What on Earth am I out here looking for? I have a deep desire to see the far corners of the world, get to know people and how they live, and learn about their culture. I want to become immersed in a different walk of life.
Leaving the city behind and living in a rural setting can do a lot for the soul. It was quite the honour to spend four years at Charlotteville Brewing Co., adopting a lifestyle that centres on treading as lightly as we can on our planet. We must strive to leave a place better than we find it. And through my latest travel experiences, I’ve come to realize that as I do so, I too become better, as I learn, contribute and evolve. Mel and Tim are doing a really great thing for the planet and local community. They have inspired me in inumerable ways.
Here is a link to the Charlotteville blog (a lot of which I wrote), where you can read about some sustainable efforts and agroecological initiatives taken on the farm and in the brewery:
A sustainable approach to travel and tourism is very important to me for the preservation of our planet. Now that I’ve built a new value system through this career path that the brewery has shaped, I have a new lens to apply to my travels.
To begin with, I’ve made a list of some of my guidelines to travel sustainably:
-Taking trains and buses instead of flights whenever possible. Learn to appreciate the art of going slow
-Eating at local family-run restaurants, go to little independent shops and buy local art!
-Carrying a reusable water bottle and seeking out accommodation or other places that provide clean drinking water
-Bring a reusable bag to use when shopping for food/other items
-Travel light!
-Use a travel towel (less items for the laundry at hotels)
-Educate yourself!! about tours and companies … there are more companies out there than there should be, that take advantage of people and animals for tourism dollars. Do your research
-Buying ethically-made and sourced items
(When in doubt, say no)
-Talk to the locals and find out what it’s really like in the places you travel to. Ask them questions about their views on tourism
-For everyone’s sake, get out of the resorts!!!!
How do I contribute my energy and ideas in a sustainable way?
Workaway:
When I was living in Toronto, I found out about an organization called Workaway, that enables a really interesting approach to travelling for a number of reasons. This organization allows you to be hosted by people around the world, who are seeking volunteers in different projects. And in exchange for your time and contributions, they cover the room and board, as well as meals. So while you get to participate in some unique and interesting projects, you also learn through culture and language exchange, and get to know the people and geographical location. The locations you end up in through Workaway, are usually away from the center and the tourist hotspots. This results in getting to know a different side to a place, in terms of authenticity. You don’t always get this opportunity, to see the beat of everyday life when you travel, so that’s why I like to do Workaway. And your hosts will often be people who have travelled extensively in the past; they want to meet other travelers. The other volunteers in these projects are usually like-minded, and operating with that growth mindset. And it’s also very grounding to be in one spot for a week or two, or longer if you love it. I absolutely love the rhythm of alternating between travelling for a couple weeks, then staying with a Workaway project for a couple. It’s quite conducive to a happy state of mind while on the move.
When setting goals for my travels, workaway has helped me find places where I can develop my skills, interests, and experience levels; and just expose me to how things are done in different places of the world. This is a sustainable approach to travelling, as you are working towards a goal, deep diving into a place, making connections and saving money.
Workaway and the United Nations Sustainable Development goals:
“Adopted by the United Nations in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 goals with 169 targets that the UN is committed to working towards through the year 2030 with the hope of creating lasting positive change and freedom in the general areas of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership. The purpose of these goals is to create a framework for development programs that will focus on eradicating poverty, hunger, violence, fear, and disease and promoting literacy, equality, human rights, sanitation and hygiene, education, and physical, mental, and social well-being. These goals are meant to build on the Millennium Development Goals and work towards the three key areas the UN identifies for sustainability, which are economic, social, and environmental development.”
Workaway supports these goals and recognizes their hosts who are addressing and working towards sustainable development in their communities. Yes, there are many NGOs and charities as hosts, but there are also families in villages and remote areas that are realizing these goals through their efforts and raising the quality of life for their communities. There are a lot of opportunities for education and to witness the different approaches in treating our planet and our people with love and respect.
