Friday, July 3, 2009

Today, our last day of class, was bitter-sweet. We reviewed everything we had covered and had students sing the songs connected to each unit. They love singing. We played games re-enforcing the vocabulary and they did drawing and designing activities, specifically making menus and drawing articles of clothing with descriptions. We took lots of pictures of the whole group. Singing “It's a Small World” was a perfect way to end this two week experience. Mr. Dung, the director of SOS, gave a warm good-bye speech. Then one by one we said a few words to the students. When my turn came, I couldn't say much as I started to cry. The secretary and interpreter, Mr. Long, told us the students wanted to shake our hands. It didn't take long for volunteers and students alike to cry in earnest. We hate leaving and the students were sad to see us go. “I will miss you” many of the students said. They gave each of us a gift that they made in the summer and Mr. Dung gave us a SOS Children's Village pin and book on the SOS programs in Vietnam.

After saying our good-byes, we were treated to the best meal we have had yet. The main dish, BUN BO NAM BO, was Mr. Long's specialty and it was only one of several delicious dishes. He poured each of us a glass of wine from a bottle he had received as a gift from an Australian. We toasted to the success of the first Global Volunteer project with SOS. We all agreed that we had done a good job and that the students and staff appreciated the work we have done. It seems a sure thing that SOS would like more Global Volunteers in the future. It's been a memorable experience that we will not soon forget.

A note from Mr. Long

As a conversational English class, I personally found that the class has achieved:
1) Child’s self-confidence in speaking English.
2) Good contact and interaction between the volunteers and our kids.
3) Kids had accessed to the new way of teaching such as: singing a song, doing “moving exercises”, playing puzzle games, reading funny story.
4) Furthermore, our kids had developed their skills of working in group and “onstage/board” presentation.

* Things to be improved for next classes (conversational one.)
It would be excellent if the volunteers could have a “photo” instruction in showing vocabulary to the kids. I find it wonderful if they could get a copied image for illustration from THE OXFORD PICTURE DICTIONARY. Thanks for taking time to read these comments.

DUONG LONG
Sponsorship Secretary
Language Assistance to the Class”

Thursday July 2, 2009

Thought for the day: How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. ~Carol Sobieski and Thomas Meehan, Annie

It’s hard to believe that our time in Hanoi is rapidly coming to a close! We had our last class with the older group today and managed to cover a lot of ground. Several of us even learned the correct spelling of “rhinoceros,” though the group that came up with it was not rewarded in Mr. Long’s strict spelling bee. The theme for the day was animals and we quickly discovered that today’s group was copying yesterday’s vocab. list; I don’t think it’s a coincidence that “water-python” and “pearl” came up among both groups. But I suppose that the fact that they’re comparing notes outside of class can be considered a good thing. Team competition also continues to elicit an enthusiastic response and the students’ voracious search for new English words is fun to watch!

Another of many wonderful lunches from Ms. Tam: corn, chicken and mushroom soup; chicken, broccoli and cauliflower with ginger; Warren’s favorite fried spring rolls; and “soya cake” with tomato sauce, topped off with some kind of melon that tasted like a cross between cantaloupe and honeydew. We also got a short, but very interesting political lesson from Mr. Long.

After coffee and a final (and very efficient) lesson planning session in the Chica restaurant, the team separated to wrap up various shopping trips, etc. Ruth and I finally visited the Dong Xuan market, but were disappointed to find that most of the vendors were very eager to rip us off. Patrice revealed at dinner that she had a very productive encounter with our American professor friend at the hotel, who might have set her up with a teaching job for the next year!! Hope she won’t mind visitors!!

We enjoyed another fabulous dinner at the Green Tangerine. Overall a great second-to-last day for the team!

Monday June 29, 2009

The class was a little rocky today. We hadn’t seen the students for four days and they were a little wild. Plus, because of the new cabinets, we had class in a new room in which students sat at a big horseshoe-shaped table facing each other. The boys all sat together.

What worked: The most successful activity was one in which pairs of students were given a picture of a young man or woman in a current magazine. Students were asked to write three descriptive sentences of the clothing worn, including name of article, color and pattern. They had fun with this. Another successful activity was having students come to the front of the classroom and find a particular article of clothing from a pile of things teachers had brought in. Students knew their colors and most patterns. Activities that work best are those in which students compete and the class is divided into teams.

After class, volunteers, ladies all, had an afternoon of shopping. We have very few days left here and there were things each of us wanted to buy. We had great fun and it was good having the encouragement of each other as we tried on clothes and jewelry. We all agreed that having the support of one another made the experience much more enjoyable than shopping solo.

Weekend - Free Time!

The words that come to mind when thinking about this weekend’s trip to Ha Long Bay include: stunning scenery, luxury and ultimate relaxation. After a very productive, but somewhat tiring first week of teaching, 2 days on the Valentine was just what we all needed!

