Day One: Exploring, Engaging & Embracing by Emily Almeida

 

Our first full day in Viet Nam started with breakfast (as all good days should start). The options, though, were a bit different from what you’d see in America. There were the more familiar breakfast foods, such as fresh fruit and toast, served alongside fried rice, pho, at least six different kinds of cooked eggs, and other savory choices. They also offer coffee, tea, water, and (the favorite of our group) Tang. That’s right, Tang! (Labeled as orange juice, but we can tell the difference).

After breakfast, we spoke a bit about what to expect for our time in-country, as well as what the itinerary would generally look like for the next few days. This conversation also led to us asking about how to spend money here, as it is a somewhat complicated conversion. Thankfully, Professor Buske was ready to help us with a conversion chart she made.

With some time to spare before a meeting at 2pm, we decided to explore the city a bit.  Within minutes of starting our adventure around town, we noticed something that would soon become an unfortunately familiar sight. A young girl, about seven or eight, was standing with a group of men and selling them lottery tickets. This was during school hours, yet here she was- collecting money from them in return for bright pink and blue tickets. We stopped under an awning a few feet away to quietly talk about what we saw, and the normalized exploitation of children that it represented.

Our walk around town continued, and we ended up going straight to the heart of the city first, located just a few blocks from where we’re staying. The market here is a lot like Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, though is about ten times more crowded. Some booths are separated by only two feet of space and filled to the brim with a variety of offerings. From candy to coffee to knock-off clothing, shoes, and handbags, it honestly seems like you can get anything at the market, and the shop owners are more than happy to haggle over the price.

Eventually, exploring the shops in the market got a bit overwhelming, so we took a Grab (equivalent of an Uber) to a different part of town. There, we spent a while at a stationary shop we found, then walked around this area of the city a bit more, popping into various shops that sparked our interest.

It was in this area of the city that we spotted our first school on the trip. It was sandwiched between two shops and was painted in bright colors that extended all the way to the metal gates that separated the school from the rest of the street. 

 

We took a short break in our adventures around the city in order to have a meeting with Anh Le Viet, the Country Director of Hagar. Hagar works to prevent exploitation of vulnerable populations in multiple countries through community education and policy reform, and also provides support to survivors of exploitation. In Viet Nam, their focus is on human trafficking, specifically trafficking for labor. Vulnerable populations to this form of exploitation include women and children, and the director informed us that trafficking most commonly occurs in villages near the borders of Cambodia and China. Victims of trafficking are also pulled from villages and moved to some of the larger cities in Viet Nam, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Hoi An.

Our conversation with the director primarily focused on the exploitation of children. We asked about the sight we had seen earlier that day- the young girl selling lottery tickets instead of being in school- and we were informed that it was a common occurrence. The director explained that it was likely that her parents were impoverished, and in order to live, they sent their child to one of the gangs in the city. Whatever earnings that the child would make from selling lottery tickets would then be apportioned by the gang and his or her parents would then receive their cut. We learned that, for all of these children, a gang member is standing close by, keeping an eye on the money they receive and the sales they make in order to ensure that everything is in order. 

Another example of child exploitation that was startling to learn about was the trafficking of infants from villages. We learned that parents may sell their baby to traffickers for the equivalent of about $5,000 USD. The baby is then sent to another country, often China. The most desirable babies are girls, we were informed, because of the lack of girls in some nearby countries. Trafficking most often is initiated by organized crime rings, we learned, and can frequently come from a victim’s family member, friend, neighbor, or trusted colleague. 

Many of the education efforts that Hagar is currently engaged in specifically work to inform those in remote villages about the possibility of being trafficked from someone they may trust, and also educate about common trafficking ploys, such as lucrative work offers or a full-ride scholarship to a school in the city for children.

We spent some time reflecting on our conversation as a group after our meeting ended, then received a more detailed itinerary of what the next two weeks would look like from Professor Buske. Though three of our classmates were yet to arrive (due to this trip being scheduled during/immediately following final exams), the excitement and growing comradery of our group was palpable.

Our day ended with a walk down a nearby alley to visit a Bahn Mi restaurant, where many of us had the first-time experience of eating with plastic gloves on (in order to stay sanitary, we were informed by the waitress). The food was delicious, and served as the perfect way to punctuate our first day of exploring the city, engaging in the subject matter for this class, and embracing all of the new experiences presented to us.