Heading out

Behold, David and me with Dr. Khahn Phamhuu (our host, far left, and my host again for this upcoming trip) and the park rangers at Crocodile Lake in Cat Tien National Park, January 2013.   Here is the website for Cat Tien: www.namcattien.vn.  Don't panic if it comes up in Vietnamese- there is an English version if you click on the little British flag in the upper right corner.

I am headed out tomorrow morning, and I'm too overwhelmed with last minute prep to write anything insightful. The older I get the harder it is to get excited about long plane rides, so I'm focusing on how much fun it will be to arrive in Vietnam.  I'm also coming down from the adrenaline rush of having had two different computers crash on me this week. I lost a bunch of work related to the trip. However, I persevered and it will all be fine. Cue the dragons! Huzzah!

I'm still interested in whether you can leave a comment (still working on that) and to see if blogger auto-posts this to my Facebook. 

I hope to visit this spot again. That tree-house looking structure in the background is the ranger station overlooking Crocodile Lake. The company was outstanding and the bird watching was outrageous. And those park rangers are excellent cooks.  Seems like all the good photos must be in David's files, because I'm not finding many to share. I'll be taking more soon, though.

For in-flight reading I have a copy of Interpreting for Park Visitors, and She Weeps Each Time You're Born, a novel by Vietnamese-American writer Quan Berry. And tons of work notes.

The Fulbright Specialist Program would like me to remind you that this is not an official Fulbright program publication. The views and opinions expressed are mine. I just wanted to get that out there.

Good night everyone.

Montana Dragonfruit Blog is still there

But I won't be updating it because the Tumblr format is not as accepting of comments. I want to hear your comments. So if you would like to read about my PREVIOUS trip to Vietnam in January 2013, please go over to montanadragonfruit.tumblr.com.

Headed back to Cat Tien National Park!

I am very grateful for my current opportunity to return to Vietnam to collaborate with professionals at Cat Tien National Park in the central highlands. Thanks to the repeated encouragement from wildlife biologist Dr. Khanh Phamhuu, I applied for and received Fulbright funding to spend 3 weeks at Cat Tien.

We will be working on 3 specific areas: 1) nature interpretation styles and content, 2) in support of previous, strengthening conversational English skills of park staff by setting up a program by which English speaking park visitors volunteer to practice with staff, 3) mapping the large “heritage trees” in the jungle park. There are many species of these incredible trees in Cat Tien and I look forward to learning more about them and their natural history and how we can promote world-wide appreciation of their existence.

And there is a 4th goal: identify areas for future collaboration between the University of Montana and Cat Tien National Park. UM alread has a really strong relationship with Can Tho University (where I was hosted on my previous fellowship- thank you US State Department Professional Exchange Program!), and I think there is a lot of interest in expanding to new projects. I already have ideas.
I have enjoyed visiting with several Vietnamese professors at UM, most recently Dr. Quan Ha, professor of American Literature. He offered to make some contacts at the University of Da Lat (where he got his bachelor’s degree) but I don’t think I will have time logistically to get to Da Lat on this trip. However my husband and I visited Da Lat 2 years ago on vacation and it is a wonderful place. I hope for future connections with University of Da Lat.

I leave in less than one week. I’m busy preparing three lectures for the parks staff and the Forestry University in Bien Hoa. Topics: Grassland Conservation in Western Montana, Importance of Education in Conservation Efforts, GIS Applications in Missoula Invasive Plant Management. 

I am thrilled to be giving these lectures in fluent Vietnamese! Just kidding. I don’t speak Vietnamese. So I asked my friend Mr Tan Vo from Can Tho to be my interpreter and he agreed. Mr. Tan’s sister was my homestay host in Can Tho City 2 years ago and I am happy to see the whole Vo family again.