Cover girl Zoonie is an explorer at heart

She left Vietnam in extremis, on April 30, 1975, only hours before the Communists took over Saigon by force. In Canada, then a foreign land, she studied hard, landed a professional job, traveled the world over, got married, gave birth. Yet her journey is far from over. It has merely begun.

Cover girl Zoonie Nguyen's life, and her very philosophy, is all about exploration. She dares apply, literally, Joseph Campbell's advice that one should follow one's bliss. And her bliss has always been to meet and bond with people, from different cultures and different countries.

This boundless curiosity has led her to visit and live in four continents. Indeed, she has been to Nepal, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Sweden, Norway, France, Portugal, Italy, Spain -- the list is probably incomplete. Africa remains the only continent unexplored by the globe-trotting, trilingual engineer. However, Zoonie is quick to point out, in a distinctly determined voice, that Kenya is next on her list of places to visit.

But perhaps the most adventurous journey has been her trip back to Vietnam, in 1995, when the country was only beginning to open up to tourists and investors.

"My parents were terrified. Last time we left Vietnam, there were bombs and guns everywhere."

Her family's exodus from war-torn Vietnam was nothing short of a miracle. Apparently, while Communist tanks and soldiers were busy overtaking the Presidential Palace in Saigon, that gave people the extra hours needed to escape on boats that were nearly sinking due to overcapacity.
Zoonie arrived to Canada in 1975 with her parents, and her five brothers and two sisters. Her parents had no money, yet they faced the enormous challenge of starting life over in a foreign land, with eight kids to feed and a grim, uncertain future. However, with courage, patience and an unusual dose of faith in providence, they managed to raise their kids, all of whom are now university educated and working as professionals.

Zoonie was the first, in her family, to dare go back to Vietnam at a time when political uncertainty could have translated into trouble for visiting tourists, especially if they look like Vietnamese folks who have fled the Communist regime in 1975.

She went back with husband Brian Jung, embarked on a fear-defying journey that would forever change her life.

"It was packed with adrenaline, all the emotions were coming out -- fear, excitement, joy," she says.

"You don't see life in the same way, afterwards. I've seen too many horrible things. I saw the poverty. The trip put things into perspective for me," says Zoonie.

"Before things were simple."

How simple? She graduated in 1989 from McGill University with a degree in electrical engineering. Then, she worked for eight years as a manager in charge of multimillion-dollar projects, such as the CBC Newsworld digital facility in the Toronto Broadcast Center.

She was successful, and success was good. But also empty.

"I was still not satisfied with my life. Something was missing."

After she saw the poverty in her home country, she felt even emptier when she got back to Montreal, so in 1997, she moved to Hong Kong with her husband, also an engineer, who was sent there by Ericsson.

One fateful day, she saw an ad in a monthly Hong Kong newspaper calling for volunteers to help Vietnamese refugees. She listened to her heart, and before long, she was working as a volunteer helping to organize parties and activities for the Vietnamese kids trapped in the refugee camps.

"That filled the emptiness in me, it brought a sense of closure," says Zoonie in a visibly emotional voice.

"Often, at the end of the day, I would say goodbye to the kids, not knowing whether I will see them tomorrow (since they would be expelled from Hong Kong back to Vietnam).
After that eleven-month experience, she felt ready to give life, to have a child of her own. And thus, Conor Jung was born in Hong Kong.

Some people summarize their life experience in the form of a book. Zoonie, original as always, has decided she will instead build a website, interactive and educational, that would capture her experience as a "banana" growing up in Canada (that is, white inside, but yellow outside).

The website would also help people, especially kids, to find information and resources about their Asian roots, whether they be Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, etc.

She also plans to organize informal and fun Asian cooking lessons with a friend and partner, Pauline Chan, an MBA graduate from the University of Ottawa.

Today, fluent in English, French, and Vietnamese, Zoonie is exploring various career possibilities. Many experienced professionals look for companies that offer a balanced personal and professional life, and Zoonie is no exception. She was recently offered a technical director position from a radio station, but turned it down. Now that her perspective about life has changed, as has many of her priorities, she is careful in choosing a path that satisfies not only her professional needs, but also her personal beliefs.

One new priority is actually running around the house, continually demanding her attention and affection: her three-year-old son, Conor. Like his Mom, Conor seems to devour life with the same appetite, fearless in his pursuit of fun.

"Motherhood makes me more ambitious than ever. I have to keep myself updated about what's going on in the world, to guide Conor as he grows up."

For the former project manager, raising her son to be a sensitive, fearless and people-loving human being, may turn out to be her greatest challenge.

Zoonie concludes in a playful voice: "This is a lifetime project! There is no deadline!"