Sri Lanka Crumbles-Vietnam’s Door Swings Open

The year 2022 continues that gnawing feeling of uncertainty born in the pandemic nightmare of 2020 and 2021. My planned Sri Lanka six week trip with Plan My Gap Year (PMGY) for the purposes of volunteering to teach English crumbled under global pressures; particularly the escalating Russian-Ukrainian war. For months, I watched Sri Lanka devolve just short of anarchy due to acute gas, food, and medicine shortages. The government had nowhere to turn for assistance and the people were left with no recourse but to riot due to perceived social mismanagement. In late April of 2022, it became so tumultuous in the capital city of Colombo that those in power ordered the military to shoot on sight any persons observed vandalizing or rioting. During this time, I had been in constant contact via email with PMGY organizers. I expressed my concern about the situation, and they always provided a response within 24 hours. For the most part, they stated those teachers stationed in Ambalangoda, Sri Lanka were safe and still volunteering per their agreement with the local community. The issue I had was those teachers were not able to travel freely and thus were “stuck” in town. Eventually, a strict travel advisory was issued by the UK government which prompted PMGY administration to authorize those not already in Sri Lanka to switch their plans without penalty.

I met with PMGY contact Josh McEnaney via Zoom in early May 2022, and he provided me with several volunteering options throughout Southeast Asia which included Indonesia, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Interestingly enough, I had wanted to teach in Vietnam ever since my Thailand experience. I had noted while teaching in Thailand that the majority of teachers traveled to Vietnam during their allotted vacation time and most described Vietnam as “magical”. Within 48 hours of my Zoom call with Josh, I had made the switch to volunteer in Hanoi, Vietnam. The biggest difference from Sri Lanka to Vietnam was the travel visa was limited to 30 days in Vietnam due to the short notice. But PMGY again stepped up and offered a refund for the difference as well as any support I needed to make the transition. In addition, there were no added costs, and they covered my travel medical insurance for the duration of the Vietnam trip free of charge.

While writing this blog post, I finished the second leg of my journey to Hanoi, Vietnam which began in San Jose, CA to Seattle, WA and then a ten hour flight to Tokyo, Japan. I have one more flight from Tokyo to Hanoi that is scheduled to take six hours.