I find workaway grounding. My first experience was six years ago, at an alternative primary school in southern Thailand, in a place called Ban Phra, just a little village beside the railway, in the province of Chon Buri. The name of the school is Mosaic, and I got to teach an aspect of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning journey. We had a really interesting setup with our classrooms both inside and out, and I realized how the teaching environment can play such a big factor in student success. Kids love to move, and to be outdoors, and this school really grasped that. We were on a permaculture farm, and the kids got to participate in taking care of the land, vegetables, and animals as part of school cirriculum. So there were vocational skills acquired as well. The second Workaway I did, was at a Brussels Sprout Farm in the Barossa Valley of South Australia, on this same trip a few months later. This one was very remote, a couple hours past Adelaide. It made me realize how big Australia really is. It was here that I met one of my best friends, Danielle, who is actually from Kelowna, BC. She was the only other volunteer there at the time, and the time we shared together was very unique. I took care of the farmhouse and kids for a couple of weeks, and Danielle sorted the sprouts on the farm. After we left the workaway, we stayed in Adelaide together for another month. Connections, lifelong friendships built.
Let’s move back into the present.
I rejoined the organization as soon as the travel bug hit me again. This was a few months before I left for Indonesia. It costs 50 usd for a yearly membership. This membership gets you onto a workaway list and gives you access to hundreds of hosts around the world. You make a profile listing your skills, passions, experience etc. And the host has a profile detailing projects they have currently active, what skills and abilities they are seeking, what the accommodation entails, and what the location and family has to offer in terms of getting to know the place and culture. In some of the poorer countries, they ask you to pay for food. In some of the more developed countries, they give you access to personal transportation (ie your own motorbike or car). it just depends where you end up.
Always Wonder Where I Land:
A rule of thumb. Keep an open mind. These experiences can be eye opening in many ways, and many I had no way to be ready for. Some are a lot less organized than they sound on paper. You always have to go in with an open mind, that’s the bottom line.
I chose to start volunteering in Vietnam, a month into my trip. The keywords I punched into the host searchbar were ‘sustainability’ and ‘ecotourism.’ I read through my findings and landed on one in particular that sounded like a place who’s goals and aspirations aligned with my own. I wrote to the host, and heard back within a couple of days. This particular place is located in the tiny village of Dong Hoa, near the coastal city of Tuy Hoa, in the southcentral province of Phu Yen. Hoa is referring to the ethnic minority people that live in this geograpgical area, who are of Chinese descent. The village is located in the Mekong River Basin and is a fertile agricultural area with lots of rice fields and vegetable gardens. It is about 10 hours north of HCMC by bus. “Caroline’s Happy Hut Homestay” is a sustainable tourism initiative with minimalist bungalows that are situated in an organic garden in the middle of an expanse of rice fields.
Eco tourism initiatives in Dong Hoa:
-organic farming, growing and eating seasonal produce
-preservation of culture and traditions of the village and rural landscape
-stimulating the local economy so villagers don’t have to leave to go work in the city
-eco education and practices
-English language classes with the children in the village
-library and book shop
-waste management and plastic clean-up with children, guests and volunteers
-recycled building materials
-culture and language exchange for volunteers and students
-local tours for volunteers and homestay guests
So this is where I landed from HCMC. How did I get here? I took an overnight sleeper bus that was very low-key and very much Vietnam-style. A double-decker sleeper bus where they put the foreigners to the back and the locals at the front. Sleeper bus means the seat is like a bed: you lay down in it. I was on a top bunk (inner child dreams coming true). You get a blanket, a pillow, and if you’re lucky a charging port that works and a fan/ac. And of course a curtain to block out the bus and the window. All my important items were in my small pack in the seat with me and my travel pack was stowed away in the luggage compartment. Here I am, compartmentalized in this corner of the world, alone with my thoughts and dreams. Determination and curiosity pushing me forward.
