VTF is back!

Most of you know that Nancy and I were team leaders for ELIC's Vietnam Teaching Fellowship (VTF) from July 2007 till we had to go back to the USA for Nancy's cancer treatment. Last year there was no VTF team but the program is back in business for the 2010-2011 school year. This year's team of 3 teachers is led by a China Teaching Fellowship alum and the four of them will be teaching a few km west of here at Lomonoxop High School where our VTF team was supposed to be placed back in 2007.

VTF is a great program for those who have recently graduated college and are thinking about serving overseas. It gives them a chance to get their feet wet and see whether it's a long-term calling. In the three short years of the VTF program, sixteen teachers have participated. Of those, four are back teaching with ELIC in Vietnam, one has left ELIC but is beginning her fifth year in Vietnam, and one has been teaching in Laos since she left VTF. Six out of sixteen is a pretty good ratio!

We're pretty happy that the program is back. Our role this year is to be "on call" for the new leader as she breaks into her first year as a team leader. I guess we're still in the mentoring business and that's a good thing.

McCain at DAV

While I've been back in the US, my students have been hobnobbing with senators. Here's a picture of John McCain arriving at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and greeting the Director General of the Academy. The stop at DAV was part of the recent Asia tour taken by Senators McCain (R-AZ), Klobuchar (D-MN) and Graham (R-SC).

Back From Beijing

Last week Nancy and I traveled to China for 3 days of meetings with the China Teaching Fellowship (CTF) team leaders. Nancy and I are the old people among them; the others are all young women in their 20's. Once again, I came away impressed at sense of purpose and depth of spirituality and commitment of these team leaders. You would be too.

I also came away amazed that anyone would want to live in Beijing. It's a sprawling mass of concrete and the air is as bad as they say. The funny thing is that it feels less crowded and less hectic than Hanoi because, even though it contains 5-6 times as many people, it's much more spread out so it's less densely populated.

Of course, I'm not much of a big city person anyway. Hanoi's a struggle for me until I remember a George MacDonald poem I came across years ago.

I said, "Let me walk in the fields."
He said, "No, walk in the town."
I said, "There are no flowers there."
He said, "No flowers, but a crown."

All Things Work Together For Good...

The end of the week turned out nothing like we thought at the beginning. Instead of typing this in Hanoi, I should be with the rest of the VTF team about 350 km south of here. They're visiting a group of long-term teachers to see what their lives are like and whether they might feel called to sticking around longer themselves.

Just after noon on Thursday, we arrived at the Hanoi train station, climbed aboard and settled into our seats. And I felt this sharp pain in my chest. And then again. Nancy was looking panicky. I wasn't sure what to do myself. But heart disease has been around my family so we decided that I needed to get off the train and see a doctor. Nancy would have to stay and accompany the VTF teachers.

Off I went to the doctor just to get an EKG which came back normal. It was one of those feel-stupid-if-you-do-go-to-the-doctor (because it was nothing) or feel-stupid-if-you-don't (and end up dying on a train cruising through the rice paddies of Thanh Hoa). But I was/am fine.

Turns out it was good that I stayed behind for another reason. The English club had a big event Saturday morning (which I found out about Thursday afternoon when I should have been on the train). Since I was in Hanoi, I was able to be there to represent our teachers.

Plus, I discovered that there was a major miscommunication about our junior reading classes. We weren't told that we're supposed to be teaching them reading and summary writing for their final exam five weeks from now. I spent part of the afternoon getting a skeletal lesson plan together for the VTF teachers so they don't have to start from scratch when they get back Sunday night.

So, as Shakespeare would say, "All's well that ends well." As King James would say, "All things work together for good..."

The Scavenger Hunt

Saturday started off with 3 hours worth of orientation for observing the new teachers this week as they do their teaching practicum at DAV (Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam). The vice-dean of the English department is also serving as a mentor/observer, so she was there too. She came armed with a cassette tape of two English news broadcasts she wanted me to listen to and a transcript to correct. Since I don't have a cassette player, I headed over to campus about 1:30 to check the transcript. It didn't take long - just lots of minor corrections.

