Bye–Bye Việt Nam



The Geese are Still Protecting and On the Alert!

 Time does funny things when you are getting ready to leave a place, especially somewhere you have lived for a while. At least it seemed so to me as I left Sài Gòn. On the one hand, time seemed to slow down, especially as I had known for about six months that I was leaving. And then, all of a sudden it seemed to speed up, as I became aware that I was visiting certain places or eating at places or seeing people for the last time. It felt both busy and boring, as I packed up some stuff to send back to Canada or give things away or clean up my apartment prior to checking into a hotel for a few days. And so it was slow, fast, busy, boring ... and now that chapter of my life is over. Time to move on to the next one!

Thien and Sang

Thien

A couple of weeks before I left, I visited Mai Tam for the last time. I hadn’t been to visit for a while, as I had been travelling so often trying to see people and places before I left. It seemed strange I hadn’t been there for a while, especially as I had gone so religiously for months ... but it was great to see the kids, especially Thien, who seemed to feel so much better. He had an appetite and had gained some weight. And it was great to share one last lunch with Le Thu and the Mai Tam Mums, who I have grown to like and admire so much, especially a young woman named Dien, who is the mainstay of the infants’ room. She was the one who kept the wee babe, Khoi An, alive and nursed her into health and who cried and cried when she was adopted. I found this lovely photo gallery of some people who took clowns to the orphanage late last year ... http://www.vnyoga.com/photo-gallery/bring-clown-to-mai-tam-house-of-hope

Dien and me

We had a couple of presentations to give toward the end of my time at RMIT. Phoenix, Chris, Linh, and I talked about Vietnamese students to a group of Dutch business men and women. It was held at the Intercontinental Asiana and was not heavily attended, which was fine. The food was nice and the audience seemed attentive enough. I think it went well. Then just before I left, Linh, Phoenix, and I gave our CDAA presentation to anyone who wanted to see it. We had about 14 or 15 in attendance and I am not sure how well it went. We have more work to do in terms of developing some more hard data. I am sorry I won’t be around to participate in some of the upcoming research projects, but am committed to writing the paper that will sort of tie up the work we did to prepare for our presentation in Australia. So that was a bit of busy.

Phoenix at the Dutch Business Group Presentation

Hung and Tram

At the end of exams (part of the boring part was invigilating Accounting exams!) I went to the water puppet show with two young students, Hùng and Trâm. Water puppets, or múa rối nước, are unique to Việt Nam. I had met Hùng and Trâm as they prepared to apply for the P&G competition and they impressed me immensely. They are both from Đà Lạt (although Hùng’s family lives in District 7 now) and are both super involved in school activities. We decided we would go to a performance after Trâm’s last exam, and it turned out that Trâm had never seen the water puppets, so it was great! I loved it and suggested to Phoenix that we go with her son Ian, as I thought he would like the musicians and the action in the pool. It turned out that neither Phoenix nor Bích Nhi had seen the water puppets either, so it was a great cultural sharing ...

During my last weekend in Việt Nam I went to the wedding of Thúy, my Vietnamese teacher, and Thomas, her Danish husband. They met on an online website and their relationship developed over six months or so. She met him in person on May 21 and they were married on May 28. I sat at a table with Thúy’s boss and some other European friends and we all felt some concern about the nature of their meeting and wish them all the best for their future together. I think they will have another wedding in Denmark in the summer, but it is unclear where they will live. It was lovely to see her parents and other family members again. They seemed to welcome Thomas with open arms and it was especially nice to see how well Thúy’s brothers got along with Thomas. They were planning to honeymoon in Đà Lạt and Nha Trang, both traditional honeymoon destinations, so Thomas will have seen the central highland and the seaside. I wish them much happiness.

Thuy and Thomas

Thuy's Parents

Saying goodbye to people at work was weird and hard, as it was never exactly clear when the last time to see someone would be ... I will miss so many people who touched my heart. Two in particular were the young brother and sister at Bobby Brewer’s Coffee, Tung and Thy. Thy has been at RMIT all along and Tung has worked at that location for the past year or so. They and the others who work there are so great; they remember your order after just one or two times and are so friendly and sweet. Tung used to ask me about getting him a US $2 bill. I thought he was joking, because I thought the $2 bill had been discontinued, but it is very popular in Việt Nam and people think it is very lucky to have one. So I started calling him Cường 2 Dollar, after Cường Dollar, the richest boy in Việt Nam (who apparently has a huge collection of luxury automobiles). At any rate, we used to laugh a lot together, and eventually I got a $2 bill for him. Thy and Tung got their mother to make me a chocolate brownie heart for a going away treat. So sweet! I had borrowed a very large Bobby Brewer’s coffee mug and used it every day for a large latte; when I returned the mug, they urged me to keep it, but my luggage was jam packed and I had no room, so I reluctantly refused. I hope somebody else will use it in good health and become as fond of the kids that work at Bobby Brewer’s as I was.

Thy and Tung and the Chocolate Brownie Heart ... so sweet!

Had a little drama about sending some of my possessions home, as my travels included a stopover in Hong Kong and I didn’t want to have to hassle (or pay for) extra baggage. But shipping stuff home is not easy. I am hoping my stuff will arrive soon, as I don’t want to have to buy a new wardrobe! Last I heard, it still hadn’t been shipped because of the drugs ... what drugs? Oh, my vitamin pills that I brought from Canada? OK ... they can be discarded. CDs? Title in Khmer ... OK ... it can go. Please don’t throw out my portfolio! Please let my Bob Dylan T-shirts pass customs. Trời ời! Mr. Nanda at the University of Calgary-Qatar was so helpful in getting all my stuff to Canada from Doha. I might have to write him another letter of thanks!

Huu Nhi and me

Saying goodbye to my colleagues was difficult, as work is so important to me and I had been so involved in the Career Centre in my year with them. My first goodbye was with Hữu Nhi, Phoenix and Bích Nhi. We went for a Vietnamese buffet dinner, the night before Hữu Nhi went to the Netherlands to see his sister. Hữu Nhi works in our office, although he is associated with External Relations. He is a very interesting, sensitive, and intelligent person, whom I will miss a lot. 

Thanh and me

I had a lovely lunch with Thanh, with whom I had worked in English. She has been in Property Services for a while now and so I didn't see her too often, but she is a sweetie!

With Linh, Gemma, and Yen Nhi

Most of my colleagues had a lovely lunch for me at a Vietnamese restaurant overlooking the river in the Crescent, a new and very posh part of District 7. I say most because Yến was ill and Tuyết was at a college reunion in the States. For a going away present, my colleagues made me a wonderful goodbye video. Such a sweet thing to do. The lunch was very nice and a bit emotional, as I have really enjoyed working in Việt Nam and at RMIT and so it was not easy to leave. However, being sad to go means that I really loved being there, and it does not mean that I won’t love being at home as well. It is a conundrum of the sojourning soul ...



So ... wondering if I will ever go back ... who knows? I hope so. It has been amazing to see how Sài Gòn changed in the time I was there. It will be amazing to see what the next few years bring. I definitely hope to keep in touch with people and hopefully some of them will visit me in Canada!