Afterword

Last Thursday I made the familiar 3 1/2 hour drive through the Adirondack mountains and remote North Country, NY, to my second home in the US. That's St. Lawrence University and the people that surround it. I caught up with friends who haven't yet graduated and professors still there.

It was a better time than I even thought it would be. I gave a presentation about the year in Vietnam at two Intervarsity Christian Fellowship chapters. God answered prayer to give me clarity and passion in my words and to impact those who heard.

AND- my teammate Bryan drove up on Friday afternoon and stayed the rest of the weekend. The last time we saw each other was at the Danang airport on July 1st, and here we were again, celebrating the experience we had together and laughing like usual. He contributed greatly to the presentation on Friday night.

So Bryan was introduced to the characters of my college days stories, which was a fun connection to make. Saturday night we hung out with a group of Nepali students who were cooking a small feast for a festival. We just can't stay away from those internationals!

I ended the visit with the glad relief of reconnecting to a very important part of my past, and with the knowledge that I had left a legacy in my four years there. Praise God for it all!















Still striving together for the goal















With my good friends the Ewart family (minus their son Sean). They are staff for IVCF, and they played a huge part in my faith and development during college.















My friend Dipesh, from Nepal.

Epilogue

I'm around the house today making apple crisp and enjoying the last days of summer in VT. Many chances in the past week to do that: Dinners on the deck, Mom's marathon in Schroon lake, a hike in Wright park, and lots of time on the seat of my bicycle.

And I'm missing my friends, my students, my teammates, and all that I left behind in Vietnam. Nothing there is replaced by all the enjoyment here.

I owe another THANK YOU to the many who have supported me in this year of service, especially through faithful prayer and encouragement, and very importantly by giving money. If I haven't seen you yet to say thanks and give you a hug, I hope I will.

Seven weeks ago, to the day, I was leaving Danang. Nicky and I flew together to California and made the most of it with an airport scavenger hunt. And, oh yeah: here's a photo of me about to break international law by bringing a banana through the Taiwanese border. (I had to eat it quick). (If you can't see it, the sign says "declare or drop here")



















The two weeks I spent at training were even better than I thought they could be. Fellowship with the teachers (some who I had met last summer and many new ones) was close and FUN with a lot of laughter, worship, prayer, and American food. The new batch of teachers headed for Vietnam is A+, and I felt useful giving them and introduction to the Vietnamese language and culture.

Last time together at training (with Dawn and Nicky)















Consider a year teaching English overseas: www.teachoverseas.org. I'll get a hundred bucks for every person I refer. (Yeah, right.)

But seriously, have you thought about it?
This is interesting.

Since arriving home it has been a well-paced reintroduction to life here, and I've had the opportunity to celebrate with extended family often. (Just last weekend we hosted a surprise party for my mom's 50th. The big surprise was all six of her siblings making it out here).

Both Dawn and Nicky are back in Vietnam (but not in the same city) for another year with ESI. Bryan is at seminary in Nyack, and we're planning to see each other this fall.

I've come around the final bend, in a way, back to where I started from, so I think it's appropriate that I wrap-up this blog from here at home. That term "wrap-up" is misleading, actually. I don't want to crystallize that year overseas as a packaged, sealed event in my life, as if it should be boxed up like a keepsake and mourned for. That isn't it at all. Rather, I see the seeds that God has planted and the relationships he has set in motion starting with that time and place, and the whole uncoiling future changed, salted by it. The real impacting things are spiritual, anyway, which aren't bound to that time and that country.

Trying to put together slide shows and summaries of the year has been tough--even giving answers in a conversation, for that matter. It still seems far too much a part of me to be presenting it as a memory and an event, or to make it into a list of thoughtful answers to all the questions people (rightly) wonder about. But if you do ask, I'll do my best to share and explain as generously as I'm able. And as I do I'll understand it all a bit more myself.

I'll leave off with a few pictures from the weeks at home.

Here's me and my 9-month-old niece Savannah.

















A misty morning on the river behind our house






















Hiking through goldenrod





















Bye for now. I hope you are all well!!

-Tyler

Weekend on the mountaintop

Last Saturday all the teachers and school staff took a trip to the mountain Bana, where the air was cool and sweet and the view was spectacular. Here's Danang from 1,487 meters (that's almost 4,900 feet):

The Danang bay is on the left, and the sea coast to the right. The big peninsula in the center is "Monkey Mountain." There aren't any mokeys there. Maybe in the past?

