Reflections on Vietnam

Only having been here for two weeks it is difficult to formulate an opinion on the entire country. I've heard many tales on this trip from a tour guides description of getting typhoid at a very young age and living through it even though the doctors had told his mother he was a goner to an expats assessment of the countries affluent to a restaurant owner's tale of a 6 month marriage that ended when is wife left him for a man with more money. While vastly different stories, they all have a common thread. Something that I witnessed and felt defined those that I met. Survival.

This country has seen many repressive regimes and ugly wars waged in their backyard. Same, same. Same, same but different. A phrase used regularly seems to highlight their attitude towards those aggressors. It's not about who but when. Either way, one thing remains constant, the people of Vietnam focus on surviving.

After visiting the war museum and seeing the carnage that was left by my country, I doubted whether I could show the same courtesy to someone from a country that had ____ my fellow countrymen. I wondered whether the Vietnamese people had gotten over the atrocities of the American War or were they just being polite?

Sitting in the airport reflecting back on the trip, I truly believe that, given the county's history, the Vietnamese people, generation after generation, have been instilled with a unique coping mechanism. It is this mechanism that allows them the flexibility and determination to survive. It leaves little room for bitterness and spit.

In one hostel, I watched as two girls proceeded to berate the receptionist. The girls had been careless. They were at fault. Drunkenly late for a plane. Not planning effectively and yelling obscenities at this young lady. I was about to say something when they abruptly left the building. After a few minutes, I walked over to the reception desk. I commented on how patient she was and how I would have not been able to handle myself with as much grace as she had. She smiled, shrugged her shoulders, and said tomorrow is a new day. I was impressed. This was not the first or last time in Vietnam that I would witness events that illustrated the Vietnamese focus on a positive future, which I believe is at the heart of their survival instinct.

My experience blatantly over simplifies things. However, now that I've been to this country, I would love to have the opportunity to return and dive a little deeper into the hearts and minds of its people.