The last day of 2010, and sadly the last day of our workcamp program. Immediately after waking up, everyone started to pack their gear up and start the cleaning of the room.
Once we got all the hard packing out of the way, it was time for breakfast. With Vietnamese baguettes on the menu as always, and the leftovers from the international day dinner we all filled up pretty good.
Right after breakfast we did a round table post mortem of the workcamp where pretty much everyone, myself included got pretty emotional as we all had nothing but great things to say about the experience. Working with these kids has been truly amazing. Seeing the happiness on their faces everyday, and knowing that many of them won't see their families for months at a time really helped me to put in perspective the things in life that are truly important. Many of these kids have severe disabilities, that they will likely spend the majority of their childhood at this centre, never knowing their real families.
I made a point of spending time for the rest of the day we had at the centre with the kids that I worked with the most. After our post mortem we filled out an evaluation form of the camp and then received a certificate of completion for our work as international volunteers.
The one girl who affected me the most was the one who was always wearing the orange shirt, who has a mental capacity of a child even though she's in her mid-20's due to agent orange exposure by her mother.
After our evaluation was over, I went over to the embroidery centre as I wanted to buy some of the handmade artwork that the kids make for presents and souvenirs. Many of the other volunteers bought some artwork as well, and I was able to buy a few pieces and get some photo's with the artists themselves!! Almost all of the kids (mostly teenage girls) doing the embroidery are deaf and mute, so hand gestures and handwriting were the forms of communication over the past 2 weeks. The instructors of the embroidery classes came out and thanked us for buying the art, and let us know that the kids were all very happy we bought and liked their work.
Many of the kids wanted last day photo's with us. One of the girls had a crush on Boseung and was actually crying because he was leaving. I too was pretty emotional spending time with the kids for the last time.
For lunch, the staff wanted to eat with us so that they could thank us for our work at the orphanage. The director made a speech, which at the end we all had to cheers and drink our not so favourite Vietnamese 'wine'. Agreeing that the volunteers should say something back to the director, I was chosen to thank the staff for having us, and that on behalf of all the volunteers we all had an amazing experience. Unfortunately at the end of my speech we had to do another shot of 'wine'. Throughout the rest of lunch, we ended up doing 4 or 5 more shots and at the end we realized that the director was being sly the whole time. He would come to our end of the table, fill our shot glasses up completely full (even though they're only supposed to be half full) and then when we drank, he would only take a small sip and spill out the rest when we weren't looking!!!
Although lunch included chicken, I steered clear as it included the whole chicken (head as well!!) One of the teachers opted for the head, oh boy the sound of the crunching... Philippe said afterwards he was cleaning his teeth with a toothpick and food was flying everywhere...
After lunch, Kien took me over to the medical nurse to drop off my suitcase full of clothes I wanted to give to the orphanage. I don't know why the nurse takes care of this, but anyways she does...
We were supposed to have taxi's pick us up at 14h00 to take us to the bus stop, however they were about 45 minutes late which allowed for an extended goodbye with all of the kids. When the time came and the taxi's finally showed up, what was the most heartfelt moment of the whole day was when a group of about 30 of the kids followed us all to the gate and waved goodbye to us all. I couldn't help film this moment and I was the last to get in the taxi. I was truly touched by this gesture and it is something that I will never forget.
As quickly as the whole experience started, it was over. The taxi driver pulled away with Viet-techno music blaring, not really the type of soundtrack for an emotional departure, but once again this is Vietnam, you shouldn't be surprised by anything.
We all piled into the bus, already more than half full, this time most of our luggage had to go in the compartments underneath. My backpacks got to stay with me as they were full already by the time it would have been my turn to put my luggage in the compartment.
Yeonsoo, Ville, Kien and myself were to be the first ones off the bus as we were going to the airport, and the others into town to spend the night in Ha Noi. Getting off the bus we said our final goodbyes, and then it was just 4.
Kien helped Yeonsoo, Ville and myself get a taxi to the airport, and with a quick hug and thanks we parted ways. Yeonsoo's flight wasn't until 23h00, Ville's at 20h00, and mine at 20h25, but she decided to wait at the airport rather than lug around her suitcases in Ha Noi for a couple of hours.
Once Ville and I had checked in, we said our farewell and Happy New Year wishes to Yeonsoo, and Ville and I were through security. Noi Bai Airport, is just like what all the guidebooks and online articles say about it. Small, antiquated, confusing, and like a bus depot moreso than an airport of a capital city of a country with 83 million people!!
Just through security, I wanted to look at the souvenir and duty free stores and quickly lost Ville. About 30 minutes before his flight departed we met up again and said our final farewell of the trip. As Ville boarded his flight to Hong Kong, I waited for my flight to Bangkok and finally I was alone.
Getting into Bangkok it was a rush, only a 2 hour layover, we had to take the bus to the terminal, clear transfer security, go all the way to terminal C all taking close to an hour. I barely had time to shave, shower, change into winter clothes and make my way to the gate for boarding.
On my way to London, I will pass through 7 timezones, and 7 different 'New Years'. I passed New Years in Bangkok by saying Sawasdee (Thai for hello) to a flight attendant. That's no exaggeration, I was looking at my watch and exactly at midnight, that's what I was doing... About another 29 more hours and I'll be back in Vancouver.
Some facts about this trip:
Total flight distances traveled:
#1 YVR - FRA 8060KM
#2 FRA - BKK 8960KM
#3 BKK - SGN 0740KM
-------------------
TOTAL FLOWN 17760KM
#4 SGN - HAN 1140KM
-------------------
TOTAL FLOWN 18900KM
#5 HAN - BKK 0967KM
#6 BKK - LHR 9540KM
#7 LHR - YVR 7580KM
-------------------
TOTAL FLOWN 36987KM
Circumference at the Equator - 40075.16km
92.3% of the Circumference
My 7 hour stopover in London was spent alternating between the Air Canada/SAS and Singapore Airlines lounges. To be honest, neither lounge was very impressive when compared to even North American lounges, but Asian lounges (save Ha Noi's) are by far superior in most every way.
I was able to take advantage of the wifi at the lounges to speak with my good friends back home just past new years 2011 in Vancouver. I was pleased to learn as well that my good friends Marko and Liz gave birth to a little girl, Isabella the day before my own birthday, and as well that another couple, also good friends of mine are expecting right now!
I have spent the last 2 days reliving the same day on 3 different continents. I feel in a lot of ways like the character Bill Murray played in Groundhog Day. At the end of this day, I will have spent sizable amounts of time on 3 continents all on January 1st, 2011.
While passing time on the London to Vancouver flight, I finally watched the biopic film "The Social Network". While finding it extremely hard to 'like' the principle character of the film, Mark Zuckerberg's portrayal reveals a lot about modern society and its social order. There are so many conflicting and contrasting ideas flowing through my mind as I go over in my own head the last 3 weeks.
Working with the kids at the orphanage reminded me of how some of the basic things in life can be taken so easily for granted. The fact that I grew up in an environment that allowed me to be who I am today, is something that much of the population of the world will never have.
How many times do you go around arguing with your family, wishing they weren't the way they were? When was the last time you left the hot water in the shower running, even when you weren't in the shower? When was the last time you threw away clothes because you didn't like them anymore or threw away food just because?
We are all guilty of these things, myself included, I'm not trying to advocate that we should all drastically change everything about what we do, but I do believe we need to regain our focus on what is really important in our lives.
A lot of our modern world has been shaped by convenience and consumerism. Sadly, because of this fact, the importance of the family structure has faded, and so has the importance placed on our surroundings.
I was really impressed to see Kien's family living all together like they do. This was something I first experienced when I was 12 while I was living with a family in Paraiso, Costa Rica. My sister and I lived with Roberto Solano and his family on a street which all of the other residents were in Roberto's extended family.
I was, and am still amazed at this concept. I grew up in a family structure where both my parents came from large families: my mother, the oldest of 8, my father, the youngest of 6. I have 13 cousins on my mothers side, and at least 10 cousins that I can think of on my fathers side, however there are many I have never met, or met but don't even remember their names or ages. I wouldn't even recognize them if they walked past me on the street.
The children I worked with, weren't given an option or a choice to be in their situation. We, on the otherhand do have options and choices. We should live our lives, in a more gracious manner, one of appreciation for what we have, remembering that there are others without, and life is never certain. It can easily be you any day that falls on hard times. If you foresake your family or live an ungrateful life, think of who will be there to support you in your time of need.
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22.1.11
*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 11* 30.12.2010
Today I woke up just after 07h00, since it was still Dec. 29th in Vancouver, I decided to check my emails for birthday wishes, and luckily I did, I had several frantic emails from my family as well as from Foreign Affairs Canada telling me that my passport was handed in to the Canadian Embassy in Ha Noi. Apparently the tour operator in Ha Long Bay gave me the passport of a woman from Calgary and my passport to her 4 days ago!! Neither of us realized the mixup until the 29th. If I hadn't checked my email so early in the morning I would have been in a pretty bad spot as the Embassy closes early on the 31st for New Years. After getting a hold of the Consular section at the Embassy as soon as they opened, I arranged with Kien to go to Ha Noi and pick up my passport. We had to leave right away and ended up going with the Belgian couple who were finished with their time at the orphanage. and were heading to Ha Noi anyways.
