This last week we held our final project festival at Hoa Binh, and it was amazing and so successful!! Beforehand we were worried about if we had enough supplies, volunteers, electricity, tables, and many other things but by 9 everything had fallen into place. We were able to recruit many of the other volunteers who work at Thanh Xuan to help out and participate for a majority of the festival and many UCHANU-ers turned out and were a great help! We couldn't have done it without their presence. And many of the doctors, helpers, and teachers also came out to hang out with the kids.
Our kids themselves were having a fantastic time! We must have had about 45 people outside at the max and everyone was eating, playing sports and games, drawing, and running around screaming. One students even said that he couldn't remember when he had such a good time, and was walking around talking to people and singing. If felt so wonderful to have everyone out of the building and playing around with each other. Even the people who entertained themselves by popping all the balloons or throwing the beanbags at the targets with all their strength were smiling and screaming and chasing around, all for fun of course.
I was really pleased about the success of the mask and wing-making, but we ended using up all the pre-made pieces and some kids wore them the whole festival and even afterward during lunch. I think Phuong was another saving grace when she brought with her a DVD of exercises & musical accompaniment, which attracted a large group in front of the entertainment table the entire festival. It was a well-known video and/or songs so it was really popular. Games and sports, unsurprisingly, was very successful. The beanbag toss was the most successful but there were still many people doing the blowing game and a few were even playing around with the tangrams. It was also really cute haw many of the kids didn't even need the prizes at the end, and a few even played around with some of their goodies until the end when they tried to give them back. The sports area looked reminiscent of most of our after-school days with kids kicking the balls around but this time with some badminton rackets and jump ropes. Peter also got some chalk and drew hopscotch and a jump line which were being used the whole time. I only wish we had brought chalk earlier on in the year. And even though we raised everyone's blood sugar at least 20 points with all the snacks and soda, no incidents happened. These kids are the best at sharing and not fighting with each other over snacks and prizes, more so than any I've met before, and there were 0 accidents. A totally successful event.
I think it was rather impressive how organized we looked. We did not need to ask for much, just a place to plug in our electrical cord and then a broom afterward. We set up on-time and were able to clean-up in about 15 minuets, thanks to our volunteers. Nothing got out-of-hand or out-of-control. But the best part really was seeing how happy everyone was all at the same time. Many of the family members who stay at the village came out and they looked thoroughly happy as well at beautiful chaos that was happening outside. I'm really, very much going to miss this place and it was nice to have a little celebration while we were there.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Emotional and Physical Integration
How can I integrate my lessons of the semester into my life back in America? I am not positive how I my daily life will change because of my time here, as I haven’t had the shock of returning home and realizing I’m not in Vietnam anymore, but I know there will be change and it will be positive. Because of things we learned and saw in class I am more aware of will be more conscious of the origins of things I use almost constantly, namely food and clothing. I hope to never take a grain of rice or a single vegetable for granted or waste again, now knowing how hard it is to cultivate the things we eat (including animals) and how little return it gives the grower on average. I will also more frequently be aware of at least the place that my clothing and goods come from. The work that we observed during our trip to the textile factory was very interesting as we got to see how clothes are assembled from start to finish, including thread-making and assembly. This helped give me a perspective, again, on how difficult it is to make the clothes that we purchase with such ease; and though I am not sure of exact numbers, we also saw how much work went into making a $40 shirt and could infer what percentage actually went to the creators of the garment.
I will also be able to take a new perspective on life back home with me to America. Though there are many aspects of life which are similar between these two countries, the ways in which they are different are extremely important and gave me a different view on the world, which I think everyone should try and experience at least once. Though it was difficult to step outside the amazing bubble that is EAP and UCHANU, it was really amazing to see how people lived their lives in Vietnam. Project Kiem An really enabled me to see different areas of peoples lives, as well as different aspects of Vietnamese life through work. Family plays such an important role in life to many Vietnamese. At home everyone is concerned with their families as well, but not to the same degree as here where the family will be referenced at least once during most conversations.
Life has also been greatly affected by the opening of the market economy during đổi mới which has caused much good and bad. This is an aspect less thought about at home since the market economy has been so integrated and included in American culture for so long, that it is hard to think of things otherwise. But here, it was only about 25 years ago that things were drastically different. After 1986 anyone could open a little or big business in order to make money, but now the moves to make things more “modern” has been slowly excluding many, many people like mobile vendors, small business owners, the poor, and the outcasts. It is interesting how the businesses that most people rely on or at least use - tra da stands, other mobile food sellers, outside markets, and the carts full of slippers or daily household wares – are the first to be shunned by the government. These businesses are one of my favorite parts of Vietnam, one does not need to drive all the way to a giant Co-Op Mart or Big C to get overwhelmed by the people and the onslaught of goods in order to satisfy daily needs, one simply must step outside of the house and stroll around the neighborhood until what they need passes by.
