Why?

Upon hearing my plan to spend 2 months in Hanoi, Vietnam this summer, the most common question I receive from people is "Why?"

^fortunately, the delivery is usually a little different than this.

On paper, the answer to this question has two simple parts: 

1. I'm going to Hanoi to work for a non-governmental organization (NGO) called SJ Vietnam. This NGO works to pair domestic institutions such as orphanages and hospitals with external organizations that place volunteers. For example, if an orphanage needs volunteers to teach English to children, SJ Vietnam facilitates the partnership between the orphanage and an international organization that has access to first-world volunteers. My work with SJ Vietnam will consist of writing proposals, helping the staff improve their English language skills, and helping out wherever they are most lacking in personnel.

2. I'm also going to Hanoi in order to research NGOs in non-democratic countries. In first world countries, NGOs are typically unaffiliated with the government. However, in Vietnam, NGOs are required to partner with an organization affiliated with the Vietnamese government. I aim to examine a wide range of NGOs and survey how this affiliation is both beneficial and detrimental to their causes. This research plan is how I received the funding from Notre Dame to fly to Vietnam and stay with a volunteer organization.

While this answers the basic question of why I am spending my summer in Vietnam, there really is so much more to it. Why Vietnam? Why NGOs? Why not go somewhere with air-conditioning and clean water, like Rome or London? 

The answer to these questions is a bit more complicated.

My Trip to Vietnam: The Full Explanation

In 1994, my birth brought the number of Adduci children to 8. Kind of a handful, right?

Baby Angela and her peasant admirers

At that point, most of my relatives believed that my parents were done having children. They would raise me, get all the kids out of the house, and then retire into oblivion.

...

Nope.

When I was 5, my parents adopted my sister Grace from Vietnam. She was born in the village where my Uncle John had died during the Vietnam War.

Next came Mary, also from Vietnam

Note that I am wearing the same Barbie pajamas as in the previous picture

Then Amy, also from Vietnam

Here, Amy has inherited the Barbie pajamas

2 more, Belle and Teresa, also from Vietnam

By this point I can only assume the Barbie pajamas had disintegrated from overuse

Finally (and my parents swear they're done), Georgie and Francie. These two are different in that they are from China, and both have physical handicaps.

For some reason we now also have a dog

For those of you keeping track at home, this brings the total to 15 children. 8 biological, 7 adopted. Technically, I am the middle child.

This is another situation that tends to beg the question "why?" When I explain my family, often total strangers take it as permission to ask questions that would normally be considered inappropriate. Questions like:

"Why didn't they stop?"

"Are they insane?"

"Do you hold a grudge against your parents/your sisters?"

These are all questions I have actually received from people who I did not know very well. I don't hold these questions against them: after all, it is an incredibly unique situation. Rather, I use it as an opportunity to convey the plight of the disadvantaged in less-developed countries. For orphans in Vietnam and many other countries, social and economic mobility is extremely difficult. Had my sisters not been adopted, they might have ended up street beggars, or worse.

So while my parents clearly could have stopped when they had the perfect child...

Yes, I wanted to be a nun at one point

Just kidding, I was a total troublemaker

...in the end the adoptions were not about my parents wanting more children. They were about giving a child a new chance at life. 

My family background explains why I will be traveling to Vietnam. It has also played a role in my interest in NGOs. 

My youngest 2 sisters, Francie and Georgie, are adopted from China. This is because in 2008 the United States stopped allowing the adoption of Vietnamese orphans by US citizens. This was a disservice to the orphanages in that it essentially narrowed the scope of families that could give Vietnamese orphans a home. This issue piqued my interested in international NGOs, and how they interact with varying governmental regimes. These ideas became the basis for my research.

Little Angela experiencing Vietnamese culture for the first time

This has been a pretty long blog post, but the length is necessary to detail the full reasons behind my trip to Vietnam. In 10 days, I will fly to Hanoi for a summer of discovery, research, work, and travel. I will hopefully be updating this blog regularly with my experiences.

Until then....