|
|
|
|
|
|
Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
|
|
| site design imagesparkle.com |
| September 29, 2003 |
Da Nang, Viet Nam |
|
| |
 |
| The "Welcoming Committee" - many were participating in the Peace Boat - Da Nanag Youth Union exchange for their second or third time |
While Hollywood often continues to perpetuate images of war, repressive socialism and economic and political seclusion from the West, visitors to Vietnam today only have to scratch the surface find a vibrant country whose rate of development and optimistic, hard-working people offer an inspirational view of the future to people around the world. While the country is still nominally socialist, the idea of running a command economy has patiently been giving way, to free market principles since the early 1980s. The opportunity to experience this country in transition firsthand was rare and fascinating. |
|
|
 |
| Preparing the banner for the peace appea |
Driving along newly paved avenues, Peace Boat participants and their young and infectiously energetic Vietnamese counterparts sang the national song "Viet Nam, Ho Chi Minh." Impromptu language and gestures served as rudimentary tools for bridging the cap between the two cultures. The hope that exuded from these young Vietnamese people really highlighted the human side of this new Viet Nam and helped to reconcile the simple, narrow images of 'Hamburger Hill', napalm and communism with a more complex view of the reality of the country, in the hearts and minds of the participants. |
| |
 |
| Peace Boat Volunteer interpreter Mikoto left, together with new friend |
With new buildings and construction sites dominating the cityscape, we arrived to find the Da Nang Youth Union Center untouched by the recent drive for modernity. Leaving the comfort of the bus we were each in turn beaten by the oppressive sun and clawing heat as we filed into the courtyard filled with the teeming life of hundreds of youth. |
| |
 |
| Bustling streets, becoming busier every year |
With seemingly chaotic, yet amazing efficiency, participants and their young Vietnamese friends were paired off and set out for short tours of nearby markets, homes, parks, taking in the sites with their dedicated local guides. Excitement drowned any fears arising from being on unfamiliar transport, and the scarce traffic lights and apparent anarchy of the road gave way to a sense of a complex road etiquette that allowed people to get around in relative harmony. |
| |
 |
| Members of the Japanese traditional Wadaiko drumming group, Tomoekai, getting acrobatic in their performance for our hosts |
Everyone returned to the Youth Union for lunch and a short rest before the afternoon's festivities. The exchange program made full use of every minute of the three-hours in an attempt to bring everyone together. Successive presentations by Peace Boat participants and our hosts, comic skits followed by cultural presentations of the highest order gradually built up the sense of excitement among everyone present. The centerpiece of the festival was a multi-national peace and solidarity appeal led by the four Korean guests who joined Peace Boat from Tokyo to take part in an onboard forum designed to come up with to build civil society networks of peace and solidarity in Asia. The final touch on the program was one of the longest, most tangled inter-cultural conga lines ever witnessed snaking its way around the courtyard. |
| |
 |
| Moving forward together - a conga snake weaves its way around the Da Nang Youth Union Center |
With the sun angling towards the horizon, giving everyone a break from the heat, Peace Boat participants were once again joined by our Vietnamese hosts on the buses, for the 30-minute journey back to the port to say a final farewell to the their new-found friends. As the ship pulled away from the dock, there were few dry eyes - a testament to the strength of the bonds that can be forged between people around the world regardless of language, race or culture. While the exchange lasted just one day, the exchanges of addresses and promises to write displayed how bringing people together, even for a short time, can sow seeds of friendship whose benefits can be reaped for a lifetime.
|
| |
 |
| Tearful departure, with participants waving goodbye to their friends |
Other programs that day included a visit to a center for street children; to Ky La village, where guest speaker and subject of the Oliver Stone film "Heaven and Earth," Le Ly Hayslip, grew up; a lesson about Vietnamese life through cooking; and the departure of an overland exposure tour to Cambodia to study the problem of land mines. The programs complemented the onboard lecture series in which participants studied the turbulent history of Viet Nam including war - with Cambodia, the United States, France, Japan and others. As a result the group arrived more prepared to challenge the preconceptions arising from violent Hollywood imagery and of a country still embroiled in its troubled past. Le Ly Hayslip explained that the belief in Buddhism and karma in Viet Nam is strong. Many see the past wars as retribution for some ancient act committed long ago. The efforts at reconciliation and reconstruction are a manifestation of the desire not to repeat history. The conclusion many drew from their glimpse at the process that has been unfolding in Viet Nam for decades through encounters with our young hosts and an old American Viet Nam veteran we met later, is that the country and people have moved on, looking to build a brighter future. |
| |
|
|
|
