For spring break, I went home to spend some time with my
family. In particular, I have been
spending more time with my grandma, who has lived more than fifty years of her
life in Vietnam before she fled with millions of other Vietnamese people. Over the years, she has gone back to Vietnam
twice.
Throughout the week, I have been getting some advice about
my upcoming trip to Vietnam. Be cautious
when eating street food because you might get sick (strangely, my family sold
street food too!). Be sure to bring all
your medicine because Vietnam probably will not have all the prescriptions I
need. Do not bring too much money with
you in case that it gets stolen. Make
sure you travel with people you can trust.
But, here are some other things that she said: If see you
see people having a hard time selling food on the street, give them a few
dollars; it will really help them. You
should bring some American candy and chocolates with you, and give it to
people. They don’t have this kind of
quality candy there and will be happy to receive some. Are there any clothes that you don’t wear now
that you can give to them?
All these things made me really think of the kind of
privilege that I will have when I travel to Vietnam for my practice experience. This conversation sounded a lot of like
conversations that we have add in GPP 105.
My grandma was essentially telling me that when I go to Vietnam, I will
be looked at as a person of privilege.
An American. An outsider.
And that’s okay.
I know that the advice that I got came from a place of
love. Be smart. But, at the same time, do what you can.
Over her time in America, my grandma would send whatever she
can every year (her social security) to her family and friends still in
Vietnam. She has definitely sent some of
my old clothes, and every time she comes back from her trip to Vietnam, her
suitcase is basically empty. She has
given it all to the people there.
And no, what she does will probably not resolve the problem
of poverty in Vietnam. There is always
critique of giving people what they need creating dependency. And maybe it is wrong to think of Vietnam as
a place of need (because they should be accountable for their own welfare), but
that does not mean that giving people something warm to wear is not helpful at
the present time.
I admire the heart that my grandma has. Honestly, I cannot imagine myself giving up
all that I have to people I do not know.
But, I definitely hope that during this practice experience, I will
learn to be a little more selfless and do the best that I can.
Going off on a little tangent, I would like to share a video
from the World Bank on poverty in Vietnam:
Thank you for sharing this personal story with us Catherine. I always love talking to the elderly and looked up to them because they are so kind, honest about things, they have lived through more experiences/challenges in different era/generation. My grandma too loves to talk about this with me, the act of giving. I think they really hold on to the idea that no matter how small the act/effort maybe it will bring impact no matter what. That is pure indeed. Conversation like this is also important for us to learn more about our roots, culture and even history etc. that makes us think and be more humble about it (at least I think so). I disliked history in high school but now I really feel its importance (especially in this minor) haha. There is this famous quote by George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" that appears in every single history text book in public schools in Malaysia. Now only I really appreciate and reflect on that quote. Send my regards to your grandma! =D
ReplyDeleteThank you Shahir!
DeleteYour quote really struck me because I definitely feel the same way as you. We need to appreciate the past to really do something in the present for the future.
One part of your blog particularly stuck out to me: "My grandma was essentially telling me that when I go to Vietnam, I will be looked at as a person of privilege. An American. An outsider. And that’s okay." Definitely something that I have been struggling with-- how can I not be an outsider? How can I make myself as least foreign as possible? Hearing that from your grandmother made me feel as though I shouldn't cast away my differences but instead, acknowledge and recognize them as a part of who I am. And that it is okay as long as there is respect and understanding. It also made me think a lot about the little things that we can do to help others rather than just the big picture, policy-changing, program-creating, project-proposal thinking that I feel as though I can sometimes get into without really realizing, especially when taking global poverty classes. I think it's important to remember to just treat everyone with respect and love and, cheesy as it sounds, although it might not be ending global poverty, it's still changing the world, however small, in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
I have had the same feelings as you, Sam. I'm glad that you related to what I posted here.
DeleteAnd the last part of your comment: "although it might not be ending global poverty, it's still changing the world, however small, in a positive way" was what I as basically trying to say in a nutshell. I do believe that we get wound up in big picture development that we do lose sight of doing small things that could help people right now.
Thank you for replying!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete