the saddest, proudest moment ever
Posted: November 29, 2006 Filed under: koto | Tags: koto, leaving 34 Comments »
I’m now no longer a KOTO employee.
Yesterday was the last day and with it came the goodbye speeches, the presents, the flowers, the food and the drinks.
And, of course, the tears.
I had known for a long time that leaving would be a huge wrench. I had known that I would be expected to make a speech. I also knew that every time I went through that speech in my head I welled up to a point where I just had to forget about it.
I have watched others trying to do it. It’s never pretty.
So the moment came. Our new CEO said some extraordinarily kind things about me and it was my turn to speak. Oanh, my colleague and great friend over the past 27 months was translating.
I started off okay. I told the 100 trainees and staff present how proud I had been of KOTO and how sad I was to leave. I told them that we are the first KOTO and later, when there are KOTOs across the world, we can be so proud of that.
Then Oanh broke.
She was suddenly in floods or tears and couldn’t go on. Miss Nga took over and I admitted quietly to her that I didn’t know if I could finish. Between us Nga and I sobbed a much shortened version of what I had wanted to say.
It must have been quite a sight for the trainees.
I spent the next hour hugging sobbing kids with my t-shirt slowly getting wetter. Miss Ly from class eight broke my heart.
I’m not a very group hug kind of bloke but I must have had my arms around seven or eight of them at a time.
It’s not easy for me to write this. Even now, as I type the tears are flowing again.
I don’t know why it makes me like this. I’m ready to go and have chosen to go. I guess it’s just an over flowing of emotions. So much is coming together. Twenty seven months of living with these amazing people and sharing so much. And me being so inspired and so humbled by them.
Eventually I tore myself away and started to move downstairs where staff were waiting to go out to dinner. My regular xe om driver crossed the street with his motorbike and one last time we set off.
There we were, a dozen or so staff on motorbikes, and all around trainees pedaling furiously on their pushbikes, trying to keep up. I waved them goodbye as we sped along Thuy Khue Street. That cinematic thing again. Just when did my life turn into a movie? So many priceless moments that I have been so lucky to enjoy.
Later at the restaurant my phone rang. Thu from Class Seven rang from the Softel Plaza. I have no idea how he got my number. He was working and hadn’t be able to say goodbye but he wanted to say good luck. Then Chien from Class Six called. Then Miss Lung, now working in the Guoman.
More speeches, flowers and a present that floored me. For over two years I have been flogging bricks to raise money for KOTO’s new home. Now KOTO has bought me one.
It will stay forever in the new restaurant. Just perfect.
The evening went on in happy fashion. Later, more zig zagging on motorbikes to a bar and a few drinks.
Today I woke up with nowhere to go. I had a strange long breakfast and did some Christmas shopping. Then I sneaked into KOTO to clear my desk. Two more presents from the trainees broke my heart all over again. The first from class ten and the second from Miss Lung with a note.
I am so proud of what we have achieved at KOTO. So proud just to be a part of it. So proud that the new KOTO is going happen.
And if you’ll forgive me the indulgence, I’m proud I stuck it out. Not just the two years but the extra time to see this through.
It is easily the single best thing I have ever done with my life.
My future has many more adventures ahead but I will see and experience nothing like this ever again. I am the luckiest guy in the world to do this.
Finally, like I said, I am no longer a KOTO employee. But, like 200 kids who have gone through the KOTO program before me, I will always be KOTO family.
That’s just one more thing to be proud of.
Thank you everybody at KOTO. Your future promises to be very bright.
the big finish
Posted: November 12, 2006 Filed under: koto | Tags: fundraising, koto, koto bike ride, leaving 3 Comments »
If this was Our Man in Hanoi – The Movie we’d just be gearing up for the big finish.
Brad Pitt, because who else would play me? Would be strung out and nicotine deficient as he buzzed around the city on a xe om, battling the forces of darkness in order to save KOTO.
