The Factory Life

This past weekend UCHANU found itself in a place where none had been before and everyone has many connections to: the factory. We visited two factories, first a textile and clothing factory called HANOSIMEX, and second a factory producing the ever-popular motorbikes of the Yamaha company. Both were very, very interesting to see not only because of their immense size, but it also gave perspective about how little we know about how the things we have are made or about the people who make them.

Machines making spools of thread.

First off, the textile factory was unbelievably enormous stretching faar into the distance past hundreds of machines each rolling up hundreds of spools of thread, or gathering hundreds of pounds of cotton into large bundles. There was a good number of technicians working at the time of our visit, with a seemingly equal number of men and women in the thread-making factory. All seemed to be between the ages of 18-30 and were constantly moving and working.

The sewing factory where workers are constructing a blue men's Express shirt.

The sewing factory was very different with basically all female workers, with a few males scattered around. The workplace itself seemed very nice compared to the conditions of many sewing factories I have heard of: there were large fans for ventilation, open windows, not too terribly cramped workstations, many lights, and music instead of shouting. Everyone here seemed young as well with some girls who appeared younger than those in the thread-making factory. Many of the articles being constructed seemed destined for the United States, to stores such as Target and Express.

 Our second destination was the Yamaha factory where a little more than a thousand (according to their counters) Yamaha motorbikes are constructed everyday for domestic use. Here we were not allowed to take pictures, presumably to keep the Yamaha secrets from being spread to other companies... But the factory here was also ridiculously large, and most of the workers were men with a number of women to handle small parts and detail work. The company representative said that the average age of workers in the factory was from 20-25, which looked about right when observing the floor. It was miraculous to walk along the assembly line and just watch the stages of motorbike assembly, with the parts looking more and more like a Sirius or Mio Classico with every step. The factory was very clean and organized. The workers themselves had standard uniforms and everyone (as well as us visitors) was required to wear a hat on the work floor. The temperature throughout the factory was cool and it looked like very repetitive and organized work that everyone was doing. We were told that if anyone needed to nha ve sinh (use the restroom) then they needed to alert their supervisor so the production line would not stop. The representative told us that they have never needed to completely stop the production line, nor have there been too many major injuries. Just one or two a year, which I guess is a good ratio.
Both factories created things that anyone confronts in their daily life (though if not motorbikes regularly, we can imagine cars in their place on the assembly line) and it must be very amusing for the employees to see how awe-struck people are at seeing the construction of their daily items. Hopefully I will put more value in my things after reflecting how much work it takes just to make a shirt or the motorbike that gets me from here to there. I guess that there is a second point to these weekend trips besides the educational aspects, which is to foster a sense of place concerning the creating of our things, namely consumer, in order to better appreciate how they came to be in our possession. First rice, and now clothes and motorbikes. Thanks Gerard, EAP, and HANU for getting the permission to get us into these places.

Thanh Xuan Peace Village - Tolerance and Acceptance

This past week at Thanh Xuan Mai and I changed our Tuesday shift to the mornings so that we could be going at the same time as Irene and Peter. I was surprised at how easily we changed times, with almost no comment from the teachers we work with or management, who I believe has really no idea when we're ever there.
So Monday was a relatively normal day. We arrived, helped the kids practice their letters, and sang Little Bumble Bee as usual. Then we went outside to play in the yard and, as usual, Hien and Yen chased Peter around the yard wanting attention. I feel the kids seek our attention to break the monotony of their lives at Thanh Xuan. Many of them do not leave the Village very often and seem to crave outside people, things, and activities. They seem to have accepted their lives here and know what to expect, and just want a little spice in their lives, which I guess we are providing since it seem they love having us here.
Then Tuesday Mai and I spent most of the kids class time reading stories in English, then translated into Vietnamese, which lost some of the kids attention during the process. We also taught our kids the macarena, after the great response that Irene and Peter's kids gave them for their great idea. Basically I feel that we can pretty much teach anything that we want in our classroom as long as we are occupying time. I am really surprised at how tolerant the teachers are of our ideas, though it is a little odd as they seem unenthuthiastic, or jaded rather, about teaching a lot of the time.
On Saturday we returned to Thanh Xuan for the birthday celebration of one of Irene and Peter's students, which was really fun! We thought we would have trouble getting into the Village because the gates were locked when we approached. Luckily, however the guards recognized us right away and hurried to open the gates. Another student was hanging out with them and looked really happy that we had come! The party itself was just a few people but we ate snacks and played singing hot potato and laughed a rediculous amount. Then a cake fight ensued when Irene "caked" the birthday girl and everyone went wild. It felt really good to have such an intimate gathering at the village and to have the students so happy to see us there. I am really feeling like there is a place for us there, maybe not in the organization exactly, but in the hearts of our students.

Thanh Xuan Peace Village - Exclusion & Inclusion

Thanh Xuan is a place for those who would normally be excluded from most areas of society and many opportunities.  Disabled children and adults are placed together where the ridicule is reduced and people of many ages are placed in the same classrooms according to their adaptation and skill level.  In this way there is a certain level of inclusion for everyone who can afford to send their kids to Thanh Xuan and have them be in a more comfortable environment than in the real world where discrimination and ridicule often affronts people with disabilities, seemingly especially in Vietnam.  The surrounding walls hopefully provide some sort of solace and a more understanding and prepared environment for disabled learners than normal schools, which I believe is true of special learning schools globally.

This particular school, or village, also has its fair share of exclusion.  The children and adult learners still act as normal school children do, so there is still some degree of bullying and teasing.  There are a few children who are still smaller or more nervous than others who get picked on, but this is something I have seen in many different schools and at all ages.  However, I have seen more people of different ages and abilities here place arms around each other or help each other down the stairs or direct each other than in any other school setting I’ve been in.  Maybe its that these kids know each other’s pain more and want to somewhat relieve the frustration or just help their friends.  Many of these kids live together so there must be a special bond that develops that causes a mutual desire for a better life.  Of course, not all of these kids seem to want to make life easier (Det) but maybe that’s just to put a little life into a well-known routine.

1.000 năm Thăng Long - Hà Nội

This past week was the long-awaited celebration of Hanoi's 1000-year anniversary. There had been much anticipation for the festivities as well by the people as well as the government. I had heard that the city limits of Hanoi had been expanded to increase the population size, as well as many construction projects hurried or completed in time for the celebration so that the city could look its best for all the festivities. In the weeks before, one could see the lights and decorations slowly accumulating around Ho Hoan Kiem, which really started fostering feelings of excitement and beauty.
I was highly anticipating the activities, performances, and the heightened sense of community and nationalism. I thought this would be a great demonstration of Vietnamese pride from all kinds of people, and judging by the crowds there were many people who also wanted to see and participate in such a momentous occasion.
However, once the week started all I could see were crowds and crowds of people! Every time there would be a performance there would be so many people attempting to watch that all one could see were the heads in front of them, behind, and for 360 degrees all around.
My favorite moments of the week were during the greatest military parade in Vietnamese history, which lasted about 40 minuets. Good to know that not all countries have a grossly sized military that would take days to parade through the streets. And then I liked the fireworks and light shows at the beginning and end of Thăng Long. What I saw did not look like $5million worth of celebration, so I do wonder where the rest of that money might have gone...

The lights!

Thanh Xuan Peace Village - Organizational Structure

Over the past few weeks the structure of Hoa Bin Thanh Xuan has slowly been revealing itself. It seems the teachers change rooms every few weeks so as to tend to the needs of different students. When Mai and I first came to Thanh Xuan we had a different teacher who was then replaced by the one we currently work with, and recently she was replaced by a new teacer Co Hoa, the teacher in charge of our group of volunteers. The physical therapists who work with my colleagues have also been changed recently, replaced by new therapists who are much more receptive to their presence. Co Hoa has also been very receptive of us in her classroom, giving us an hour or so to take charge of the classroom.
This past week she immediately gave Mai instructions to start grammatical pronunciation with the children, as opposed to the other teacher who would always ask the younger and more local volunteers to teach for her. I felt kind of guilty and sad that I couldn’t help more, as I then felt useless in the classroom and I wanted to take some of the burden off of Mai. Though it is obvious why a non-Viet speaker would not be asked to teach Vietnamese, especially to a class who needs extra care in learning correct reading and pronunciation. Then during Mai’s lesson she prepared the children’s notebooks to begin writing the letters they were assigned, u and ư. This is much different than the structure provided by the previous teacher who did not have the children write after the verbal lesson, as she would then move on. I cannot speak for the kids but as someone who would like to see the kids learning even in the afternoon, as opposed to the previous teacher’s schedule, this is a lot more productive than story-telling or just sitting time as the kids obviously still are learning their reading and repeating skills.
The rest of the children’s day from 8am-1:59pm I am unsure of what the kids are doing, but I have heard that they rotate around according to a certain schedule which is pre-determined and set. This sounds like a good idea for the children to keep them constantly occupied and active, as opposed to the afternoon when I feel activities are a little less structured and laid-back. In a couple weeks Mai and I will also switch our Tuesday time to morning work and I will be able to more accurately reflect on the schedule then.
The organization itself seems set in its ways. I have seen a few volunteer groups come and go, with different ideas and activities, and though they change the pace and what the kids do during their stay, I haven’t seen any permanent change in the way the organization incorporates the new ideas of the volunteer groups. I have seen evidence of programs to increase the computer, art, and musical skills of the kids, but nothing exists of these programs today. Even the art programs they do now, if the kids don’t exactly follow the program (such as making a card) they are not corrected simply because they are doing something. And while I feel that it is good to keep the kids entertained and focused, if the activity at hand has a certain purpose, that should be upheld and enforced. This would probably be beneficial when these kids/people take their knowledge into the bigger world and deviation from a task is not tolerated. In addition, some change in program might also be helpful for the children to keep them more interested. Maybe we can give suggestions in the follow-up letter that Thay Thai would like us to write at the end of the semester.

Do as the People Do

  As the great Son Chau states almost constantly, today we as a class gained some real insight on what it is like to be part of the people of Vietnam…if only for two hours.  This past Sunday UCHANU 2010 went out to harvest a rice field.  We woke up with the sun and slogged barefoot through the mud in order to harvest the staple food for a good portion of the world, if not Vietnam. 

The field we were harvesting was already partially harvested because of the recent rain and wind, which had blown over many of the rice stalks; so, probably to avoid waste, the family whose field we were mangling had already begun the process for us.  The field was owned by the Party Secretary of the village we were visited whose name was Anh Coui, a very kind man who tried to help us as much as he could during the harvesting process short of cutting the rice and carrying it for us himself.  His daughter was also out in the field helping us collect and cut the rice as well.  She put us all to shame with the uniformity and skills of her cuts, and then with the speed that she could slog through the mud with 10 pounds of rice stalks in her embrace.

Hypothetically, the process was very simple: cut the stalks, pile them up, carry the stalks to the thresher, then thresh.  From there one would then dry the rice and then toss it to rid it of its husks, but we were not involved in that part of the process.  A problem I encountered was trying to cut the rice high enough that those collecting wouldn’t have to carry so much excess, useless weight.  I felt that if I went too high I couldn’t grab as much and would lose rice.  However, I really enjoyed carrying the rice out of the fields and to the grand pile of stalks waiting for the thresher.  Feeling the weight of all my friends’ hard work on my shoulders was wonderful, and I am so proud of how much we managed to get out of that field.  It was rumored that that field generates about 12 bags of rice when harvested by Anh Coui’s family, aka the professionals, but we still managed to get 7 bags filled in only two hours of work.  Not too shabby!

Also, as I lifted piles of rice over my head through the fields I felt a real connection with this type of work.  Though I have nothing really connecting myself to rice fields now (besides the fact that I eat a lot of rice), this is what my family used to do back in the Philippines and what some of my family who still live there currently do.  Now many of the sons and daughters have moved away, my grandfather and grandmother included, but that is what my family did for generations and actually what my grandpa wanted to discontinue my mother and aunts and uncle from doing, but here I am feeling connected back with my roots.

Thanh Xuan Peace Village - Public, Private and Physical Space

This week at Thanh Xuan was really a different experience in a really great way.  There were two new volunteer teachers who was temporarily there for two weeks, and they had all sorts of activities planned for the kids. It was really nice to see the kids actually doing something and not just sitting at their desks for 3 hours, and the activities all seemed pretty appropriate for the kids though there was a slight language barrier as one was Australian and the other Japanese and did not know any Vietnamese, perhaps even less than myself.  The kids seemed to really like her, however, especially when she sang.  Their new favorite song is Little Baby Bumblebee which is really adorable when they sing it as none know the words but they all have the motions down pat. The only problem I had with the new teachers was when I was discussing our purposes at Thanh Xuan  Peace Village with the Australian teacher, she seemed more interested in padding her resume with international teaching, than really anything else.  Her enthusiasm was very high, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't believe that she would state that as her main purpose for being at Thanh Xuan. I didn't really get to converse much with the Japanese teacher though, so I didn't get her opinion on the matter.
What I was really surprised about, however, was how easily the classroom space was relinquished to these new teachers. On Monday the teacher was nowhere in sight the entire time we were doing our service.  All these new teachers had to do was walk in with a curriculum and the space was given to them right away, which means that as soon as Mai and I come up with a viable curriculum we will be able to have the whole floor. It is also interesting how in the physical therapy room, once a certain time is reached Peter and Irene are basically allowed to entertain the kids how they would like, and the space is basically theirs. How kid time is structured is really confusing to me, as there seems to be no real structure, but maybe that's just because I come in the afternoons when the real learning time is over.
In terms of physical space, the most of the village seems very communal and not by choice. The living quarters are right next to classrooms and bathrooms shared by everyone have no doors to separate stalls or toilets from showers. The bedrooms are large and have quite a few beds per room, and I am unsure of where most of the kids private belongings would go as there is nothing else in the bedrooms besides beds. I wonder if this would have any effect on how secretive the kids are in order to simply get a moment alone. There are also locks on many of the bathrooms in the village, ones that are further away from the classrooms where supervision is harder, which is an interesting concept. I don't understand this decision at all as these kids are capable of and trusted to sit at a desk and learn all day yet are not allowed to go to the bathroom, while downstairs the bathrooms by the special education classroom and unlocked and available. Hopefully the bathrooms here were just broken temporarily and are now openly available.
The open area is quite large and has a few play structures, which look a little antiquated and some broken. Last week I noticed that here, on the platform of a slide structure, there were two kids who were sharing a moment hugging and talking as I presume this was as private of an area as they could find. Interesting because this was actually open and public space, but no one came across them (except I guess myself) or intruded on their private moment. I'm sure if this same scenario had occurred inside, someone surely would have come across them and said something, so the very obvious publicity of the outside was actually being used to disguise a more private moment.