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 #13 - End of the week

Little ones with the masks

Oh this has been quite a week, ver busy. Monday I started to do the Community classes in the morning and go to the hospital in the afternoon and Tuesday and Wednesday the same schedule. This was a little tiring, trying to keep the students focused for two hours and entertain the little ones for three hours needs a lot of creativity and energy.

Community class @ Park

The Community classes theme this week was Traveling and one of activities is to explain to the students what is a bucket list and ask them to make their own bucket list. I gave examples and afterwards they had to write their own. To make them practice their English speech I asked all of them to share their list. This was quite funny, from being an Icon (for no specific reason, the student just wants to be famous), to visit the sea reefs, travel the world to... "I want to become a boy." Yeah you read it correctly, this girl wants to become a boy. In the beginning I thought that I didn't understand correctly but then she repeated. Once I finally understood what she meant I was a little surprised. Not only because I was not expecting that answer but also with her confidence to say and share that wish with everyone else in the class. The other students started to say that she just needed to go to Thailand and do the operation and she just replied "Yes, I know I can go to Thailand, I am already saving money, I really want to do this!" Well, if before I was surprised then I have got really impressed with her confidence (Go girl!) and also with the other students. Of course they made comments but none of them were malicious and once I asked another student for his bucket list, they changed subject and we moved on. I just thought "If this was in the Western side of the world this girl would be so bullied in this class!!" - is good to know that here is different. As part of the class on Wednesday we went to the park to talk about nature. We played games and the students had to create their natural world. They did some impressive creative things and I believe they also enjoyed it. By the way I also never took so many pictures with people. I mean, I never had so many people wanting to take picture with me, but I guess this just shows that they like me and that is a good thing. After this class Nhung offered me a ride back in her motorbike but I took the bus, I was not brave enough. I regret it now because I want to experience a ride in a motorbike and I might not have another opportunity... bug bummer!   

This week was also the first time that I had to take the bus by myself to go to the hospital - this was an experience. First I had to cross one of the busiest roads in Hanoi - well I stop by the road letting all the motorbikes pass until I saw a local. I waited for him until he started to cross the road and then crossed as well - I need some "support"! Then I got in the bus and everything seemed to go perfect, no major incidents... until I had to get out of the bus. I was by the door with only one lady ahead of me. The bus stops, doors open and the one lady ahead of me get out of the bus and when I stepped down and I am almost passing the door... The bus starts again and closes the door and I am hit by the door and pulled inside the bus. The girl behind me starts shouting to the driver and he brakes in a way that I go against the door again. He finally opens the door and I shoot out of the bus - I was not getting stuck in that bus with that driver again!! The lady that got out of the bus before me just waited for me to leave the bus and said something to me and smiled... I just shrugged and went to the hospital - I have no clue of what she said to me but I guess was something like "next time be faster they are crazy here!!" Going in a bus here is so funny, is almost like a roller coaster... Ok I am exaggerating but when the bus just slows down but doesn't really stop to people go in or out of the bus; When you hear the motorbikes "hitting" the bus all the way and nothing happens - I guess you understand what I mean don't you? I have told you that there is no rules in the road for motorbikes (well there must be some, they just don't follow) apart from: if it's a bus, it's bigger than you, let it go first.  

Little girl with her plasticine creations

All my afternoons I spent in the hospital playing with the kids. We did a lot of things; from playing with plasticine, making portraits (I made my own portrait and all the kids couldn't stop laughing, I guess it just shows how good I am at it), making our own masks, make origami, singing songs, etc. Sometimes is really hard to start with them but now they recognize us already which makes it a little easier. There is this little girl that in the first day I spent the time trying to get a word from her. Ok I wouldn't understand but would be nice to have a little word. She also wouldn't give me a smile. I sat her on my lap and we started to make a puzzle. She was really shy but when the other kids started to play with plasticine she also wanted to do it but she is just too little, she is just 3 years old. Let's say that my skills with plasticine are close to none but I know how to make balls and strings and that's what I did for her... And I got in return a beautiful little smile - Yahooo she was so amused with those that I spent the rest of the afternoon doing it. The day after the moment I arrive at the hospital and she saw me, she came right after me and when I sat she pointed saying that she wanted to be on my lap and we started to play again. She even sang a bit, and that was all the words she ever said to me.

