Good News from Agii and Aiman!

I'm very happy to let everyone know that I received good news in my last few email exchanges with Agii, regarding his sister Aiman's brain tumor and surgery. I should have posted this earlier but I've been distracted by friends, family and the greatness that is Colorado for the past few days.

Agii informed me that Aiman's surgery was a success, with the doctors removing 98 percent of the tumor and discovering that it's benign so no gamma knife surgery is needed. She is having trouble swallowing food and speaking but is recovering as expected and should be back to normal within the next month or so. Because of the money we raised and help from Laura and Scott, Agii didn't have to sell his home, his jeep or his business property to pay for the costs and has informed me that he is back to his normal routine of teaching. A huge thanks from Agii and myself to everyone who contributed and offered support and also to Travis Hellstrom, who made the whole process much easier by being one of the kindest and most supportive, helpful people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

I will update again in the not too distant future. I'm currently house sitting, trying to catch up with friends and family, and looking for a job.

Vietnam part 2

So I've finally returned to the U.S. and am currently in Colorado. Being in Cambodia without internet access, then traveling to California, then coming to Colorado..these are my excuses for not keeping the blog updated. :) I'll write more about my trip home and my feelings about being back in the U.S. as soon as I get caught up on Vietnam, uploading pictures, etc.

After a couple days in Da Lat, we took a bus to Nah Trang, a more touristy, coastal town. The bus trip was only a few hours but the scenery on the trip was incredible. We were driving down windy mountain roads, jungle everywhere, cliffs with waterfalls dropping hundreds of feet. The only way I can think of to describe it was to say that it felt like we were in Jurassic Park, minus the dinosaurs of course. Despite the views, the bus ride wasn't particularly pleasant, featuring a typical Vietnamese driver who drove too fast, took corners to fast, hit the brakes too fast, so yeah, we were thrilled to listen and smell the result of his driving skills as a few of the other Vietnamese passengers took advantage of their sick bags. Good times.

Nah Trang was a beautiful town, much more touristy and catering to travelers with travel agencies, guesthouses, hotels with great beach views, a variety of delicious restaurants, and even a really cheap gym/fitness center. The beaches weren't too crowded and the water was a beautiful bluish green color. We spent some time on the beach, spent a lot of time eating at different restaurants and just relaxed for the most part. Looking back, Nah Trang was one of my favorite parts of the trip and I wish we would have stayed there longer.

From Nah Trang we took a train overnight to a town called Hue. Hue is known for having a citadel which has a bunch of famous monuments and temples. We wandered around the outside of that area and didn't find much to do before hopping on an evening train to Hanoi. Our entrance to Hanoi wasn't the most pleasant as we arrived to pouring rain early in the morning and were greeted by guesthouse owners who believed that they could charge us anywhere between 18 and 27 dollars, during the non touristy season, for rooms that were clearly worth 10 or less. We eventually found a decent hotel that was willing to negotiate with us and gave us a decent rate. Needless to say I didn't get a great first impression of the capital, the biggest city, and northern Vietnam. The next few days in Hanoi consisted of us being rained on, having a hard time finding a nice place to have a cheap beer, and aside from a delicious French restaurant named 'Cafe de Paris', finding a decent place to eat. It was around this time that we decided it wouldn't make sense to go to Laos and that we should fly back to southern Vietnam instead of spending another 24 plus hours on the train. We landed some pretty cheap tickets through Jetstar and set about planning our trip to Ha Long Bay.

I almost don't want to write about the trip to Ha Long Bay because I don't want to remember how maddening and ridiculous it was. We arranged a trip with a tourist agency for a really good price (first mistake) that would consist of a bus ride to the bay, a boat ride and one night on the bay, meals, a room on the boat, and a couple of stops at some scenic areas, kayaking, etc. The trip was going ok until a number of us purchased some beers on one of the islands to bring on to the boat. The prices for beers on the boat were absurd and when you are trying to travel on a budget, you take advantage of cheap beers whenever you can. The boat 'manager' explained to us that we would be charged for bringing the beers on the boat and when we explained to him that we had not been informed of that supposed 'policy' he told us we wouldn't be getting our passports back unless we paid. This is where the boat experience started going downhill. There were some great moments, doing some kayaking in the beautiful water, surrounded by massive rock islands covered in greenery, one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen, jumping into the water from the top of the boat, and late night karaoke and drinking games. The rest of the trip consisted of the manager and crew being incredibly rude and abrasive towards us and the other passengers, arguments about paying for drinks that either were never purchased or had already been paid for and being mislead about air conditioning, fans, food, etc. I took a lot of great pictures though. :)

