CSDS, Vietnam - Life is beautiful

CSDS goodbye present

After one week of being back home I can now better reflect on my last 3 weeks in Vietnam. I didn't have much expectations to be honest or at least I tried to not raised any. When I was preparing everything for my trip I read the volunteer guide that the organization sent me. In this guide I had all the information, from what I should take, a bit of Vietnamese history and also a little bit of what we should expect of being a volunteer.

Happy beautyful little girl

After reading all of it I thought "yeah I am not going there and change anyone's life!!" and it's true we don't change anyone's life by spending a few months with them and in my case even less because I was going to be there for just 2 weeks. When I started to think about it I wondered if it made sense to go for just 2 weeks... I was troubled with these thoughts for a while. But then, what does it matter if it's just for 2 weeks, 2 days or 2 hours... you can actually impact someone's life just by spending 2 minutes with them. We don't make a big change people's life but we definitely can have a little impact. And that my friends... that is exactly how I felt every day that I spend with the children or with the students in the community classes. Yes I didn't do anything special, I just played with kids tried to entertain them and I also only spoke english with the students, what does it matter?? I help the little ones go through the afternoon with a bit more fun and I helped the students to know even if just 1 more word or that Portugal exists and where in the map. Is this too little? Probably but... Well it felt like a lot to me. So looking back there is nothing that  would change about this experience. The CSDS staff was the most helpful and gentle that I could ask. I met very interesting people that do an amazing job to help their community, people passioned about their work, people that actually care. They do an amazing work with the little resources they have.

I learned through these weeks that life is beautiful, you help by giving whatever you have (english knowledge or just passion for children) and you get it all back. You get it all back by having just one little girl coming to play with you every time she sees you or just having students saying that they enjoyed the class and they wished you could stay longer.

At this moment I am writing with tears in my eyes. I really connected with the children I met, I loved the time I spent there and everyone I met. I just wished I could have stayed longer. But duty called.

Another learning is that, it is very good to travel alone. You meet a lot of people and you are a lot more open to talk with different people. You meet a lot of people that turn up to be really weird but that is fun too.

So I will probably repeat this experience... Maybe I will go back... who knows.

Day #18 - Last day volunteering

Tuesday's community class

Today was my last day in the volunteering projects. In the morning I went to give my last community class. It was so weird, I really enjoyed to do that and I also really liked my students - Is so funny to say My students! We talked about cultural differences and we had a very interesting conversation about this. At the end of the class they asked me if I was going to teach the class on Friday and I had to tell them that it was my last day. They felt sorry and said that I was a very good teacher (this was surprising to me) and they asked me to take some pictures with them. Of course I also took a picture of this class. On Monday I said goodbye to Nhung but I wasn't sure if I could hug her or not, so we just waved to each other, but today with the girl from the community class she said goodbye and then she came and give me a hug. Was so cool, I really wanted to hug Nhung to say goodbye but I wasn't sure if it was ok, so this time was nice to do that.

My goodbye postcards

In the afternoon I went as well on my last trip to the hospital. I didn't have any particular activity in mind but then Eve suggested them to make a goodbye card for me and they did!! This little boy that the day before was sad because he missed all the activities, he was there and the moment he saw me he smiled and then he did my postcard. It is a beautiful postcard where he also made a draw of myself. So cute. As we are in a children hospital we have children from 6 months to 16 years old, so yesterday this 16 year old boy was there and he wanted to practice his English. As he was very ill he was missing a lot of classes and he wanted to know my opinion about his English level. I have to say that it was very good, he knew a lot of words and could spell very well as well. 

Street Food with the local supporters

As this was my last at the hospital we went all for street food. The local supporters took us again and once more it was delicious. I have to say that my European body doesn't seem to be coping very well with the vietnamese food but I am not stopping eating, I take Imodium and hope it just goes away. Of course that when saying goodbye there was a lot of hugs and they also gave me really nice feedback which made me very happy. It is really weird to know that I won't be seeing the little ones again, in 2 weeks I just connected with them. Well, who knows me knows that I love children anyway. 