The four of us (minus Warren who had his own adventure to Viet Tri) set out from the Handspan office at 8 am Saturday morning and were entertained by our tour guide, Nam, and his Hanoi trivia. After a stop at a workshop benefitting victims of Agent Orange, we arrived at Ha Long City in a downpour. Thankfully, once we had taken a tender to our boat, been greeted with a drum performance and a “welcome drink,” and gotten settled into our beautifully appointed cabins, the skies began to clear. The boat had just 5 cabins, so we shared with 6 others: an adorable young couple and a glamorous Malaysian family.

As soon as Toni, our very industrious cruise director, laid out the itinerary, the first of three impressive meals was served. Ruth took pictures of every course, as the presentation itself was something to marvel at! With our stomachs/tummies/bellies full, we made our first stop at Teatop Island for a “walk” up the “hill,” which we soon discovered was more of a treacherous hike up a mountain of slippery stairs. The views at the top were pretty incredible! But I think we all gained an appreciation for why all of the Vietnamese people seemed to stay on the beach below, while only the Westerners were silly enough to walk up all those steps!

Next stop: kayaking! Toni opted out, so Patrice got to ride along with the guide, while Ruth was stuck with me. We managed pretty well though; I only ran us into the wall of a stone cave a couple of times. We paddled through a bat cave and between the beautiful karsts and saw some interesting wildlife, including BROWN jellyfish, as well as pink and blue.

Lounging on the sun deck, sipping fruity drinks and taking in the sunset, I think all of us were as relaxed as we have been since arriving in Vietnam. Another delicious meal followed and most of us found it impossible to keep our eyes open after that; however, Ruth stayed up later than everyone else, trying her hand at squid fishing and watching some of “The Quiet American.”
We rose early on Sunday morning (as soon as the engines turned on for me) for tai chi on the sun deck. The teacher was incredibly graceful; I much less so. We then set out for the “surprising cave,” a set of three increasingly big chambers filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and rocks in the shapes of dragons, turtles, a heart which Patrice spotted, Toni’s King Kong and a “finger.” The colored lights were a bit much, but they couldn’t ruin what was truly an incredible natural site. We showered, packed up and, of course, ended the trip with another meal – topped off with mango and watermelon smoothies adorned with mini-American flags, of course. We had a few intoxicated passengers up front on the bus ride back, but Patrice enjoyed some friendly conversation with the guys in the back. Feeling refreshed when we returned, we had an efficient lesson-planning session and stuck with the tried and true Chica restaurant at the hotel for dinner. All and all, a wonderful weekend and a much-appreciated respite from the hustle and bustle of Hanoi!

Thursday, June 25 2009

"Life is like a kaleidoscope; if you don't like your view, change it!" Warren Williams.

Early, early morning Hanoi is another city entirely from the one we see during daylight hours. Most of the city seems to come out to the lake to walk, participate in outdoor aerobic classes or, if you are a man, some kind of bizarre kicking-in-the-air thing. Dynamo Ruth roused her sluggard roomie Patrice in time to see this side of Hanoi, and both of us were glad for the sights as well as the exercise.

A few hours later, we were all off to our fourth day at the SOS Children's Village. Today's topic was Body Parts, and the students seemed to pick up an amazing amount of vocabulary in just a short time. They love the team competition, that's for certain! After our school day, we visited the Museum of Ethnology of Vietnam where we learned about several of the ethnic groups that make up this part of the world. It was bittersweet seeing the beautiful exhibits of tribal/ethic representations, knowing these ways of life are fast disappearing.

We agreed on a low-key dinner and took possession of our usual table at the restaurant Chica upstairs. We like the food and are treated like favorite guests there, always a nice way to end our day.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

"I am an old man and I have known a great many trouble but most of them never happened" Mark Twain

Today we taught the older kids (13 - 15) at the SOS Children's Village. Dividing the class into teams was a big hit. The students love competition, as it turns out.

Another fun and successful activity was singing "YMCA" lead by our own North Carolinian, Ruth. There's nothing quite as endearing as hearing sweet Vietnamese voices singing "Young ma-an, there's no need to feel down..." Before they actually sang, Mary wanted to review the lyrics and asked them to listen and just read. They weren't supposed to sing, and yet, all around the room we could hear the song being sung ever so softly. They simply had to sing.

After lunch and a siesta in the cool, quiet guest house, we had a meeting with Mr. Dung, the school director. Because we are the first volunteers to work for SOS, there was some confusion for both parties about our expectations. Warren, our team leader, explained graciously the philosophy of GV, that we purchase materials and supplies for the project on which we work. It was a mutually respectful meeting in which we laid the groundwork on which future projects can be built.

We went to furniture row, and after some serious negotiations in a cabinet shop, we bought four lovely book cabinets for the school library.

The day was rewarding and we all felt some pride and satisfaction with this first program with the SOS community. They expressed their gratitude for our work with the students and we in turn expressed our pleasure for having this opportunity to contribute. We all expressed our hopes for future global volunteer programs with the SOS Children's village.