About
Hi, I'm Viyada Dietrich. I was born in Thailand and grew up in Hawaii. My early education and college years were in Hawaii. While in college, I worked part-time for the major Japanese travel agency in Hawaii as a tour guide. I had the opportunity to travel throughout the islands and on the mainland while in college. I didn't have the opportunity to travel overseas until I was much older because of work and caring for my daughter, but I did visit Seoul, South Korea while my husband was stationed in Korea in 1997-1999; Hong Kong; Germany; Austria; and Thailand. After my mother decided to relocate back to Thailand after fifty years of living in Hawaii, I spent more time traveling to Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. I left Thailand when I was 14 years old, and I spent the majority of my life learning and speaking English. It was a challenge to relearn the Lao and Thai languages again. Currently, I can speak and read Thai, but I can't write. I studied Japanese in high school and college because Hawaii's economy also depends on tourism, and the majority of our visitors were from Japan. It is beneficial for those who work in the hospitality industry to speak and understand Japanese. Besides, the majority of the population in Hawaii consists of Asians of Japanese descent.
Mission
My mission for the next fifteen years is to visit as many countries as I can, including the fifty states in the US, to learn more about geography, the people, and way of life. At the same time, I love to share my adventures and experiences with my family, friends, and those who are interested in learning, experiencing, and exploring different cultures and destinations that they have never experienced before.
Vision
In my early years living in Thailand, we didn't have much. My mother worked in a different town and I was living with my grandparents who raised me in a small village in Thailand. My grandparents were farmers. Similar to farmers in the US, they may be land rich but still struggle. As a child, I remember going to bed hungry, lacking clothes, shoes, and supplies for school. I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to live, attend school, and work in the US. Some may wonder how I came to America. My stepfather was an American soldier who was stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War. My mother met my stepdad while working she worked on an American base in Thailand. Getting back to my vision, growing up I always wanted to help people and society in some way. In college, I studied to be a nurse, but while visiting a hospital and seeing people suffering, I decided that was not for me. In my career, I worked for both the state and federal governments as my way of giving back to the country that has given me the opportunity to learn and grow. As a state worker, I worked for a welfare-to-work program that helped single mothers with education, training, and obtaining jobs. As for the federal government, I worked for the Social Security Administration. I took a pay cut and started from the bottom in order for me to relocate with my husband, who served in the military at the time. At this point in my life, I would like to do more traveling, and, if possible, I would like to help the less fortunate along the way. See my journey to Laos. I hope to start something up in Thailand to help children with their uniforms, shoes, books, and pencils during their school years. If I could help one child get what he/she needs in school and bring a smile to his/her face, it would be a success for me.
