School Days In Vietnam Stories From The Heart

School Days in Vietnam is the third book in a trilogy that encompass five years of teaching English in Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam. I only taught for a year in Hanoi and used the second year to travel and carry-on with other missions in my life that included writing much of this book and other stories about travel. I had wanted to live in Hanoi since first visiting in 2004, but the opportunity didnt present itself until eight years later through employment as an English teacher in an international school. In my mind I had high expectations and a goal of remaining in Hanoi for two years. Everything was more interesting and meaningful than I could have expected and at the end of two years I felt tied to my friendships and the amazing lifestyle that was simple yet lavish in humanity. I was totally enamored with Vietnam, the people, the natural beauty of its diverse geography, and the culture that separates it from all other nations. I made more friends than I had in any other country, and in North Vietnam I enjoyed a weather pattern that was near to the tropics but decidedly four seasons.

Travels Here and There possesses stories from the heart about places far and near. Included in this volume readers are entertained by Larry Welchs recollections of travel to Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Malawi, Michigan, Nepal, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zambia. The final chapter is a personal story that involved a short journey from home to a hospital in Thailand and what transpired. Embedded with the stories are descriptions of geography, history, urban planning, and details on what went into making people famous or infamous as the case might be. Larry likes heroes and that shows through in his descriptions of what made some people great. Strolling through castles, fortresses, markets, museums, palaces, parks, Roman ruins, or dining on street food and riding buses or trains, will leave readers hungry for more and even give them a better appreciation for their own travels. In Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain wrote, Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all ones lifetime. Amen, Mr. Twain!

In 2008 I was new to Thailand and new to the amazingly wonderful world of teaching English as a second language. It was bewildering, invigorating, and life changing. No days passed that I didnt marvel at the interaction with students and teachers. At the end of two years in Thai public education I was both exhausted and exhilarated with the experience. At that time my sense of personal history persuaded me to tell this story. I hope it is one that you will enjoy. Larry Welch ---------- What People Are Saying Larry writes with humor, honesty and incredible detail. His book is full of descriptions that in some cases whet your appetite to visit the places Larry is describing. Cheryl Keane, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia Sprinkled with humor and lightness along the way Larry touches the heart of readers with his enlightening experiences. Highly recommended! Marcia Bolog, Milan, Michigan, USA This is an important book for those interested in Thailand or secondary education in a foreign country. April Zhang, Professor, Daejeon University, Daejeon, South Korea

Earl “Dusty” Trimmer relates with both skill and personal experience events surrounding our most forgetable and misunderstood war in America’s history. He brings it all home with his down-to-earth style and considerable knowledge. In Unbreakable Hearts, Dusty dives into the Vietnamese history and culture and skillfully brings the reader into understanding our Vietnamese enemy’s amazing resolve. He brilliantly explains the evolution of our Vietnamese enemy over hundreds of years of invasions and wars. Always defending their country to remain free became an art. In Chapter 7, Dusty describes the Vietnamese women fighters as “Hellcats.” My own experience with the formidable Vietnamese Viet Cong women’s skills and expertise closely mirrors Dusty’s. Hooch girls could plant booby traps in a GI’s hooch with a skill and savvy they were forced to learn during decades of on-the-job training in continuous wars with unwelcomed invaders. My own Military Police experience after leaving the infantry revealed these incidents vividly. In later chapters, Dusty moves into our own veterans’ profound resolve and toughness. North Vietnam’s famed General Giap called us “an honorable enemy.” One could suggest from this writing that our enemy taught us well. We did things in the Vietnam War the average person would have to go to the movies to believe. After reading Trimmer’s descriptions, I must conclude that indeed this book could be one for the movie industry. Dusty Trimmer brings to life our days and nights living and fighting in these foreboding jungle warfare conditions. After reading this fine work and reflecting on my own experiences, I cut away a little more of the pain. Pride swells for having served with all of these wonderful veterans of the Vietnam War. Pain for our terrible losses. For myself, these experiences culminated in wisdom I would otherwise have failed to achieve. God bless Dusty for telling our story. Forward march, Brothers!

A modern classic with over 250,000 copies sold, Honey for a Child's Heart is a compelling, essential guide for parents who want to find the best books for their children ages 0-12. This updated and expanded edition includes a new preface, an updated list of recommended reads for each age group, and audiobook suggestions. A good book is a gateway into a wider world of wonder, beauty, delight, and adventure. But children don't stumble onto the best books by themselves. They need a parent's help. Author Gladys Hunt, along with her son, Mark, discusses everything from how to choose good books for your children to encouraging them to be avid readers. Illustrated with drawings from dozens of children's favorites, Honey for a Child's Heart Updated and Expanded includes completely updated book lists geared to your child's age and filled with nearly one thousand longtime favorites, classics, wonderful new books, and audiobooks that will enrich your child's life. It will also show you how to: Understand the importance of being a read-aloud family, enjoying books together by reading aloud Give your children a large view of the world, of truth, and of goodness Encourage each child's imagination and good use of language Find the best books for your children Thousands of parents have used this guide to furnish their children's inner spirit with the wonder and delight of good reading. Updated and expanded to keep pace with the ever-changing world of children's literature, it is sure to enrich the cultural and spiritual life of your home.

“Records the memories of a war in the words of those women courageous enough to walk into hell.”—San Francisco Chronicle A decade after America pulled out of Vietnam, the seeds of the often heart- wrenching oral history, A Piece of My Heart, were sown when writer and filmmaker Keith Walker met a woman who had been an emergency room nurse in Cu Chi and Da Nang. She and 25 others recount the time they spent "in country" as part of 15,000 American women who volunteered or served as nurses and in the military. NOTE: This edition does not include photographs. “The emotional current never falters.”—The New York Times Book Review

Moving to America turns H&à's life inside out. For all the 10 years of her life, H&à has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. H&à and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, H&à discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

Starting in 1964, writes Margot Adler in this dazzling memoir, “I found myself mysteriously at the center of extraordinary events.” Now a correspondent for National Public Radio, Adler was a young woman determined to be taken seriously and to be an agent of change—on her own terms, free from dogma and authoritarian constraints. From campus activism at the University of California at Berkeley to civil rights work in Mississippi, from antiwar protests to observing the socialist revolution in Cuba, she found those chances in the 1960s. Heretic’s Heart illuminates the events, ideas, passions, and ecstatic commitments of the decade like no other memoir. At the book’s center is the powerful—and unique—correspondence between Adler, then an antiwar activist at Berkeley, and a young American soldier fighting in Vietnam. The correspondence begins when Adler reads a letter the infantryman has written to a Berkeley newspaper. “I’ve heard rumors that there are people back in the world who don’t believe this war should be. I’m not positive of this though, ’cause it seems to me that if enough of them told the right people in the right way, then something might be done about it. . . . You see, while you’re discussing it amongst each other, being beat, getting in bed with dark-haired artists . . . some people here are dying for lighting a cigarette at night.” Heretic’s Heart also explores Adler’s attempt to come to terms with her singular legacy as the only grandchild of Alfred Adler, collaborator of Freud and founder of Individual Psychology, and as the daughter of a forceful beauty who bequeaths her spunk and adventurousness to her daughter, but whose overpowering personality forces Adler to strike out on her own. Adler’s memoir marks an initiatory journey from spirit through politics and revolution back to spirit again. Revealing, funny, joyful, and often wise, Heretic’s Heart will restore the spirit of the 1960s: the passion, the confusion, the sense of social transformation and limitless possibility, and the ecstatic feeling that the world is on the cusp of change.