and grab a drink. The area around there is still underdevelopment and have very few tourist attractions which is realllyy nice! As we were talking to the owner, she told us she only have a month left there because investors are coming in to rebuild the area and now she need to move out of the way. She told us she have been living there for 15 years, but they wont give her paperwork so now she is forced to move. The company does give her compensation, but she said she don't want to move, she likes it there. Stories like this we read in text books but hearing it from the victim makes it real. These people are being pushed out of their hometown in order for companies to serve tourists. Migration is something that comes with development. Moving in America is part of the culture, due to work, due to family, due to school. It is common for family to move houses and settling at the same house for more than 15years can be considered a long time and rare. When my family first arrived to America, we moved every year to a different location for the first 5 years. However, in Vietnam, most family probably stayed at the same house for generations! A few family members will be moving elsewhere due to work or school, but the main house will always be where they grew up. Development creates that conveniency for people to move about and I guess that's where the opportunity to find something better comes in. When people are not restricted no more at one spot, their options will open for whatever they wanted to do. tourism is blooming in Vietnam, while companies are making profit out of this beautiful island, the locals now are worrying how much longer they will be able to keep their house and enjoy the land that was used to be theirs.

Factory.

I wasn't really comfortable going to see the factory on Saturday. As I walked around looking at the workers doing their job, it made me feels like I'm going to the zoo. At Hanoismex, the workers seems to have more benefits working there comparing to Yamaha, which to me seems like a bigger company. Most workers are from the provinces that are looking for jobs in the city to make the extra living to send back money back home. At Hanoismex, workers also have a place to stay and an on-site hospital next to their dormitory. I found it surprising since the services the company offers to the workers are quite decent. One thing that struck me is when I found out that workers at Hanoismex earn 200 dollars a month, while at Yamaha, it's only 100 dollars. As a foreign company, I thought the pay would be somewhat decent if not more, but it was half of what a Vietnamese company is willing to pay their workers. Most of the workers there are between 20-30 years of age. It seems that most of them leave after couple of years working at the factory. This can also mean, they are using the factory work to integrate themselves into the city life and once they can find the opportunity, they can go out and do their own things. This relates to the article from the lecture in which working at factory allows these workers from the less modern area an opportunity to become a part of the city. Working at factory is not something that they might think of doing for the rest of their life. At Hanoismex, they said they are always running low on workers since the demand for this job is not high. That was something different than what the article mentioned before. Some company take advantage of the workers because they know there are more people out there needing a job if anyone rebellious quit. So it was interesting to hear that the company is the one that needed the workers.

As for Yamaha, even though they are bigger and more modern but they have no services for the workers. There's no medical clinic nor dormitory for workers to stay if they are from far provinces. Therefore, lots of their workers said to be recruited from the nearby city. Supposed these two factories are the good/better ones from others. They respect the labor laws and give fair wages. However, after the tour, the factory is not all that a good working place. Wages are still quite low and people still have to pay for a lot of things moving and living in the city out of their own pocket. With the amount of money they make is not a lot for a comfortable living. I can imagine how the worse factory place will be like. Even though foreign company might have provided more jobs to third world country, but instead of making their life better, the workers are being exploit and have to deal with labor rights being violate. However, government control sometime cannot go full force at punishing companies like this afraid they will scare away foreign investment into the country economy. Development gives people many opportunity but it also strip others at certain things.

Sapa

The Sapa trip have opened up my eyes to many things. Sapa town is a lot smaller than I expected and we pretty much have to travel outside of Sapa town to see and do things. There aren't much to the town. I enjoyed the experience a lot due to the minority people that I met there. I felt the warmness from them talking to me trying to sell the little products. There is this old lady that followed me for the whole day trying to sell me her hand-made bracelet.  No matter what, she always have this very sweet smile on her face and it reminded me of my grandma. I also met this one little girl that A-Thai knew from couple years back. It is about 7PM already but she said she can't eat until she comes home in the highlands late at night. When A-Thai treated her out to dinner, I was able to get to know her a little bit more. I asked her about the Love Market. She told me there's not much to it anymore, before it meant for people to find their lovers, but now it has turn into a performance catering to the tourists. From her response, she does realized that the meaning of that cultural event changed and have been shaped differently. Instead of doing it for a more meaningful purpose, the Love Market is now just another way to make money for the minority. Due to poverty, the minority groups have to find a way to make money to support themselves, and unfortunately, they have to give away "part of their culture" trading for food.

Development have been offering more opportunities for people to "live better" but those opportunities are not offered to everyone. While people can take advantage of the economy blooming, others people are living of day by day and barely making enough. Khu, our tour guide, she mentioned how girls are being sell overseas to make money for their family. They are tricked into thinking they can make "easy money" elsewhere, and some never return home. Human-trafficking is a big issue in Southeast Asia countries. When farming can no longer put food on the table, people seek to find other alternative. Often times they are forced to move out from their home to other places (thanks to transportation) in order to make a living. It is a risky decision in which they have never been elsewhere but their hometown, going out into the "world" there are more risks than luck. Seeing how the minority people live, it pains me to realized how they are being pushed back up in the highland into like this "little corner" struggling to make a living while people in the lowlands have more opportunity to make a living. At tourist places like Sapa, the culture also lost it meaning. While people come there for authentic souvenirs, most are made from Hanoi in the factory. Tourism and development have done a lot of damage to the "cultural authenticity" of a certain place. While I have a lot of fun, but realized I am actually contributed to all of this changes also.