doberman pizza. a baha'i (bahai, bahá'í) blog.

oh vietnam, you strange, noisy, mesmerizing place, you. vietnam, with your choking heat and cooling rains, your bright and lively flowers, your swarms of motorbikes, your streets lined with shops that spill their innards onto the sidewalks, peppered with price tags. friends and acquaintances tell me you have stolen their hearts. will you steal mine just as easily?

my first impression of Vietnam was from the air while flying in: an unusually dark panorama creeping in beneath us, with ghostly strings of bluish light, sparsely blotched with the aggressive orange usual in Western cities. For the most part, fluorescent light rules here. Our plane rolled smoothly onto the tarmac at Tan Son Nhat Airport and into our gate; from the first moment stepping out of the plane, I could feel the heat—strangely like the oppressive heat that overtakes Ottawa on certain (rare) summer days. passing through immigration and customs was uncanny in its ease; I’d expected more random hassles—or, at least, I’d expected them to talk to me. I wheeled my luggage out into the humid night, and surprisingly enough, found my friend Quynh—who I had thought was in Da Nang—waiting there, along with her brother Nu. they shepherded me into a taxi, which carried us through the chaotic streets and gave me my first glimpse of the notorious Vietnamese traffic. arriving outside their neighbourhood, I unloaded my luggage as we made our way down a prohibitively narrow and winding street, past thin, tall apartments with bars on their windows and doors, past a shop where, even at this late hour, people who looked about my age were working on sewing machines, making t-shirts (I instinctively felt some “western guilt” here). Arriving at a set of locked gates, Quynh and brother quickly unlocked them and introduced me to my home for at least the next month: a three-story-tall (four stories if you count the door that leads onto the roof) apartment with a steep staircase, which was a minor struggle to manage with my one bulging suitcase.

the first night in Vietnam was quick—my plane landed at around 10:45 PM local time, and I ended up in bed a little past midnight—so I didn’t have the chance to see much. rest assured, though, that the next few days were a positive whirlwind. read more soon—just keep an eye on this blog.

I’ve slept only about three hours out of the past twenty-four. it kinda sucks. most of them were spent frantically packing my bags in my devastated (ex-?)apartment in Ottawa. I stayed up printing out last-minute photocopies and sending emails to Japan, leaving about three hours (actually closer to two) of productive sleep before waking up and making my way (thanks to mom and dad) over to the airport to catch my flight to Chicago. I’d say something dramatic like “this is where the real tests begin” but actually the tests began when I first decided to go to Vietnam. whenever someone arises to serve God in some way, tests begin immediately to prove their mettle, sometimes little by little, sometimes in huge clumps—and sometimes exponentially as that proverbial “last minute” approaches.

oh look all the pilots are boarding the plane now, clad in black monkey suitsuniforms with pretty gold trim. appropriate enough since this flight looks very much like a class act. now the flight attendants are boarding and they too look like a class act. I’ve heard some good things about Japan Airlines and I have the sneaking suspicion those things are about to be proven right. That’s a little more than I can say about the American Eagle flight from Ottawa. that one was okay, I guess. it’s just that the plane we were on seemed to be designed and built with smurfs in mind. the Japan Airlines plane (see photo attached to this post) makes it look like a bug in comparison. in fact, I’m pretty sure this next plane eats little tiny commuter planes for breakfast with noodles and miso soup. I’m okay with that.

I should probably be catching up on sleep right about now, you know. I just don’t think it’ll do me a whole lot of good to sprawl onto the floor of the waiting lounge or stretch out onto a cluster of seats. i’ve been told my assigned seat has good elbow room; that sounds good. I’m hoping I can grab some shut-eye on the thirteen-hour-long flight across the Pacific. The Pacific seems like the perfect ocean to cross on a long airplane flight: nothing to see for hundreds of miles outside your window except, uh, lots and lots of nothing. perfectly boring, and hopefully eminently sleep-inducing. except for the offers of drinks and meals at regular intervals, of course. Instead of sleeping on the Chicago flight, I brushed up on some Japanese and practiced some phrases that should come in useful when passing through customs, you know, like “I have nothing to declare”, “thank you very much”, “may my life be a sacrifice to your ancestors”, and so on. gotta make a good impression, you know. …I guess this is what happens when I don’t get enough sleep.

today was my last day at work before the trip! I’m feeling nervous about the preparations, as I mentioned yesterday, but at least I know that things are in good hands at work. there’ll be a nice little lunchtime farewell next Tuesday, I’ll drop by again the day before leaving, and that’s it until September.

Tonight, a special celebration happens, called Naw-rúz; while it also happens to be the Persian new year (as recently attested to by President Obama), it’s also the Bahá’í new year, symbolizing spiritual renewal and the dawn of a new day for humankind. Apart from having a great time there, I’ll be performing on stage during the artistic portion, as well as offering a prayer set to an improvised melody (much like the tracks from the prayercast I post here). Before that, I’ll be joining a band of friends—almost 80 of them, in fact—in breaking the Fast for the last time this year, at Saffron Restaurant on Rideau St. Good friend, former co-worker and fellow web dude Martin used his wheeling-and-dealing talents to secure a buffet dinner for 80 people, including unlimited kebab (koobideh beef, joojeh chicken) and Persian rice. I’m definitely looking forward to it, along with the other 79 I’m sure.

I have to say though, I’ll miss the Fast. For some reason it seemed unusually sweet this year, although it was also hard. I felt as though I was able to connect with God through prayer in a way that I don’t always feel able to. Maybe it’s the influence of preparing to move out of my apartment and leave for Vietnam that’s been helping me become more detached from my surroundings, my possessions, and the like. You know, like packing up your life into a set of luggage and leaving behind the rest. Whatever it is, I’ve found it… especially sweet, in that it seems to have allowed me to deepen my spiritual experience during the past month, helped me to leave behind attachment to material things. Awesome.

Speaking of material things, it’s getting close to dinner time. Happy Naw-rúz and a glorious springtime to you all, materially and spiritually.

time has flown by as my departure from Canada becomes imminent. there are no more second chances now, no more excuses to put things off; procrastination is deadly. even though I say that, of course, there are still a bunch of things I still haven’t gotten to on my list of Tasks Of Great Importance. one of them is to pay my last couple of bills and call to cancel my cable, phone and so on (seeing as I’m moving out of my apartment as well). yeah, that’s a lot of things to do all at once, alright. It feels like I’ll barely have the time to finish tying up all the loose ends here before I have to fly out—which happens next Friday, the 27th.

I must admit I’ve had my head in the clouds a little, anticipating the trip and visiting so many new places—that’s normal, right? Having to plan out an itinerary for myself that spans five months means that I have to think ahead… in fact, I think I’ve been doing more thinking ahead than I’ve ever done in my life. Anticipating, anticipating, sometimes patiently, sometimes not. Getting things done one step at a time, checking things off my ample to-do list as they come, adding more as I go. I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve been able to get accomplished, actually. I suppose it helps that I have several people—my parents, good friends, the folks from HR at work—helping to remind me of all the things I need to take care of before going. Shots are all done, but I need to pick up a bit more medication for the trip (anti-malarials, that kind of thing). Visa’s done, and it got done surprisingly quickly at that, thanks to the kind folks at the Vietnamese embassy. Tickets are all booked, including stopovers in Tokyo each way to allow me to rest a little; thanks go to Laurie at Bytown Travel for helping me get that set up.

So what’s left? Cleaning up and moving out of the apartment, of course; doing my taxes for the past year; saying my goodbyes to friends and co-workers; packing my bags; gathering up cash, traveller’s cheques, and other essentials; contacting credit card companies to let them know where I’ll be (and to expect purchases from strange places); oh and so many other little things I was hoping to finish up before leaving but am I going to have time to do them all even if the clock is ticking down ohcrapohcrap… even with all this stuff to do though, I don’t really feel nervous yet—excited is more like it. I can’t wait to get on the plane and go, to end up in a completely different place. There’s just something about travel that’s given me a sort of permanent wanderlust ever since I was young. Not just the act of travelling, either—the anticipation. The sweet knowledge that you’re about to embark upon the journey of a lifetime, one that will lead you across to the other side of the planet for five whole months. Wondering aloud and quietly, what will this bright, bold and beautiful future bring?

With all these thoughts about the future, I have to pray just to keep myself grounded in the present. Thinking ahead is fun, but right now is where everything happens. So that’s where I am—right here at home (at the mall again, actually—hah), doing the most I can right now as my efforts and God’s confirmations will allow. As a closing note, I feel as though I’m starting to understand this concept of “confirmation”—you take the first step and God gets you running. Seeing this trip across the world come together piece by piece has helped show me what it means.

lol, blogging at the mall.

the Fast has gone pretty well so far, except that I’m really tired—but then, that was happening since before the Fast. I think winter, short of making me depressed this year, has left me in rather pitiful physical shape. maybe I can blame the bus strike for not letting me get to the gym regularly… uh, anyway, excuses aside… I spent a couple of days at the beginning sick with a sinus cold, and thus unable to fast. It always really irritates me when that happens. shortly afterwards, I paid a visit to Craig and Geneviève in Victoriaville, which is always like a drink of life-giving waters. we had a chance to chat about my upcoming trip to Vietnam, and they gave me a lot of tips and encouragement about Vietnam and travel in general.