Just as we were getting out of the taxi to get on the bus to Ha Noi, Catherine realized she left her diary with all of her interviews from the last 4 months (including an interview she did with me the day before) back at the room in the orphanage. They wanted to go back and find it, but I told them that we would look for it and one of the other volunteers who would be staying in Ha Noi could meet with them or leave it at the counter of their hotel. They agreed to this and we all set off on the bus to Ha Noi. As we all left in a hurry without eating breakfast (today was actually international food day, and I was supposed to cook everyone pancakes and maple syrup), Kien decided to buy us all some Vietnamese sandwiches from a stand just by the bus departure point. The bus started rolling away before Kien had a chance to get back on and Thibault, Catherine and I all started shouting at the fare collector to get the driver to stop because Kien wasn't on yet. He seemed to know what was going on and reassured us it was fine, the bus kept rolling and still no Kien. Finally as the bus was picking up speed he finally jumped through the front door, and we were off.
As we were eating our sandwiches, the ticket collector made Thibault and Catherine move their backpacks as they were large and would prevent other future passengers from having a place to sit. Kien, wanting their backpacks close by, moved them himself, and in the process he fumbled his sandwich and it fell on the ground. Feeling bad for him after all the trouble he went through to get them for us, and for the fact that he was coming along to help me get my passport back, I offered him my sandwich. He refused, but when I re-insisted with half my sandwich, he graciously accepted.
About 2 hours later, we were dropped off at a bus station in Ha Noi about a 10 minute walk from the Canadian Embassy. We walked with Thibault and Catherine for a few hundred metres until our paths diverged and bade them farewell as well as exchanging our numbers to ensure that I could let them know when we found Catherine's diary.
Reaching the Embassy, Kien had to wait for me outside, while I went in and talked to the consular officer and got my passport back. Once I had it in hand, I met back up with Kien and we set off to have lunch at his family's place. He told me he know this particular area of Ha Noi very well as he used to live in this area 2 years ago. Just a couple hundred metres from the Canadian Embassy was the museum and mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. Unfortunately the mausoleum was closed for the day already (they only allow visitors in the mornings), but we were able to get a couple of good photo's of the complex.
We set off to his family's place, about a 2km walk from the embassy. Down an alley was his aunt and her husband hard at work cooking up some bbq pork on an open flame pit. We had arrived, and Kien started introducing me to his aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. We were served some sticky glass noodles, bbq pork and fried nem's for lunch. Kien cut up some chili's for both of us, and we also flavoured our dishes with fresh Vietnamese pepper, supposedly one of the best countries in the world for pepper. Lunch came to 30,000 Dong each ($3.00 for both of us), I decided to pick up lunch as again Kien was already going out of his way to help me. After lunch, we went down the alley to where his grandfather lives. We had some Green Tea with his grandfather and Kien showed me several family pictures that were mounted on the wall. His parents, when he was five, his deceased grandmother, etc. I really appreciated all of this, and it was a great experience being invited in to his family's house like this.
We started walking back to the bus station to get back to the orphanage when our bus started coming towards us! Lucky for us, so we were able to jump on right away and off we were.
Once off the bus, Kien proposed to me two options: take a regular taxi back to the orphanage, or take a moto-taxi (scooter). I immediately lighted up my eyes at the chance to go on a moto-taxi, and only being 30,000 Dong each ($3.00 for both), it was much cheaper anyways. The ride back was amazing. I sat behind the driver, and Kien behind me. Immediately, I took out my camera to videotape the ride. The highlight was driving through the farmland, seeing all the rice paddies flooded, filled with farm workers tending to their crops, water buffalo everywhere and gentle rolling hills off to the left of us.
We made it back to the orphanage around 15h00, a good 6 hours after we left. All the other volunteers were playing with the kids and were happy to see both of us return. After all the pleasantries, I asked if anyone had seen Catherine's diary. Jin said they had looked everywhere and hadn't found it. Kien and i decided to do a second search to be sure and we couldn't find it either. I went to text Catherine and let her know we didn't find it, but for some reason the text wouldn't go through. I tried calling her and after a minute my line died as I had run out of airtime. We decided to send them an email with Kien's laptop in the office of the orphanage and with that out of the way it was time to take a nap!!
Apparently international day had gone on pretty well. Philippe ended up making the pancakes, and everyone really enjoyed the maple syrup. Lunch was Vietnamese nem's (spring rolls) and some other food I can't remember. Dinner ended up being a huge feast (sadly it was also out last dinner together as a group). We had Korean bulgogi, another Korean beef dish, Japanese curry, and Italian pasta and red wine. Dessert was Korean rice cakes with Boseung tried to sabotage by spiking 4 of them with ginger, although nobody actually ate one that had ginger in it! we had so much food leftover that a lot ended up being saved for tomorrow's breakfast.
To cap off the night, everyone surprise Philippe with a birthday 'cake' of Choco Pie's!!!
Just as we were getting out of the taxi to get on the bus to Ha Noi, Catherine realized she left her diary with all of her interviews from the last 4 months (including an interview she did with me the day before) back at the room in the orphanage. They wanted to go back and find it, but I told them that we would look for it and one of the other volunteers who would be staying in Ha Noi could meet with them or leave it at the counter of their hotel. They agreed to this and we all set off on the bus to Ha Noi. As we all left in a hurry without eating breakfast (today was actually international food day, and I was supposed to cook everyone pancakes and maple syrup), Kien decided to buy us all some Vietnamese sandwiches from a stand just by the bus departure point. The bus started rolling away before Kien had a chance to get back on and Thibault, Catherine and I all started shouting at the fare collector to get the driver to stop because Kien wasn't on yet. He seemed to know what was going on and reassured us it was fine, the bus kept rolling and still no Kien. Finally as the bus was picking up speed he finally jumped through the front door, and we were off.
As we were eating our sandwiches, the ticket collector made Thibault and Catherine move their backpacks as they were large and would prevent other future passengers from having a place to sit. Kien, wanting their backpacks close by, moved them himself, and in the process he fumbled his sandwich and it fell on the ground. Feeling bad for him after all the trouble he went through to get them for us, and for the fact that he was coming along to help me get my passport back, I offered him my sandwich. He refused, but when I re-insisted with half my sandwich, he graciously accepted.
About 2 hours later, we were dropped off at a bus station in Ha Noi about a 10 minute walk from the Canadian Embassy. We walked with Thibault and Catherine for a few hundred metres until our paths diverged and bade them farewell as well as exchanging our numbers to ensure that I could let them know when we found Catherine's diary.
Reaching the Embassy, Kien had to wait for me outside, while I went in and talked to the consular officer and got my passport back. Once I had it in hand, I met back up with Kien and we set off to have lunch at his family's place. He told me he know this particular area of Ha Noi very well as he used to live in this area 2 years ago. Just a couple hundred metres from the Canadian Embassy was the museum and mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. Unfortunately the mausoleum was closed for the day already (they only allow visitors in the mornings), but we were able to get a couple of good photo's of the complex.
We set off to his family's place, about a 2km walk from the embassy. Down an alley was his aunt and her husband hard at work cooking up some bbq pork on an open flame pit. We had arrived, and Kien started introducing me to his aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. We were served some sticky glass noodles, bbq pork and fried nem's for lunch. Kien cut up some chili's for both of us, and we also flavoured our dishes with fresh Vietnamese pepper, supposedly one of the best countries in the world for pepper. Lunch came to 30,000 Dong each ($3.00 for both of us), I decided to pick up lunch as again Kien was already going out of his way to help me. After lunch, we went down the alley to where his grandfather lives. We had some Green Tea with his grandfather and Kien showed me several family pictures that were mounted on the wall. His parents, when he was five, his deceased grandmother, etc. I really appreciated all of this, and it was a great experience being invited in to his family's house like this.
We started walking back to the bus station to get back to the orphanage when our bus started coming towards us! Lucky for us, so we were able to jump on right away and off we were.
Once off the bus, Kien proposed to me two options: take a regular taxi back to the orphanage, or take a moto-taxi (scooter). I immediately lighted up my eyes at the chance to go on a moto-taxi, and only being 30,000 Dong each ($3.00 for both), it was much cheaper anyways. The ride back was amazing. I sat behind the driver, and Kien behind me. Immediately, I took out my camera to videotape the ride. The highlight was driving through the farmland, seeing all the rice paddies flooded, filled with farm workers tending to their crops, water buffalo everywhere and gentle rolling hills off to the left of us.
