Arrived, Travelled, Applied to Graduate Schools, Back in Asia

I write to you jet lagged and sleepy from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I arrived the day before yesterday. This is the first time I've been back to Vietnam since I immigrated to the States in 1985. Busier than I remember, the city has grown 10x the size I left it swelling to 10 million. Let me back track a few months. I returned to the States in July and proceeded to travel stateside for 2.5 months visiting friends and family in Philadelphia, PA; NYC, NY; Orange County, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Puerto Penasco, Mexico; Omaha, NE; Sioux City, IA; Chicago, IL; St. Louis, MO; Las Vegas, Montezuma and Ghost Ranch, NM; Miami and West Palm Beach, FL and roadtrip from Miami-DC stopping by Savannah, GA; Charleston, SC; and the Outer Banks, NC. I was feed, spoiled, showed off, and decorated in new American apparel. I return to DC in mid-Sept pre-occupied and focused on applications to graduate schools for a Masters in International Relations with concentration in Development and/or Southeast Asia. The latter took longer than I expected and I didn't end up heading back to Asia for another 1.5 months.

I'm currently back in Asia, specifically Southeast Asia to do short-term international development projects with grassroots organizations in the area. I had emailed out a cold-cover letters to hand-picked organizations detailing my background and skills set in development especially in the area of vulnerable women and children. I highlighted my recent Peace Corps experience in Mongolia, my application to MA IR programs in Development with focus in SE Asia, and expressed the desire to witness first-hand the development issues that are affecting the local people in the region rather than just learn the economic theories behind development while in school. I asked if I could volunteer my time to their organization for a short period of 30 days (pre-determined by most visas). Let me just note that this request turned out more difficult to fulfill then I had thought. Piggybacking on ecotourism, the notion of paid volunteerism has grown popular. International to grassroots organizations are profiting on the fad to charge, on the average $1000/week for “volunteer” work. Needless to say, coming from a recent Peace Corps salary, I was not the ideal target. However, I was not about to be falter. My remedy to this situation was to harp on my networking skills. This paid off; I received direct recommendations to grassroots organizations that people I knew either volunteered at, knew someone who did, or knew the person in the organization. I can’t tell you how much this saved my plans.

I am in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam until next week when I will travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to assist the Sao Sary Foundation (SSF) with their Child Abuse Prevention training week in celebration of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) from November 13-19. I will be assisting with their Child Protection Program as well as assist in grant writing for the 2010 fiscal year. I will be volunteering with them Nov-11-Dec 23. Details: Sao Sary Foundation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia Child Protection Program
http://ssfcambodia.org/index.php?page=child-protection-program

Dec 7-Jan 4, I will be in Chang Mai, Thailand assisting the Children's Organization of Southeast Asia (COSA) with their recently built Bann Yuu Suk shelter for sexually exploited, abused and at-risk girls. There, I will be assisting them with implementing vocational and Life Skills training. They also want me to counsel the girls and assist
with mental health training programs for the shelter as well as the community in Chang Mai. Details: COSA in Chang Mai, Thailand http://www.cosasia.org/shelter2009.htm

Additionally, I am currently considering a position at VOICE in Siem Reap, Cambodia at their new shelter for trafficking Vietnamese girls into Cambodia to begin Jan 2010. Additional information can be found at: http://www.vietnamvoice.org/Cambodia.html. It’s a fantastic opportunity this early in my development career. However, there are a few issues that I have to mull over before I can accept the position:

1) safety in terms of the subject matter and country location;

2) the pay is local standards not expat; and 


3) I will have to defer from graduate school for a year (VOICE feels that 8 mos commitment is not enough time to start a shelter and build the relationships ties that it would take to make it successful). I will be looking at a 1.5 year commitment until July 2011.

Any thoughts and/or advice?

Know of Any Grassroots Organizations in Southeast Asia?

I will be heading back to Vietnam for the first time in since I was 5 years old. I am a 29 year old Vietnamese-American female. I was born in Binh Duong, Vietnam (near Saigon). I lived most of my life in the United States (received my education there). My last country of residence was Mongolia. I was a Community Youth Development United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Darkhan, Mongolia. I worked in a Japanese privately funded orphanage implementing vocational programs and seasonal projects. Oh, I also taught English and Life Skills.

From November-March I am heading to Southeast Asia (Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam; Laos; Chang Mai and Northern Thailand near the Burmese border; and Phnom Penh, Cambodia) to do short-term international work (about 2-3 weeks in each location) for local non-profits. My experience as an immigrant from South Vietnam combined with my recent exposure to international development at a grassroots level has strengthened my desire to focus on issues concerning Southeast Asia. I am applying for International Development graduate programs with a focus on Southeast Asia for the fall of 2010. The short-term international development experience is to witness first-hand the development issues that are affecting the local people. This will give me a better idea of what type of development projects I want to implement in the future.