Karaoke bar

Today was not only my last day in the volunteers house, was also Emma's and Sophie's last day, therefore, we all went for Karaoke after dinner. Yeah, Karaoke!! I couldn't come to Asia and not go for Karaoke, it would be outrageous!! So we went to this Karaoke place and we all got a room just for ourselves - it was hilarious!! I forgot to mention!! When we were going inside the bar I asked the guy if people could smoke inside (this was  stupid question, of course they can but I was just checking), I didn't use words I just put my two fingers, like people do to hold the cigarette, and put close to my lips. Well the guy understood something different, he thought I was asking if they do blowjobs in there!! He makes the move that everyone knows it's referring to blowjob and nods his head saying yes. It was hilarious. 

CSDS volunteers

Karaoke was amazing, so much fun. I was the oldest person in the room... does that really matters?? I was with friends and I was having fun. The waiters just kept on bringing beer and fill our cups while we were trying to sing. We had different music lists in different languages and it was just hilarious to see that when we thought we asked a song, actually it was something completely different that would show up on screen. Amazing!! I couldn't possibly ask for a better "farewell" party.

The volunteering is finished - sad face - and now is time to enjoy a bit more of the Vietnamese Paradises. Tomorrow I am going on a 2 days cruise to Halong Bay. Tonight I am staying in a hotel in the city centre and tomorrow early morning I depart and will spend the night in the cruise. For someone that doesn't really like boats this is going to be interesting. Yeah I know!! You are thinking "how can she not like boats when she did surf??!!", well is not the same thing is it? I am not in a cage that if it drowns, it takes me with it!! Anyway, I know is silly fear but I believe I will be ok. In the next couple of days I am also spoiling myself. this trip so far has been about low cost traveling but the next couple of days I will go on a very nice cruise and I will spend my last night in a very good hotel where I have booked a massage!! I believe I deserve this treat. I haven't done anything to celebrate my new job and promotion and also I got my bonus last month so now is... me me me time. I will be traveling alone the next couple of days which is also a experience as since I landed in Vietnam I didn't spend a minute alone. Wish me luck :)

Day #17 - Weekend and so much more

I have so much to tell, to describe, to share!!! I have done so many things and... Oh I don't want to go back... I am loving this here.

Cute little one that I wanted to bring to England

Let's start from the beginning which is actually the end... the end of the week. Friday work at the hospital started with a ride in a motorbike in Hanoi. I was super scared but then I loved it. Remember me saying that I didn't go when Nhum offered me a ride and I regretted, well I didn't miss my second chance... Once we got to the hospital, we did lots of cool activities with the littles ones. Was just so much fun. Ok not just for the kids for me as well. We did a puppet show, to tell the story of the three little pigs, we played duck duck goose, we danced the chicken dance (Passarinhos a bailar para os Tugas) and the hoky poky... so many things. Trying to teach the chicken dance to children with their parents watching is just hilarious... they make a lot of fun of you, is just impressive. And of course my little girl that just wants to sit on my lap was there and I made her dance, she smiled when I just put her up in the air (yeah I know that chicken dance doesn't do that, neither the hoky poky but I improvised... eheheheh) It was so cool, I took so many pictures and was just good to see everyone enjoying themselves. Oh and I met this cute little baby girl with whom I just fell in love with. I said to her mom that I just wanted to take her with me and when she told the little girl, she just started to cry. Awww, so sweet, so sweet, so sweet!!! After all the dance we managed to make everyone sit and listen to the 3 little pigs story, and the little girl came to sit on my lap and then another one also came and then... well lets say there wasn't anymore space for anyone to sit.

