Other Side of the World

Coverage of the president's trip to Vietnam last night has me already nostalgic about my trip to Cambodia. There the newscaster was, standing in a Hanoi street while motorcycles and pedestrians buzzed around him.

I was just there, I thought, I was just on other side of the world — because Cambodia is right next door, of course, and I did glimpse Vietnam when we visited the border region.  

These trips I've taken recently to Cambodia, Malawi, Nepal and other countries are for information-gathering and storytelling. They are, above all, business trips. But I have a personal mission for them, too. I'm hoping they keep the wonder alive, that they help me appreciate every scintilla of difference I see when I'm abroad, that they remind me always that we live in a big old world.