At moments like this, I feel frustrated and disappointed with my time spent here. I absolutely adore my students, adore going for walks through rice paddies, adore driving my motorbike, adore hanging out with my coworkers, and adore my fellow Fulbright teachers. But so much of my time here is not spent on things that I enjoy, but rather spent nagging people to fix my Internet, stressing out about filling out visa-renewal papers, or being coerced to take on tasks that mean nothing to me or to my Fulbright grant.
All I want is to renew my visa so that I don't get deported at the end of January and so that I can continue playing Jeopardy and watching Youtube videos with my lovely students. Nobody at Ha Tinh University seems to realize the critical importance of this getting accomplished (and in an efficient manner), because everyone keeps telling me it will get done eventually and not to worry. However, when I look at the list of papers that need to be obtained and signed in a rapidly-diminishing period of time, my head spins, and yes, I think that I have every reason to worry.
The current proposal is that if I help tutor one of Ha Tinh's higher-up officials' children for his English class, the visa process may or may not move along a bit faster, if you catch my drift....
Of course, all of this was proposed to me with the little boy waiting outside my bedroom door with his mother. When asked, "Is it okay if they come in now?" I didn't really have a choice in my response.
He entered, sweating profusely, and too nervous to speak English. "Will you ask me questions in English? I don't know what to talk about..." the boy began. Not a good start after I had been "asking questions in English" to my students (to whom I am a bit more contractually and emotionally bound) for 6 hours already today.
So it appears that in 36 hours, I have taken on one new once-weekly class of gifted high school students (which, to be fair, I am actually excited to teach, so for the time being, I will leave them out of this argument) as well as one new tutoring client whose connected parents may or may not be helpful and important people to know, if you catch my drift....
My mother reminded me that everybody has their price. When I got my nose pierced on the first day I arrived in California at Pitzer College and caused my mom to go through a minor mid-life crisis at the thought of her youngest daughter covering her body with tattoos and track marks (Okay, so I am exaggerating a bit), she offered me $1000 to buy my nose ring off of me. Whether she would have given me that money or not, had I agreed, is still debatable (I am leaning towards not). However, what she tried to demonstrate was that, at a certain point, some amount of money might be more enticing than the rebellious significance of having a piece of metal in my nose. (Editor's note: I never got a tattoo, and I never turned to heroin. 5 years after the nose piercing, I have graduated with honors and been awarded a Fulbright scholarship. Just saying...........................)
So, in that same vein, is this the unfortunate and unavoidable hidden price of renewing a visa? I didn't realize it had come to negotiating "prices to be paid" or "favors to be carried out," but it seems like my fate is now inextricably bound to this 12-year-old boy's.
Tutoring sessions it is, I suppose... Visa, here we come? (Maybe?)
Some preliminary thoughts...
- Allison B.
- Somerville, Massachusetts, United States
- Finding the best places to eat and drink in my area! Check back for more!
Life is a give and take as you are coming to find out. And it's not always predetermined what someone will be willing to give you and what you have to offer in return. So, now that your competitive advantage, while you're in Vietnam, is that you're a first rate English speaker and listener, that is the thing people will want from you. So, to the extent you can make the time and offer to share your skill, the people you offer it to may or may not be willing to offer you a competitive advantage of their own. It might be an easier visa process, or maybe not. You just never know. So since it's a mystery, it's good that you are at least seeing this as an opportunity instead of only the PIA that it could be perceived as. And yes, you turned out great and you have a nose ring still and it's all good, and I never found your price, and that's OK. I was just testing to see what it was.......
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