August 2006

Just to let everyone know I am back in Vietnam, and teaching at the same school in Ho Chi Minh City. It feels good to be back. There were many things and many places that I didn't see or do and just had to return.
A couple of months ago I sent an article on ESL teaching to a magazine. Well to my delight and suprise, it was published. So I have enclosed it here. Ta Da---


Teaching and Travelling By Donna Morang August 2006


My life was finally everything I thought it would be; my art gallery was full of wonderful artists, including me; I had just finished restoring my house; I had lots of friends…. but then my daughter sent me a magazine about classes for ESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) and something in me just clicked!
So when I told friends and family that I was closing my gallery, renting out my house and going to Mexico to take a class in ESL, so that I could travel the world teaching English they thought I had gone crazy. My daughters thought it was cool!
I soon emerged from a month of studying in Puerto Vallarto, Mexico with my teaching certificate and my passport to the world! Wow!
I had decided on Costa Rica, but never actually made it and ended up in Zihuatanejo, Mexico instead. A week later I was teaching classes four hours a day.
In my very first class I had a mother and son; the son was a new-age kid with purple hair, baggy pants, an attitude and wasn’t the slightest bit interested in learning English – which made me feel a complete failure. One day while swimming, I was stung by a strange fish. It hurt like a bugger and so I told my students about it and asked them what the fish was. This boy, who acted like he never heard a word I said, jumped up, grabbed a marker and started drawing, and explained to me what kind of fish it was and how it stung me. He thought I was really brave not to have cried or gone to the doctor and from that day on we were great buddies. It was a great learning experience for me - you just have to find the right switch to click on the interest, even if it takes a painful episode to do it.
I taught English at several locations in Mexico, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Zihuatanejo, and San Jerinameto. Getting a teaching job in Mexico is quite easy if you are just a little patient….it usually took about a week in the cities, but longer in one of the smaller towns; the people are poorer and so less able to afford classes even thought they are desperate to learn English. Often, the local school is a good place to start. I had a great time teaching in Mexico; wonderful students, great friends, good cervesa, great tacos, and life was good, but I had a great desire to see the other side of the world and Vietnam was calling to me.
When I told people I was going to Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, some asked why, others asked if it was safe, and a few were openly disgusted. Didn’t I know we fought a long and protracted war with Vietnam? YES, I remembered the war, and that was why I was going. I didn’t really know how safe it would be or what to expect, I just knew I had to go. By fluke I read an advertizment in a Seattle newspaper for an ESL teaching job in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I interviewed for the job and was hired, but when my contract still hadn't arrived a few weeks later I went anyway.
I must admit it was a bit foolhardy and I really didn’t know what I would do if the job didn’t materialize. I had plenty of time to think about that though - twenty four hours on a plane plus an enforced stopover in Taipai where a typhoon closed the runway...separated from our passports till the next day, when we continued on our way. I was lucky enough to have struck up a friendship with Viet Kieu (a Vietnamese who lives in the US) who seemed more nervous about me being alone in his country that I was - I was too excited to be worried, but nevertheless he made sure I had good accommodation and plenty of his family’s contact numbers should I need them.
My first introduction to Ho Chi Min City was full of happiness and love, and, for me, this never changed. My hostel, owned by the crazy and loving Madam Cuc, could not have been more homely. The girls who worked there were so helpful and kind, despite their long shifts, sometimes as long as 20 hours, they were always concerend for my wlefare.
Ok, I had come here to live and teach, but I thought that before I accepted the contract, I would check out some other schools. I spent the first week doing this and then I had dinner with the director of American Pacific University and accepted the original job offer. I was to start the following week, so with a few days to fill, I decided to see other parts of Vietnam and take a side trip to the Mekong Delta, and Vung Tau which is only about an hour by hydrofoil…a great place for weekends out of the bustling city.
