Friday, July 21
We visited Tram Chim today. My emotions on this trip have overwhelmed me in sudden, unexpected upheavals. It happened as the plane was landing in Saigon and I saw my first glimpse of Vietnam. It happened in the van on the way from Saigon to Cao Lanh. And it happened today as I sat in front of the gutted buildings where my parents taught, met, and lived 30 years ago.
It takes us one and half hours to drive from Cao Lanh to Tram Chim by car. During my parents' time, there was no road, and same journey took them 6 hours by canoe.
I meet the woman who used to be my grandmother's housekeeper. I meet some of my parents' former students, and their children. They all remember my three older brothers, and ask about them by name.
For the umpteenth time, I wonder what my life would have been like if my family had not left Vietnam. My father would probably have been sent to a "re-education camp," in other words, prison. I would probably be married, with children.
Or perhaps I would be like the young teachers and students with whom Global Volunteers works. Maybe I would have attended a university and become an English teacher. If the course of events had run just a little differently, maybe I would've encountered Global Volunteers, but as a local teacher or student, instead of a privileged volunteer from the U.S.
It makes the head spin, all the might haves and could haves and what ifs. But this is all a worthless exercise, except to make me realize how fortunate I am.