From 4-7 we were supposed to have a scavenger hunt for VTF. But, Friday one of our good Vietnamese friends (Lien) called to invite us to her house to celebrate its renovation - the family had added two floors, upgraded the kitchen, and done a lot of other work. She had been trying for a couple of weeks to try to get the three families she was inviting to mesh with a date and we didn't want to mess it up. So we moved the scavenger hunt to Sunday afternoon. Plus, that would give VTF Saturday night to work on their lesson plans.

Unfortunately, some of them were thinking that putting it off to Sunday night would be a good idea. But we did the scavenger hunt anyway and they were finished and on their way back home by 7 PM.

What do you look for on a scavenger hunt in Hanoi? Stuff like:

• A photo of a live animal.
• A photo of a cooked animal (whole).
• A photo of someone on your team talking with a child.
• A photo of an artist at work.
• A photo of you in a store downtown. One extra point if the shop owner is in the photo.
• Team photo with a Colonel Sanders statue.
• Team photo with everyone wearing a conical hat.
  
• Team photo of you drinking coffee or fruit drinks at a café.
• A bus ticket stub.
• A pair of chopsticks or a new pair of plastic sandals.
• Three pieces of fruit.
• A postcard of Hanoi.
• A single-use packet of shampoo.
• A Vietnamese postage stamp.
• A bottle of “Joy” brand water.
• Ten business cards from ten places you’ve never been.

There were about 40 items in all. The Dalat team pulled off a 38-35 win.

So, it wasn't as flashy as the Olympics, but sending them out without their team leaders brought them back feeling a little more comfortable about negotiating Vietnam and, hopefully, happy about the start of some good friendships.

Teamwork

A few months ago I came across an online news article about a young woman from the midwest who will spend a year teaching on the outskirts of Hanoi as part of the Fulbright program. Her blog is frighteningly titled, "Things That Could Kill Me in Vietnam".

Last night she posted that she'd arrived in VN. She got through immigration with the "scary visa people in military uniforms" and got her bags, but apparently she was on her own when it came to getting to her school. She somehow ended up paying $120 for what should have been a $20 taxi ride. She arrived at the hotel with no one to tell her that it's normal for the hotel to hold your passport when you check in. All this happened in the wee hours of the morning after the long flight from the US.

I'm glad she's still writing about it from here and hasn't turned around and headed back to the airport. And I hope she makes good friends quickly and starts to feel more at home in her neighborhood.

But reading her story got me thinking about how much I appreciate ELI's team approach to teaching. While Nancy and I can negotiate VN pretty well these days, the experience we had 8 years ago of having friends, old and new, on the other side of the "scary visa people" sure made life a lot easier and more enjoyable.

Now we get to be the people on the other side. It's been fun doing for others what others have done for us.

Just Photos From First Week of 2008 VTF Training

Yes, it's that hot.

2/3 of the new teams.

Hoan Kiem Lake intersection.

Hit the Ground Running

With the usual slight bump, the plane hit the runway and we're back in Hanoi. Jet lag? What jet lag? Who has time for jet lag?

11 PM Wednesday: We drag the last suitcase into the house, take a look around, unpack a little, hit the showers, then the pillow.

Thursday AM: Unpacking.

Thursday afternoon: Nancy and Sandy go to Elysse; David answers email and reworks the all-country training schedule for the Vietnam Teaching Fellowship (VTF). People have been waiting for the schedule since the weekend.

Thursday, 9:18 PM: Bed.

Friday, 8:30 AM: Meet with the ELI country director to go over the schedule for the VTF training that will begin Saturday.

Friday, 11:15 AM: Lunch with the Camp Vietnam teachers who are at our school this summer.

Friday, 2 PM: Visit the school to observe Camp Vietnam in action.

Friday, 6 PM: Dinner. Food Shop 45!

Saturday, 8 AM: Meeting with other trainers at their hotel.

Saturday, 9:30 AM: Leave for the airport to welcome the 2007-2008 VTF teachers.

Saturday, 2:30 PM: Lead VTF on a walking tour around the hotel so they can get their bearings.

