School of Peace

There is nothing much to report from my weekend, it was really low key. Which was nice. Last week I think I saw my host family for a total of something like 2 hours, so it was a good thing that I spent time with them this weekend. I also read the book Blink. It was really interesting, a pretty quick read with lots of fun facts and studies. Blink is pretty psychology based, about how we make decisions and first impressions and such, but I've heard his others (well, maybe just Tipping Point) might be more sociology. I'll have to look into that. When I first got here I started a list to keep track of the books I read--Blink is the 9th book on the list. I have a feeling that list will end up pretty long by the time I leave here...

Enough rambling. What I started out with the intent of writing is that since I have nothing new to report, maybe I'll fill in some holes about my job.

Recently, one of the big things I've been working on is the School of Peace (SOP). This is a program started from ICF (Interfaith Cooperation Forum), one of the organizations Max has started here in Asia. The goal is to bring together people from all different cultures, backgrounds, and regions to break the barriers that often exist between different religions and to cultivate the ideas of reconciliation and peace through addressing root causes of inequality and violence. Gosh, just writing that sounds exhausting! It's only a 3 month school, so it doesn't intend to change everything overnight. But Max is a strong believer in grassroots movements and change coming from the people who directly experience conflict as opposed to being brought in from the outside (like foreign NGO's you might say). All participants in SOP have to be already working for an organization that is active in the community they come from so that they have both a support network and a place to implement the changes they are learning about. One of the objectives is give people the resources to stop supporting a culture of reaction but instead to create paths towards a culture of transformation.

I love that language. Culture of transformation. It just sounds inspiring, doesn't it?!

SOP takes place in India, from February to mid-May. There is only the budget for 20 students and this year we had 30 applicants! I've gotten to do most of the correspondence with the applicants and, now, with the people who will be attending. We have people from Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, all very different regions within the countries and different religions. It is interesting being on this side of a process like this. Them asking me questions about their Visa and passports and various things. Many people haven't travelled out of their country before. But who am I to know!? Most of the time I pass on the question to Max, who then responds to me so that I can respond to them. I feel very "official" sending these emails, except that a lot of times I can't figure out which part of people's names to use. Each language does names so differently! Is this the family name, the first name, the gender identifier? I don't know! I try to copy what they've done, but sometimes it's tricky. Hopefully I haven't horribly offended anyone yet. I have definitely identified those who are the over-eager question askers. I just chuckle when I get another email from them.

I guess that's all really. Just a bit more about what I spend some of my time thinking about.

A Vietnamese Date...and other things from a busy week.

I had my first Vietnamese Date this week! I wore my shiny dress and heels, we went by taxi, he payed for everything, we had great seats at the Opera House for a famous Italian pianist, we sat in the same room as the PRESIDENT of Viet Nam, we even got ice cream afterwards. It was great!

Too bad he's 12 :)

It actually was an amazing performance! It was in honor of the upcoming visit of Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to Italy, the first of it's kind in 36 years. My family got 2 tickets from their conductor friend, and I think in their attempt to inspire Minh to keep up his piano practicing, had us go together. We had an excellent time.

My date added to what was already a really busy week. MCC hosted a workshop in Tam Dảo, a mountain region about 70km outside of Hanoi. The office was hectic all week preparing for it, we had about 40 of our Vietnamese partners from the Provinces where we actually do most of our work come to share about their experiences with the environment and development. MCC is phasing out of a few districts and beginning in new ones this year so the plan was to give people a chance to interact. In my opinion it was quite a success!

This week was also Hannah's birthday. As you know, I LOVE LOVE LOVE birthdays, even other people's. All of Wednesday was taken over by celebrating. I made sure MCC bought her the ugliest cake possible (imagine GIANT frosting cats!) and we went to dinner with friends and then on the Duck Boats (paddle boats in the lake by the Zoo). I was lucky enough to share a boat with the birthday girl herself. Together we acted like 5 year olds, laughing hysterically, paddling in circles around the other boats, in general being a nuisance, and yet loving life :)

Lunch at the office!

Like any good office, MCC has birthday parties about once a month for people's birthday that are close together. MCC doesn't exactly have a lot of employees, so I can't imagine this will continue very frequently all year, but I really like it! MCC has workers both in the office and doing various things in the city, so it's a great chance for everyone to get together. And there is always cake :) Yesterday we celebrated Hiro and Van Anh's birthday. I took some pictures so you could see a little more of MCC, my work day and food! On a normal work day there are about 6 people for lunch, so imagine a slightly smaller gathering for an average day.

