Why Vietnam, You Ask?
- Emily Graves
- Dec 28, 2018
- 8 min read
I guess first of all I should explain WHY Vietnam before I start diving into all the picture and stories, right? It might have just seemed like I went without much notice, but it has actually been planned since this past summer semester at MUSC. I was a part of a research team that focused on building family centered practice in Vietnam. You're going to have to listen to me talk research for about 5 minutes, but then I promise from then on it will be all Vietnam all the time! Soooo... there are about 500,000 children in Vietnam with Cerebral Palsy (CP), and right now, the therapists in Vietnam do not use pre- and post-assessments to guide their treatments and goal setting, like we do here. Their therapy sessions typically only last around 30 minutes, and these sessions include only a limited menu of treatment options, such as stretching, passive range of motion, and electric modalities. Long story short, we (1) focused on adapting and translating assessments that we use here in the United States for children with CP to fit Vietnamese culture, (2) created a binder full of functional kid activities that target key joint movements (specifically ones that are most affected in children with CP), and (3) prepared (academically, mentally, and physically) ourselves to go to Vietnam and apply and teach everything that we have been doing for 2.5 semesters into a culture where all of this is a relatively new, if not brand new, concept.
The entire process before heading to Vietnam to implement everything was a lot of hard work, but it was so rewarding to gain so much knowledge about a culture before actually going to the country and seeing it all for ourselves. It was also really cool to work alongside a Vietnamese physical therapist via lots of Skype sessions (they do not have occupational therapists there, *yet), and gain insight into the cultural adaptations and we would have to make (there were TONS) as well as understanding what challenges we might face and possible solutions to those challenges.
This is my research team and I, plus our incredible mentor/faculty advisor, Patty Coker-Bolt, prior to our trip presenting our research at MUSC's research day where we won first place in the inter-professionalism category!
And below is our research poster blown up so you can see it and read more if you want, because research is fun!!! (But if not, just scroll past it and we will carry on to our departure..)
Anywho, that explains why we were going to Vietnam and what we were hoping to do while we were there! So next part of the plan was to get on 4 planes and make it there! I knew I was going to be back in Charleston to move-out and do last minute things once I was back from my trip, but most of my friends were moving back home or to their first fieldwork rotation while I was in Vietnam, so I had to say my goodbyes to a lot of people. I had some pretty amazing people drop me off at the airport (ILY Gabs, Krisp, & Litty), but we won't talk about that much because it definitely broke my heart a little bit. If I could've fit them in my suitcase, I would've. (But also I was apparently the only one who didn't check luggage...so definitely no room).
The plan of action was (& I probably still won't get it right, because I never did that day either) to fly from Charleston to Newark, NJ (about 2 hours); from Newark, NJ to Hong Kong (...16 hours, lol); from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2 hours and 45 minutes); from Ho Chi Minh City, to HUE, Vietnam!!! (1 hr 25 mins). Not to mention the layovers. When we finally reached Ho Chi Minh, we had to sit outside the airport for 4 hours because it was 2 in the morning and the airport didn't open until 6am. Good times! Also, my pals for this adventure were my research group (Kat, Haley, Ashley, & Thomas) and our professors who also happen to be our mentors and heroes and pals (Patty & Cindy aka the same two who were in Uganda with me!). Here are some pics of me in various airports because that was our life for two days!
After all of the flights and layovers and bus rides, we came to a grand total of.......drum roll please......
35 hours and 48 minutes of total travel time!!!!
Yeah, I had no clue what day it was, what time it was, what dimension I was in, or if my name was still Emily! But what I did know was that WE FINALLY MADE IT!!!
So after bout 9,000 miles, lots of Vietnamese flight food (except somehow I missed like all of the meals except the ice cream...), confusion over whether it was morning or nighttime at all times, waiting in line for customs, 4 different security lines, a bus ride to the hotel, and FINALLY (thank the Lord) one sweet, sweet McDonald's meal, we finally made it to the Riverside Century Hotel which is where we stayed for the week! Now you're probably asking, how did you sleep when you got to the hotel?! HAHA, that's funny because it was 10AM when we arrived, aka time to start exploring!!