Watching the 3 little pigs

After finishing at the hospital the weekend started with the trip to Cat Ba island. We took the train to go to Hai Phong where then we would take the ferry to the island, this is a 3 hours trip. Once we got to the train station bought our tickets I asked the lady which platform we would take the train. She looked very confused and pointed in the direction of the train outside. I thought "well that's helpful, how do I know if this train goes to where we want??" so we just came outside to wait for the train and I realized that the train was in the platform waiting for 6 o'clock and there was only ONE train in the ONLY platform of the station!! "Oh that's what the lady tried to say!!! Got it!!" I went to Cat Ba with Eve and Amandine. Eve is blonde and that makes her very popular in this country so while we were waiting for the train the train drivers spent the time checking on Eve and smiling at her. When she just asked to take a picture of them... I think they fell in love. Ah, almost forgot to mention the train... Oh dear, when we saw the train from outside we thought "we will never make to Hai Phong tonight!!" but actually, once we got in it looked pretty ok. Is not the most modern but the seats were good, there was plugs to charge phone or laptop and screens. Oh the screens!! Let me tell you, I spend 3 hours of train journey listening to Vietnamese type of Eurovision show is not entertaining... but we survived. And let me tell you this was not the worst... or the best let's put this way. At some point, while I was almost falling asleep, Amandine does a fast move and wakes me. When I look at her she just says "I think I saw something moving on the floor, I felt something!!", "What do you mean you felt/saw something" - I say. She is French and her English is not very good but she used enough words to make me understand that she saw a MOUSE!!! The moment I realise this I put my legs up and at this time the ladies on the sit next to us, realising what just happened, start to laugh of us. Let's just say that I spent 2.5 hours of the journey with my legs up... my. feet. didn't. touch. the. floor. 

Seafood hot pot

We made it to Hai Phong safely and on Saturday we woke up to have breakfast and catch the ferry to the island. And the breakfast was just something... They had RICE for breakfast!!! Is not enough that I spend the time having rice for lunch and dinner, here at the volunteers house, I also have rice for breakfast in the hotel???!!! You are kidding me, right!!! Well, I didn't have rice or noodles, I stack with the toasted bread with butter and water. Then take the ferry to the island. We finally get to the island and went for some walking around and went to our hostel. Once we got there we ordered food and organized a half day tour around the island. Do you want to know what I had for lunch??!! Seafood hot pot, yeah, exactly that. It is delicious!!! Being in this island I had to have seafood. I have to be honest with you guys, I was worried about getting food poisoned but no, it didn't happen... and thank God because that would have made my afternoon a nightmare!! I could try to describe what a hot pot is but there's no words to make it justice. In the afternoon we went with our drivers (motorbikes drivers... we could have rented a motorbike but the english and french girls were a bit scared so we had drivers with us) around the island. We visit an Hospital cave that was used during the war with Americans, to protect from the bombing, we visited Cat Ba national park and went up the mountain. It took us 1 hour to go up and another hour to get down. I saw this funky spider with yellow and orange head and, what I believe to be a colorful crab. I pretended to be cool about it, but inside... inside I was Freaking out. Anyway, being on top and the view makes totally worth the hassle to go up. And great that was cold that day, otherwise I am not sure if I would manage to just take one hour to go up... I was boiling when I got there. And as I was so scared of being bitten by something I had my jumper and trousers down... so I was really, really, really hot!!

In the jungle, kind of

Trekking in the mountains was really cool and we met a lot of people... Foreigners - locals don't seem to do these things. I met a couple, he is American and she is Dutch and once I started to go down the mountain he told me "See you at the bar tonight!" and I thought "yeah see you at the bar." And guess what we had dinner at the same place and he actually ate the chicken burger that I ordered. This is quite a funny one. I order a chicken burger (yeah I know that right now you are saying, she went to Vietnam and is eating burgers - silly one.) yeah I can still hear all of you, but after so many days eating noodles and rice, I just wanted something different. Moving on... I ordered my burger and waited... waited and waited, once I got my burger I see that is not chicken burger. I call the waiter and told him that my burger was not chicken. He told me it was and I was like "Look this is not chicken, this is beef!!" and he looks at me, confused and say "That is chicken beef" - at this moment all of us look at him with a face like "really??" anyway they took my burger back and bring me afterwards my chicken burger and 50% discount. While I was waiting for the burger with the right meat, Travis (the American we met at the national park) said "hey I heard you ordered a chicken burger, is it this one??" Oh he had ordered a beef burger and the waiter just messed up with our orders and while I (Portuguese, European) didn't accept that, Travis (American, over polite, hungry guy) took the burger he didn't order because he thought they would through the food in the bin. Is just funny. We all ended the night at a bar where all the foreigners go. The bar is really cool, they have a jukebox... well is not really a jukebox, is a laptop where you can go to youtube and choose any song you want to listen at the bar... you end up listening to random music but is actually quite cool. I met people from everywhere, America, Netherlands, South Korea, South America, etc everyone just traveling and meeting at this place. You won't believe how many of these people quit their jobs to go travel for 1 year... so many stories and so inspiring. I had conversations about everything and anything, is just so good to meet people with so different and random life stories, so interesting lives around there. And I have to say that tell someone what my job is, is just hilarious... even more if they are from countries like South Africa, where Cadbury is like "The. Brand." Anyway was just really good evening. We went home at 3 in the morning and really happy... probably drunk as well.

Cat Ba beach - Paradise for me

Sunday we went to the beach. Dam' it was perfect. Beautiful beach, warm water... a paradise on earth, I am still amazed. Then we had to start the journey home and once we got back to Hanoi and took the taxi, the fun was not over. Our taxi driver was just insane!!! We came in a taxi with super loud electronic music and the taxi drove like we were in Fast & Furious 8!! I was in the middle on the back seat watching every. single. move. I thought I was going to die. Luckily I am still here to tell you all about this craziness.

Now I am just having my last two days at the hospital. Today we played with the little ones and when we were leaving, this little boy, that is usually always with us came from his treatment and he was so disappointed because he missed the activities... I felt so guilty for leaving him!! So I promised him that tomorrow we will do the same thing together. Feels so weird to leave them, I wish I could stay here for longer. I can't believe that it's almost over...

Day #3 &4 - I arrived in Hanoi

After 23 hours of traveling I finally arrived in Hanoi at the Volunteers house. My journey until here it was good with some setbacks. I did Paris to Doha, Doha to Bangkok and finally Bangkok to Hanoi with Qatar airways. If you ever have the chance to fly with tis airline, take it!! They know what they are doing. My flight to Doha was on the A380 - 800 and that thing is like a city on air, you can even have access to wifi. The food is quite good, they keep feeding you every minute and you can watch all kinds of movies - they have a great selection!! (If you haven't watch Big Hero 6, have a go is quite good movie) I had to do 2 stops which was quite tiring but gave me the chance to walk around a bit and do some exercise. Also I had the best smoothie ever at Doha airport and managed to loose my passport in Bangkok.

I always thought how does it feel when you hear your name loud around a massive airport... well now I know and I don't want to repeat the experience, because for a couple of minutes I thought "F#$%, f#$%, f#$% what am I going to do??" and almost cried until my "prince in white horse", aka Thai policeman, came to rescue me with my beloved passport! Ufa, safei-me!!

First thing once I arrived in Hanoi was "Dam' is so hot in here!!" it feels like you can't breathe, you just start to sweat and there is nothing you can do (for the Mondelez guys, imagine the worst hottest days in V4 office with all the windows closed - yap just like that!). Getting in the car with air conditioning is like being in heaven and you can finally feel normal again. It took me a bit to get used to this again and I think now I feel ok. It's not the temperature that is too much, is the crazy humidity - and oh my hair, yep this curls are getting wild!

On our way to the house, the traffic is just insane. They hit the horn for anything, you see people riding a bike with a small caravan on the back with someone laying down on a hammock and enjoying his ride; people crossing the road in the middle of the motorway and a man peeing on the side walk park without turning is back to the road - funny and insane as well.

