In the early part of 2013, my wife, Thuy, and I decided to seize a unique point in our respective careers that would manifest itself in the fall: My wife was excited to finish her family medicine residency, and I was dissatisfied with my job and planning a change around the same time.
This meant that we would both be free to travel and make spontaneous adventures for ourselves; we have never had this kind of opportunity throughout our entire relationship.
What started out as a fanciful, "wouldn't it be cool if..." daydream together quickly turned into planning and action that was fueled by the notion that we'd have to wait for a long time until we'd have this chance again.
When talking about where we wanted to go, Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia were all options we considered. After talking about it more, Thuy remembered that she has always wanted to return to her home country to volunteer her medical knowledge, and I always wanted to become more fluent in Vietnamese, a language I spent three years studying in undergrad.
Thus, we picked Vietnam.
We then needed to figure out what we were going to do in Vietnam. When Thuy's mom learned of our plans, she reminded Thuy about One Body Village. Thuy attended an awareness and fundraising event for One Body Village a few years back, and had a positive impression of their work in rescuing and rehabilitating young girls from the sex trafficking industry.
We reached out to Father Martino to see if there was anything we could do to help while in Vietnam. After a few conference calls, we worked out an agreement: Thuy would be the doctor and medical consultant for OBV, and I would teach the young girls Krav Maga for self-defense.
We arrived on October 17, 2013. We're here for a minimum of six-months. Anytime afterwards will depend on my ability to find a job.
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