The Riverside Century Hotel was BEAUTIFUL! We were right on the river (hence RIVERside, I suppose..), so you could see the dragon boats from the balconies and the mountains and bridges in the background. We explored the hotel a little bit and then it was time to get out and about for our first day in the 'Nam! It was Saturday (at least I think), so we didn't have our first clinic session until Monday morning. This left the rest of the day and then Sunday to explore some before it was time to get to work! We walked around near the hotel and went to a Hostel that had a bar attached. It definitely looked like somewhere I would've stayed if I went on my own to Vietnam..don't tell my mom. We became accustomed to the local beer (called Huda...we earned it okay, people) pretty quickly and looked through some binders to choose what kind of activities we wanted to do on our days off. Patty classically knew most of the people who worked there and they all called her name and hugged her and talked about how great it was to see her. Must be something to be as cool as that woman, I tell ya.
My first meal in Vietnam was spring rolls. I ate a lot of spring rolls while in Vietnam. Mostly because they were the only things I could confidently use chopsticks with. And because they are delicious. After eating lunch at a place called Hot Tuna we walked around some more and bought some stuff in all of the shops that were around our area. There were lots and lots of clothing shops, small craft shops, and NorthFace shops..unsure what that's about. I bought some art and this hand made hacky sack game that is popular there. I'll include some pictures now just in case my words are boring you...
Now let's just play a fun imaginative game for a second. Imagine you are a gal, around let's say, 25 years old. You are in a foreign country. You are incredibly noise sensitive, like you can tell what kind of bar someone is eating by the noise the wrapper makes, & you have a SLIGHT case of ADHD. You also hate being constantly unintentionally touched (i.e. shoved, pushed, tapped etc.). In addition, you hate bartering for things. If you really liked a pair of socks and someone told you that you could have them for $45, you would say here's a $50 keep the change have a great day!!! Not because you are made of money, ha, but solely because you hate confrontation and would give your left foot to avoid it. Anyways, if this were you, where would be your WORST nightmare?? This is all hypothetical of course. But the answer would be a Vietnamese market. Yup. That's the answer all right.
So, next we went to the market!! Good thing I'm not that hypothetical girl above, am I right?! Ha. Ha. Ha...... Yeah I did not thrive here. It was quite the adventure, though!
We took a dragon boat across the river to get there. Ashley ate it in the mud, because it was obviously raining and muddy. (By the way, if I don't say anything about the weather, just assume it's pouring down rain. Trust me, if it wasn't raining, I would definitely address it.) The lady in charge of the boat was nice enough to wipe off Ashley's muddy booty, but then I think she wanted to be paid extra for it. After some ~drama~ between Thomas and the boat lady, we made it to hell! I mean the market! There were so many people and shops and so much food and just items and clothes and everything galore! It was some shoulder to shoulder, face-to-face action alright. It was just a constant continuous maze under this tarp that just never seemed to end. The only way you could find your way out is if you SOMEHOW saw a glimpse of the sun that wasn't even out. I had to, quite literally, go towards the light. I don't think anyone left empty handed. I honestly don't know how anyone makes it out of there empty handed because before I could even blink I had like three things in my hand and was being convinced in Vietnamese that I absolutely needed it.
Which leads me to me how this was also one of the best days of my life because I BOUGHT MY HAT. And then I immediately ran out of there because I couldn't do it anymore. But emphasis on I BOUGHT MY HAT!! He'll come up a lot during these blog posts. He's really the star of the show.
I will be honest. I am very glad I went to the market. It was definitely a nose dive into being in Vietnam and if my body wasn't so weird and fidgety and if I had more of a backbone and could say the word "no", which is very universal, I would have loved it. But I am going to be very honest when I say I would have been perfectly okay if we never went back into a market ever again. (Spoiler alert: we go back to the market two more times!!!)
We had to use my international plan to pull up a map to walk ourselves back to the hotel because we didn't want to chance it and run into the lady from the same dragon boat. With soppy clothes, tired eyes and legs, but full hearts, we made the trek back to our sweet, sweet beds.
But first we took some pictures, obviously.
We got back to the hotel around 5pm and showered. Once we all laid down, it was GAME OVER. We all passed out and missed dinner with Cindy and Patty. We woke up around 9:30pm and tried to muster up enough energy to head back out, but once we saw that it was pouring down rain, we decided to retreat back to our heavenly beds. We all got a good night's sleep, although most of us woke up around 4am and felt wide awake! It felt amazing to be horizontal after 2 days of staying upright and awake. Thanks for tuning in through the research and travel talk! WE ARE OFFICIALLY IN VIETNAM, Y'ALL! Up next: Sunday- The Imperial City (The Citadel) & a Cooking Class!
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