Mai Sen

Several years ago - from 2015 to 2017, I believe - a team from our School of Hotel and Tourism Management had served at a training restaurant in Ho Chi Min City.  We had since lost contact with them, partly because of other commitments, and partly because of the pandemic.  I did try to connect with them recently, but could not re-establish contact.  

On Saturday morning last week, when our advance team was in Saigon (Ho Chi Min City), we decided to just go to their location to have a look.  Perhaps we would be lucky, but we really didn’t have high expectations. 

When we were getting close, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the site looked exactly the way I remember it, even though it was 7 years ago when I was here the last time.  

It got even better.  When I asked the first person I saw, whom I did not recognise, to see the person in charge, he brought exactly the right person, J.  J was not there when I was there with the first team.  But she did receive the team the following year, and remember them.  

As we talked, it became clear that both sides are happy to get re-acquainted and work on a project together.  It feel so good to have someone remember you (your team) many years later.  The team(s) must have done good work, such that they would want us to come back.  People often ask how we would know whether our work is making a good contribution to the community.  This is part of the answer: when the people you serve want you to come back, you are probably doing something right.  Not the full answer, of course.  But this is part of it.  

There is still so much to work out, there is no guarantee that we can actually send a team here anytime soon.  But it will probably happen.  I have a good feeling about it.  This is part of the joy of service-learning done right - meeting good people, building relationships and keeping them.