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.