Saturday, 6 PM: Take VTF somewhere nearby for dinner. Anything but KFC!

Sunday, 9 AM: First training session begins. Full days for the next five weeks.

Although our heads are still spinning from being in the USA, we're off to a busy start!

Summer Holiday's Over

This was a very strange, short summer break. Six weeks is a long vacation, but it can seem short when you're never anyplace for more than two weeks, like we were this year.

But, we did get to spend two weeks in Florida with one daughter, two in Virginia with the other and our granddaughter,

and two in New York with family. That's the "glass half full" view. The other side is that we weren't in NY nearly long enough to see many of our friends there.

Now it's time to get back to work and I'm looking forward to it. VTF 2008 is made up of two teams and we're looking forward to meeting them in eight short days when they step off the plane in Hanoi. Our team will be back at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam; the other will be enjoying the cool weather at Dalat University. Their training starts a week from Saturday! Can't wait!

School Year Ends

The school year ends for us, anyway. Freshmen still have a couple more weeks but they've finished their classes with the foreign teachers. As I write, our team has already begun to head off in different directions: one to the USA, one to Africa to visit a friend, and the other three traveling around SE Asia before heading home or to new responsibilities in Hanoi. Our plane takes off in less than eight hours.

Our summer is short, compared to those in the University Teaching Program (UTP), but it's enough to visit family for a few weeks. In July we'll be back in Hanoi to welcome a new group of teachers and begin their training. This year's training will look a lot different than last year when we trained with the China teachers. Because of the heavy Olympic traffic, teachers in China have been asked to delay their arrival till September. That's too late for the Vietnam school year, so VTF will join the UTP teachers for their training. It will mean more work and more expense for the VTFers, but they'll be a lot more confident at the beginning of their teaching year after the extensive training. And they'll get their TEFL certificate (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) from Wheaton College after successfully completing the coursework.

Part of my summer will involve getting ready for VTF's training and helping to revise some of the university's curriculum, but now it's time to start my summer vacation.

Cookout

Last Saturday night our team had an end-of-the-year cookout for the English department at our school. Melia and Scott delivered about 15-20 invitations, but we weren't sure who was going to come or whether anyone would be bringing guests. We planned for the max; 40 kebobs, 40 pieces of chicken, huge pans of baked beans and potato salad, cookies.... We had lots of leftovers!


Finding a small grill and some charcoal wasn't nearly as difficult as getting damp charcoal lighted with no lighter fluid. Paper didn't work. Twigs off a dead branch weren't much more effective. Then I remembered that a worker had left a few strips of dry wood upstairs. Josh was able to get things going with that and we ended up with a good fire. Like most times I try to barbecue, I should have started about 1/2 hour earlier.

But anyway, everything got cooked and our friends seemed to enjoy the American food. It was nice to be able to get together outside of work.

Weekends

Lately there have been so many "little" things going on at the same time that it seems like there's nothing "big" to write about. But, since Easter, there's been something going on every weekend.

First was a trip to Thai Nguyen. It's been a long time since I've been back (and longer for Nancy), so we hopped on the bus Saturday morning to visit a couple of our friends/former students. Aside from the usual "trolling," it was a smooth trip. "Trolling" is what we call it when the bus leaves the station and sloooowly pokes along the road looking for additional passengers to fill the empty seats - and the aisle, and any laps that look like they have room. We trolled almost all the way to the airport, but we had good seats this time so it wasn't bad from where we sat.

We visited with our friends, had lunch at a seafood restaurant, and marveled at the big lobster-like critter in the tank that you could order for $100 US per kilogram. And we were absolutely amazed to see a 4-story shopping center, complete with escalators, standing where the old, open-air central market had been.


Our friend and Nancy have been quite close over the years and she spent most of the day lobbying Nancy to move back up to Thai Nguyen to hang out, practice English, play with her kids, etc. (She has cute kids, but it didn't work.)


In the old days, Nancy taught our friend to bake and she's gotten pretty good at it. But she's been busy with work and family and hasn't had much time for baking. So, after helping her assemble an apple pie and sticking it in the oven, we headed out to catch one of the last buses back to Hanoi.

