To be short, since graduation I've been doing a lot and yet nothing at all. Now here's an overly long explanation of everything I've been doing for the past two years. I wasn't expecting it to be so long, but I've been by myself for a while, so I think it makes me a bit of a blabber mouth at times. I'd apologize for it's length, but I know you academics have nothing else to do but check emails all day!
So, first I took off to New Zealand, where I have family and citizenship. I thought that I'd settle down and get some job in the government, I tried for a few positions in the Ministry for the Environment but ended up as a receptionist for an HR firm; that's where I realized that I hate life in an office. After that I wandered down to the nations capital Wellington and became active in several activist groups. I organized, protested, went on a roadshow, and was the longest standing member of the longest environmental occupation in New Zealand. I got in the papers and TV… which made me realize some of the benefits of working in such a small country. If you're a specialist in something, most likely you're one of the only specialists there, and therefore you get a lot of attention. Though, I had to question the legitimacy of activism as a means for creating change. I think it's important to have people raising consciousness of issues, but the ways activists do it sometimes seems like it stigmatizes environmental concerns, making them only popular for extremists and young people. From this I learnt that I love nature, not just in the abstract "we love it because we need it" but in the day to day, I'm happiest when I'm outside.
So I started WWOOFing (willing workers on organic farms), where you work four hours a day in exchange for room and board. So now I love organic farming, but I'm not sure what to do with that. I would hitch hike to all the different farms and got itchy feet. New Zealand is great but it the people, while well traveled still seem to have a narrow view of life. I think because it's such a privileged country (I only saw two homeless people the whole time I was there, and one took his money from the dole to go to Fiji once a year, and the other was a Mauri who did so more as a statement than anything) people have a different perspective on the world. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I guess I've started to question my middle class life and feel the need to see how the rest of the world is influenced by rich countries.
I went to Australia for six months to save money for a big trip, I was interested in India and until I heard my uncle was getting married in Vietnam I was dead set on going there. So in November I set off For Bangkok, to go through Cambodia before meeting my family in Ho Chi Minh City. Taking the bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap was a shock. At the Thai/Cambodia border there was this little boy, probably seven years old, taking care of his little sister, still a baby in a sling around his neck. I was in a line and he approached me, stretching out his hand he said "madam, please?" and at this point I was uncertain about begging, I heard you shouldn't give money to children because it encourages begging and they probably would have to give their money to someone else anyway. So I said no. He kept asking, and gesturing toward his mouth. I just wanted to feed and hug him, but I knew no matter what I did I couldn't really help him, I mean, I couldn't abolish poverty. He put his little sisters hand around my pinkie, "please,madam?" There were flocks of children just like this wherever we went.
As we entered Siem Reep (known for Ankor Wat and many other temples) I saw the gaudiest resorts and mega hotels. They were mostly empty. After the temples gained popularity people from all over the country flocked to the city to get low paying jobs from the foreign owned hotels or to start their own business as a tuk-tuk driver or to open up a small restaurant. There were a few years of growth, but for the past three tourism has declined, so every business is fighting like hell for any customer they can get. Prices are dropping like crazy. I'm using a five year old travel guide and the prices they quote are double what I got while I was there, and I didn't bother haggling… though it would be easy to get half of what most people asked.
Cuc Phuong National Park
...I left Cambodia and entered the comparatively wealthy Vietnam. The standard of living is higher there. Education is expensive, but still accessible to many, and there are more employment opportunities. In Cambodia, if there was a restaurant, it was for tourists (or wealthy government officials) and likewise most the stores. There's a growing middle class, and it shows throughout the country. After the wedding and family reunion I took off on a motorcycle to see the rest of the country, not just the main cities. I'm not sure if communism (and currently socialism) has anything to do with it, but I saw relatively few people who weren't getting their basic needs met. I started to get over the shock I had in Cambodia, I was probably more busy getting used to the attention to think about much else. I'd be riding through a small village and people would yell at me "Hello! Hello!" it reminded me of River Town, the author goes on a little tirade about how people shout hello at him, more as a label than a greeting.
Floating Market, Mekong Delta
Whenever I stopped a large group of people would crowd around me, touching my sweater, sometimes even grabbing my face and giving me a large lecture about who knows what. There was this one town I spent a few days in and the people treated me so well, I was quite astounded. No one spoke more than HBO english (they could say phrases like, "Happy Birthday" and "No Smoking" the latter being extremely odd as smoking anywhere and ashing on the floor is completely socially acceptable) so we had to have conversations out of my phrase book. One girl took me to her home and arranged for me to go to her fathers work the next day.
Everywhere I went in this town I was presented with rice wine, cigarettes, food, and whatever wasn't nailed down. I would look at a painting of Uncle Ho and someone would try to present it as a gift. Hospitality seems to be ingrained in the culture. I say that not just because of the way I was treated, but other things as well. For instance, their houses are usually only comprised of one or two rooms. If they have two one is for sleeping and eating; this room has no decorations or little comforts like cushions. However, there's always a "front room" or section set aside that's comparatively fancy. This area has nice chairs and a table, as well as decorations, like a calender or a painting, and a tea set laying out, unused but ready just in case. All the houses I've been in had these areas completely spotless, and I would be ushered into them, sitting on new cushions and drinking from spotless tea sets, while I could look over to the rest of the house, which would be dusty and every piece of furniture well used. I thought it must be important for them if they're willing to to allocate so much space and money to something they seem to use so infrequently.
Right now I'm in Laos, and soon Thailand and Malaysia. After that I'd like to go back to New Zealand or America and start something… I'd love to go back to school, but without any clear idea of what I'd like to do, I wouldn't want to get into debt pursuing something that may lead to nothing.
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