We just finished preparing for tomorrow’s end-of-program celebration at Buu Tri Pagoda and Hoi Tu Thien orphanages. There was much work to do, but the team pulled together beautifully to get it all done! I have truly enjoyed working with everyone this summer. Everyone has such a good heart and warm spirit.
When we started this project a while back, the motto we came up with was short and simple: “Learning and Having Fun Together.” We laughed then (and still laugh now) about how simple it is, but we also recognized tonight how perfectly it sums up what this summer program has come to mean for everyone—the kids, the staff at the orphanages, and us, the leadership team. We have all learned a lot and have certainly had such a blast having fun together, too.
Here are some shots of us in our new, nifty program T-shirts.
Over the course of planning and implementing this summer program, I have obviously thought quite a bit about Raoul Wallenberg, the man whom we named this summer program after. Because of the generous travel grant I received from the Wallenberg Endowment at the University of Michigan, I was able to come here to Vietnam and get this program off the ground and running. Raoul Wallenberg, who was born in Sweden and was a University of Michigan alumnus, was a consummate and courageous humanitarian. He is best known for saving the lives of upwards of 100,000 Jews during the Holocaust when he led a rescue mission on behalf of the Swedish government.
Even though Wallenberg’s life story casts him as superhuman and as a man who would be difficult to emulate, there was something so pure and simple in him that led him to dedicate and sacrifice his life for others: He loved people. During his summers in college, he traveled all around the United States, exploring the cities and countryside, meeting new people, seeking to learn about them and learn from them. I think everyone involved with this project—from the leadership team to the orphanage staff and to the kids we work with—has that kind of philanthropic urge to explore, to learn, and to love.
In short, there is a Raoul Wallenberg in all of us, in you, in everyone we meet in life! And if we continue to seek to “learn and have fun together” in all that we do, if we continue to tap into the Raoul Wallenberg in ourselves and others, this world would certainly be a better place. I’d like to think that this summer program touched a few lives here in Can Tho in that regard (I know my life has been touched), and maybe we have inspired in each other to be more like Raoul Wallenberg, to serve, to explore, to learn about and from others, to live life to the fullest and make the world a better place (even if it’s just one game, one arts-and-crafts activity, one group song at a time)—together.
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