After another day in Hanoi, we flew to Ho Chi Minh, spent some time buying gifts and souvenirs, and boarded a bus back to Phnom Penh. The last few days in Cambodia were spent with some friends and shopping at the market for more gifts and souvenirs. On the night of September 5th, Hanna took off for Los Angeles and the next day around noon I did the same. I've copied links to my two Facebook albums with pictures from the Vietnam trip below. I'll be back on to write a bit more soon. In the meanwhile, please enjoy the pictures. :)

Vietnam part 1 (Ho Chi Minh, Da Lat, Nah Trang, Hue)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098492&id=72206395&l=2f6ece7e9c

Vietnam part 2 (Hanoi, Ha Long Bay)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099409&id=72206395&l=23c8e08b63

Vietnam part 1

Apologies for how long it took me to make this blog post but over the past two and a half weeks, I didn’t spend much time online or at a computer. On August 17th, Hanna and I left for our planned trip to Vietnam and Laos. We arranged to take a boat down the Mekong River, across the border and then to take a bus to Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon. The boat ride, while very loud, was pretty nice. Being on the water was pretty relaxing and I took a lot of pictures. After a few hours on the boat, leaving Cambodia required dealing with the always delightful Cambodian border police. I had overstayed my Cambodian visa by two days and the charge for overstaying is ‘officially’ five dollars a day but in this particular instance, the border police mentioned something about 30 dollars in ‘fees or taxes’ or some such nonsense. After a bit of arguing, pleading and notifying them that we are English teachers and don’t have much money, they finally conceded and let me get away with paying only what I was required to pay. I could probably spend a few paragraphs ripping on how corrupt and shitty the police and border police of Cambodia are but it wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Anyways, after crossing the border, making it through Vietnamese customs with no problems and some more time on the boat, we arrived in the town of Chau Doc, where we stayed the night in a guesthouse on the river. We wandered about the towns for a few hours, had some great food and took some pics. The next morning was spent eating breakfast, going on a boat tour to check out Vietnamese floating fish farms, and checking out a local village, mosque and some other sites. The few hours during lunch and after were spent on a bigger, more comfortable boat that slowly continued it’s way down the river. We eventually took a bus into Ho Chi Minh City, which was surprisingly much more developed that I expected. After wandering around a bit we managed to find a cheap guest house and went in search of food. We spent a few days in Ho Chi Minh, enjoying the amenities that have not been afforded by Phnom Penh the past few months, especially the movie theater. We saw both “Inception” and “Salt”, both of which we really enjoyed, while munching on some delicious and much missed popcorn. Ho Chi Minh is a pretty nice city to spend a few days in. There are some great sites to see, some museums worth checking out, especially the ‘War Remnants Museum’, which really gave me a much more accurate picture of just how costly the Vietnam War was. We walked all over the city and I took hundreds of pictures, which I will try to get uploaded to Facebook or Photobucket as soon as possible.

Based on information we’d heard from friends who’d traveled in Vietnam previously, Hanna and I expected Vietnam to be more expensive than Cambodia. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually quite a bit cheaper, especially with the low cost of ‘pho’ at a number of restaurants, often available for a dollar or a bit more. Travel across the country proved to be pretty cheap and easy as well, with a number of bus, train and plane services all over the country. Unfortunately, this leads to there being far too many travel agencies, many of whom have no problem ripping off foreigners, claiming to provide the cheapest available bus tickets while charging quite a bit more. Luckily, we figured out quickly that it’s much easier, smarter and cheaper to buy tickets directly from the bus companies when possible. Another thing I noticed about Vietnam, at least southern Vietnam, which I will probably touch on further, later on, is that the Vietnamese seem very indifferent to foreigners and tourists. Aside from the people who actually work in the tourist industry or street vendors, many Vietnamese people don’t seem to care much about people visiting their country. They are also a bit cold and less friendly. While in Thailand and to an extent in Cambodia, people are very friendly, open and quick to cater to foreigners and travelers, the Vietnamese just kinda go about their business and don’t pay much attention to foreigners. Anyways, more on that later.

From Ho Chi Minh, we went to Da Lat, a mountain town a few hours north, by overnight bus. Da Lat came highly recommended by our friend Chris, who is also working in Phnom Penh and did some traveling in Vietnam. After arriving early in the morning, checking into a guesthouse, passing out for a few hours, and eventually waking up to explore the city, the first thing we noticed about Da Lat was the lack of foreigners and businesses catering to foreigners. In most even somewhat popular tourist destinations, it’s easy to quickly find the ‘touristy’ areas, filled with t-shirt and souvenir shops, travel agencies, and restaurants and cafes offering western and Vietnamese food. It took hours of us walking around and exploring the city of Da Lat, which was quite beautiful and modern and reminded me very much of a mix of some mountain towns I’ve been to in the U.S. and European towns I’ve seen pictures of, before we found the touristy area, which wasn’t all that touristy. The roads were very windy and twisty, up and down, with businesses and apartments closely pushed together, surrounded by hills and mountains, beautiful green forest areas, rice paddies, and gardens. I took a lot of pictures in Da Lat but the photos do not do the city and surrounding countryside justice in the least.

