Paige Stringer's Brick by Brick post on the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss blog

Please visit: http://childrenwithhearingloss.blogspot.com/2012/03/brick-by-brick.html

Flying Home

This post covers: "Saturday in Nha Trang to Sunday evening in Gloucester"

Saturday in Nha Trang:

I want to get my hair done one more time. It’s 85 Vietnamese Dong – that’s about $4.00 for a head/neck massage and a shampoo/style that is usually an hour of relaxing bliss! The hairdressers move their motorbikes out of the salon as they open their Coiffure de Paris salon for the day.

I walk along the now familiar streets dodging motorbikes up to the tailor shop where I had a few things made. Ms Hoang Yen and her associates are some of the nicest people I’ve met in Vietnam – very friendly and lucky for me they speak English pretty well. I told Ms Hoang Yen that I’d give her e-mail to my friends. If you want something made specifically for you, contact her. I am happy with my order, though one dress is not finished, she wants to spend a few more days working on it. She will mail it to me. Her email is: "hoangyen_tailor@yahoo.com.vn"

Judy and I take Sophia to out favorite little jewelry shop right beside the Asia Paradise Hotel!

"Mi" is a wonderful shop keeper as Judy and I enjoy perusing the lovely items in her shop.
Oh, one last "typical" Vietnamese photo op!
Judy and I enjoy our last lunch together right across the street from our hotel. We meet this English journalist. In this photo you can see I am giving him an 'earful' about the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss and details of the blog sites; childrenwithhearingloss.blogspot.com

and adventureviews.blogspot.com. I am sure he is reading this now.
Such a nice spot for us to enjoy a Vegetable Curry & mango shake.
Ceiling lights in this restaurant give a nice detail for those who look up.
Judy looks excited about the clay pot veggie curry and rice - yum!

We say Good Bye to Marianne & Chris Simpson and Hien from Hand in Hand in our Hotel lobby. It’s Marianne’s birthday! Did I tell you that Marianne and Chris are from Gloucester England and I’m from Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA. Isn’t that a coincidence? Check the 'wearing of the green' on St Patrick's Day? Even Chris, the guy from England, is wearing a green shirt! (by chance, I think, but- hey, that is lucky on St patty's day - for sure!)

Buffalo Tours has a bus to take us to the Nha Trang Airport. As we drive along the turquoise bay out of town, we skirt the mountains and see all we will miss of this gorgeous seaside city. We know in about 5 years the commercialism will dominate changing the scene even more. Remember that my first view of Nha Trang was the construction site? That’s what’s happening here. Even the view from my 12^th floor room will be forever changed by the hotel that is planed for the vacant lot between my hotel and the beach. Guests staying in 1202 will not see the breathtaking sunrises.

This is not the fishing town it once was. It is a resort with many foreigners coming for vacation-mostly Russians. Of course, I like the conveniences that the infrastructure offers, but the charm of what once was here is gone now. Sister Phuong tells me what is was like ten years ago – more like Lai Thieu. She says it is not Vietnamese. It is for tourists now. They are building what tourists want.

One last sunrise over Nha Trang and this beautiful bay in the China Sea...
Confusion at the airport with all the luggage!

We all fly to Saigon where we meet up with Paige at the Dragon Hotel. Our final team dinner at the Vietnam House gives celebration to the conclusion of our Mobile Mission. Professionals who I had never met before became a team for this time. I will miss the challenge of working together to train teachers in Vietnam.

Driving the streets of Saigon with the American flag among others in the bus window.

Checking to see if all GFCHL team members are in the photo; I look at them from Left to Right: Jacque Patton, director Paige Stringer, Sophia, Judy, and Laurie Nelson -I think there is one more?

Oh, yes, Jim!

We miss you, Jim - sorry you could not join us in Lai Thieu and Nha Trang.

Jim & I shared a Vietnamese pancake on his "last supper" in Vietnam, so I have the same for my "last supper" - delicious, but not as good as the one I shared with Jim....that is the story of my life.Paige looks happy with what the GFCHL 2012 Mobile Mission accomplished. She enjoys her signature drink; watermelon smoothie.

For the first time, Judy and I are in rooms on the same floor right across from each other. We are tired and know we have to wake up at 3 am to get to the Saigon airport for our 6 am flight. We pack and repack our bags – howling with laughter through our tiredness. I think there is a certain stamina we hold all through the training that lets down when the job is done. We feel that relief and exhaustion.

We sleep for a few hours before our early morning flight.

I spring awake at 2 am. I am so excited about going home. Early morning taxi waits for us outside the hotel. How fitting that “Simser” the cute bell boy who remembers us and the “Oh sh_t” episode from last year is there to give us a fond farewell. The trip is shorter to the airport as we buzz along empty streets of Saigon.

Oh, my last bowl of Pho - pronounced 'fa ah' at the Saigon Airport Sasco Lounge at 4 am.
Do I look like it's 4 am or what? Judy looks very excited to be going home!!!!

At the airport, the Orchid VIP lounge Judy gets us into because she has a pass with Star Alliance is a nice place to wait for our flight – maybe too nice, as Simser and Watson are called on the loud speaker as our bags are searched one more time by the gate security! Simser and Watson are the last to board the plane!