We made it back to the orphanage around 15h00, a good 6 hours after we left. All the other volunteers were playing with the kids and were happy to see both of us return. After all the pleasantries, I asked if anyone had seen Catherine's diary. Jin said they had looked everywhere and hadn't found it. Kien and i decided to do a second search to be sure and we couldn't find it either. I went to text Catherine and let her know we didn't find it, but for some reason the text wouldn't go through. I tried calling her and after a minute my line died as I had run out of airtime. We decided to send them an email with Kien's laptop in the office of the orphanage and with that out of the way it was time to take a nap!!
Apparently international day had gone on pretty well. Philippe ended up making the pancakes, and everyone really enjoyed the maple syrup. Lunch was Vietnamese nem's (spring rolls) and some other food I can't remember. Dinner ended up being a huge feast (sadly it was also out last dinner together as a group). We had Korean bulgogi, another Korean beef dish, Japanese curry, and Italian pasta and red wine. Dessert was Korean rice cakes with Boseung tried to sabotage by spiking 4 of them with ginger, although nobody actually ate one that had ginger in it! we had so much food leftover that a lot ended up being saved for tomorrow's breakfast.
To cap off the night, everyone surprise Philippe with a birthday 'cake' of Choco Pie's!!!
19.1.11
*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 10* 29.12.2010
Today I woke up to a round of Happy Birthdays from all of the volunteers. It was a great way to wake up for sure!! At breakfast we had Vietnamese baguettes, peanut butter and nescafe coffee. All of the volunteers pitched in to get me a handmade scented oil diffuser that the Korean girls bought at a traditional Vietnamese market a couple of days ago.
After breakfast, we headed back to the garden for more weeding work. We had some good discussions about the future of the Korean peninsula and the Italian mafia... Quite uneventful until Enrico, Yasuto and Philippe brushed their arms up against the plants that have a stinging reaction (quite likely Stinging Nettles).
Lunch again for me was vegetarian, still can't get the dog butchering out of my head from yesterday. We spent the afternoon session sitting in on a class with the kids. The teacher was trying to read over some phrases in a kids storybook with the kids and have them repeat the phrases. It was quite uncomfortable as the kids had extremely short attention spans and the teacher spent quite a long time with each student repeating over and over again the same phrases.
We played another game of soccer before dinner, again all the guy volunteers and a few of the kids. For dinner today, there was quite a Korean flavour, as was lunch too actually (lunch today included Gochujong sauce). We had kimchi (spicy this time!) and again for me just rice and tofu...
After dinner, the volunteers brought out a birthday cake (Boseung carrying it!!) made of Choco Pie's for me!!!
*Just as a side note, Choco Pies are the Korean equivalent of Wagon Wheels (a chocolate treat filled with marshmallow filling inside) that is apparently popular in Vietnam as well. I got very used to Choco Pies back in 2003/2004 when I was an ESL teacher in Korea as we used to give them out to the kindergarten students at break time.
At 20h00, we all made our way to the bar in a village about a 5 minute walk from the orphanage. We got a round of beers and at my request Kien ordered a 2 litre bottle of Vietnamese 'wine' AKA Rice Wine...
After doing an obligatory solo shot of the rice wine, we all did a shot, then started up with a couple of drinking games. Lilly, a German girl volunteering on an individual program for one year also came by with a Vietnamese friend to join in on the party. The owner of the bar invited Thibault, Kien, Ville, Enrico and I to smoke some tobacco out of a traditional Vietnamese tobacco pipe.
The night ended at 22h00. As tomorrow is international food day I will be the first to cook, making a breakfast of pancakes with Canadian Maple Syrup and Smoked Salmon pate. Tomorrow is also Philippe's 25th birthday, so another day of celebration is sure to happen!!!
After breakfast, we headed back to the garden for more weeding work. We had some good discussions about the future of the Korean peninsula and the Italian mafia... Quite uneventful until Enrico, Yasuto and Philippe brushed their arms up against the plants that have a stinging reaction (quite likely Stinging Nettles).
Lunch again for me was vegetarian, still can't get the dog butchering out of my head from yesterday. We spent the afternoon session sitting in on a class with the kids. The teacher was trying to read over some phrases in a kids storybook with the kids and have them repeat the phrases. It was quite uncomfortable as the kids had extremely short attention spans and the teacher spent quite a long time with each student repeating over and over again the same phrases.
We played another game of soccer before dinner, again all the guy volunteers and a few of the kids. For dinner today, there was quite a Korean flavour, as was lunch too actually (lunch today included Gochujong sauce). We had kimchi (spicy this time!) and again for me just rice and tofu...
After dinner, the volunteers brought out a birthday cake (Boseung carrying it!!) made of Choco Pie's for me!!!
*Just as a side note, Choco Pies are the Korean equivalent of Wagon Wheels (a chocolate treat filled with marshmallow filling inside) that is apparently popular in Vietnam as well. I got very used to Choco Pies back in 2003/2004 when I was an ESL teacher in Korea as we used to give them out to the kindergarten students at break time.
At 20h00, we all made our way to the bar in a village about a 5 minute walk from the orphanage. We got a round of beers and at my request Kien ordered a 2 litre bottle of Vietnamese 'wine' AKA Rice Wine...
After doing an obligatory solo shot of the rice wine, we all did a shot, then started up with a couple of drinking games. Lilly, a German girl volunteering on an individual program for one year also came by with a Vietnamese friend to join in on the party. The owner of the bar invited Thibault, Kien, Ville, Enrico and I to smoke some tobacco out of a traditional Vietnamese tobacco pipe.
The night ended at 22h00. As tomorrow is international food day I will be the first to cook, making a breakfast of pancakes with Canadian Maple Syrup and Smoked Salmon pate. Tomorrow is also Philippe's 25th birthday, so another day of celebration is sure to happen!!!
16.1.11
*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 09* 28.12.2010
We woke up and met two new volunteers who were already alseep when we got back from Ha Noi last night. Catherine and Thibault from Belgium. They are four months into a year long independent trip through Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and Asia. They've been reporting on different volunteer programs all over. They will stay with us until Thursday.
After breakfast, we headed back to the garden to work on weeding between the herbs and plants. Quite monotonous and boring work. Once the gardening was done, I realized I lost my water bottle, so I needed to go to the corner store and buy a new one during our 30 minute break before lunch. While at the store, I notice five men de-hairing a dead dog. I asked to the store owner if she thought it would be OK to take a photo, she said yes, so I went over and the men were more than happy to let me photograph them. They even showed me the wound on his neck where it was hit by a scooter. I went back to the orphanage to tell the others, and returned to Boseung. By the time we got back the men had moved the dog to the other side of the road to burn it. After taking a few more pictures, we went back and gathered the rest of the guys to recount the story. We decided to go back and when we returned, the men had now moved to a house across the street and were in the process of chopping the dog up. First they started with decapitating it, then cutting all the feet off. Then the body was opened and the organs separated out. Quite gruesome, I'll stop with the details, and let the photos detail the rest...
Needless to say for lunch and dinner, I didn't have the stomach for any meat!!!
The afternoon session with the kids included artwork and some playtime. Having to watch the kids as a couple of them were fighting over a ball, one continued to try and eat crayons!!! Definitely a handful...
After our session we had free time and decided to have a game of soccer with some of the older kids. It ended up being a great game, good exercise, and fun to watch all our different cultures playing the same game.
Tonight is my last night of my 20's, tomorrow I'll be 30!!!!!! :)
After breakfast, we headed back to the garden to work on weeding between the herbs and plants. Quite monotonous and boring work. Once the gardening was done, I realized I lost my water bottle, so I needed to go to the corner store and buy a new one during our 30 minute break before lunch. While at the store, I notice five men de-hairing a dead dog. I asked to the store owner if she thought it would be OK to take a photo, she said yes, so I went over and the men were more than happy to let me photograph them. They even showed me the wound on his neck where it was hit by a scooter. I went back to the orphanage to tell the others, and returned to Boseung. By the time we got back the men had moved the dog to the other side of the road to burn it. After taking a few more pictures, we went back and gathered the rest of the guys to recount the story. We decided to go back and when we returned, the men had now moved to a house across the street and were in the process of chopping the dog up. First they started with decapitating it, then cutting all the feet off. Then the body was opened and the organs separated out. Quite gruesome, I'll stop with the details, and let the photos detail the rest...
Needless to say for lunch and dinner, I didn't have the stomach for any meat!!!
The afternoon session with the kids included artwork and some playtime. Having to watch the kids as a couple of them were fighting over a ball, one continued to try and eat crayons!!! Definitely a handful...
After our session we had free time and decided to have a game of soccer with some of the older kids. It ended up being a great game, good exercise, and fun to watch all our different cultures playing the same game.
Tonight is my last night of my 20's, tomorrow I'll be 30!!!!!! :)
*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 08* 27.12.2010
I set my alarm for a 06h00 wake-up to be able to catch the sunrise over Ha Long Bay. Philippe and I made it to the top deck around 06h15, we woke up Faiz as well. Complete silence and tranquility. Not another boat anywhere near us, the sun already risen but the crescent moon still visible in the sky. We take in the surroundings until breakfast which was served at 08h00. A small fishing boat passes by dropping its nets then speeds off, a Vietnamese woman also rows through a nearby channel then disappears leaving our boat completely alone.
After our breakfast, we settle our bar tabs, check out of our rooms and make way back to the harbour. Almost half of the passengers switch to another boat as they've taken a 2 night package. When we make it back to the harbour we drop anchor and wait about 30 minutes for the small ferry to take us back to land. We split into different groups according to where our hotels are, and have lunch in Ha Long City before the 3.5 hour drive back to Ha Noi.
We saw 2 accidents on the highway back, one between 2 scooters head-on. It looked quite serious as there was a pretty big pool of blood on the ground. By the time we drove past though, the drivers were likely already taken to the hospital. Thit Cho (Dog) restaurants seem to be present in every village we pass through. Other common scenes included bonfires in farming fields, people walking down the side of the freeway, cars driving in reverse on the freeway, a horse on the side of the freeway, a scooter driver making a U-turn in the middle of a bridge. I've come to the belief that nothing surprises the Vietnamese people. This is truly a land of anything goes.
Upon making our way into the city, we have 4.5 hours to kill before meeting up with the others so we took to the streets to check out the markets and a place to eat. The markets again disappointed however we all agreed to find some street food to be able to get an authentic taste of Vietnam. We stroll by a Pho vendor who's doing brisk business, they have about 40 seats, and we decide to get some Pho Bo (Beef Pho). At 20,000 Dong ($1.00) we get a hearty bowl complete with a Chinese doughnut to dip in the broth. This was perhaps my best bowl of Pho so far in Vietnam. Afterwards with still an hour and a half to kill, we find an Aussie bar/travel agency called the Kangaroo Cafe. Run by an Aussie since 1994, they run a restaurant but also organize tours. We grab a beer and I also got a homemade yogurt with honey, both costing 50,000 Dong ($2.50).
We make our way to the main post office to meet with all the others, in total we're 9 to fit in a 7 seater SUV. 4 across in both rows of seats, I'm up against the window with no legroom, a hard metal object I have to balance my right butt cheek on and shotty suspension for the 90 minute ride back to the orphanage. At 100,000 Dong ($5.00) each though, you can't complain too much!!!
The big disappointment of the night unfortunately was right at the end. Getting back to our room, Jin is the first to realize that she has money missing from her bag. Ville has his mp3 player taken too and Philippe had some medicine taken. Luckily nothing of mine was taken. Its halfway through this that Kien realizes that although the door was locked, it wasn't locked properly and there was a pretty easy way to get in. I'm glad in any event that I took all my valuables with me over the weekend!
After our breakfast, we settle our bar tabs, check out of our rooms and make way back to the harbour. Almost half of the passengers switch to another boat as they've taken a 2 night package. When we make it back to the harbour we drop anchor and wait about 30 minutes for the small ferry to take us back to land. We split into different groups according to where our hotels are, and have lunch in Ha Long City before the 3.5 hour drive back to Ha Noi.
We saw 2 accidents on the highway back, one between 2 scooters head-on. It looked quite serious as there was a pretty big pool of blood on the ground. By the time we drove past though, the drivers were likely already taken to the hospital. Thit Cho (Dog) restaurants seem to be present in every village we pass through. Other common scenes included bonfires in farming fields, people walking down the side of the freeway, cars driving in reverse on the freeway, a horse on the side of the freeway, a scooter driver making a U-turn in the middle of a bridge. I've come to the belief that nothing surprises the Vietnamese people. This is truly a land of anything goes.
Upon making our way into the city, we have 4.5 hours to kill before meeting up with the others so we took to the streets to check out the markets and a place to eat. The markets again disappointed however we all agreed to find some street food to be able to get an authentic taste of Vietnam. We stroll by a Pho vendor who's doing brisk business, they have about 40 seats, and we decide to get some Pho Bo (Beef Pho). At 20,000 Dong ($1.00) we get a hearty bowl complete with a Chinese doughnut to dip in the broth. This was perhaps my best bowl of Pho so far in Vietnam. Afterwards with still an hour and a half to kill, we find an Aussie bar/travel agency called the Kangaroo Cafe. Run by an Aussie since 1994, they run a restaurant but also organize tours. We grab a beer and I also got a homemade yogurt with honey, both costing 50,000 Dong ($2.50).
We make our way to the main post office to meet with all the others, in total we're 9 to fit in a 7 seater SUV. 4 across in both rows of seats, I'm up against the window with no legroom, a hard metal object I have to balance my right butt cheek on and shotty suspension for the 90 minute ride back to the orphanage. At 100,000 Dong ($5.00) each though, you can't complain too much!!!
The big disappointment of the night unfortunately was right at the end. Getting back to our room, Jin is the first to realize that she has money missing from her bag. Ville has his mp3 player taken too and Philippe had some medicine taken. Luckily nothing of mine was taken. Its halfway through this that Kien realizes that although the door was locked, it wasn't locked properly and there was a pretty easy way to get in. I'm glad in any event that I took all my valuables with me over the weekend!
10.1.11
*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 07* 26.12.2010
6h00 - I woke up early today, I had a hard time sleeping last night. Mostly I think out of anticipation for going to Ha Long Bay. I got ready and left Philippe and Ville sleeping while I went upstairs for breakfast. A simple breakfast of toast, jam, pineapple and coffee before heading downstairs to check my email and update my blog. Around 7h30 I went back to the room and Philippe and Ville were getting ready for breakfast. Once we were all settled and paid for our stay, we waited for the bus to pick us up to go to Ha Long Bay. The bus was around 30 minutes late, and we were the last three to board. In total twenty of us went on the same bus and cruise. The drive took about 3.5 hours with a 20 minute rest stop halfway there. Once at Ha Long Bay there were dozens of buses and hundreds of tourists milling about waiting to board their boats for a tour of the Bay - designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the harbour, perhaps 100 or so boats waiting to take on tourists. We had to board a small craft which ferried us about 5 minutes to our boat, the Ha Long Dragon Cruise. The Harbour itself is nothing impressive, quite congested with boats and overpowering diesel fumes, but once out in the open waters the surrounding area quickly began to impress on a scale I've never seen. Island after Island rising from the sea, seemingly all interconnected. Likely this is the case if you were to look underwater... In total, there are about 1700 islands in this Bay.
The staff serve us lunch, a feast of various local seafood and vegetables, rice, chicken, and watermelon. We then go to our cabins to drop off our luggage and tour quickly the upper deck of the boat. I quickly realize that this is where I'll spend most of the night as it has several sun chairs and an open top, perfect for star gazing come nightfall. The itinerary for the rest of the day is to check out an island that has a massive cave, sea kayaking, dinner, then squid fishing and free time for the rest of the night. The island we land on ends up having perhaps the largest cavern system above ground I've ever seen. There are four chambers in total, each one progressively getting larger until the last one perhaps 300 metres deep and 100 metres wide. The stalactite formations are quite impressive. Its quite dry inside and warm too, quite unusual for a cave...
The sea kayaking was just after the tour of the cave. I team up with Ville, and Philippe teams up with an Aussie we've met on the boat, Faiz, who's traveling solo. Ville takes the pilot seat in the rear of the kayak and we decide to row to an island with an arched cove, however once we reached the shore, we quickly realize that the ground is too rocky and full of broken glass that its no good for walking around on in bare feet. We get back in our kayak and do a tour around the far side of the island before heading back. Once back on our ship we pull up the anchor and head away to our resting spot for the night.
The crew serves us dinner, chicken, pork & veggies, calamari, fish, prawns, rice and pineapple. Shortly after dinner, we have a go at squid fishing. By now its about 19h00 and its already been dark for about an hour. Not being too interested in catching squid, I give it up to head upstairs to check out the stars. So far out to sea with no city lights and a crystal clear sky make for unbelievable starwatching!!! Shortly afterwards, there are cries and shouts from the mid deck and one of the other tourists, Antoine, from Calgary has hooked a squid!!! Apparently the trick to catching it was that one of the Vietnamese crew put a red plastic bag over the light which was shining in the water and that attracted the squid to the surface. After taking a few great closeup shots of the squid, I try my luck again and strike up a great conversation with Antoine about life in Vancouver vs Calgary, hockey, life, politics, traveling around SE Asia... After a while, he goes back to his girlfriend, and I rejoin Philippe and Ville upstairs to get a few more glimpses at the cosmos. We were easily able to see Cassiopeia, Orion, The Big Dipper, and Jupiter and Uranus (so close to each other, they actually looked like one bright star).
At 22h00, we all call it a night and get ready for an early start tomorrow as sunrise should be at about 6h00.
Sidenotes: On board the cruise with us are 4 French (2 couples), Faiz (Australian), Antoine and his girlfriend (Canadian), a Swedish couple, 4 Asians and a German and Vietnamese couple.
The staff serve us lunch, a feast of various local seafood and vegetables, rice, chicken, and watermelon. We then go to our cabins to drop off our luggage and tour quickly the upper deck of the boat. I quickly realize that this is where I'll spend most of the night as it has several sun chairs and an open top, perfect for star gazing come nightfall. The itinerary for the rest of the day is to check out an island that has a massive cave, sea kayaking, dinner, then squid fishing and free time for the rest of the night. The island we land on ends up having perhaps the largest cavern system above ground I've ever seen. There are four chambers in total, each one progressively getting larger until the last one perhaps 300 metres deep and 100 metres wide. The stalactite formations are quite impressive. Its quite dry inside and warm too, quite unusual for a cave...
The sea kayaking was just after the tour of the cave. I team up with Ville, and Philippe teams up with an Aussie we've met on the boat, Faiz, who's traveling solo. Ville takes the pilot seat in the rear of the kayak and we decide to row to an island with an arched cove, however once we reached the shore, we quickly realize that the ground is too rocky and full of broken glass that its no good for walking around on in bare feet. We get back in our kayak and do a tour around the far side of the island before heading back. Once back on our ship we pull up the anchor and head away to our resting spot for the night.
The crew serves us dinner, chicken, pork & veggies, calamari, fish, prawns, rice and pineapple. Shortly after dinner, we have a go at squid fishing. By now its about 19h00 and its already been dark for about an hour. Not being too interested in catching squid, I give it up to head upstairs to check out the stars. So far out to sea with no city lights and a crystal clear sky make for unbelievable starwatching!!! Shortly afterwards, there are cries and shouts from the mid deck and one of the other tourists, Antoine, from Calgary has hooked a squid!!! Apparently the trick to catching it was that one of the Vietnamese crew put a red plastic bag over the light which was shining in the water and that attracted the squid to the surface. After taking a few great closeup shots of the squid, I try my luck again and strike up a great conversation with Antoine about life in Vancouver vs Calgary, hockey, life, politics, traveling around SE Asia... After a while, he goes back to his girlfriend, and I rejoin Philippe and Ville upstairs to get a few more glimpses at the cosmos. We were easily able to see Cassiopeia, Orion, The Big Dipper, and Jupiter and Uranus (so close to each other, they actually looked like one bright star).
At 22h00, we all call it a night and get ready for an early start tomorrow as sunrise should be at about 6h00.
Sidenotes: On board the cruise with us are 4 French (2 couples), Faiz (Australian), Antoine and his girlfriend (Canadian), a Swedish couple, 4 Asians and a German and Vietnamese couple.
9.1.11
*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 04* 23.12.2010
I think we are getting used to the hard beds, sleep was pretty decent last night. We wake up, and for breakfast Kien has cooked some "spaghetti" for breakfast. Vietnamese spaghetti is: Instant noodles, and tomato sauce with some pork. We still also have the regular Vietnamese baguettes and jam/peanut butter too.
After breakfast, we go to the garden and work in another area clearing weeds and moving bricks. Not very glamorous work but this cleared area will be more land for the orphanage to grow some medicinal plants and herbs.
We break at 11h30, and go to have lunch. After lunch, I take a walk around the orphanage with some butterscotch candies to give out to the kids. The boy who likes playing with string finds me and we play on the seesaw and the carousel for a while before he tries to teach me the string game. After horribly botching it up, I leave him with the other volunteers.
After our lunch break, we go to work with the kids in the classrooms again. I work again with the autistic kids helping them draw and making some lego buildings. I get carried away making a doubledecker bridge for the kids out of lego. It's wide and high enough that a lego truck can drive down it. After a good 20 minutes, its complete!! Even the teacher likes it and asks that I put it on the bookcase after. One of the kids starts playing with the truck on the bridges and success!! He loves it, but alas all my hard work goes away as his destructive side kicks in and he starts ramming the truck into the beams. Fearing total destruction, I commandeer the truck from him and do some spot repairs. Once it's all fixed, I divert his attention with some other lego so I can safely put my bridge away. There are some deaf girls in the other class who are camera happy, they want us to take photos of them so they can see what they look like in them! I notice on the courtyard, the mother from yesterday is there with her son who could not move any muscles from the physical therapy room. She is happy to see me, but today he is actually walking (With help from his mother and a walker)!! I also see the lady with the baby who she was bouncing on the pilates ball. I take some photos with them, and shortly after we are done for the day.
With some more free time before dinner we play with the kids again. I meet the Agent Orange girl by the badminton courts again and watch with her the staff play for a while. I see many of the deaf kids by the soccer fields again and they want me to take photos of them again. One of the girls asks me my name by writing the question on her hand, just by drawing the letters with her fingers. She has a book with all the volunteers names, ages, and countries!!
After dinner, I go to take a shower, my most dreaded activity here. The water is freezing and I try hard not to step off my sandals to not touch the floor. The "bathroom" is horrid and I would not want to think what the floor is like... ughhhh
Tonight's group activity is singing. We are given some sheets of English and Vietnamese Christmas songs to practice. As the resident native English speaker, I am asked to 'verify' the correctness of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Jingle Bells". It's really like a camp atmosphere here: no technology, just the bare basics and no real luxuries. Funny how life continues to go on without all of these "essentials"...
After breakfast, we go to the garden and work in another area clearing weeds and moving bricks. Not very glamorous work but this cleared area will be more land for the orphanage to grow some medicinal plants and herbs.
We break at 11h30, and go to have lunch. After lunch, I take a walk around the orphanage with some butterscotch candies to give out to the kids. The boy who likes playing with string finds me and we play on the seesaw and the carousel for a while before he tries to teach me the string game. After horribly botching it up, I leave him with the other volunteers.
After our lunch break, we go to work with the kids in the classrooms again. I work again with the autistic kids helping them draw and making some lego buildings. I get carried away making a doubledecker bridge for the kids out of lego. It's wide and high enough that a lego truck can drive down it. After a good 20 minutes, its complete!! Even the teacher likes it and asks that I put it on the bookcase after. One of the kids starts playing with the truck on the bridges and success!! He loves it, but alas all my hard work goes away as his destructive side kicks in and he starts ramming the truck into the beams. Fearing total destruction, I commandeer the truck from him and do some spot repairs. Once it's all fixed, I divert his attention with some other lego so I can safely put my bridge away. There are some deaf girls in the other class who are camera happy, they want us to take photos of them so they can see what they look like in them! I notice on the courtyard, the mother from yesterday is there with her son who could not move any muscles from the physical therapy room. She is happy to see me, but today he is actually walking (With help from his mother and a walker)!! I also see the lady with the baby who she was bouncing on the pilates ball. I take some photos with them, and shortly after we are done for the day.
With some more free time before dinner we play with the kids again. I meet the Agent Orange girl by the badminton courts again and watch with her the staff play for a while. I see many of the deaf kids by the soccer fields again and they want me to take photos of them again. One of the girls asks me my name by writing the question on her hand, just by drawing the letters with her fingers. She has a book with all the volunteers names, ages, and countries!!
After dinner, I go to take a shower, my most dreaded activity here. The water is freezing and I try hard not to step off my sandals to not touch the floor. The "bathroom" is horrid and I would not want to think what the floor is like... ughhhh
Tonight's group activity is singing. We are given some sheets of English and Vietnamese Christmas songs to practice. As the resident native English speaker, I am asked to 'verify' the correctness of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Jingle Bells". It's really like a camp atmosphere here: no technology, just the bare basics and no real luxuries. Funny how life continues to go on without all of these "essentials"...
6.1.11
*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 03* 22.12.2010
7h30 - Time to wake up, once again a cold shower to start the day. For breakfast, it's Vietnamese baguettes and Milo today. I decide to give the Milo a shot instead of the Nescafe today to change things up a bit. After breakfast, we are off to work clearing weeds to make way for planting rice. On our way to the garden, we walk through the same wall where we had to move the safe through yesterday. Since yesterday afternoon though, for some reason unknown to all of us, the staff decided that the space to walk through was just a little bit too big, so they decided to make it HALF the size!!! The area that they want us to clear has HUGE weeds, 5 feet high in some places. It's crazy, buried in the ground is at least 3 feet deep of garbage. Plastic bags, food wrappers, batteries are all here. We can't see how this soil can be used to plant food. We ask what they will do to the garbage and weeds before planting the rice. Our Vietnamese coordinators explain to us that the staff who attend to the garden will wait a few days for the weeds to dry out and then burn it all!!! Only in Vietnam... It starts to rain, so we stop early and have an early break before lunch. Philippe, Jin and I go to the internet cafe to check our emails then head back to the orphanage for lunch. Today it includes, nems (Vietnamese spring rolls), tofu, bean sprouts, and of course rice.
After lunch we go to work with the kids in the physical rehabilitation room to help the ones with muscle problems exercise. I work for a while with many on an elliptical type machine to get them moving their legs. There are small kids on some floor mats with older ladies moving their arms, one child maybe no more than one and a half years old is on top of a pilates ball. The lady is bouncing his torso repeatedly on the ball. I watch this as I keep company a boy about 5 who has his legs pinned down with heavy bean bags, and his back is propped up against a cylindrical bag to help him straighten his back out. Philippe comes in from another room where he tells me that he was working with a little boy who's feet were gray in colour. A clear sign of atrophy (no blood circulation), I wonder in my mind if some of these children will ever walk...
We have our break at 16h00 and have a two hour break before dinner is served. During the break, it is my turn to help out with the children eat their meals who cannot feed themselves. I am shown to a boy who looks very sickly. He is sitting in a wheelchair and has flies all over his face. He can't talk, is barely able to move and his legs barely fill his pants. His dinner is some short noodles, with some pieces of chicken. Every spoonful he clenches at the spoon, his teeth jagged and completely deformed. He lets me know that he is ready for his next spoonful by opening his mouth like a baby bird. He doesn't chew, simply swallowing each spoonful whole. He can't use his tongue to get the noodles that didn't make it in his mouth, so every few spoonfuls, I use the spoon to scrape the extras back in his mouth. Sometimes he coughs, and with each cough it sounds like he's choking. Of course he's not, but it takes some time to get used to this all the same. It's saddening to see this, its almost as if he's not even aware or conscious. He shows no emotions nor does he respond to anything. I try to smile at him but I get nothing back. I brush away the flies several times from his face, only for them to land again somewhere else. When he is finished, I start to help another older lady in a wheelchair, apparently though I'm too slow with her and one of the staff members takes over for me. As my job is done for the day, I'm left free to wander around elsewhere.
I walk towards the badminton courts and sit down with the girl who was affected by Agent Orange. Dr. Lee, a Director at the orphanage comes up to me while he waits for his turn on the badminton court. He tells me he has been at the orphanage for ten years, but lives in Ha Noi. Every Friday, he goes back for the weekend.
Later on, Philippe, Jin, and I head to the corner store across the street. Jin wants to go as she's craving a Coke. Seeing the chance to try the cream sandwich, I go along. Hungry and with a bit of a sweet tooth, I indulge and get a Coke, cream sandwich, some Cheetos, and some coconut butter cookies. All this cost me 23,000 Dong, about $1.15. We come back and play soccer and do some crab walk races with a few of the kids.
Dinner at 18h00, again we have rice, tofu, potatoes, eggs and oranges. Over dinner, we discuss the plan for the "International Day" event next week. All of the volunteers will cook something throughout the day from their home country to share with the rest of the volunteers. As I brought pancake mix and maple syrup from back home, I choose to make breakfast for everyone. We all agree that International Day will be next Thursday (Dec. 30), the second to last day of our workcamp.
Back at the room before bedtime, we spend a couple of hours playing a few different games. We start off playing a Korean game where the group sits in a circle, and going around the circle counterclockwise, you have to show a number using your fingers on just one hand (1 to 5 only) but say a different number. The person on your right has to say the number you have shown with your hand, but show a different number with their hand to the person to their right, and so on until someone screws up. When you screw up, you have to go in the middle of the circle and everyone gets their chance to give you a few slaps on the back!!
We also play the game where you get to write the name of a famous person on a piece of paper and place it on the persons forehead who sits to your right. We go around the circle taking turns asking yes or no questions about the person, trying to figure out who our 'character' is.
With the conclusion of the 'character' game, we all head off to bed around 22h00.
After lunch we go to work with the kids in the physical rehabilitation room to help the ones with muscle problems exercise. I work for a while with many on an elliptical type machine to get them moving their legs. There are small kids on some floor mats with older ladies moving their arms, one child maybe no more than one and a half years old is on top of a pilates ball. The lady is bouncing his torso repeatedly on the ball. I watch this as I keep company a boy about 5 who has his legs pinned down with heavy bean bags, and his back is propped up against a cylindrical bag to help him straighten his back out. Philippe comes in from another room where he tells me that he was working with a little boy who's feet were gray in colour. A clear sign of atrophy (no blood circulation), I wonder in my mind if some of these children will ever walk...
We have our break at 16h00 and have a two hour break before dinner is served. During the break, it is my turn to help out with the children eat their meals who cannot feed themselves. I am shown to a boy who looks very sickly. He is sitting in a wheelchair and has flies all over his face. He can't talk, is barely able to move and his legs barely fill his pants. His dinner is some short noodles, with some pieces of chicken. Every spoonful he clenches at the spoon, his teeth jagged and completely deformed. He lets me know that he is ready for his next spoonful by opening his mouth like a baby bird. He doesn't chew, simply swallowing each spoonful whole. He can't use his tongue to get the noodles that didn't make it in his mouth, so every few spoonfuls, I use the spoon to scrape the extras back in his mouth. Sometimes he coughs, and with each cough it sounds like he's choking. Of course he's not, but it takes some time to get used to this all the same. It's saddening to see this, its almost as if he's not even aware or conscious. He shows no emotions nor does he respond to anything. I try to smile at him but I get nothing back. I brush away the flies several times from his face, only for them to land again somewhere else. When he is finished, I start to help another older lady in a wheelchair, apparently though I'm too slow with her and one of the staff members takes over for me. As my job is done for the day, I'm left free to wander around elsewhere.
I walk towards the badminton courts and sit down with the girl who was affected by Agent Orange. Dr. Lee, a Director at the orphanage comes up to me while he waits for his turn on the badminton court. He tells me he has been at the orphanage for ten years, but lives in Ha Noi. Every Friday, he goes back for the weekend.
Later on, Philippe, Jin, and I head to the corner store across the street. Jin wants to go as she's craving a Coke. Seeing the chance to try the cream sandwich, I go along. Hungry and with a bit of a sweet tooth, I indulge and get a Coke, cream sandwich, some Cheetos, and some coconut butter cookies. All this cost me 23,000 Dong, about $1.15. We come back and play soccer and do some crab walk races with a few of the kids.
Dinner at 18h00, again we have rice, tofu, potatoes, eggs and oranges. Over dinner, we discuss the plan for the "International Day" event next week. All of the volunteers will cook something throughout the day from their home country to share with the rest of the volunteers. As I brought pancake mix and maple syrup from back home, I choose to make breakfast for everyone. We all agree that International Day will be next Thursday (Dec. 30), the second to last day of our workcamp.
Back at the room before bedtime, we spend a couple of hours playing a few different games. We start off playing a Korean game where the group sits in a circle, and going around the circle counterclockwise, you have to show a number using your fingers on just one hand (1 to 5 only) but say a different number. The person on your right has to say the number you have shown with your hand, but show a different number with their hand to the person to their right, and so on until someone screws up. When you screw up, you have to go in the middle of the circle and everyone gets their chance to give you a few slaps on the back!!
We also play the game where you get to write the name of a famous person on a piece of paper and place it on the persons forehead who sits to your right. We go around the circle taking turns asking yes or no questions about the person, trying to figure out who our 'character' is.
With the conclusion of the 'character' game, we all head off to bed around 22h00.
5.1.11
*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 02* 21.12.2010
5h30 - It's still dark outside, someone starts banging on a gong to signal the start of the day for the orphanage. We don't have to wake up just yet though. About 45 minutes later, slowly one by one we all wake up to shower, brush our teeth, and get ready. I go to take a shower, the room has a sink with a shower head mounted on the faucet. Not much water pressure and the water is barely lukewarm. There's nowhere really to put my clothes in the shower room, except for a ledge on the far end of the room. After my shower, it's 7h45 and we all head to the smaller dining room for breakfast. Kien has brought some Vietnamese baguettes, jam, peanut butter, Nescafe Viet Cafe, and Milo. It's a good breakfast, and I introduced the group to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!! Nobody had ever eaten one before... As it's already day two, it's Thuyen, Yeonsoo, Ville, and my turn to wash the dishes for the day.
After breakfast, we return to our room and have to fill out some government forms to register ourselves while staying at the orphanage. Once this paperwork is out of the way, we head off to have a tour of the orphanage. Initially, we were supposed to meet with the Director of the orphanage but Kien explains to us that one of the children died during the night and the Director is busy attending to the burial and is not available to meet with us.
As we walk around, we see the classrooms where some of the girls are sewing and knitting, we also walk past the physical rehabilitation centre, and the gardens where there are many herbs, medicines, fruits (mainly papayas), and vegetables they grow for use here. These gardens are where we will spend most of our mornings working.
Just outside the garden, there's a commotion and we are asked to come over. There is a small crowd around a safe, and we are asked to help them move it into the orphanage. It's not such an easy task as we have to maneuver the safe through a small opening in a cement wall. With about 7 other men, we walk the extremely heavy safe into the orphanage, much to the thanks of the orphanage staff.
As we finish off the tour of the orphanage, Kien takes us outside the grounds to show us where the internet 'cafe' is. The going rate is 2000 Dong/hour ($0.10). We double back and head the other way towards the 'main' street of the village where there is a market not too far away. Along the way, many locals are very curious to see us, and quite happy to have a photo of them taken. The market is covered with tarps strung up by string, but only about five feet off the ground, most everyone (locals included) have to crouch down while walking through. Fresh fruit, veggies, chicken, fish, cookies, toys, clothes are all here. Near the back, there is a lady selling sugar cane. We all decide to sample some, seeing as none of us had ever seen a real sugar cane before. It's quite fibrous, but you're not supposed to chew or eat it. You just bite off a piece between the joints and suck out the sweet juice. Quite good, but maybe only for a couple of tries!!!
On our way back to the room at the orphanage, we have some free time before lunch. As we're walking, we walk past a hollowed out unexploded bomb hanging from a tree. It's this bomb we realize is the 'gong' that woke us up this morning!!!
For lunch, we eat some rice (of course!!!) with pork, tofu, some pumpkin and garlic, and peanuts. Dessert again are oranges. The big test at lunch is to see how many peanuts you can pick up with the chopsticks. Can you get two peanuts side by side?!? Kien upstages everyone by scooping up about ten!!
After lunch, Thuyen, Yeonsoo, Ville and I wash the dishes again. Once we're all done, we meet back at the room and have a bit of a break before finally getting to meet the Director and the Head Administrator. We meet with them in a conference room with a very nice conference table. A lady passes us all water as we wait for them to show up. The Director welcomes us in Vietnamese, and Thuyen translates everything for us. He goes on to explain that many of the children are here because of exposure to Agent Orange (or their parents were exposed). The boy who died actually had lung cancer due to Agent Orange, his mother died too a long time ago from exposure. Now his father cares for his other two boys alone. I met a girl earlier in the day and one of the teachers explained to me that because of Agent Orange she is here. If it wasn't the case, she would already have had her own family as they estimate she's in her mid 20's (nobody knows her exact age for sure). She can't talk and looks still like an adolescent. She is very cheerful, and took me by the hand and we walked around the courtyard of the orphanage and just stared at the trees and fountain.
After our meeting with the Director, we go up to the classrooms to play with the kids. Philippe, Thu, Ville, Boseung, and I are in a classroom with autistic kids. We help them draw some pictures, play with lego's and pick up the kids to have piggy back wars. Many of the kids want turn after turn getting picked up, some of the kids are doing a great job at their artwork and are eager to get photographed with their work. A couple of the boys start getting in a fight with each other over some cards with a picture of a truck on it. To help diffuse the situation, I get a real toy truck and start driving it up their arms, on their head, on my head... The kids love it and start doing the same to me... Soon they start grabbing other toys and before I know it, I have horses climbing up my back!!!
With our time with the kids finished, we have a break before dinner. Our dinner tonight consists of: potatoes, rice, pork, eggs, tofu, and the green vegetables in water that nobody seems to know the name of.
After dinner, the nighttime activity is set aside for a crash course in Vietnamese. We learn the basics like hello, how old are you? and counting. There are many ways to pronounce the same words as there are five different accents. Every word is just one syllable, but they use the same alphabet as English save for a few characters.
It's a full moon tonight (apparently there is a lunar eclipse tonight, although I was unaware of this). I guess that explains some 'weird' behaviour back in the room before bed!!! One by one, as we all enter the room from brushing our teeth, we notice the facial mask that Boseung has put on... "Interesting" I think is the appropriate word to sum it up!!
After breakfast, we return to our room and have to fill out some government forms to register ourselves while staying at the orphanage. Once this paperwork is out of the way, we head off to have a tour of the orphanage. Initially, we were supposed to meet with the Director of the orphanage but Kien explains to us that one of the children died during the night and the Director is busy attending to the burial and is not available to meet with us.
As we walk around, we see the classrooms where some of the girls are sewing and knitting, we also walk past the physical rehabilitation centre, and the gardens where there are many herbs, medicines, fruits (mainly papayas), and vegetables they grow for use here. These gardens are where we will spend most of our mornings working.
Just outside the garden, there's a commotion and we are asked to come over. There is a small crowd around a safe, and we are asked to help them move it into the orphanage. It's not such an easy task as we have to maneuver the safe through a small opening in a cement wall. With about 7 other men, we walk the extremely heavy safe into the orphanage, much to the thanks of the orphanage staff.
As we finish off the tour of the orphanage, Kien takes us outside the grounds to show us where the internet 'cafe' is. The going rate is 2000 Dong/hour ($0.10). We double back and head the other way towards the 'main' street of the village where there is a market not too far away. Along the way, many locals are very curious to see us, and quite happy to have a photo of them taken. The market is covered with tarps strung up by string, but only about five feet off the ground, most everyone (locals included) have to crouch down while walking through. Fresh fruit, veggies, chicken, fish, cookies, toys, clothes are all here. Near the back, there is a lady selling sugar cane. We all decide to sample some, seeing as none of us had ever seen a real sugar cane before. It's quite fibrous, but you're not supposed to chew or eat it. You just bite off a piece between the joints and suck out the sweet juice. Quite good, but maybe only for a couple of tries!!!
On our way back to the room at the orphanage, we have some free time before lunch. As we're walking, we walk past a hollowed out unexploded bomb hanging from a tree. It's this bomb we realize is the 'gong' that woke us up this morning!!!
For lunch, we eat some rice (of course!!!) with pork, tofu, some pumpkin and garlic, and peanuts. Dessert again are oranges. The big test at lunch is to see how many peanuts you can pick up with the chopsticks. Can you get two peanuts side by side?!? Kien upstages everyone by scooping up about ten!!
After lunch, Thuyen, Yeonsoo, Ville and I wash the dishes again. Once we're all done, we meet back at the room and have a bit of a break before finally getting to meet the Director and the Head Administrator. We meet with them in a conference room with a very nice conference table. A lady passes us all water as we wait for them to show up. The Director welcomes us in Vietnamese, and Thuyen translates everything for us. He goes on to explain that many of the children are here because of exposure to Agent Orange (or their parents were exposed). The boy who died actually had lung cancer due to Agent Orange, his mother died too a long time ago from exposure. Now his father cares for his other two boys alone. I met a girl earlier in the day and one of the teachers explained to me that because of Agent Orange she is here. If it wasn't the case, she would already have had her own family as they estimate she's in her mid 20's (nobody knows her exact age for sure). She can't talk and looks still like an adolescent. She is very cheerful, and took me by the hand and we walked around the courtyard of the orphanage and just stared at the trees and fountain.
After our meeting with the Director, we go up to the classrooms to play with the kids. Philippe, Thu, Ville, Boseung, and I are in a classroom with autistic kids. We help them draw some pictures, play with lego's and pick up the kids to have piggy back wars. Many of the kids want turn after turn getting picked up, some of the kids are doing a great job at their artwork and are eager to get photographed with their work. A couple of the boys start getting in a fight with each other over some cards with a picture of a truck on it. To help diffuse the situation, I get a real toy truck and start driving it up their arms, on their head, on my head... The kids love it and start doing the same to me... Soon they start grabbing other toys and before I know it, I have horses climbing up my back!!!
With our time with the kids finished, we have a break before dinner. Our dinner tonight consists of: potatoes, rice, pork, eggs, tofu, and the green vegetables in water that nobody seems to know the name of.
After dinner, the nighttime activity is set aside for a crash course in Vietnamese. We learn the basics like hello, how old are you? and counting. There are many ways to pronounce the same words as there are five different accents. Every word is just one syllable, but they use the same alphabet as English save for a few characters.
It's a full moon tonight (apparently there is a lunar eclipse tonight, although I was unaware of this). I guess that explains some 'weird' behaviour back in the room before bed!!! One by one, as we all enter the room from brushing our teeth, we notice the facial mask that Boseung has put on... "Interesting" I think is the appropriate word to sum it up!!
4.1.11
*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 01* 20.12.2010
09h45 - I check out of the Grand Gia Bao Hotel on Lo Su Road in Ha Noi. The receptionist calls a taxi for me to go to the Peace House. I have no idea how far away it is, but judging by the estimated taxi cost, I figure it should take about 40 to 60 minutes. Navigating out of Ha Noi proves to be interesting as all taxi rides seem to be. Going further outside of the city, you see much more construction and scooters with crazy objects in tow... I think I've also seen the record for most people on one scooter: 5!!! One small kid up at the very front, 4 men all behind.
I make it to the Peace House right on schedule at exactly 10h30, the scheduled meeting time. Jin, a girl from Seoul, South Korea in her early 20's is already there as is Enrico, a guy from Milano, Italy in his mid 30's. There's a few other foreigners milling about and some Vietnamese staff too. Nobody explains what is going on for about a good 15 minutes. Apparently about a week ago they sent out an email saying there was an updated meeting place. Some people got the email and obviously others, myself included, didn't. We wait for two others to show up before taking two taxi's to meet up with the rest of the volunteers at the updated meeting place. Ville, a 20 year old guy from Tampere, Finland and Philippe, a 24 year old guy from Liege, Belgium are the two others we waited for.
When we got to the updated meeting point, there are two more Koreans: Yeonsoo and Boseung, and Yasuto from Osaka, Japan, as well as three local Vietnamese volunteers: Kien, Tue, and Thuyen.
We are told that we have to wait about another hour and a half longer as we are still waiting for more volunteers to show up. While we're waiting, we are served lunch and make small talk. The other volunteers we were waiting for never do show up, and after our 90 minutes of waiting, we arrange for two more taxi's to take us to the Ha Noi bus depot. In the taxi that I get into, it's just myself and Enrico and the entire backseat and trunk full of luggage. We wait out front of the bus depot for a good fifteen minutes in the taxi, then the Vietnamese volunteer, Kien, who seems to be in charge of things gets in our taxi and gets the driver to drive into the depot so that we don't have to carry our luggage so far to the bus. We had to bribe the guard at the entrance of the depot 10,000 Dong ($0.50) for the privilege!!! The buses were crazy inside, it reeked of diesel and it was absolute chaos. Buses trying to squeeze past each other, literally centimetres away from our cab. The bus ride itself starts off with people sitting on little red plastic seats (like the ones that kids would sit on in western countries) in the middle of the aisle, 2 deep. All of our luggage was taking up the entire back row of seats. Again, we had to pay extra for this!! After being on the bus for an hour and a half, it dropped us off at a roadside stop, we get two more taxi's (minivans) to our final destination fifteen minutes away, the Thuy An Orphanage, at about 17h local time.
Once inside the Orphanage and with Kien leading us, we head directly to our lodging, an open room with enough beds for everyone. Immediately we get to work setting up the beds and arranging our things. The beds are simple and wood framed. We all have a thin mattress pad, a cover, a blanket, and a flat pillow. Once we all choose our beds, we head off to the dining hall for dinner. Three tables are already prepared for us, and food is already on the tables. Our first nights dinner consisted of eggs, rice, tofu, chicken, and some green vegetables nobody knows and for dessert, Mandarin Oranges.
Philippe and Enrico volunteered to do the dishes first (we will have to take turns doing the dishes going forward) and the rest of us head back to the room. Kien shows us the rest of the facilities, we are shown the showers and bathroom. Everyone is pretty horrified at the squalid conditions. Nobody wants to use them, but having to go, I use the bathroom being used to similar conditions in many other parts of Asia.
The Vietnamese volunteers announce that they are going to go out and get some supplies. All the other volunteers are pretty eager to go too and check out the surrounding area around the Orphanage. It's a chance to see what's around us. By now, it's completely dark. Sunset is at about 18h here. On our way out of the Orphanage, we find two bathrooms that are much nicer and cleaner than the ones close by our room.
About 100 metres down the street is a roadside store where we stock up on supplies. I notice a massively oversized Vietnamese 'sandwich' on sale for only 5000 Dong ($0.25). I think sometime this week I'll try it out... I ask the store owner what's in it, she explains it's a sandwich with a cream filling.
We return to our room and talk about the volunteering organization Volunteers for Peace in Vietnam (VPV), the schedule for the next week, as well as dividing into teams for doing chores. I'm placed in a team with Ville, Yeonsoo, and Thuyen. Every third day we will be responsible for doing the dishes for all three meals.
Kien explains that the work schedule will be in two times frames each day. The morning sessions will last from 8h30 to 11h00. From 11h00 to 14h00 is lunch and free time, and from 14h00 to 16h30 would be the afternoon session. The morning sessions look like they will be mostly spent gardening and the afternoons will be mostly spent teaching the kids and working with them in the physical rehabilitation centre. The evenings will be reserved for various different activities with the other volunteers and free time.
My first impressions so far - Very tranquil area, no lights or pollution - a stark contrast from Ha Noi. The kids who sleep nearest to us seem quite happy and are always waving hi when we walk by. I'm glad I brought Mosquito repellent and a Mosquito net as the doors to our room are open a lot as well as the windows which are letting them into our room. All of the volunteers seem to be quite eager and all have a pretty positive attitude.
I'm off to bed now, it has been a long day today with a lot to absorb. I can't wait for the real volunteering to start tomorrow!!!
I make it to the Peace House right on schedule at exactly 10h30, the scheduled meeting time. Jin, a girl from Seoul, South Korea in her early 20's is already there as is Enrico, a guy from Milano, Italy in his mid 30's. There's a few other foreigners milling about and some Vietnamese staff too. Nobody explains what is going on for about a good 15 minutes. Apparently about a week ago they sent out an email saying there was an updated meeting place. Some people got the email and obviously others, myself included, didn't. We wait for two others to show up before taking two taxi's to meet up with the rest of the volunteers at the updated meeting place. Ville, a 20 year old guy from Tampere, Finland and Philippe, a 24 year old guy from Liege, Belgium are the two others we waited for.
When we got to the updated meeting point, there are two more Koreans: Yeonsoo and Boseung, and Yasuto from Osaka, Japan, as well as three local Vietnamese volunteers: Kien, Tue, and Thuyen.
We are told that we have to wait about another hour and a half longer as we are still waiting for more volunteers to show up. While we're waiting, we are served lunch and make small talk. The other volunteers we were waiting for never do show up, and after our 90 minutes of waiting, we arrange for two more taxi's to take us to the Ha Noi bus depot. In the taxi that I get into, it's just myself and Enrico and the entire backseat and trunk full of luggage. We wait out front of the bus depot for a good fifteen minutes in the taxi, then the Vietnamese volunteer, Kien, who seems to be in charge of things gets in our taxi and gets the driver to drive into the depot so that we don't have to carry our luggage so far to the bus. We had to bribe the guard at the entrance of the depot 10,000 Dong ($0.50) for the privilege!!! The buses were crazy inside, it reeked of diesel and it was absolute chaos. Buses trying to squeeze past each other, literally centimetres away from our cab. The bus ride itself starts off with people sitting on little red plastic seats (like the ones that kids would sit on in western countries) in the middle of the aisle, 2 deep. All of our luggage was taking up the entire back row of seats. Again, we had to pay extra for this!! After being on the bus for an hour and a half, it dropped us off at a roadside stop, we get two more taxi's (minivans) to our final destination fifteen minutes away, the Thuy An Orphanage, at about 17h local time.
Once inside the Orphanage and with Kien leading us, we head directly to our lodging, an open room with enough beds for everyone. Immediately we get to work setting up the beds and arranging our things. The beds are simple and wood framed. We all have a thin mattress pad, a cover, a blanket, and a flat pillow. Once we all choose our beds, we head off to the dining hall for dinner. Three tables are already prepared for us, and food is already on the tables. Our first nights dinner consisted of eggs, rice, tofu, chicken, and some green vegetables nobody knows and for dessert, Mandarin Oranges.
Philippe and Enrico volunteered to do the dishes first (we will have to take turns doing the dishes going forward) and the rest of us head back to the room. Kien shows us the rest of the facilities, we are shown the showers and bathroom. Everyone is pretty horrified at the squalid conditions. Nobody wants to use them, but having to go, I use the bathroom being used to similar conditions in many other parts of Asia.
The Vietnamese volunteers announce that they are going to go out and get some supplies. All the other volunteers are pretty eager to go too and check out the surrounding area around the Orphanage. It's a chance to see what's around us. By now, it's completely dark. Sunset is at about 18h here. On our way out of the Orphanage, we find two bathrooms that are much nicer and cleaner than the ones close by our room.
About 100 metres down the street is a roadside store where we stock up on supplies. I notice a massively oversized Vietnamese 'sandwich' on sale for only 5000 Dong ($0.25). I think sometime this week I'll try it out... I ask the store owner what's in it, she explains it's a sandwich with a cream filling.
We return to our room and talk about the volunteering organization Volunteers for Peace in Vietnam (VPV), the schedule for the next week, as well as dividing into teams for doing chores. I'm placed in a team with Ville, Yeonsoo, and Thuyen. Every third day we will be responsible for doing the dishes for all three meals.
Kien explains that the work schedule will be in two times frames each day. The morning sessions will last from 8h30 to 11h00. From 11h00 to 14h00 is lunch and free time, and from 14h00 to 16h30 would be the afternoon session. The morning sessions look like they will be mostly spent gardening and the afternoons will be mostly spent teaching the kids and working with them in the physical rehabilitation centre. The evenings will be reserved for various different activities with the other volunteers and free time.
My first impressions so far - Very tranquil area, no lights or pollution - a stark contrast from Ha Noi. The kids who sleep nearest to us seem quite happy and are always waving hi when we walk by. I'm glad I brought Mosquito repellent and a Mosquito net as the doors to our room are open a lot as well as the windows which are letting them into our room. All of the volunteers seem to be quite eager and all have a pretty positive attitude.
I'm off to bed now, it has been a long day today with a lot to absorb. I can't wait for the real volunteering to start tomorrow!!!
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