Da Nang and back
Islander finds passion, purpose in Vietnam
by chris edmonds special to The Independent
It was the Nantucket winter that sent Kerry Flynn searching. A year ago, on the island that has been her home for nearly three decades, Flynn felt a restlessness stirring inside and a need to question the trajectory of her life to that point. Existential questions sprouted from the quiet of the island's off-season. Existential answers arrived half a world away.

The search for passion and purpose carried Flynn, who had recently turned 45, on a 10-week journey to Vietnam this past spring. In the span of just three weeks, Flynn applied for the Vietnam orphanage program of Global Volunteers Network [GVN], a New Zealand-based group that offers volunteer programs in 21 countries, was admitted and boarded a plan bound for Saigon.

It needed to be done quickly, she said, before she could over-think her decision.

"Sometimes I have to do things quickly so that I don't obsess," Flynn said. "I tricked myself, in a way."

The ruse worked. Flynn, who had never traveled to Asia, spent more than two months living and working among Vietnamese orphans and the disabled in the city of Da Nang. Situated in the country's center, Da Nang served as a base of operations for the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War.

The area, as Flynn found, still bears the scars of the fighting. The war's legacy lives on in the continued contamination wrought by Agent Orange, a highly toxic herbicide and defoliant used by the United States during the Vietnam War, exposure to which has been linked with various forms of cancer and genetic defects.

"Anyone who said anything before I left asked, 'Is this going to be hard for you?'" Flynn said. "I'm very sensitive and there's poverty, malnutrition and the effects of Agent Orange, which is in the ground all over the city and in the surrounding areas."

And yet from the destruction of war that blighted the country and its people, Flynn and her fellow GVN volunteers imparted the impoverished city and its needy denizens with far more positive offerings than the armies of the past.

"In the end, it's just about giving them love," Flynn said of the children she worked with. "Maybe it was because we were there, but there wasn't sorrow. There wasn't a pervasive angst. It's not until you're ready to leave that you recognize the love you have for these people and what you can do for them."

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KERRY FLYNN Kerry Flynn shares a light moment with her English class, top, and with three orphan babies, above. "Everybody needs something to hug," she obsereves.

Flynn and the others in her group - she lived in a house with 11 other volunteers, ranging in age from their early 20s to early 50s - spent much of their time visiting orphanages, some time teaching English and a considerable amount of time renovating a building in a "social support center" on the outskirts of Da Nang.

The building, which houses about 10 mentally challenged children, needed work on the inside and out. The volunteers worked together to put in new bathrooms and repaint the exterior. The money used to carry out the project came from what the volunteers had raised. The project was spearheaded by Flynn's roommate, a 53-year-old Northern Irish woman named Lynn.

"We went after hours. We went back early after lunch. We put in extra time," Flynn said. "It was a really big project and we wanted it finished before Lynn left. We wanted her to be proud to go home and show the purpose of the donations she'd collected."

The volunteers finished the center within the daily schedule that called for visits to an orphanage or center for the disabled in the morning and afternoon. Midday was spent sleeping, as is customary in Vietnam. The stifling heat makes it difficult to work, despite the enthusiasm of the volunteers to continue their projects.

"The heat was so brutal," Flynn said. "At 11 p.m., it's still 97 degrees. It's like having the flu. The body never recovers to a more comfortable temperature."

More agreeable temperatures could be found on weekends, which the volunteers had free to explore. Twenty dollars goes a long way in Vietnam's hotel industry: it can afford you air conditioning for a few days respite from the simmering heat, although Flynn didn't spend all of her free time indoors. She traveled to Hanoi and Saigon. She swam by night in the South China Sea. She celebrated the grand reopening of the social service center at a party with the locals and volunteers.

For the fun she had, Flynn didn't undertake her trip as a pleasure cruise through southeast Asia. She went with purpose and returned with a clearer vision of what's to come next. She continues to sponsor a baby boy, who requires special formula, as well as a five-year-old girl, Giang.

Flynn, who is single and does not have children of her own, is currently looking into adopting Giang, but the matter remains complicated and the outcome uncertain. Giang's three closest friends at the orphanage are preparing for U.S. adoption, but unlike her friends, Giang's parents are still alive. Her father is in jail and has given up his rights to his daughter. Her mother, a prostitute, has already surrendered her daughter to the orphanage but cannot be located, which adds further difficulties to the proceedings.

Challenges aside, the work goes on for the children Flynn met. She has taken small steps so far, but larger ones have begun to materialize.

"Now I'm putting tips aside for them," said Flynn, who works at Sophie T's and for another island business. "I find some money and say, 'Okay, that's for them,' but I know there's a better way to do this. I've got some homework to do."

The midlife crisis that loomed a year ago has given way to certainty; to purpose and passion. Flynn plans to spend five to six weeks in Da Nang between Thanksgiving and New Year's. She has also been investigating options and opportunities to fundraise for Da Nang's children.

Her efforts at present are sure to grow, but her latest endeavor - sending 50 to 60 stuffed animals to the orphanages - is a start.

"Everybody needs something to hug," Flynn said.

Flynn found her something in Vietnam, and the result has been to the mutual benefit of both this long-time islander and the needy children of Da Nang. Equipped now with purpose and passion, Flynn looks forward to the winter, anticipating not the crisis of a year ago but an off-season spent bustling with activity as she works towards new goals and greater good.

"Winter's long and dark and cold if you don't have something going on in your

life," Flynn said, "and now I do." I

For more information contact Flynn at eejitmail@yahoo.com. For information on Global Volunteers Network, visit http://www.volunteer.org.nz/.