Hue: Week 4, so fast!

It is unbelievable how quickly 4 weeks have gone by and we are at the last week of our teaching program in Hue! Many students have already started writing good-bye letters and giving thank you gifts to our teacher volunteers! Unfortunately, one of our teacher volunteers had to return home a week early in order to train for the United States Army. His students are all very sad that he is leaving, but have expressed deep gratitude for the fun and joyous moments he has given them while teaching them English. In these last 2 weeks, we have visited an orphanage in An Tay, Hue, as well as a facility called the "Peaceful Bamboo Family" whose mission is to foster the development and integration of mentally and physically disabled children and individuals living in Vietnam. At the orphanage in An Tay, we interacted with about 30-40 kids through various different activities including games like Dragon Tail in which one team must capture the flag that is attached to the pants of the last person in line of that team, and defend their flag as a team. We also played other group activities that resulted in a lot of laughter, sweating, and dehydration! After about 1 hour of doing activities outside, we went inside a small classroom to do indoor activities. We taught them the World Cup song and sang together at the very end. We also played Telephone Charades with the kids to cool off from the heat and distribute snacks and candy that we have brought for them!

At the Peaceful Bamboo Family, we were taken around the facility by their project manager who showed us the different workshops that the facility provide for the disabled children. Our volunteers were able to interact with some of the kids who were working on making ceramic paintings. We even bought some from them (the profits go toward the program and facility so that they can continue to train these kids) ! We also learned that these kids are trained to do various different skills like cooking, making jam, as well as singing! Our volunteers were very surprised that such facilities exist in Vietnam, and learned a great deal about how the program functions.

Today, our Level A and B students were taken to the Skating Rink as a reward for their commitment of going to class everyday! The students who scored highest on the exams received a free ticket into the skating rink paid for by their teachers: Christine Phung, Phuong Thai, Sang Dang, Patrick Tran, and Kevin Truong. Word has it that the students hurt their bums enough to say that they had a lot of fun!

We are looking forward to our upcoming Closing Ceremony / Talent Show #2 this Friday, followed by 2 weeks worth of volunteer projects. Stay tuned for exciting news about the Talent Show, as well as a progress with the volunteer projects!