For the rest of you out there who are fasting, I strongly recommend you follow the blog nineteen days, maintained by a couple of Baha’is with photographic skills and an eye for the poetic. They’re into their second year of blogging their fast and are now featuring guest bloggers each day this year, making it an even more interesting and engaging read.

That’s it for now… off to help with Ruhi Book 3.

a night of cold, blowing wind follows a quiet, gloomy friday’s worth of work. winter stubbornly spends its last few nominal weeks like an angry tyrant who knows his demise looms and who is bent on causing as much hardship as possible to his long-suffering subjects before that fateful day. on some streets, there are still puddles sitting, liquid and rippling; on others, strong gusts have thrown them up and frozen them into rough, icy cobbles.

funny how my heart is so warm in the midst of all this ice, so glad in the midst of all this gloom. i have my sights set on a much warmer place indeed, and soon, after less than a month’s worth of waiting now, for the first time in my life, I’ll be gone to live in the warmest place I’ll have ever been: Vietnam.

really a five-month-long visit more than any sort of immigration, I’ll be there from roughly the 1st of April ’til the 1st of September, visiting newfound friends and making more, seeing sights, experiencing the culture—and, perhaps above all, taking the opportunity to serve humanity in some of the small ways I’ve learned to serve. namely, I’ve been asked to help the Baha’is of Vietnam put together a website for their national community, a public face to help their country and the world to get to know them better. I’m looking forward to it—it’ll be an exciting project to be sure, one that’ll test my ability to manage projects and determine customer requirements, as well as my intercultural consultation skills. Baha’i consultation is the same wherever you go in the world, but communicating well across cultures is more than just your regular task, requiring a greater level of patience, sensitivity, wisdom and love. I only hope God will confirm my efforts.

i wonder about my readiness for this period of service, ever since i became burnt out after a two-year period of service in the province of Québec several years ago. Then, like now, I set out around Naw-Rúz, hoping that the budding springtime (still obscured by the usual remnants of a Canadian winter) would herald a spiritual springtime within me—a long-awaited rejuvenation that I hoped would take my frightened, self-absorbed consciousness and raise it to a level that God might deem acceptable. Seven years of lessons later, I feel as though much of the darkness that surrounded me has lifted—and a great deal of naiveté replaced with a deeper understanding of God and spiritual things—but still I feel fear, hesitation, trepidation. I wonder how my mood will fare, how my bruised—yet healing—psyche will hold up to the coming stress. I wonder how I will react to the challenge of service—with fear and doubt, or with courage and faith? I wonder how I will react to the people—will I choose to retreat into my shell and hide my heart from those I meet, or will I dare to open up my soul to them? will I be cold, like the ice that slowly coats the streets of Ottawa? or will the Vietnamese summer—and God’s love and blessing—warm my heart?

guess what? I’m going to Vietnam. No, I wasn’t drafted. I’ve hooked up with the Baha’i community over there and, if everything goes as planned, I’m going to be helping them create a website for their newly recognized community. I should be leaving in the spring (mid-March?) and coming back to Canada for Labour Day—basically spending the summer there. It’s not exactly a snowbird trip is it? Oh well. It’s not so much about having a vacation as it is about service (although it will be nice to skip out a little early from the Ottawa winter this year). There aren’t many details to share right now, because they’re presently under discussion; I’ll be posting more as I know more. Suffice to say, though, that this blog should start getting more and more interesting in the next few months as I prepare.

shame on me for not posting about this earlier! the Baha’i community of Vietnam, after many years of patience, elected its National Spiritual Assembly this year for the first time since the mid-1970s. the procedures for recognition were set in motion several years ago, coming to a head at Naw-Ruz of 2007, when the Vietnamese government issued a certificate to the Baha’i community authorizing their operations in the country. The final certificate, granting full recognition as a religious community, was presented to the community this July. From the Baha’i World News Service:

A certificate was presented to representatives of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Vietnam at a ceremony on 25 July.

It was the final act in a series of steps that included the election four months ago of the Baha’i Assembly – itself a landmark event in that it was the first time in many years that elections for the governing council were held. Government representatives were on hand to observe the balloting.

[...] The official government news agency reported the event and referred to comments by the chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is, Mr. Nguyen Thuc: “(He) said the Government’s recognition of the Baha’i religion ‘charts a new course of development for the entire Baha’i community’ and motivates followers to make more contributions to social and humanitarian activities and to drive to preserve traditional spiritual values.”

Accolades and congratulations have followed steadily from government, institutions and sister Baha’i communities throughout the world, with one of the latest expressions of praise coming from Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister, Truong Vinh Trong, who “expressed his appreciation of the Baha’i Faith’s philosophy and its active contributions to the community”.