We DID, however, see a family of monkeys grubbing food from tourists at the top of Bana. 8 or 10 of them altogether, about the size of large house cats with throughtful, greedy little faces and clever fingers. It was my first time seeing monkeys in the wild. I could have watched them all afternoon. Someone threw one a stick of gum. He ripped off the paper and started peeling the foil like a fruit skin.

Here's a blurry picture of me feeding one:

It was good to spend time together away from school and the routine. Everyone needed it. Stress is pretty high here at FSEC with Me and Nicky about to leave, and with new staff being hired and trained. Praise God for rest, for friends, and for high elevations.

Here's me, Simon, and a newer teacher Steve:

Slideshow

Follow this link to a slideshow I put together for my students about Bryan's and my trip to Cambodia. Tanks, elephants, head bandages, ancient ruins, and more! The file is 18 megabytes.

http://tylersmith.badongo.com

It's the real thing

Yesterday some kind of noxious bomb left over from the war went off in the hills outside Da Nang. A family we know well with three small children lives in a community half a mile from where it detonated. The mother described the experience as "suffocating...like it had sucked all the oxygen out of the air." Some acrid substance in the air made their lungs and eyes burn. Their infant nearly stopped breathing. She took all her kids on the motorbike and headed for town. People in the neighborhood were breathing though wet towels and trying to find a place with clean air. This morning the family's pet bird was dead.
At moments when life here feels secure, a place devastated by war only a few generations ago, things remind us of the suffering that so many went through. Praise the Lord that today it is only a lingering memory and peace and health are the norms.

On a lighter note:
Our phone was been dead for several days. The man who came to fix it on Monday said a mouse had chewed through the line, so he stuck a new wire out the window and around the outside of the house instead of through the wall.

In Saigon

Bryan and I are traveling this week--for him a final week before returning to the US and for me a break for me before teaching through July. For both of us, a chance to spend some time together and enjoy the friendship that has grown this year.
Right now we're in Saigon before heading to Cambodia tomorrow. Although living in Danang for a year has worn off the foreigner's dazzle, moments today and yesterday in the city have left me praising God for having this chance.
So far our 24 hours in Saigon have been full of interesting things:

Lunch at KFC

The War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace
Dinner with my old friend Sara and her husband Tielman
A few minutes of Catholic mass at the Notre Dame cathedral
A surprise visit to the hospital

Tomorrow, Cambodia by bus.

Out of the groove

On Saturday we saw off our team mate Dawn at the Danang airport and returned to our house on 15 Le Dinh Ly street as the first time an incomplete team. Several of the office staff were there, along with Hai and Teresa, us, and a few of Dawn's friends. Saying our goodbyes to Dawn instantly sharpened my picture of departure on August 3rd. We clearly remember walking through the airport last August 24th and tasting Danang for the first time, loaded with our expectation.

Of the four of us only Nicky is returning here. Bryan will be going on to seminary in Nyack, NY. Dawn will be returning to Vietnam but to a different city to teach. Dawn will have a jam-packed summer of support raising and visiting relatives before we cross paths at training in Pasadena in August.

Another teacher with ESI and good friend, Heath Carelock, left Danang on Thursday.
But we have an addition: a teacher from Cananda, Sarah, has arrived with an independent contract to teach at Fisher's. She is our new house mate.

At our Danang International Fellowship this morning we were reminded that it is not often God's will to leave us in a comfortable groove for too long. Yes, it is true of this year.

I wish I could send you all a perfect impression of life here. No number of photos or souveniers or stories will be be sufficient. I wish I could keep a perfect impression for myself to open up every few months when the memories fade and run together. But God has created us to live and breathe for communication, and I know the continuing work of this experience will be revealed in my attempt at transmitting it to others and at ordering it in my own heart. I am constantly thankful that this IS a shared experience through all your prayer and support. As a solo adventure the lower points would be lower, and the joys would have few sharers.

Let me put in a word here for my team: that is, Nicky, Dawn and Bryan. I remember being asked, "So do you know these people who you are going to spemd the year with?" I FAR underestimated the amount of growth that would come from the team living, and the amount of support we would be to eachother. Up to arrival I had pictured this as "my time" in Vietnam. Now I can't think of it except as ours. There was a definite sadness in our goodbyes to Dawn, but the winning emotion was thankfulness and praise.

A lfew newsy things: Bryan and I are planning a six day trip to Saigon and Cambodia at the end of June. It will be a nice little together before Bryan leaves.
Friday was a new experience for all of us. Hai took us along with all the school staff to have a foot massage. We were surprised to find that our feet include our arms, shoulders, and scalp. And I've never had my feet soaked in a vibrating bucket of cinammon broth before.