Where do we go when we fall out of hope?

by Tu Ngo (Vietnam)

I didn't expect to find USA

"Been waiting for America and justice to happen, took me 21 summers but I can finally say: at last!" was the caption of twenty-one-year-old Vietnamese Victoria when she was finally done with the case of a troublesome student and a devious adult. It all started with a message from a dear friend of hers at the beginning of March saying a job advert looked perfect for Victoria. And though having self-doubts, she went for it anyway because, for that little girl, traveling has always been her top priority. She landed a job that read "Course Leader" to The States. Months before the trip happened, she never stopped daydreaming what and how The USA would be. She was that overly and culturally obsessed person who had scrolled down millions of photos, read that many articles and watched more than 10,000 hours of American-based videos, but she tried hard to stay away from creating any expectations or illusions. Which did not mean she did not have high hopes for the job and her career prospects. Poor little Victoria since little did she know how dramatic the trip would be or how devastated she would be feeling in retrospect. Long story short, a student aged twelve in the other group from the north of Vietnam bullied a kid in her group whose origin was in the south. To make the story worse, the northern course leader was well-acknowledged about that bully but decided to join the crowd with her students. Thinking back, every tiring bone in Victoria's body experiences the sensation of disgust. Not that " Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile" like Ted but how in the world can a teacher be that jubilantly joyful upon giving a helping hand in bullying an eleven-year-old boy surrounded by ten other boys in a closed space. Everything did not make sense to her, she had seen on the news reporting teachers took violent actions to punish misbehaved kid in the north of her country, however, in no time she threw any wish in the well to involve in one. Victoria's students had the thing filmed and reported the incident to her. She was stunned, she froze, she went dead, she burst into tears, she wanted justice to be served. Victoria wanted to confront the other course leader to listen to her side of the story but that one did not want to have that conversation. Victoria went on to collect evidence to file a report with the help of a witness, a Taiwanese course leader who was on patrol that night and noticed strange vibes from that room where the crime took place. Joining Skype meetings with three American managers and two from Vietnam, that northern course leader tried to talk her way out of the charges but there were loopholes, using lies to cover up lies has never been a smart move. "The worst is yet to come" never fails to prove its rightness, the bully who had parents working in the Vietnamese government threatened to burn down the whole school and said American means nothing to him, he was the real king. That "real king" and that course leader were escorted to the airport to the earliest flight back to Vietnam after showing no regrets for their actions. Victoria came from an educated but poor family, she had no chance of winning over those born with a silver spoon in their mouth but she was done with being unable to voice the matter in her country and were she in Vietnam, her report would have been trash. "Everything happens for a reason." is what she uses to calm her mind. After all, growing is painful and all Victoria wanted at the time was to gain more life experiences, was to become a capable person. With the wisdom of hindsight, she should not have quit the job for good as that job promised the world. Victoria is feeling like she was left behind and she is trying to pick herself up, piece by piece. All that I know is that I am rooting for Victoria because I know Victoria, I am she, she is me, I am that Victoria.