Okay so there’s no forces of darkness, and I’m no Brad Pitt but you get the gist.
This is the plot to date: former office worker goes overseas, falls in love with new home, re-evaluates life yadda yadda yadda. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It keeps you on the edge of your seat.
And now. Well in just under two weeks we have the KOTO bike ride. At the same time we are battling to get a new restaurant open.
Add to that, just starting at KOTO, as of two weeks ago, are 30 kids. All are from the toughest of backgrounds. They’re still finding their feet but I think they’re going to be a great class Right now though we’re still at the settling them in phase. It’s a very big, labour intensive job for the teachers.
Oh and I finish at KOTO. For good. In 17 days.
So this is how it’s panning out. As I just said, I finish in 17 days. The bike ride is in 12 days. We’re planning to have the bike ride party in the new restaurant. Will it be ready? Hmmm. That’ll be tight. I extended my stay here to see the restaurant finally opened. Will I see it during my time at KOTO?
Good question.
Because Our Man in Hanoi – The Movie has a big twist. As Brad (ie me) and his colleagues rush around the city righting wrongs etc, there comes over the hill the spectre of….APEC.
Vietnam is very good or very bad at getting events like this organised, depending on your point of view. In short, what they do is they just close everywhere and cancel everything that isn’t directly APEC related. For the most part they seem absolutely petrified that foreign guests might realise that there is just a little bit of traffic chaos here most of the time (really, there is, just a little). So they close the roads. Genius.
And building trucks? You know the kind that, err, builders use. To take away rubble from new restaurants? They’re banned. Delivery trucks, the kind that might say, deliver milk to a restaurant that sells a lot milkshakes and coffee – they can’t get near. And buses, the kind that might bring tour groups – well they aren’t allowed to park on the road outside anymore. Oh and visas aren’t being processed. The visa of the tourists, who sit on buses to restaurants, which park outside restaurants which make coffees and milkshakes.
So it goes on. The twist in the tale of Our Man in Hanoi – The Movie.
But what of the bike ride? It’s going to be big. Huge. Massive. It HAS to be big. We need it to be big because as ever we need the money. New restaurants, now so incredibly close after 25 months work from all the staff here, don’t come cheap.
But if we get that big bike ride and if we finish that restaurant, then those 30 new Class Ten kids are going to be part of something really special. KOTO is on the threshold of the holy grail of NGOs – sustainability AKA a FUTURE. Thanks to a big restaurant that seats lots of people, who pay good money, to eat great food, to pay for the Class Tens, Elevens, Twelves etc etc..
And, if somehow we make something happen out of all the madness above, the movie will draw to a close as Brad (ie me) xe om’s off into the sunset. He’s waved off by hundreds of happy kids spilling out of every door and window of the magnificent new KOTO restaurant. Brad laughs as he turns down a cigarette from the driver and they head for the airport.
THE END
FILMING IS ABOUT TO START ON THE SEQUEL TO OUR MAN IN HANOI – THE MOVIE. TO BE BE CALLED OUR MAN IN ****** IT’LL BE FILMED ENTIRELY ON LOCATION IN *******.
Okay okay, enough messing around. Just sign up to the bike ride. Go on. Come on make it a blinder. I want the happy ending. Do it.
Oh and If you want the hard sell then take a look at the picture above. That’s about two thirds of the kids helped by KOTO since this project started up. Helped is an understatement. KOTO gave them careers. Careers that paid for little brothers and sisters to stay in school. For parents to rebuild homes. For them to find safe places to live. More than that, it paid for them to have a life that wasn’t just about struggle. Something that I remind myself of every time I see them whizzing about on their motorbikes that they paid for themselves through their own hard work.
Click the picture to see the big version. Then read what I just wrote again and apply that to everyone of the kids you can see. How many families is that helped? How many brothers and sisters will be able to finish school? How many of those kids literally wouldn’t be alive without KOTO?
Now go sign up for the bike ride.