Yesterday I gave to them the animal masks that Alison Pirie donated. They were so happy, you should have seen it!! Was so nice to see. One of the boys got the Lion mask, he loves lions because they are the strongest and the king of the jungle. We didn't need to do anything else the rest of the afternoon we just played with the masks, making the sound of animals - this was hilarious. There was this little kid... he is such a cheeky little monkey!! Just running around, with a cheeky smile... so cute!!

Pho Gà

Every time I go to the hospital I always have a local supporter to help us translating. And one of the days Hóa and Doanh came with me. They asked me if I had children and how old I am. When I said that I am a single 30 year old they explained to me that in Vietnam that is unacceptable. Hóa is 24 years old and her mother is asking her if she has a boyfriend. I didn't have to ask to see that she doesn't and she said that in Vietnam is very difficult a woman pursue a career and not get married. When I asked her what happens to the women that don't get married, she said that people won't talk about her and with her. Knowing this was a bit of a shock to me and I just told them, that in the West is easier to have a career than a husband - at least I managed to make her smile. After finishing the day at he hospital the girls invited me to go try Pho and it was delicious. I had Pho Gà (chicken noodles) and it was really good, I used chopsticks and a spoon to eat it - like a local. Another tick in my list of things to do in Vietnam.    

In the volunteer house things have been funny as well. On the same night, I went to a shopping centre here in Hanoi that is like a palace and then went for drinks to Tom's, our Vietnamese local bar, to have a couple of bia with the new volunteers. Once we all went back home, C. found a mice in one of the bathrooms. Yeah , A MICE!!! I just ran to the kitchen and went on top of the chair. The other crazy ones just stayed in front of the bathroom door trying to find the mouse. In the meantime in the kitchen... we closed the door so the mice wouldn't come in and M. started to toast some bread. We were so focused in making sure that the mouse wouldn't come in that when the toasts were ready and jumped we all jumped as well... we got scared!! This was just hilarious!! We ended the night dancing on top of chairs avoiding the mouse.

My cutest little friend

And now is the weekend and myself, E. and A. are spending the weekend in Cat Ba, an island close to Halong Bay. The weather this week hasn't been warm at all, just 18ºC, at some point it felt like I was back in UK's summer but the heat is coming back in the weekend, hopefully, we will be able to enjoy some sunshine by the seaside and get some healthy color.

Plasticine creations (none is mine)

Day #9 - Teaching and Street Food

Community class 

Today I had my first full day of volunteering work. I started in the morning with Community classes. In these classes we have the university students that want to learn English but can't afford to pay the classes.

I started the class by introducing myself and as I mentioned before once I say what my job is I cannot not spend 30 minutes talking about chocolate. They wanted to know how to make chocolate and I think I managed to explain in the most simple way possible. They were so excited that when I said that my first job was in coffee, they also wanted to know everything about coffee and here when they learned that Vietnam was the first country to export coffee they felt very proud. They also have good coffee here.

After talking about me, chocolate and coffee we started the class with theme traveling. It was very good and I had lots of fun. Hopefully the students from tomorrow will enjoy as much as the ones today. As part of one task they had to create a "bucket list" and one of them just wrote "pretty wife", I thought it was fair, who wouldn't want that?!

Afternoon I went to the hospital again and played with the children. In the beginning is always hard to get their attention and will but with time we manage to lure them to participate in the activities. Boh was there again and we made a face mask together. But today there was this little girl, she must be 3 years old and she wouldn't say a word or give a smile. I tried everything I could without being able to say a word i Vietnamese until I think she gave me a smile... I think, I am still not sure about it.

Enjoying Vietnamese Street food

The day ended having Vietnamese street food (they say!), Vietnamese pasta and pizza, all very delicious, however I only had a tiny bit. I am not feeling great - my belly is not right!! It was something I ate but I am not stopping eating...  food is just sooo good. I am just going to lay on my bed and sleep! Hopefully tomorrow I will feel better. I so much hope so! 

Today is short, I am just not feeling very well.