Why Vietnam?

As you may have heard, Chris and I are going to Vietnam to teach English for a year. Chris and I have always had a love for travel, and a desire to use our professional capacities to benefit others. It has long been a topic of discussion how best to structure our lives to achieve that end. The question began to gain a sense of urgency last fall.  It was clear that my job was less than ideal, and Chris was entering his final year of graduate school. We needed to decide both where we wanted to live and what we wanted to do.

One Saturday night we were discussing the topic and I asked Chris what images came to mind when he thought about our future. He said that what he had really been thinking about was volunteering for a while in another country. This really surprised me as it wasn't something Chris had ever really seemed interested in before. I have always wanted to join the Peace Corps or do something similar, but Chris always seemed much more focused on making sure at least one of us had a job. But, as he pointed out, if we were going to volunteer for an extended period of time, now was the time to do it. We didn't have any major financial responsibilities (kids, house, car payments), and we were at a good break in my career and his schooling.  We might not both be at a convenient pause point for quite some time. 

The change in direction of Chris' thinking kind of threw me for a loop - and so a Saturday night discussion was carried over to a Sunday morning discussion as we were on our way to Church. I wanted to make sure we were both on the same page as far as what kind of opportunities we were looking for, and if we were really going to consider taking a year or two off to volunteer. It was that Sunday at mass, in the midst of our discussions about what we wanted to do with our lives, that Fr. Michael Begley came to speak at Christ the King. Fr. Michael is a Spiritan priest serving in Houston, TX who had come to speak about the mission work the Spiritans are doing all over the world. We took his homily, and call to mission, as a sign. After mass we spoke to Fr. Michael and asked if he could use a couple of mechanical engineers as missionaries. He said yes - and then we were signed up.

The Spiritans found a need for us in Vietnam. Vietnam is one of their smaller, and safer missions that has a lot of needs. The Spiritans operate in many impoverished and war torn areas around the world but Vietnam seemed like a good fit both because of the scope of their needs and my previous experience in that region. I have family in the Philippines on my mother's side and it provides a good safety net if anything should happen. I have also done some work in Cambodia, and traveled pretty extensively in the Pacific - even though I have never been to Vietnam. So, that's why, on June 6th, we'll be headed to Vietnam!