We pull out from the bus station at 11pm give or take, and off we go, up the coast into the night. A couple hours in, we make a pitstop at a massive roadside cafeteria, where you can buy a piping-hot bowl of noodle soup (delicious as always), or you can choose from a wide array of peculiar-looking snacks and fruit… use the facilities and try to find your bus again in a line of what looks like a hundred identical buses. Shoes come off again, into the plastic bag the driver hands you, (no one wears shoes in any place indoors here) and back I climb into my bunk.
After a restless sleep, local music playing the whole way, I rub my eyes as we are pulling into Nha Trang, the closest stop to my destination. We get dumped out at the bus station as the sun is just beginning to rise over the small mountains in the distance. Already such a different landscape than the sweltering cityscape of Saigon. I’m in a daze, I’m here just before 6am, three hours ahead of schedule; they drive fast here at night! I wander into the station and find a little food stand near the back, with a woman serving coffees and noodles to some bus drivers who must be between trips. Just like me; I guess I fit in. I take a seat and order a black coffee. That snaps me out of my trance right quick. I take in the energy of this corner and this group. It’s calm and they all seem familiar to me. Were just between two places. I send Caroline, my host, a message on WhatsApp and tell her I’m early. She arranges for an earlier minibus to pick me up and take me further up the coast. I wander outside and the heavens align as I spot a bahn mi stand like a desert oasis. Coffee and bahn mi are perfect to bring you back to life. I’m very excited to see what I’m getting into and I’m ready for what’s next. The sun is rising and we’ve got a new day in our forecast. I catch my ride, the drive is another hour, winding through Nha Trang and further up the coast to Toy Hoa. We pick up other passengers along the way until the bus is full. On our way, I gaze out the window, seeing lots of little morning markets and the start of many people’s days.
I holler at my driver to pull off the road when the time is right, and I jump out with my baggage. My host has sent her driver to pick me up on the side of the highway to take me to the village. He grabs my bag as he motions me to jump in the backseat of his little souped up Honda. His name is Flame. The first obscure moment of a long string of obscurities throughout this experience. But this is also the first signification of what Caroline has done for her little village. She has brought wealth into the area through several avenues of tourism. We arrive at her little house in the village of Hang Dong, and she greets me and gives me a tour, that lasts about one minute. It turns out the homestay bungalows and garden have been flooded badly in the last few days, rainy season is longer here in this region. So volunteers will currently be staying at her house where she lives with her father.There is basically nothing here that resembles life as I know it back home in terms of creature comforts, but I’m here for it. So I end up sharing a room with a German girl named Svenja, and we have a couple from Hungary, Anna and Attila, occupying the single room upstairs.
This village is very remote, and the volunteers at the Workaway are the only foreigners in sight. A few streets with little houses made from cement, bricks and corrugated tin. The village is really quite poor. The heat and sunny weather of Saigon is replaced by ominous gray skies and intermittent rains. It’s a good 15-20 degrees cooler here as well. We will have to wait for the weather to clear to get into the garden. In the meantime, she needs help to reopen her English school, that has been shut down since the lockdown began and will reopen in five days for evening classes 5-7pm.
The English classes:
Caroline offers classes to the kids in the village for a small fee, that covers the cost of materials. More than half of the kids that come don’t go to school. Caroline wants to bring education and awareness to the people in her village. The farming lifestyle is quite hard and labour intensive, and is low income. If the kids learn English, they have a better chance of finding work in tourism, which she aims to bring more of to her village. She tells me that a lot of the older generation refuses to learn English and many don’t allow their children to attend the classes. There is some animosity between her and the villagers as a result. She says she doesn’t let it bother her, she is trying to think of the kids and their future. We make plans for the school. I will help her to split the kids into levels by speaking with them and assessing their abilities on the first day. The German girl has moved on, but we have the Romanian couple to help with teaching the younger kids. They have basic English so it won’t be too difficult. I’ve got an English Lit degree and a certificate to teach English as a second language, so I am equipped to help with curriculum. We will design this after we assess the levels of the kids. She heads to the city to get some chairs for the classes, so I’m left to explore the area on my own on day 1 here in Dong Hoa.