Another interesting occurrence here is the multiple and almost identical shops all lined up nest to each other. My favorite memory of this kind of business strategy was one night at the end of the night market there were more than 12 bicycles lined up next to each other, all selling bò bía ngọt, the delicious and sweet coconut rolls. There was no difference in their attempts to attract customers and all their boxes for making the rolls were all the same, yet they all managed and I guess even enjoyed selling all side-by-side. I am assuming this strategy works because of the mentality of the purchasers, because this is a normal occurrence in business practices people seem to know to spread out their business, or everyone has their own favorite that they return to, with many different people all preferring a different seller. I know also that all these sellers work together and sometimes provide each other with extra goods if another seller runs out, or will provide change to their neighboring seller. This kind of thing would never happen in America except for small locally-owned businesses who have a very personal relationship with each other, which is similar to what is happening here, but in Vietnam this seems to occur much, much more often than it does in the States.
How will I remain in contact with the wonderful people who male up UCHANU 2010? My best guess is facebook, skype, and other forms of internet communication, at least for the time being. I haven’t even left yet and know that I will want desperately to return to Vietnam and Hanoi as soon as I leave. I am not sure how plausible it is for me to come back within the next 5 years as I would need to find a good-paying job, in order to afford the plane ticket over and the missing days of work during my visit, but I am not ruling the idea out. I also hope that some of our HANU buddies will be able to find their way over to America, if for a short visit or more permanently so that we can show them our perspective of our country, like we got to see theirs. But returning to Vietnam is definitely something that will happen in my life. I want to bring my friends and family here to see how I have seen life in Vietnam, so hopefully I will be able to return before things become unrecognizable to me, though that would just create a whole new adventure and way-of-life for me to figure out.
And as for my fellow American students, we had better keep in touch as our distances from each other are not too large and many of us have the means to travel around the state to visit one another. Many of us are graduating soon and we will lose the bonds of the UC system which keep us linked, but we have hopefully created a strong enough bond to over-come time and distance to see each other, reminisce about our time in this amazing country, and hopefully return together someday.
I will also be able to take a new perspective on life back home with me to America. Though there are many aspects of life which are similar between these two countries, the ways in which they are different are extremely important and gave me a different view on the world, which I think everyone should try and experience at least once. Though it was difficult to step outside the amazing bubble that is EAP and UCHANU, it was really amazing to see how people lived their lives in Vietnam. Project Kiem An really enabled me to see different areas of peoples lives, as well as different aspects of Vietnamese life through work. Family plays such an important role in life to many Vietnamese. At home everyone is concerned with their families as well, but not to the same degree as here where the family will be referenced at least once during most conversations.
Life has also been greatly affected by the opening of the market economy during đổi mới which has caused much good and bad. This is an aspect less thought about at home since the market economy has been so integrated and included in American culture for so long, that it is hard to think of things otherwise. But here, it was only about 25 years ago that things were drastically different. After 1986 anyone could open a little or big business in order to make money, but now the moves to make things more “modern” has been slowly excluding many, many people like mobile vendors, small business owners, the poor, and the outcasts. It is interesting how the businesses that most people rely on or at least use - tra da stands, other mobile food sellers, outside markets, and the carts full of slippers or daily household wares – are the first to be shunned by the government. These businesses are one of my favorite parts of Vietnam, one does not need to drive all the way to a giant Co-Op Mart or Big C to get overwhelmed by the people and the onslaught of goods in order to satisfy daily needs, one simply must step outside of the house and stroll around the neighborhood until what they need passes by.
Another interesting occurrence here is the multiple and almost identical shops all lined up nest to each other. My favorite memory of this kind of business strategy was one night at the end of the night market there were more than 12 bicycles lined up next to each other, all selling bò bía ngọt, the delicious and sweet coconut rolls. There was no difference in their attempts to attract customers and all their boxes for making the rolls were all the same, yet they all managed and I guess even enjoyed selling all side-by-side. I am assuming this strategy works because of the mentality of the purchasers, because this is a normal occurrence in business practices people seem to know to spread out their business, or everyone has their own favorite that they return to, with many different people all preferring a different seller. I know also that all these sellers work together and sometimes provide each other with extra goods if another seller runs out, or will provide change to their neighboring seller. This kind of thing would never happen in America except for small locally-owned businesses who have a very personal relationship with each other, which is similar to what is happening here, but in Vietnam this seems to occur much, much more often than it does in the States.
How will I remain in contact with the wonderful people who male up UCHANU 2010? My best guess is facebook, skype, and other forms of internet communication, at least for the time being. I haven’t even left yet and know that I will want desperately to return to Vietnam and Hanoi as soon as I leave. I am not sure how plausible it is for me to come back within the next 5 years as I would need to find a good-paying job, in order to afford the plane ticket over and the missing days of work during my visit, but I am not ruling the idea out. I also hope that some of our HANU buddies will be able to find their way over to America, if for a short visit or more permanently so that we can show them our perspective of our country, like we got to see theirs. But returning to Vietnam is definitely something that will happen in my life. I want to bring my friends and family here to see how I have seen life in Vietnam, so hopefully I will be able to return before things become unrecognizable to me, though that would just create a whole new adventure and way-of-life for me to figure out.
And as for my fellow American students, we had better keep in touch as our distances from each other are not too large and many of us have the means to travel around the state to visit one another. Many of us are graduating soon and we will lose the bonds of the UC system which keep us linked, but we have hopefully created a strong enough bond to over-come time and distance to see each other, reminisce about our time in this amazing country, and hopefully return together someday.
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