Volunteering in Vietnam

The first two weeks of December we spent in a teeny-tiny village in northern Vietnam volunteering.  We were part of a group of 9 people: Mr. K and I, another American woman, a Dutch man, and 5 people our age from Vietnam.  We stayed in a basic house with a family.  We all slept together on the floor on really thin mattresses.  It was like a big sleepover!  The kitchen had no running water, just a hose that connected from the river to some buckets they kept full.  The "stove/oven" was just a fire with a grate and space to cook with 2 pots.  So when we helped the mom cook we had to make each dish separately.  That means it's normal for the first food cooked to get cold while you cook the other things.  She had to be very organized to know which order to cook things in.  Also, she only gets one heat with fire!  No knobs like we have at home.

Some of the things we did while we were there was: planting trees to help keep the soil in place on the hills, harvesting a whole field of corn and taking the husks off of hundreds of corn ears, clearing some land so that a family could build a house there, and dragging huge long logs down a steep, slippery, muddy slope for a family to use to build their house.  It was tough work!  But it felt really good to be helping people who have to make and do everything for themselves.  They always worked with us and were so thankful that we were there.  They cooked us special meals and had a nice celebration for us our first night.  We really got to feel like we were a part of the village life.

While we were there we also had a lot of free time to just explore the beautiful area.  We walked around the rice fields and through some bamboo forests (very cool!) and to other close villages.  One day we got stuck on the wrong side of the river and had to find some rocks to cross.  It was a little scary and dangerous but we all made it.  Another thing we did at nights was teach English to local kids.  They would come just because they wanted to learn from about 7-8:30 at night.  I couldn't believe they were there when I felt so exhausted.  I thought that was pretty incredible.  They have a pretty hard life and a lot of responsibilities but they still made the extra effort to keep learning.

Since that ended we have visited the big city of Hanoi, an island called Cat Ba Island, spent an overnight on a boat in the bay, and now we're in a town called Hoi An.  Unfortunately, for a lot of this I was sick.  I didn't know it but I had bronchitis.  That means I had a horrible cough, the kind that hurts, and an ear infection and it was difficult to breathe.  When I finally got to Hoi An and knew there was an English speaking doctor he told me I had a fever of 103.6!  It was really scary to be sick in a foreign country.  But now I have the right medicine and I'm starting to get better.

I hope you're all doing well in school and life.  You're probably really excited for the holidays and your long break!  If you're celebrating, Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!  I hope you have an excellent, relaxing, fun break.  Hope to hear from you soon or in the New Year!