Had my introduction to the house, is very simple but has everything and well it is an ONG so they have better things where to put their money on. we also had a neighborhood tour where we went to heck the local market. Apparently, one of the specialties here in Vietnam is dog. I saw one cooked in the market, they also had the face with teeth. I think I want to try but I cannot erase that image from my head. But I promise to give it a try, on the first day I believe it was too much.

Had my first meal, it was curry no big deal but it was good. After that we went for drinks to this local "bar". By bar I mean plastic table and chairs on the street and we had some bia, vietnamese beer. It was cold so to me it was good already. After that going to bed was just perfect. I didn't feel any jet lag but I was tired after all the traveling.

More new things to come tomorrow.

It's time to go!!

This is it! I am going!

I have passport, Vietnam guide and my lucky charm (the keys of my home in Portugal) so I am ready to go!!

The last couple of weeks have been crazy, so many things happening at the same time that I don't think my brain realized that it's here... it's now... I am going.

So many questions, so many fears (the plane accident in France definitely did not help!!), so many things to be excited about, so many things to think about, to organize... aaahhhhhhh But in the end, this is why I am doing this. This trip is all about to do this volunteering experience and take me completely out of my comfort zone. Ana's, an old friend of mine, reaction was "Vietnam??!! Really?? Why? Why don't you go to... France?!" - I still smile when I think about this.

I have just finished packing everything, or at least what I think it is everything. I tried to be a bit prepared for any situation but knowing myself I probably forgot to pack something very important... but hey!! That is part of the fun isn't it?

However during all this preparation, to make sure that I leave everything done at work that I have all the vaccines, all the paperwork and so on, didn't prepare me to feel ill just before departure. Yes, I have a flu like I don't think I had for many years, I even stayed one day at home to try to recover a bit more. I feel better. I also took a lot of drugs and I have some more to take in the next couple of days. Whoever is going to be in the same flights as me I say "I am really sorry!!", I am taking medicines and sleeping pills so I won't disturb too much anyone with my unstoppable, irritating cough. I am trying my best.

Of course that at this moment my brain doesn't stop to try to predict what I am going to find once I get there. How are the people going to react? What am I going to do on my daily basis? What are the conditions? How many kids is in the Hospital? Are they going to like me? Am I going to be able to help them and make their lives a little easier? How am I going to react? And of course also remember to follow every rule, understand any detail of the culture so that I don't offend anyone, anywhere, what will I be able to visit? All sorts of food that I want to try. Wow, so many many things. All the activity meant that I haven't been able to sleep properly so I woke up ridiculously early and went to work before 7am!!! Yeah you read right 7am - at least I managed to do everything I wanted/needed.

Before I go I also need to thank to some of my friends, Verinha for helping me setting up this blog, Carlinhos for helping us with ideas, my family for showing me that there is nothing else that matters than being there for someone when they need the most and all the other ones that supported with money, with time or just a "good luck, you'll do great!!".

Some of you might think that this is a weird thank you but I am also very lucky to work in a company like Mondelez, where everyone supports these initiatives. I am taking 3 weeks off work: 2 holiday and 1 week unpaid leave, while in the meantime, I was in the process of changing job and getting a promotion. To me this is a Great Place to Work... working with your friends and making chocolate helps a lot... I cannot deny it.

So to be honest I have no clue of what I am going to find. I don't know what my next 3 weeks will be like, but I am with arms/heart wide open. I want to see, I want to learn, I want to live and enjoy every single minute of this experience. And if at the end of this program I managed to make someone smile because I was just there giving my time and sharing my craziness I will come back with my heart full of hope and happiness.

Time to go...  I am ready!! Let's go :)

Count down #30 days to go

And there it is!! It's one month to go. Exciting!!

Everyone is asking me if I am ready... well let's say that I am not a person that plans a lot. As an example, when I moved to the UK I was not even aware that the plugs were different from continental Europe. Yep, that's me. I had where to live, I had someone to pick me up from the train station, what else did I need?? Well I found it quickly when I realised I couldn't charge my laptop...