This is Co Thu, the cook! She is fantastic. I really enjoy most of the food we eat everyday! I'm going to try to start helping out a little so I can learn to cook great Vietnamese food.

There are always a lot of different foods at one meal. Sometimes it follows what feels like a normal pattern to me with one meat, one vegetable, plus rice and always a Vietnamese soup. But other times it seems like there are a lot of options and a lot of equally main dish like things. For the party we had some sort of meat, although it looked more like bones than meat. I'm still working on enjoying eating meat like that, so I'll admit that this meal I skipped that part. We also had fresh spring rolls, which happen to be one of my favorites! And pho, which I have come to enjoy. I haven't eaten it that often, but my teacher at school eats it every day! It is definitely a Vietnamese staple.

Pho is always a little better if you add lime and maybe some ground pepper

I'm not a big fan of soups so Pho, along with many other Vietnamese dishes, has required some getting used to. And even when I like the soup I have a hard time finishing a whole bowl of it. Sometimes I think I get bored of eating before I actually am full! This might have been the first soup I have actually comletely finished!

And it's time for dessert! Yay birthday cake! This one was store bought, but still pretty good. You never quite know with Vietnamese sweets, especially flour based ones. But you can always count on the cutesy decorations. The Vietnamese love their cutesy things.

Just because you have cake doesn't mean you don't get fruit, the normal dessert, too! Today we had apples and pomelos. I think I've eaten pomelo almost everyday since arriving here, the Vietnamese love it! It's is kind of grapefruity, but not at the same time. At first I didn't love them, sometimes they can be rather flavorless, or even kind of sour. But other times they are great!

And there you are, a little office lunch tour. I have to admit that I definitely miss food from home. Just the normalcy of it. And the ability to cook for myself and eat the amount I want. Sometimes I feel like I have to gear up to eat a meal here, because it's like eating out every meal in that it always feels temporary. But I am getting more used to it and I do legitimately enjoy most of it! I've also gotten much better at eating only the amount I want to. The Vietnamese are GREAT at putting food in your bowl for you when they think you should eat more, even if you feel like you've already eaten half of the food that was on the table. Oh the culture of food...how interesting!

Exciting Things

Today was one of those days where exciting things just keep happening! At the start of this week I was very unsure about orientation, but it has been good so far if only to help get me more excited about Viet Nam. It helps being surrounded by people who actually know what they are talking about. Well, at least more than I do. So here are the three things that made me excited today:

1. This evening we went on a field trip to the Mennonite Resource Center (MRC). In of itself this was not necessarily the exciting part, although it was fun. But it is just another fact in a long line of new things I've learned that makes me really appreciate and respect MCC (Mennonite Central Committee for those who don't remember the acronyms). A big part of orientation has been learning what MCC actually is and what it represents. I love it. The three big areas of focus are relief, development and peace. It's is exciting to learn about these things in the big picture and to know that I will see all three in progress in Viet Nam. I saw even a little bit today at the MRC. There was so much happening there! They do:

• paper recycling to create revenue to be used for MCC projects
• school supply kits to be sent globally
• health kits (tooth brush, towel, etc.), often sent to refugees or relief situations
• newborn kits (blankets, cloth diapers, safety pins, clothes)
• hygiene kits for a family of 4
• AIDS caregiver kits
• meat canning (they actually have a mobile cannery that drives around the country 7 months of the year to can meat that is donated!)
• quilting to be auctioned off
• comforters to be sent away
• rugs made of old cloths, particularly ties!

There is a lot more happening there as well. It's an amazing place that is constantly addressing pressing needs around the world. I'm in awe of how MCC does what it does. I feel so fortunate to be a part of this organization. Which leads me to exciting things #2...

2. I was talking to a man here who knows a little about MCC Viet Nam. I mentioned that part of my job was being an intern for Max, one of the workers in Ha Noi. The man's response was, "That's great! Max is like a legend here at MCC". That is high praise coming from an already great organization. But something I forget that part of my job. Max has been doing field work in peace and peace advocacy for almost 30 years. That's a long time. I have so much to learn from someone who has seen and experienced so much. How exciting that learning from him is my job!

3. And the third...maybe the most exciting....drumroll please......

I have a family to live with in Ha Noi! And they are only 1km from my office! And I am fortunate enough to get my own room! With air conditioning (I didn't even have that in Seattle)! All great things!! I don't know much else, but it is just comforting to know that someone is expecting me in Viet Nam. I have a home there :)