Changes

I quit volunteering at Hanoi Children's Palace this week. Can't say I'm going to miss it. I just couldn't take the lack of organization and the unaddressed behavior problems any more. And when I found out that they hadn't been paying for the food and housing that they were supposed to be covering for me, I decided that I could better spend my volunteer hours somewhere else. Though I will miss some of the kids.

I won't miss trying to teach with this outside the door.

Seriously. I took that standing in front of the classroom door. Yeeesh.

I picked up a class at a language center that's M-F at 8:00 AM. I'm not really enjoying the early alarm clock, but it's a good place and it'll help cover expenses until I can find a few more hours. Once I do I'll be able to spend more time volunteering at Blue Dragon Children's Foundation.

So it was kind of a weird week and I was glad to get to the weekend. And, today I got to ride all over Hanoi with my new friend Ambassador Iroquois Dandelion (not her real name) on our Honda Super Cubs and check out some art galleries.

One place had a photo...

...that reminded me of one I took in Florida a while back.

Though, I went a little crazy with the negative space in mine.

Some of the best stuff was at a gallery where they didn't want people taking pics, but I didn't have that problem at Hanoi Future Art, where I saw this neon sign...
...and made friends with Pip. Whose facebook page was one of the pieces in the exhibit.
We ended our tour by hanging out at a neighborhood bar and trying to solve the world's problems. Her parents are both die hard Communists and their lives were profoundly affected by the American War. We both admitted to feeling some impact from the war on our own lives, even a generation later. Over the past couple of months I keep thinking about the fact that good and noble, self sacrificing people, with pure hearts and the best of intentions, can do horrible things. And I, as a person of faith, can fit that into my worldview. It's a big, hard, ugly truth to wrestle with, and I'm not quite sure how to do it.

But just the fact that the two of us could spend a day together, checking out art galleries and hanging out tells me that even when the wounds of war are deep enough to affect the next generation, there is hope for healing.