North Vietnam Photo Tour, September 2020.

Thanh, the temple caretaker. 

On my last evening in rural Hanoi, after a brief homestay in a local farming community, I went to visit a small pagoda in the village with the family that hosted me. Upon my arrival at the pagoda, I quickly met the caretaker Thanh, this 80-year-old sweet woman all of 4' 6" tall. She reminded me of my Mother, Rose Natale, and my grandmother, a woman I never got to know. In most cases, there's a priest that lives in the community and cares for the pagoda. Here in this small village, Thanh was the caretaker. Her job was to greet people, clean the temple and maintain the customs preserved for thousands of years in this community place of worship. Warm and friendly, she invited me for green tea on the straw mat on the stone pagoda floor, and we began to chat.

Without many words spoken, we immediately became enamored with each other. I started to explain my travels here as an American, as she inched closer and closer to me. Sometimes there's a deep, unknown, mutual connection to people we've never met, these connections really aren’t meant to be understood, just welcomed, and this was one of them. We continued our talk about my travels as 8-10 more elder women dressed in traditional clothes, came into the dimly lit building and started sitting all around me. Thanh was asking most of the questions as the others listened closely to my words through David, my interpreter & guide.

 Questions of my family, living in America and my life there, quickly changed to me thanking them for making me feel so welcome, so far from home. “I love Vietnam,” I said, and shared stories of my first trip with Habitat for Humanity in 2015, to South Vietnam to build a brick & mortar home for a poor family. I continued to tell them of my desire to return to Vietnam one day with my photography, videography and writing skills, to help raise awareness for organizations that serve the sick, poor and elderly. They could clearly see my intentions and feelings were genuine. I then complemented Thanh and said how beautiful she was. With doubt in her voice as she touched her aged, wrinkled face, she said, “But I am so old”. I returned by sincerely saying, “But age and looks don’t only determine beauty. Beauty comes from the heart, the eyes and kindness to others".

Immediately the conversation shifted to a woman sitting to the right, and slightly behind me. She said, “I remember the Americans bombing us during the war, the speakers would go off, 20 minutes until the Americans arrive they would say, we all were so scared”!  All of the women started talking willingly among themselves, remembering the events so clearly that took place nearly 50 years ago. They continued, “I remember the American they shot down, he was so tall & white,” she said. Now me being American, 6’3’’ tall, white and sitting among all of these women discussing their war experience, still I couldn’t feel more welcome. This speaks volumes about the Vietnamese people, and the main reason why I love Vietnam so much, it's the people and their ability to heal, forgive and move on.  By the end of the Vietnam war, if you can believe it, 7 million tons of bombs were dropped on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, more than twice the number of bombs dropped on Europe and Asia during all of WW2. Being in the north, nearly everyone I speak to has fought in the war against the Americans or had family that did, and every one of them greeted me as a friend. An estimated 3.3 million people died in the war including 58,200 Americans. A true indescribable tragedy, all for what?

Today Vietnam is a young, prosperous, energetic, safe, independent country. They have forgiven, moved on with no blame to anyone, and have built an amazing, great country. My most remarkable journey covering 2,000 miles in 30 days in North Vietnam, has been a life-changing experience. I’ve had highs and lows, hit a wall and broke through, and I continue to learn and grow every day.

Each footstep, every drop of sweat, every dusty road I go down, and anytime time I pack up to move on, reminds me as well, that we all have the ability to heal and look forward to a brighter day. One day at a time, as they have in Vietnam. I visited Thanh one more time the following morning to get this photograph. A reminder of that moment, and to see that one special person again, that's helping me find my way. Gregory J.