10.09.10 : Ha Noi : Reconciliation and Healing
10.09.10 : Ha Noi (Thang Long)
Ha Noi was full of some exciting opportunities for healing for veterans of the US and Viet Nam - and everyone affected by this horrible part of both our countries' histories. In Vietnam, the war will not be forgotten - but it is in the past. A past that no one wanted. We arrived in Ha Noi during their Millennium celebration, and the streets were packed with people celebrating and opening their hearts and welcoming Americans making the journey to Viet Nam seeking healing.
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| Our translator Song, Al Plapp, Joe Caley, Ed Tick, John Fisher (not seen), Professor Ming Tai, poet Que Mai, and Gabz Ciofani from Left. |
Our friends and partners, Dr Ed Tick, John Fisher, and the non-profit organization Soldier's Heart work very hard promoting reconciliation, healing and world peace. They had many great opportunities arranged for our time in Hanoi. Our first day in Ha Noi started with a live round table discussion on Vietnamnet on the topic of peace and reconciliation and healing the wounds of war. The panel included Dr. Tick, veterans John Fisher, Al Plapp, and Joe Caley; Professor Minh Thai, Professor of Journalism and Communications at VNU Ha Noi , Nguyen Phan Que Mai from the Vietnamese Writer's Association, and Wick Poetry Center representative Gabz Ciofani.
At the Village, we stopped first at a Buddhist temple, a temple of the 8 kings. The ancient deities and the smell of incense is inviting and comforting, offering a place of refuge.
A Dinh is in our words a community center. To the Vietnamese, it is a place of worship, a place to gather, a civil court, and a common space for locals. The civil court is an example of restorative justice; the process of taking care of disputes within the community before it would need to go to a larger court. This process comes from a philosophy of peace-making and community, the very principles that are a part of the foundation of Vietnamese culture.
We visited Dinh Bang, a short drive from Ha Noi. Dinh Bang was the birthplace the first king of the Ly Dynasty who moved the capital of Vietnam to Ha Noi around 1010. The Dinh was built in 1796, and we had the chance to visit and share a wonderful, sweet, sticky rice cake wrapped in a banana leaf called Phu The (meaning husband and wife). It is a cake traditionally served as wedding cake, and we were welcomed by the volunteers to pray in their temple, get a history lesson, and have a snack and some tea.
We headed off to Friendship Village with some fear in our hearts about visiting Vietnamese veterans and children affected by Agent Orange.
We picked up Mr.Van Hanh, professor Minh Tai's father, and headed to visit a Dinh. Van Hanh was a soldier in the Viet Ming, what was then called the National League, who joined in 1940, and fought for his Vietnam's independence from France. Mr. Van Hanh took ill with Malaria, and became a singer. He was a singer and entertainer for the military until he retired. He sang us a traditional Quan Ha (Vietnamese folklore) song on the bus ride to welcome us to the Dinh; his voice was tender and sweet.
At the Village, we stopped first at a Buddhist temple, a temple of the 8 kings. The ancient deities and the smell of incense is inviting and comforting, offering a place of refuge. 
A Dinh is in our words a community center. To the Vietnamese, it is a place of worship, a place to gather, a civil court, and a common space for locals. The civil court is an example of restorative justice; the process of taking care of disputes within the community before it would need to go to a larger court. This process comes from a philosophy of peace-making and community, the very principles that are a part of the foundation of Vietnamese culture. We visited Dinh Bang, a short drive from Ha Noi. Dinh Bang was the birthplace the first king of the Ly Dynasty who moved the capital of Vietnam to Ha Noi around 1010. The Dinh was built in 1796, and we had the chance to visit and share a wonderful, sweet, sticky rice cake wrapped in a banana leaf called Phu The (meaning husband and wife). It is a cake traditionally served as wedding cake, and we were welcomed by the volunteers to pray in their temple, get a history lesson, and have a snack and some tea.
We headed off to Friendship Village with some fear in our hearts about visiting Vietnamese veterans and children affected by Agent Orange.
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