My sleeping hasn't regularized, but it has gotten better. I gouged a small canyon out of the back of my leg on a bolt protruding from a bus seat, which has become infected and makes my leg pulse heartbeats when I step. I caught a chest cold in Cat Ba, a heat rash from sweating all day that makes it feel like I have slivers of glass stuck in my back, and in the last three days I've broken two pairs of sandals. Two. Two pairs of sandals. The first from normal wear and tear, the second because I was wearing a cheap pair as large as I could find. Much much too small.
There isn't a decent taco in this whole city, the shower heads are all pointed at my chest, I have to crouch to climb the stairs at our hostel and everything comes with a taybalo tax. OH THE HUGE MANATEE.
But, I found baby powder for my back, iodine and bandages for my leg, I'm eating a giant bowl of pho tai (half-cooked beef noodle soup) for my chest, I found a new, shitty, too-small pair of sandals for my poor giant feet. And fuck the rain. I'm still in Vietnam. I'm still alive. Life could be considerably worse.
Someone asked me if I'd seen any half-American, half-Vietnamese people, and if they were willing to talk about it. Truthfully I haven't seen any, but I asked the Internet. Man, that guy knows some horrifying shit.
During the war, it happened a lot - sons and daughters, many born of GI's and prostitutes. Light skin and round blue eyes if the soldier was white, darker-skinned with tighter and curlier hair if they were African American. Vietnamese are very conscious of genetics and they stood out from the crowd at birth.
Some were killed. Abandoned at birth, aborted before. Left on the steps of orphanages. Shunned and ostracized if they lived at all. Cursed and deprived of education and training. At first, neither country would take responsibility for these orphans - the American Defense Department calling them "bad elements," and the Vietnamese derisively referring to them as "the children of the dust." In 75', fearing a massacre of Amerasian orphans, Ford airlifted 2000 orphans to the US. The first of these flights crashed, killing almost 150 people, mostly children. In 80', the US instituted an amnesty program allowing Vietnamese of mixed birth to be brought by their relatives into the US. This sparked a black market, where wealthy Vietnamese would essentially purchase the child from a poorer mother, using them to come to the states. Overall, a travesty. Some 3% managed to track down their American parent, but most live each day with the mystery.
Some of the discrimination has dissipated, the heritage is even celebrated by some. But it is still a trope and a negative stereotype in some minds. I picture Michael Scott from The Office , "God, you're so exotic....was your dad a GI?" Thirty years makes comedy from tragedy.
The answer is no. I haven't seen any. Very few remained. But if you find them, I think 30 years has taken away some of the sting. At least enough to tease out their story.
The words fill my head and fall to the floor. If God's on our side then he'll stop the next war.
Note: I took a lot of this information from a Smithsonian Magazine article I found. Read it here if you want the whole story. It's fascinating and devastating. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Children-of-the-Dust.html
A beautiful mash up of the song I quoted, "With God On Our Side," performed by Bob and Joan in two different performances, oddly omitting the verse I quote, which happens to be my favorite. http://cache11.stormap.sapo.pt/dld/5c870ea6148171b57bd0f2e8356a6ef3/4e684596/vidstore03/videos/5e/87/5c/498383_eRZCJ.mp4
Location:Hanoi, Vietnam
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