GLEN Internship 2016 Final report 1. “In sober colours”; 24.8.2016, Việt Lâm (Hà Giang Province) Name: Alžběta Srovnalová Home organization: INEX-SDA, Czech Republic Project number: 632 Internship title: Setting up a homestay for sustainable tourism Country and place: Việt Nam, Hà Giang Province Internship period: 3.7. - 25.9.2016 Hosting organizations: Inside North Vietnam, Jungleman Homestay, Bản Tùy Homestay, Du Gia Backpacker Hostel, Dong Van Homestay
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1. “In sober colours”; 24.8.2016, Việt Lâm (Hà Giang Province)udržitelný turismus v severovietnamské provincii Hà Giang. Tato provincie je horskou oblastí, která je z
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GLEN Internship 2016
Final report
1. “In sober colours”; 24.8.2016, Việt Lâm (Hà Giang Province)
Name: Alžběta Srovnalová
Home organization: INEX-SDA, Czech Republic
Project number: 632
Internship title: Setting up a homestay for sustainable tourism
Country and place: Việt Nam, Hà Giang Province
Internship period: 3.7. - 25.9.2016
Hosting organizations: Inside North Vietnam, Jungleman Homestay, Bản Tùy Homestay,
Du Gia Backpacker Hostel, Dong Van Homestay
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SUMMARY
The GLEN internship is a project based part of the Multipliers Training Cycle (MTC) that
allows young educated people to broaden their horizon while being sent to a country in the
so called Global South. Within this framework two GLEN interns took part in the project
“Setting up a homestay for sustainable tourism” in the Hà Giang Province in northern Việt
Nam. This province is a mountainous region with nearly 90% of its inhabitants belonging
to ethnic minority groups. Quite recently the tourism has started to flourish in this region.
This fact has already brought many local people on the idea of running their own homestay
as perceiving it as an alternative source of income. At first glance, the concept of a
homestay might seem as a way that could potentially go in the direction of sustainable
tourism. Nevertheless the author of this report questions this assumption referring to her
personal experiences from Việt Nam. She draws attention to the problematic aspects of
tourism in the context of current neocolonial structures. Hence, the focus of this report lies
on the critical reflection of experiences gained in the freshly opened homestays or that have
been established within the last years in diverse communities in the Hà Giang Province.
Among the tasks that were conducted by the interns belonged everyday’s activities of the
families running a homestay – like food preparation, farming, housework, promotion
activities for the homestay etc. While working together with the local people, the intern
gained an insight unto the diverse modes of living and thus a possibility to become
conscious about the complexity of hybrid forms of modernity. Rather than stories of success
the reader will be offered a sober view on voluntourism and author’s role in it.
SHRNUTÍ
Stáž GLEN je praktickou částí programu globálního vzdělávání, jež umožňuje mladým
Evropanům a Evropankám rozšířit si své obzory zkušenostmi získanými pobytem v zemi
globálního Jihu. V této souvislosti se dvě GLENní stážistky zúčastnily projektu zabývajícím
se vytvářením homestay (alternativního způsobu ubytování místmími) s ohledem na
udržitelný turismus v severovietnamské provincii Hà Giang. Tato provincie je horskou
oblastí, která je z téměř 90ti procenty obývaná lidmi z etnických menšin. V poslední době
zaznamenal tento region nebývalý rozvoj turismu.
Tato skutečnost přiměla řadu místních k otevření si vlastního homestay jakožto
alternativního zdroje příjmu. Na první pohled se jeví koncept “homestay” jako cesta, která
by mohla vést k sociálně a ekologicky udržitelnému turismu. Autorka to nicméně na základě
vlastní zkušenosti zpochybňuje a upozorňuje mj. na problematické stránky turismu v
kontextu novodobých neokoloniálních struktur.
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Tato závěrečná zpráva se tedy zejména snaží o kritickou reflexi zkušeností se zakládajícími
či během posledních let etablovanými homestay v různých komunitách provincie Hà Giang.
Stážistky se účastnily všednodenního provozu rodin provozujících homestay – vaření,
farmaření, domácím pracím, propagací etc. Během společné práce s místními lidmi byl
autorce umožněn vhled to různých životních podmínek a tím pádem možnost uvědomit si
komplexitu hybridních forem modernity. Spíše než příběh úspěchu je čtenáři či čtenářce v
následujícím textu nabídnutý střízlivý pohled na volunturismus a roli autorky v něm.
1. Background
While writing this report I tried to make it comprehensible even for people not knowing
me personally. Hence, at this point I would like to recount some basic aspects of my path
towards the GLEN Program. In this regard I will also briefly touch upon questions related to
the motives and motivations I had while joining the program.
I got to know the GLEN program in 2014, when I conducted my internship at the
organization Ekumenická Akademie Praha. One of the former participants, Barbora
Chmelová told me about it and highlighted the critical approach inherent to the GLEN
program. I have become interested in that and thought such learning cycle might be
complementary to my theoretical knowledge gained during the studies of International
Development at the Vienna University. In that study program the focus lies primarily on the
critical views on theories of and approaches to ‘development’ as well as on the machinery of
the development assistance. Accordingly, at one point during my studies I had to begin to
reflect on my own mindset and attitudes towards ‘development’, ‘aid’ or neo-colonial
structures as well as on my position within them.
Almost two years later I decided to hand in my GLEN application and welcomed the
opportunity of becoming one of the participants. Together with my tandem partner Britta
Muth, chosen by the German organization ASA I was assigned to the project called “Setting
up a model farm for sustainable agriculture”. The project was supposed to be conducted on
the Thien Thai Farm in the Đà Lạt area in the South Central Highlands of Việt Nam1.
I was truly keen to become engaged in a project dealing in a sensitive way with persisting
South-North asymmetries and expected I could partly deconstruct these structures. Hence, I
perceived GLEN program as an imaginary bridge between the academic milieu at the
University and my consecutive occupation. Besides, due to my strong interest in issues
1 One of the contradictions I have come across was that I considered Việt Nam as one of the Global South
countries whilst this country sees itself at reaching the industrialized countries by 2020. See: