Today, my day started in poverty and ended in privilege. We woke up early to go to Go Vap, one of the orphanages my sister works with. Although the word “orphanage” may conjure up images of cute little olivers, scrappy little street kids, the reality, at least here, is very different. I didn’t have to go, I could have left Vietnam without seeing any more of the reality than what is visible on the streets, but I wanted to know.

I can’t even really describe what I saw. It’s not that the conditions were horrible, (there has been a lot of updating done through donations and more are in the works right now) it is more that the life of the kids inside is tragic. For the most part, abandoned by their families, no one to truly love and cherish them. Sure, the ones that are healthy sometimes get adopted out of their situation, but what about all the rest? And the majority at Go Vap are “all the rest”.

As long as they were mobile, the kids seemed to at least have some semblance of a normal life. They could play with the other kids, run around, they were fed and clothed. They seemed relatively happy. It was the ones who were confined to cribs all day long, staring at the same spot on the wall, those where the heartbreaking ones. Knowing that in America, the thing that they were suffering from, that immobilized them, was caught and treated. Those babies could have had a normal life, instead they stare at the same spot on the wall while their heads get bigger and bigger. It was hard to look at. Hard to be there.

We went to the temple after the orphanage. It seemed like a fitting segway. Hindu temples today. To pray for people we love. My sister got involved in a philosophical conversation with a man who kept saying he was unhappy down here, he wanted to be up there. She kept telling him the only way he could be up there and not keep coming back, was to be happy here, in this life. Something I can definitely stand to listen to. This life. Now. Not tomorrow, not I’ll try and figure it out when I move, or when I change jobs, or when I _______, now.

Before we left, a young man came up to us and started telling us about the temple. He offered us bracelets made out of jasmine. My initial reaction was no. I thought he was trying to scam us like I had been scammed the previous day in another temple. Except, this time, he was being sincere. (The jasmine smells wonderful, it’s next to my bed right now) When we left, I told my sister this country was making me think the worst of people.

Spiritual duties finished, we went shopping. Buying a few more things I surely needed before coming back. We were bargaining. We settled on a price. Then the woman came back, offered to discount it two more dollars and gave us bargaining tips for the future. She had already made the sale, there was no need to give us that discount, but she did anyway.

Back to the hotel to drop off our stuff then across the street to the massage parlour where we relaxed for an hour while our kinks were worked out. While I was waiting to pay a girl came up and gave me tea and some vietnamese candies to nibble on while I waited. Again, I thought it was a scam. Something for them to tack onto the bill at the end, but it wasn’t.

If things happen for a reason, then today was to teach me that I can’t sweep my hand and stereotype everyone. When you’re not looking, when you’ve given up, you’ll find good people hiding where you’d least expect them.