I knew this journal was coming even as I prepared to go on this trip. There is a desire to start off with some profound or eloquent revelation, but all I can think of is how much I wholeheartedly love all the incredible people I have met and reconnected with.
Although this is my second trip to Vietnam and GIBTK, it feels as though I am experiencing everything for the first time. I was in no way using this trip as some “self-discovery” journey, but I quickly recognized how much I have grown since my first trip five years ago. Still a bit awkward at first but now able to fully engage and connect with the GIBTK kids and team members - an experience I truly hold near and dear to my heart. GIBTK has grown as well in this past five years, immensely so.
The easiest way to describe that growth would be naming the new programs since my last trip such as the new swimming pool in Dorothea’s Project Legacy 3, FIVE Dorothea’s Project Legacies, GLOW Club, and the continual efforts to expand to more Vietnam and Cambodia provinces. However, I would argue that these programs are simply the outcome of the culture cultivated within GIBTK. Sure, the growth on paper is impressive, but I am more in awe of the relationships that continue to be fostered amid all the growth. Fostering lifelong relationships is a conscious decision and culture that is embedded in GIBTK. The transformation, whether it is due to an impressive medical procedure or have one child finally feeling safe and at home, is all based on a relationship.
It sounds like common sense, right? The cliché corporate HR message of “we are a family here”! But seeing it executed in real time? Whew.
Between telling everybody and their mother I am indeed not Vietnamese and bombarding team leaders with questions, I was constantly thinking “insane”. Insane the community GIBTK have created and continue to foster. Insane the culture we have developed. Insane the impact we have made in Vietnam and Cambodia. Insane the lives we have saved both literally and metaphorically. Insane that the kids and team members of GIBTK are living proof that genuine and sustainable change can be achieved even with the humblest beginnings.
Now, when can I go back to Vietnam?
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