I have a whole new batch of photos uploading to the photoblog. Time seems to run away here. You turn around and the whole day is gone. I think it is because there is LESS sense of urgency and impatience. Because you do things in the time you do them, meetings get rearranged, pushed back… you get there when you get there, and that’s fine with everyone.

I’ve had several interesting conversations about the “American War.” It seems that since 70% of the country is under 30, the memory of the war as anything but written history is about to die with another generation. Sherman (our GVI liaison) told us that there were wars with China before and after the war with America and that what happened was, for many here, a small blip in their history.

Western fashions are pouring in here. Though this is a conservative country, I’ve been seeing jeans that look like American’s and even saw a mini-skirt on a mannequin outside a store as we drove by. When I mentioned this to Paul, one of our translators, he said that the fashions were definitely changing. He said that there had been a rise in young men wrecking their scooters while watching girls in scant dress. He saw a moral lesson in the immediate consequence of a wandering eye.

It seems that fashion is far behind behavior, though. Paul told me that sexual promiscuity is rampant here. That is why there are so many abandoned children at these Orphanages. He said that if you open a center, within a year, there will 40 children left there. They are often left at the gate, on the street, with a ring of the doorbell.

That’s the good news. The tragic news is that the rate of abortion here is higher than the birth rate.

Yes.

More babies are aborted in Vietnam than are born. Even those that are born don’t always get a fair shake. Some girls who don’t want to be pregnant will wrap their stomachs with shrink wrap and not eat, so that the baby doesn’t show. This inhibits the nourishment and growth of the baby, which they promptly abandon to a center. The director of SS4, the place we visited yesterday, said that these babies are very hard to care for and frequently don’t make it.

I am going with the other team today to follow up on the questions being asked of me by one of the workers. She is very interested in who we are and asked why we were trying to do what we are doing. I told here that we are compelled to do it. I hope that I can help her understand everything. She wants to write a novel, and understanding us seems to be background research.

Our conversation was clearly an appointment of significance for her. I hope that our next one – later today – will be even more fruitful for her.

Posts with related content

• No Related Post