Our less than one hour time allotment in Hong Kong for switching planes is a bit stressful, but we make it. We find our way to seats 27 B and C. Judy does not like that the seats do not recline much as these are the seats right up against the WC wall. She gets the stewards over and pleads her case. Her aisle seat actually does recline, but my middle seat does not. After all the fuss Judy makes, I get to move! I sit by the window in row 24 beside two young men from Hong Kong going to NYC for the first time. They are quite excited about their work-travel plans.

Hong Kong from the air.

Being Gluten Free and Vegetarian can be tough. My Mobile Mission team members will laugh as all through Vietnam, I struggled to make my desire known. No place is harder to make this kind of dietary need known than on an airplane. When I ask the stewardess if my request is filled, she looks on her sheet to see my name with information that I am flying from Tel Aviv and want Kosher food! Huh? I do receive GF food – not vegetarian, but hey this is only a 16 hour flight! No worries, I will be home within 24 hours. I cannot wait to cook my own food again!

In one of our Skype calls last week Jim tells me he went to the store and bought all my favorite foods: sweet potato, mango, black beans, green pepper, scallion, spinach, mushrooms…..my mouth is watering as I think of preparing Rip’s Bowl. I tell Jim that he should make that and eat it. He says he is saving the stuff for me. In that call he also tells me he bought me flowers but realized they’d be withered by the time I got home, so he put them back. We laughed about that. It’s hard to be away from the ones you love for so long. We don’t want to do this again.

I am so ready to be home. One month is a long time to be away. Three weeks of intensive “teacher training” with interpreters is a lot. I am glad I went. I am glad I was able to fulfill all I said I’d do for the team and for the teachers at each of the three centers. I realize we helped more than three centers because teachers from all over Vietnam were invited to join in with the local teachers. Apparently the number of people we trained is up around 200! I wonder if we can really know the impact of what our training does.

The “ripple effect” is in play. What we demonstrated, instructed, and encouraged will be received differently by each attendant. What they do with what we gave them is up to them. I hope we helped make these professionals more aware of what is possible for children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

I am writing all this as I journey from Nha Trang through Saigon on to Hong Kong over to Newark, NJ. As I gaze down at my country feelings on being home flood my being. I never thought of New Jersey as “home” before, but as I move with the passengers from the plane and stand in the Immigration line with my fellow Americans, an overwhelming sense of belonging fills me as we wait to be approved entry into the land we love. Judy, being Canadian, is entering the USA in another section. We part thinking we will meet up again to claim out bags for customs, but we get separated in the shuffle. The restricted areas do not allow waiting, though I do wait once for 10 min and at another spot for 15, just wanting to give “my Judy” a farewell hug. Good thing I do not wait too long.

I have to find my gate and get another boarding pass and take an airbus over to another terminal. I do not mind as most people speak English and everyone looks American. By that I mean everyone looks different. I realize for one month I was often the only one in the room with blue eyes, the only foreigner. What I do love about my country is: ‘we have everyone in the world here!’

On my last leg home I am fortunate to sit beside a handsome young man who turns out to feel like a friend. After the normal “hellos and where are you froms”, we share more of what we’ve each been doing recently; he, a resident radiologist, and me, the volunteer coming home from Vietnam. Coincidentally he has just seen a young Vietnamese woman who is deaf and cannot speak. She has a large lump in her breast but was unable to tell anyone about it. He asks about language development and tells how she could only communicate with her mother because she did not know any formal sign language either. This woman grew up without any communication system of any kind.

His story helps me understand that even though I wish I could have done more for the deaf children of Vietnam- like establish Newborn Screening, have correct hearing aids for every child’s hearing loss, cochlear implants for those who need them, and teachers trained to be doing effective parent guidance. However, sharing the information the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss team was able to share with the professionals serving children who are deaf is the best way to improve conditions and opportunities. These caring professionals in Vietnam; doctors, audiology technicians, teachers, therapists, along with the parents need to take the information we shared, learn more, and advance the whole process as best they can.

As we approach Logan Airport, I see my Boston Harbor islands, my Boston city skyline, my Simon Donovan Beach in Winthrop (named for my ancestor). I am full of claiming all of my home base. People are helpful and courteous with bags and personal space as I exit the plane. I find my big green duffle that made its way across the great Pacific Ocean and the expanse of our country to my shining sea, the Atlantic Ocean! Jim is waiting in the cellphone lot and drives my blue Subaru around to find me smiling, happy to be home with him. I think, "Wow, Jim never looked so good!" The policeman hurries us out of hugs and on our way.

Driving home I see hundreds of cars and only two motorbikes, the opposite ratio from any city in Vietnam! My eyes soak every familiar sight as we speed along 128 to Gloucester, around the rotary, and into my driveway at 544. Home.

Jim shares my favorite dinner he prepared for me. Bandit is purring as I pat her. As I settle in, she follows me everywhere I go in my house. Xan and Sam who live nearby come over to see us. How wonderful to see them; both looking absolutely healthy and wonderful! Sam studying social work and Xan who does lots of travel as the senior field service engineer with Pacific Biosciences, both understand Jim and me as we describe the ways our volunteering in Vietnam fascinates and frustrates us. Being with those who love and understand us, I know I am home now.

We feel hopeful that our volunteer efforts means more children diagnosed as deaf all around the world have opportunities for listening and spoken language. We feel happy to be home. Hopeful. Happy. Home.

As I wake up in my own room, looking out my own window, I see my own river more clearly with all the shadows, reflections, views, changes, and sparkles!