The following weekend was the big "Miss IIR" contest. IIR is the old name for our school - The Institute for International Relations. (The name was recently changed to The Diplomacy Institute of Vietnam.). The field had been narrowed from the original 25 contestants to 11 and Saturday night was the big competition. It was quite an event, but also quite long. I didn't stick around for all four hours, but I heard that a girl in one of Josh's freshman classes took first place.

It looks like weekends will stay full for a while. On Saturday we're going with the rest of the VTF team to Ha Long Bay to treat our spring fever and the following weekend we're in Beijing for the VTF/CTF team leader summit.

Easter Party

Easter's more of a church-going event than a party one, but an Easter party is a good way to introduce students to an important holiday that few of them have ever heard of. Even if they don't know the Christmas story, they at least know about Christmas. Easter, on the other hand, is almost totally unknown.

The first big question the 7 of us on VTF faced was, "How can we do an Easter party for all of our students?" We've got a total of almost 30 classes this semester with most class sizes hovering around 30. Nine hundred students?!

But, at this point in the year, we kind of know which students we've been able to build relationships with and who may be the best ones to invite. So we decided that we would each invite 3 students. Seventeen showed up.

A few of the teachers hid eggs in the garden on campus. Nancy and Melia stood guard while the rest of us met the students out front. (While we were waiting, a little girl discovered a couple of the eggs and was about to start smashing them till our "guards" intervened!)

The plastic eggs contained strips of paper with parts of the Easter story written on them. The rest of them were hard-boiled. After they were all found, we headed to our house where Josh and Melia helped half the group dye eggs while Deena told the other half the story and then had them put the strips in order. Then we switched groups and repeated the process.

No Vietnamese student party is complete without singing so, after singing "He Lives!" in both languages (and an assortment of other songs that have nothing to do with Easter), we all called it a night. It couldn't have gone smoother and it was great to have a house full of students again.

Signs of Easter Are...

...nowhere to be found.

At least not like you see signs of Christmas. The commercial side of Christmas has definitely made its way to Hanoi, but that's not the case with Easter. Three months ago, life-sized plastic Santas stood in front of shops with their motorized arms waving and pre-recorded, "Ho, Ho, Ho's" bellowing. Sidewalk vendors were selling Santa hats. Toy stores stocked artificial Christmas trees, stuffed St. Nick's and tinsel. But I can't find plastic eggs anywhere.

On the non-commercial front, it is encouraging to see a large resurrection mural on the front of the city's large Vietnamese Catholic church. Friday night the two International churches in Hanoi got together for a service. Anticipating more people attending than usual, HIF had two identical services on Sunday morning. Monday night VTF is banding together for some egg-dying with students and the deeper story of Easter.

Saturday night most of the Hanoi teachers, and a few from out-of-town, got together at the director's house to share a meal and talk a bit about what Easter means to them. A couple of people mentioned what it's like to tell the story in simplified, understandable English to people who are hearing it for the first time. In that setting it's easy to be talking and thinking at the same time - telling the story while thinking, "This sounds crazy! Do I really believe this?"

I do. Aside from the historical evidence and my belief that it makes sense philosophically, I know the difference the Resurrected One has made in my life.

I guess there are signs of Easter after all.

Thầy nào trò ấy means...

..."like teacher, like student."

Last spring when we were thinking about a logo specific to the Vietnam Teaching Fellowship (VTF) as opposed to its older brother, the China Teaching Fellowship (CTF), we thought that this traditional Vietnamese saying might be a nice thing to add. After all, we're not just about teaching, we're about sharing what we've been given.

VTF Santas Part 2

Deena was able to go down to Ha Nam province with the CAMA Services staff on December 18 to hand out the gifts we wrapped. I finally got around to putting it on YouTube. What you don't see is the older kids acted out the Christmas story in Vietnamese.

VTF Santas

One Wednesday morning, we all went over to CAMA Services and helped them pack up hundreds of presents for the kids at the preschools they work with. Each package contained: two pair of socks, a winter hat, a bar of soap and a small hand towel. That may not seem like much, but where these kids live the per capita income is about $200 per year.