Reflections on Vietnam – Verse One: A Moment

I first posted about the Brittany’s Hope/Elizabethtown College service learning trip to Vietnam on April 6. After much time and reflection, here is the post-trip summary of the trip [May 18 – June 3] in Five Verses.

Verse One: A Moment  

Mid-afternoon on a sandy beach. A brilliant blue sky and intense sun above. The temperature was 101 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat index 112. Before me a group of Vietnamese youth and American college students were dancing exuberantly to a mix of American and Vietnamese songs.  It was their third consecutive dance and I wasn’t certain they planned to stop soon.

A long moment of feeling at peace, followed by a briefer moment – I was truly there, in Cam Ranh, halfway across the world, embracing the heat, the humidity, a myriad of pungent odors, and a different sense of order and organization. We had come a long way, 8,816 miles to be exact, in a very short time.

Just two weeks previously, as we had our final preparation meeting for our trip to Vietnam, we (adults and students alike) had been bemoaning/dreading the anticipated heat and humidity. And yet, here we were, almost relishing it, well, certainly tolerating it, and preferring to move with newfound friends in the bright sunlight rather than to sit in the shade with fans.  I considered joining the dance, paused, and turned to the water instead. Embrace is a relative concept.

[Verses 2-5…to be continued]