So this time I am doing exactly... the same. I have the flights booked, I have accommodation sorted, I have someone picking me up from airport, I had the vaccines that I need, I know roughly the weather forecast, I know some places that I definitely want to visit and I read about the history and culture of the country so... Anything else I will figure it out once I am in Hanoi.

Things that I still need to prepare for the trip?? Well I  want to learn some Vietnamese words and I need a back pack that my friend Cathy is going to lend me.

I just realised that I actually planned a lot for this trip. I believe I am sorted... Now is just counting the days. 

Who am I and why am I here?

My name is Juliana better known as Ju. I am a Portuguese food scientist working in chocolate... yeah making chocolate is actually a job. I like science but I also like everything that is design, marketing and artistic. I love to have a project and dive in to it, love making stuff. I love summer, beach, flip flops and bikinis. I like pink, photography, sunset, friends and family.  I haven't travel much but I love it; in my bucket list I have the 7 wonders of the world. I like dinners with friends/family and crying from laughter. I like snowboarding, surfing and kick box. I love reading all sorts of books, from Fifty shades of Grey or Twilight saga to Dostoevsky. 

I like to look at my days and feel that I contributed to something good in some kind of way. I love to be inspired, empowered by people and the feeling that everything is possible. I believe that humans are capable of doing the best and worst that you can possible imagine. 
If I had to define myself with a quote it would say: "In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart. - Anne Frank"



How I've got here?

This all started 2 years ago when I was talking with Cathy about the fact that I wanted to do something different in my holiday. I wanted to have another life experience kind of thing. She had just come back from climbing the Kilimanjaro and I was so jealous... I wanted to go as well, I wanted to know a different country, I wanted to see the world, I wanted an once in a lifetime experience.

I was telling her "I wanted to climb Kili as well, however my friends don't really do these kind of things... they don't like it or just can't afford it" and travel alone in Africa or Asia, at that time, didn't seem a safe option.

That's when Cathy mentioned to me about volunteering abroad - a lot of people do it and take the chance to travel and know the countries/cultures. What a great idea!!! I can travel and at the same time help people in need. I searched and found so many programs - I didn't know that it was so easy to do something like this. You can help children, teach English, educate communities or even monitor animals in danger. Right so... the easy bit is done, now comes the hard part: I needed time and money and at that time I didn't have the holidays. So I postponed to next year... bummer

I was about to turn 30 last year and I had this goal of, before my birthday I would travel somewhere outside Europe for the first time in my life. I had holidays planned and... well it didn't happen. In last minute plans completely changed. So I ended up not having the holiday that I was supposed to have neither reach my goal - double bummer. 

So I thought "well if you can't go travel at least you can volunteer in Birmingham you just need to find something that you would like to do!!" and that's when I applied to be a volunteer in Birmingham Children's Hospital. However, I think I was not in a lucky moment and, guess what?? I was not selected. I felt really sad, I really wanted to volunteer and support children that are having a hard time. The job was to read stories, play games and spend time with them once a week. But well, they are lucky to have so many people willing to help them - bummer for me and good for the children.

But hey, I didn't give up!!!

Christmas time came and by talking with friends about what to do on our holidays I realized that they just wanted to go to a beach and do nothing... Don't get me wrong, I love that! I can do months of going to the beach enjoy sunshine and surf and volleyball, but this time I wanted something more. So I made the decision that I would go volunteer with children this year. I wanted to do it with children and I wanted to do it in Southeast Asia. Once again Cathy drove this decision a little. She had been on holiday in Cambodia and came back saying that people were so nice and kind... people that had nothing and still would always give you a smile. I looked! I compared! And I decided to be a volunteer in a Children's Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam with Friends for Asia. I don't really know how to explain it but I feel this urge to go.

And this is why I am here, i am telling you my story in Vietnam. From how am I getting there, my experience as volunteer and also a bit of the sightseeing that I hope to be able to do once I am there. 

I will also be sharing stories about people that are shaking the world by helping their relatives, someone on the street or their community.

Hopefully, you'll feel inspired as well because you know what??!! One can Shake the World.