scars

don't always mean the wound is healed...

Today, we were at the hospital for disabled children with our visiting physiotherapist, Roz who is here for two months. All the parents knew she was coming so we had a big crowd already.

And then another visitor, a very very old looking lady.

She asked me how old I was, and I told her I was 24, [in Vietnamese] look at me go, understanding this old lady with a mouth full of betel leaf!
I asked her how old she was, ooh, she's 84 years old. Wow.
And then she started talking too fast for me to understand.
I looked to Mr. Tuan, our translator for help. He looked at the lady and then looked at me and said "your father..."

My father what?!

The old lady started rubbing her arm - my father sprayed Agent Orange and Napalm on this country....

The war is over, but never forgotten. It only ended 33 years ago.
If this was her instant reaction, who else thinks like this?

All the children call us "My" - every white person is automatically seen as American.
What do they think of us? They don't know anything of the war, they just know the 'Americans' come to play with them and give them food and teach them. When they learn about the war what will they think? Will it change how they feel about us and our work? Or will it affect how they feel about the war?

Only yesterday we went to a provincial conference celebrating international investments and foreign organisations. There were representatives from almost every NGO based in our province, there were expats and volunteers, there were Vietnamese colleagues of all these people. All of them victims of the war in some respect.

But still, no one forgets.

So anyway, I told her, no no no, I'm Irish, no no no no no!
As she was leaving she passed me by again;

Betel Leaf Lady: 'Where are you from?'
Me: Ireland.
BLL: 'Where are you from?' [expression says, "oh, the dumb American can't understand me!"]
Me: I-R-E-L-A-N-D
Me: ok ok, England, you know England?
BLL: 'Of course I do. Your nose is ugly.' [pointing to my piercing]

Nice!