Ok, I’ve been temporarily distracted by my desire for lunch. I will continue with more about Da Lat and the rest of the Vietnam trip, along with some pictures, asap.

Heading to Vietnam

As of today, I'm officially done with work in Cambodia and on 'vacation' until I return to the U.S. and (hopefully) find a job. Hanna and I are leaving by boat tomorrow for Vietnam, will spend a little over a week there, then head into Laos for a few days, then back to Cambodia for a few days before leaving for the U.S. of A.

I'll be taking a lot of pictures on this new adventure and will try to update the blog a few times and upload new pics when I can get to an internet cafe. Posts about the new adventure and part 2 of my last post, coming as soon as possible.

In Search of My Lost Idealism part 1

Over the past few months, as previously mentioned, I've felt my once strong idealism and optimism, dissipate and slowly, unfortunately transform into bitter cynicism and pessimism. It's taken me a while to recognize the negative effects that this has had on me, my interactions with others and my work ethic. The more I've realized how unhealthy my recent pessimistic attitude has become, the more I've tried to make small changes, talk to people, and read, in hopes of finding some sort of new inspiration or reclaiming my lost idealism. I feel as though I've made some small progress and it has certainly helped having people like Chris Turnbull-Grimes, my good friend who is serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, and Travis Hellstrom, who is starting his third year in Peace Corps Mongolia, as a Peace Corps volunteer leader, to share my frustrations and thoughts with. Hanna understands where I'm coming from and I know that she shares a lot of similar feelings and frustrations and needless to say, we are both looking forward to doing some traveling in the next few weeks, enjoying life as tourists for a little bit, instead of as volunteers or teachers. I just finished reading a book by Tracy Kidder called "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure The World', which came highly recommended from both Hanna and CTG. The book reminded me very much of "Three Cups of Tea", by Greg Mortensen, another book I read a while back, when I was still in training as a Peace Corps volunteer that inspired and motivated me. It's inspiring in so many ways to read about people like Greg Mortensen or Paul Farmer, who have done so much good in some of the most challenged places in the world but it can also be discouraging. It's hard not to look at the work of men like them and question your own actions, your own abilities, your own contributions. I do my best to not have many regrets but I sometimes wonder if I could have done more with my time in Mongolia, more with my time here in Cambodia, if I was just harder working, more patient, more motivated.

I try not to spend too much time dwelling on these thoughts because I know they will only discourage or depress me further. I do my best to focus on the present, the not too distant future, and the long term. I know now that a career in development and education is not something I'm interested in but I also know that I will continue to live a life of service, in one way or another. I know that even though I won't end up as a teacher or development worker, I am not opposed to the idea of volunteering my time, donating to charities and causes I feel strongly about, fund raising for important causes, and doing my best to contribute positively and responsibly, to whatever community I live in.

Today I spent some time talking to my friend Travis about the differences between people who try to make a difference and live a life of responsible service and those who just kinda go through the motions and seem to worry more about missing their favorite tv show or the latest iphone application, then doing anything to help their fellow human beings or contribute in any meaningful way to their community. Travis mentioned talking to people about the latest movie they saw (8-10 bucks for tickets, 6-7 bucks for popcorn, 3-4 bucks for a huge coke) and how uncomfortable and awkward most people get when seriously asked to donate money to a good cause, even if it's only five, ten of fifteen bucks. This of course sounded very familiar to me as I've spent the past month or so trying to raise funds to help my friend Agii's sister Aiman and their family, who are going through a medical crisis, one that could easily bankrupt a middle class American family, let alone a family living in western Mongolia. People are often quick to raise their hands or pledge support in helping out for a good cause but when it comes time to open their wallet or donate their time, it's proven again that talk is cheap. People seem to be much more inclined to donate money than time, which is ok I suppose, as long as the money goes to the right people/places/causes. Unfortunately, people are less likely to contribute money unless they know they will get a tax break or something else out of it. As Travis pointed out, 'that's not a gift, that's an exchange'.

I'm not accusing anyone in particular or pointing any fingers nor am I(in my opinion) being a hypocrite. I don't like admitting my own faults, my indifference and laziness at times, my hesitations but I do it, I try to do it as often as possible. I'm so far from a saint and I have made huge mistakes, hurt people, ignored problems pretending they aren't my own, and worried about things that many would call unimportant or trivial. As Hanna has said many times in the past "I am my biggest critic". Ok..getting off topic. More on this later possibly.

