Day 61. On our way to Vietnam, a ride on many levels.

*Note: Thailand Blog will be posted between now and tomorrow. It’s still being finished*

Today was an emotional one aboard the Explorer.

For the next few stops, we only have 2 days between leaving a port and arriving at the next one. This may sound like awhile, but for us, it’s grueling. We need to de-compress from the last port and get ready for the next one all in one. Doing this while carrying a full course load and trying to maintain normal things like health and sleep habits is definitely a challenge… but hey… we’re going around the world, right?

Prepping for Vietnam started this morning a very memorable Global Studies. One of our professors broke down crying when reading an account of a female soldier from the Vietnam war. This prompted our interport lecturer, a native Vietnamese man to get up and start crying about what happened.

This is troubling, because as Americans, our country’s army (justified or not) WAS the opponent of the Vietnamese a while ago. While it’s been awhile, and the people of Vietnam have strengthened their relations with the United States and it’s people, the remnants of the war are still visible in the country, and while it’s easy to move on home in the USA, people in the Vietnam are understandably slower to forget.

On a very human level, I plan on trying to rationalize the country, its people and its tumultuous history from a human level. These are people. People with great culture, histories, families and dreams, and they know what it’s like to suffer… but they also know how to heal. A story was shared with us about an American veteran who traveled back to Vietnam with his family years after the war ended. While walking down the street in Hanoi, his granddaughter in his arms, he was suddenly startled; across the street a man in a Vietcong uniform was walking. The last time he had seen a man like this, he would have had to fight, and his instincts returned after all this year.

Swept with fear, the American didn’t know what to do while the Ex-Vietnamese military man approached him on the street. The Vietnamese man grabbed him on the elbow and looked into his eyes. “Hello. Our countries used to be enemies many years ago… but now we’re friends.”

---

This evening, after a hilarious cultural pre-port about Vietnamese culture, dress, customs, etc… the MV Explorer’s crew put on a “Crew Talent Show.” It was amazing. Our crew lives on this ship, signing 100, 200 or 300 day contracts. This ship is truly their home, and they are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Over the past 50-some days,they have opened up their hearts and their stories with us, and I’ve gotten to know many of them. For them to put on a show to entertain us and show us some of their talents was really a treat for us.

Sparky, the AV guy who is so popular he’s a celeb on the ship wrote a song called “The Ship it Used to be,” which got the entire union sniffling and crying. It talked about how our voyage is half over and how much we have already learned about the world. It detailed how the crew felt about us and how they will miss us when we disembark in a few months. The 198 members of the crew sang, danced, juggled and performed stand-up comedy to much applause and enjoyment.


Tomorrow will be spent at B-Day classes and doing final preparations for Vietnam! I’m really excited to add a whole new dimension to my understanding of history. It will be a very developing experience for sure.