The village is like a step into the past. Only the main road in from the highway is paved, and the roads that connect to the neighbouring villages. The rest are dirt and pretty rough. Her garden is a five minute walk away, around a couple corners; it sits like an island in a rice field. There is a little raised dirt road (mud road now) in, that often gets washed out by the heavy rains. I take a look around, but its too wet to get into it. The wind whistles as it flows through the rice in the fields, and the greens dance and sway. So on I walk, finding the train tracks that run beside the village and lead off into the mountains in the distance. I walk along the tracks for a while, then jump down to a path beside running parallel. A train comes up from behind me. The conductor toots the horn and we stare into each others’ eyes as he travels past. I see joy in his eyes. Two lives, one moment. The melancholy of the overcast atmosphere strikes me deeply. The sky is a dark gray and the fields a deep green, like someone painted them in water colours but with too much water. The sky feels like its about to open up and swallow me whole. Never to be seen in this world again. And who would notice? I see a few rice farmers bent over, tending to their crops. Their currency that has them straddling the fence of poverty. But look at where they spend their days. What do they think about?
Through a tunnel, under the tracks that leads to more rice fields, and another little village. I’m in the middle of a farming post. There are crumbling brick buildings along the fields, that the winds swirl through, making the long overgrown grasses dance at their base. Loud speakers on posts stand like sentries through the village and along the fields. Abrasive and halting voices, making announcements throughout the day. The People’s Party reports news from 5 to 6 am every morning, and on the hour as the day continues. Communist Vietnam is alive and listening. The party’s voice is be-speckled with the sound of karaoke songs drifting through the air at most hours of the day, and the booming poor quality base that goes with it. Obscurities are building in my mind, but these are just the everyday occurrences of village life here.
I make my way back to my village, and settle into some reading and writing at the house. It's open concept like most Viet houses, so the natural light is really nice. Once Caroline returns, she makes us dinner. The dinner is simple: white rice, cucumber slices, pumpkin, omelette, some minced pork or fried tofu. Each meal is a slight variation of this, lunch and dinner for the time I spend here. Rice and vegetables come from the land, and if we have protein, it comes fromt the local market. (We pay 2usd each/day for this). we help cut the vegetables and she shares cooking lessons with us. We sit around family style and discuss our plans for the next day. Caroline also shares with us some Vietnamese customs and superstitions. Her and her dad are Buddhist so they keep a family altar, with offerings to their ancestors, especially on holidays. She teaches us about etiquette like how to place our chopsticks and what order to eat our food, so as not to summon bad spirits to the table and house. We then go to sleep, with thoughts of ghosts, with distant karaoke songs as our lullabyes.
Next morning we wake up and she sends us down the road to her neighbour who cooks us bahn xeo (if you read my last post, you’ll know how happy I am about this). She has a proper setup on her front porch, woks ablaze. They are delicious. The rain drones on, so we build some furniture for the school. We make benches and tables out of old wooden palettes and doors. She has a few old tools, and long story short, I cut a few palettes in half with a steak knife of a saw. Something along the lines of working with what you’ve got. We turned the front portion of her house into a school classroom. There is a bookshelf that kids can borrow from. Some of the kids come by on their bikes throughout the days, to read, and its really nice to sit and talk with them. I can see in their eyes how much they want to learn. Its really quite moving and the start of something big for me. Caroline has bikes we can use, and I take one out each afternoon through the rice fields and remain grateful for this place.
At dinner on this second night, we start to get into some deeper discussions on what Vietnam is like for locals in these remote areas, and what it’s like to try to run a business here as a single woman. Vietnam is a single party communist state. It is a very young country and there are many issues and interferences in politics. But it is one of the first contemporary communist nations to have voting at a national level. The provincial and district-level leaders are appointed by the Party leaders, so it’s still very hard to be heard locally. Caroline shares with us her struggles in this, and relays how much she is on her own. She also tells us how much oppression women face, and how much discrimination she faces trying to run her business as a single woman. It is seen as unnaccaptable to be unmarried and a business professional. Many villagers here have disdain for her, and think she is up to something more sinister, like a prositution circle. She earned a business degree in HCMC and returned to the village to run the farm and tourism business with her father. She tell us the locals don’t understand why foreigners want to visit and don’t trust us. It’s really a trip to be in the middle of this. But this is the stuff of the everyday life that most people don’t get the chance to see. I have big questions of whether I should really be here, am I helping or hindering? Who is right, Caroline to make change? Or the people who want to preserve the past? Is there an answer to these questions?