Living overseas, not necessarily in the worst conditions but certainly in less splendid conditions than I lived in the United States, has opened my eyes to the unnecessary excess of the American consumer culture and the misplaced or selfish priorities of people not just in the U.S.A., but all around the world. In some ways I understand it, I understand that (depending on what you believe I guess) we only have one life to live, we can't spend all our time helping others or forgoing things we enjoy or giving up our money to charity. It's perfectly normal to want to have things we enjoy. I'd be lying if I said that in the months leading up to my return to America, I've spent many hours daydreaming about all the foods I miss, what type of smart phone I might buy, what kind of car I want(if I ever get a job), among other things. I'm the first one to tell my friends and family that it's important to do what makes you happy, to take time to indulge and relax when stressed out, to pursue a career in something you will not enjoy, to not give up on long term goals and dreams. I firmly believe that in order to live a life as happy and stress free as possible, we have to occasionally indulge ourselves, eat things we like, partake in activities that we enjoy, relax, take vacations, call in to work occasionally because we just don't feel like going, etc.

But I also believe in personal responsibility, hard work, and giving some of your time (and occasionally, your hard earned money) to help those less fortunate than yourself.

I'm kinda losing my train of thought at the moment and I need to rest...so I'll just say 'to be continued' and follow this up soon with part 2. Disclaimer: I wrote this on the fly so forgive me if it's a little unorganized. And as I sign off, here's a couple of(in my opinion) very relevant quotes from "Mountains Beyond Mountains":

"The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world."

"The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, when you do, to send money."

Update: Money En Route

Here's the latest on the small fund raising I've been doing to help out my friend Agii's sister Aiman, and their family...

As of today, we raised $1,030 dollars, which I just transferred to Travis Hellstrom. As soon as Travis is able to withdraw the funds, he should be able to start transferring them to Agii's bank account. Hopefully, this money will help out at least a bit, allowing Agii to not go bankrupt and/or sell everything in order to pay for his sister's medical care. I sent Agii an email a few days ago but haven't heard a response to I may try and call him soon. I heard through Scott Burt (my friend and former site mate), who is a Peace Corps volunteer in Olgii and works with Agii, that Aiman and their older sister had made it to Almaty, Kazakhstan, that she had to undergo a lot more evaluations, she will have the operation soon and that doctors seem optimistic. As soon as I hear back from either Scott or Agii, I'll post another update. I just wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone that made a donation. Thank you to Jordan, Cathy, Eric and fam, Ryan, Sean, my mom, Nik, Andy and Debbie, Melissa, and my dad and stepmom. Also, a big thank you to Travis Hellstrom for being my 'man on the ground' in Mongolia, for being an awesome help and friend. Hope I didn't forget anyone! Thank you so much for your generosity and for recognizing that this is very important to me in so many ways.

When I get back to the U.S. in a few weeks, I'll see about possibly setting up something more official, depending on how everything goes. Again, thank you.

More updates and pictures to come as soon as possible!

Angkor Wat Photos and A Small Community Project in Mongolia

As promised, above are a few pics from Angkor Wat. Here is the link to my Facebook album with more pictures from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086780&id=72206395&l=4610d3b14e

I forgot to mention this and post the link in my last blog post but my friend Travis Hellstrom (Yes, THE Travis Hellstrom who is helping me donate money to Agii and Aiman) is looking for help on a project he's working on in Mongolia. Here's the email with a bit of information from Travis and the link to his site where you can learn more and help if you'd like. :)

"Hello my family and friends,

I want to share a project with all of you that I helped start which means a lot to me - one that I know will be a huge help to our small community here in Mongolia and change lives for years to come. It's a community fund for social businesses which helps people bring themselves out of poverty and improve their community from the grassroots. It's like Kiva.org without interest.

It works because people come together to share a little of what they have to help those who don't have much, and then that money is repaid and shared again and again. We have raised a lot, but still need about $1,000 more and I wanted to ask for your help. I understand it may be hard to give much - as a Peace Corps Volunteer I live on $140 a month and I know I wish I could give more - but if you can even give $5 it will make a huge difference. The beautiful thing is that donations will be used over and over for decades. And even if you can't give, if you could just share this with people you care about that would mean a lot to me.

Thank you all so much. I've never asked for money before and I'm not very good at it, but I've never believed in a project as much as I believe in this one. To learn more please visit www.advancehumanity.com/projects/socialbusiness and email me anytime at travishellstrom@gmail.com. Thank you for your consideration, I hope we can chat soon!

Thank you!
Travis"

http://www.advancehumanity.com/projects/socialbusiness

travishellstrom@gmail.com