I have two years of abroad international development experience at a grassroots level, three years experience working with vulnerable women and children including immigrant families, single-parent families, teenage prostitutes, street children, and orphans. Additionally, I have conducted trainings in resume writing, interview skills and applying to universities for admissions and scholarships to college students, livelihood skills training in sewing, cooking, and basic computer skills to former teen prostitutes, and Life Skills training in self-esteem and critical thinking to orphans.

If you have any suggestions of great non-profits that do hands-on grassroots work in anywhere in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand (outside of Bangkok) or Cambodia please let me know. I am looking especially a non-governmental, non-profit organization that deals primary with women and/or children but not a public or English teaching school (vocational schools are fine). For instance, orphanages and/or shelters that deals with trafficking, street children, prostitution, refugees, domestic violence or immigration.

At the moment, I am having a hard time finding organizations where I don’t have to pay to volunteer.

Help. 

Returning to UWC-USA to Assist with New Student Wilderness Expedition 2009 at Ghost Ranch After 9 Years

United World College-USA (Armmand Hammer United World College of the American West)


Wilderness Service Program
The Wilderness Service Program introduces all students to an appreciation of the backcountry and methods of experiencing the wilderness in a manner that least impacts it. Students have the opportunity to elect to do Wilderness First Responder training. Weekend expeditions in New Mexico's large wilderness areas are offered throughout the year. 

Bangkok, Thailand

Port Cities of Eastern China

Seoul, South Korea

1. Korean barbecue, popular dish
2. Downtown Seoul, South Korea
3. Billiard advertisement in down Seoul
4. Gyeongbokgung, the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty; the Changing of the Guard
5. Buddhist temple, Seoul

Heading to the Peace Corps in Mongolia

Unfulfilled working in corporate law, I applied to the United States Peace Corps and chose to volunteer in the Community Youth Development sector in the Asia region. I wanted to give back on the level that I could understand, in the area of women and children. I was accepted into the Peace Corps and assigned to Mongolia. There I implemented a number of capacity building and sustainability programs. I mentored two orphans who have since earned full college scholarships. I wrote grant proposals for several programs, including construction of a sports field for an orphanage, organized a community-wide sports tournament, established a women's sewing cooperative, and an Information Technology vocational training program. You can read about my experience and my in-country travel through Mongolia at: http://yoomiehuynh-peacecorps.blogspot.com/

The 8 Wonders of Bocas del Toro, Panama

Back in Costa Rica, Back to Blackouts and Rain

I am back in Costa Rica after a nine hour bus ride from the colonial town of Granada, Nicaragua. I am welcomed by electrical blackouts (¨planned¨ power outages by the monopoly country-owned electric company ICE to ¨conserve energy¨) and constant rain. Back in the hills of Hereida, I am back to my accustomed routine of 7am wakeup calls, freshly made juice spiked with Flor de Cana (Nicaraguan rum), sliced mangoes, and a good book...that lasts for a solid hour and a half before I get antsy and head into town to use the Internet. I´m leaving for Panama tomorrow, I´ve decided.

Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

It is hard to believe that after witnessing such disparity on the ride from Playa Venecia to Merida, that safely locked behind the yellow gates of Hacienda Menda lays wireless internet, river-rock built showers, and lakeside view cabins with beautiful hand-made hammocks. Secluded in our lakeside hostel resort, the travelers marvel at the heavenly conditions. I pay US$8/night for my room – the most expensive of all the options.


The travelers I met are in their twenties, either traveling solo or in pair. The solo ones have teamed up with other solo travelers, increasing strength in language abilities and discounts. I am the short-term traveler, with my three weeks and three countries. Others have a time frame of six weeks, five months, indefinitely...or "until the money runs out." Unlike me and my centralized location in Heredia/San Joe, Costa, they have started in the north in either Mexico or Honduras making their way south to pass Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and into South America. Among them, I don't feel so much like an outsider in my vagabond ways: living out of my camping backpack and hand washing my clothes. Together, we are friends amongst the 5.5% unemployment population in our developed countries - too independent and carefree to be strapped to any desk job.


The lake here is reminiscent of a sea with its rough waves and long sandy coastline. Horses, chickens, pigs, dogs are let to run loose. The chickens walk freely amid the dogs at Hacienda Merida – where I stayed my last two nights on the island. I will miss this island when I am safely back in my air-conditioned bus to San Jose, Costa Rica. I will miss its brightly hand-woven hammocks, scenic landscape views, banana tree fields, dirt roads, slow pace of life, freshly made tamarindo juice, curious faces, and sparse English phrases…and maybe, just maybe even the roster that crows all hours of the night and early morning.



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