I can understand her mission in giving the children an option to decide what they want. She also tells us about securing a grant from the UN for her efforts in education and trying to raise the quality of life for the villagers. The money was sent but she has not recieved it. She doesn’t know where it ended up but she has a good idea. Another peice of information she told us was that anyone associated with the Capitalist South Vietnamese and US Army from the war, within 3 generations, cannot secure a government job, and cannot travel out of the country. And even those who aren’t associated, must go through extensive questioning and traces to obtain travel visas, often taking a year or more to be approved. She says if there is information that raises doubt, it will be found. Traces of war linger on. Dinners with Caroline became an interesting and sinister place for cultural exchange. I really feel my priveledge and I start settle into gratitude for my life and home.
On a couple of the less rainy days, we were able to do some repairs to the structures in the garden, mending the rooves with dried banana and palm leaves. I also planted corn and beans, and tended to the other vegetables like squash, carrots, radish and herbs, banana and papaya trees. I got to teach the Hungarians, and we cleaned up a lot of the gardens together. We continue on with classes in the evenings. I have six older students, aged 7-12, who are quiet, but focused. Anna and Atti have a bigger group of youngsters, 10 or so who learn the alphabet and play games. We also took a group of students to a local goat and fish farm to learn about the animals, farming and cooking. It was a nice experience to spend time and to share a meal together.
Caroline draws foreigners like us to the area, and takes us on tours to see some of the landscape. There is a fishing village that’s about an hour south of her village. The island of Phu Quoc, lies off the coast, and this area is part of the Kien Giang UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, with many unique species living here. There are 89 hard coral species, 19 soft corals, 125 coral reef fishes, 132 mollusks, 32 echinoderms and 62 seaweed species and additionally 3 types of sea turtles.
The seas have been overfished here by foreign companies seeking exports. We spent a day here with Caroline and some students who she is working with from a local tourism college, teaching the locals how to build tourism in their town. Setting up homestays and providing tours, opening restaurants, renting diving/snorkelling gear; these are ways to draw visitors. She also provides education on how to speak with guests because she tells us the locals can be very abrasive in their mannerisms.This will help the people pull out of the poverty they experience due to decline in the fishing. This will take time, and everything moves very slowly in vietnam, but I have respect for her in her drive to start the movement.
Turning a sharp corner:
Sometimes travel isn’t all it’s chalked up to be. There are ups and downs, and straight up struggles. The food was a little challenging on some of the days we spent here. The protein especially, and I thought I could handle it, or maybe it was the repetition of the foods I’m not so used to. I got terribly sick here a week and a half in. It must have been food poisoning, starting one evening: I was up all night (the bathroom is outside LOL) and then couldn’t keep anything down for the following two days. I had a terrible headache and no sleep, a high fever and then of course cold sweats. I was a mess. And this was all to the soundtrack of the village karaoke, which was somehow getting louder. Being sick like this in this environment, it did me right in and I had to bail out early. Flame to the rescue… He drove me to the nearest city, where I checked into a hotel and was dead to the world for 24 hours. I was disappointed I couldn’t finish my stay, but I had to take care of myself and listen to my body. Caroline had new volunteers coming who could take over the English class so she was understanding.
I caught the train the next evening, still feeling shaky and feverish, but it was a nice train, with good seats, and it was quiet, and most importantly, no karaoke. I bought a little french baguette on the train, and it was the best bread of my life. If you know, you know. I left the rice fields and pulled into the ancient capital city of Hue, 12 hours later, and was ready for a fresh start. Stay tuned.
Sounds like a great experience teaching the youngsters in the village, food poisoning not so great 🙁