The only way to get around HCMC is with a xe om driver ( xe means motorbike and om means hug or hold). From the first day I had two drivers that waited outside my hotel and if they weren’t there when I needed them, they had someone else waiting for me. When I moved to an apartment a few blocks away my old driver arranged for his cousin to drive me. Every driver has his own area and special riders. I arranged to be picked up at 7:30 Monday-Friday and a driver was alwaysthere on the dot. t took about thirty minutes to get to my school and cost about five dollars a week. It is a wild and crazy ride as there are over eight million cycles in HCMC, and I think they are all on the street at 7:30 in the morning. I grew to love my ride to school, it was a good wake-up call, with the most amazing, exciting things to see every day. I still miss it. The streets are full of cycles and no stop lights to speak of, with rules of the road that a foreigner will never understand.
Ho Chi Min City is huge, some 8,ooo,ooo people, but it feels so much smaller. I hate large cities, but loved this one. It is alive and interesting each street has something different. One area may be China town and the next area could be nothing but shopping for dogs or carpets or it could be the elegant down-town. You must see to believe.
My school was fantastic. We received fifty new students the first week I was there, so there was a lot of juggling of teachers and a bit of confusion but all went well. I had ten to twenty students, young men from Vietnam Airlines and four young women. The school was contracted to improve their English so that they could pass English exams and be accepted into an aviation school in the US. I’m proud to say that all fifty of our students, after 8 months of learning, were accepted and are now living and being educated in Seattle, Washington. These young men, aged from twenty to thirty, were from all over Vietnam. Some already spoke fair English, others none at all; but they became like my family. We sang karaoke, ate dog meat ( yes, dog meat) and took road trips and I had the best time of my life. I still get e-mail and telephone call from several of them. We at times discussed the Vietnam war, known in Vietnam as the American War. They were much more understanding of the war that I was. I never encountered any animosity towards Americans, in fact I was shown great love by my students and my neighborhood. The only reason I left Vietnam was that my students left for Seattle, otherwise I’d still be there. I think it is a great place to live and a good place to buy land. Foreigners can buy houses and land and it is all very reasonable and the economy in Vietnam looks good. It is just beginning to realize the tourist impact and the government is moving in the direction of the dollar.
Sadly, I boarded the plane the day after my students left for the US. As I watched Ho Chi Min City disappear I knew it would always remain in my heart.
My next destination was Nicaragua - Managua to be exact, though I left my travel guide behind. Although I knew I needed to catch a bus out of the city, I didn’t know where the bus station was. I was lucky once again - I saw a young guy reading a travel book which I borrowed, and we ended up travelling to Granada together. It was pretty manic trying to get on board…the drivers want to sell you a ticket even if there is no room for you, and if you don’t keep your back to the wall, it and everything on it is likely to disappear. My travelling companion arrived in Granada minus his wallet.
Once in Granada we found a great hostel.I was going to go to a beach town to look for a job, because I love the ocean, but the girls at the hostel convinced me to stay in Granada and sent me to the school they had all attended. They thought that the school needed foreign teachers who spoke English as their first language. So off I went to ABC (American British College) and after a short conversation with Director, I was hired then and there.
The students had never had a foreign teacher, and looked petrified when I first walked into the class…..an hour later I couldn’t shut them up! They just wanted to 'talk' to a real American! I was assigned to four hours a day and the Director wanted me to go to each class and just talk to the students, because this was such a new experience for them. I later learned that my first class told all of the students how cool it was and not to be afraid of the new teacher. This class was the most advanced and spoke very good English, but I also taught lower levels that didn’t speak any English. After six months we had to hire two other foreign teachers because the students demanded ESL teachers. This was a huge step for Granada schools and it will continue to progress.
Granada is a quiet, small town and very safe if you use good judgment of where to go, especially at night.. The people seemed happy to have American influence and were very welcoming. They are looking towards greater tourism and investment from foreigners. The real-estate market is booming and will change the country, rapidly. I enjoyed my life there, but found it to be a bit to sleepy for my taste. Safe, secure, goes to sleep at ten every night, but gets up at four in the morning. OK, where next???? Thailand? ….. I’m leaving tomorrow.
Just for your information: I am a 62 year old, single woman. I had a home, a business, and a good life. Now I have an ESL certificate, a back-pack, and a great life with friends all over the world. Teaching ESL has allowed me to travel and give back a little to countries less fortunate than the US. I feel I am a Lucky Lady.