Her name was Nam Long. We talked a bit more and little by little she began to open her life to me. She said if she would ask off of work her boss would fire her and hire someone else. Laborers are easy to come by in Vietnam. Nam's parents, both in their seventies were old and unable to work. Typically the responsibility of the children, Nam's elder brother died two years prior from complications during brain surgery. Now it was her sole responsibility to see her parents were cared for. Working ninety-eight hours a week and earning the equivalent of twenty-six dollars per month, it was barely enough for food and shelter.
Her voice uplifted as she told me of the good possibility of getting a different job at a Russian based fish canning company. A secretary position would be opening up in about ten months. The owner of the company knew of Nam and her working skills. It was necessary for Nam to read and speak Russian for this new position. I was amazed when Nam, a Vietnamese girl having a conversation with me in English began speaking Russian. The intelligence and desire to learn was beyond me. She showed me an old musty Russian language book she had been studying from without any translation to Vietnamese or English.
Nam also had been using a walkman with a Russian speaking cassette to help understand how Russians speak. She inherited the walkman from her brother upon his death. She said she wasn't learning Russian as fast as she was a few weeks ago. She went on to tell me what happened. On her way to the police station to register the guests of the hotel (Vietnam law) she was in a motor bike accident. She was taken to the hospital and shortly released. When she went to pick up her motor bike, she found her walkman stolen from her bike. Nam still had the cassette but without a walkman or the ability to pay for a new one, (Although most things in Vietnam are inexpensive by American standards, electronic equipment still tends to be a bit pricy in comparison.) she knew her learning would be greatly hampered along with the possibility of not getting the new job.
I went to my room that evening digesting all she said. I thought to myself, how many things I have. Most I don't think twice about. At home I have several walkmen. I bought new ones because of a design change or a new feature. Now I don't use any of them because I have a CD walkman. How simple and easy life is for us in comparrison. This was a "no brainer."
I'd be leaving this beautiful seaside town in a couple days. The next morning I went to the central market where I purchased a walkman. That evening when things were a bit quieter at the hotel, I gave Nam the walkman. Surprised then completely silent for five minutes with tears rolling down her face she said that nobody ever did anything like this for her. She asked why I did this. I told her it was simple.----I went to my room after our conversation, thought a while then said to myself What Would Jesus Do (WWJD)? The answer was so clear to me. She responded slowly nodding her head up and down "GESU CHUA OI" which means Jesus My God. We talked more that evening about God's greatest commandments to love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and soul and to love thy neighbor as thyself. The time went by quickly. It was time for Nam to go home to her parents and time for me to get my backpack organized as I would be leaving in the morning. I thought that evening as I lay in bed how God allows people into our lives in so many ways. Some for a lifetime, others for a passing moment. How easy it is if we stop briefly to share God's love in something as simple as a smile or a walkman.