The Family's Soon-to-be Old House

Their house is the small one in the front of this picture.  The larger house belongs to an uncle.

Hello from Ben TRE

First, I have been spelling our town name wrong.  It’s actually “Ben Tre” not “Ben Tri.” Oops!  Second, I broke a kid’s arm….but we will get to that later!!

Alright so we are officially in Ben Tre and have gotten new roommates.  My roommate’s name is Than-super cute, tall, and a little shy.  She doesn’t speak English as well as Mushroom, but we laugh a lot, especially when we don’t understand each other.  Instead of saying “huh?” or “what?” when she doesn’t understand me, Than always says “yes?”  I can’t count the times I’ve kept talking thinking she was just answering my question when really she wanted me to repeat it.  OOPS!

Ben Tre is pretty awesome.  We are totally in the jungle.  It’s actually in an area called the Mekong Delta-lots and lots of trees, rivers, and streams.  There is a major difference here though.  Every time we leave the guest house, we all have to wear these bright orange shirts (super cute…not!) and tell the government, The People’s Committee, where we are going.  Oftentimes, they will follow us around to see what we are doing and stuff.  It was weird at first, but now it just seems like extra security for us.  Also, the food here is delicious.  Last night we had my favorite so far: sticky rice with peanuts! YUMMY! The best part of Ben Tre is the FRUIT! It literally grows on trees everywhere and you can pretty much reach up, grab something, and eat it right then and there!  They are also famous for their coconuts and coconut candy-it’s everywhere. 

We actually got to tour a one of the candy-making factories.  They boil down coconut water till it’s really thick, add sugar, and then make a GINORMOUS chuck of hot taffy before they cut it all down into little pieces.  We all got to have some samples…BUT they were durian flavored! UGH.  I don’t know if I’ve talked about durian before BUT it’s nasty!  The fruit itself is this huge, green ball of spikes and smells like a combination of garbage, dirt, and nastiness!  You can smell a single durian from 10 feet away. BLAAAHHH. Don’t worry, I’m not being offensive.  The Vietnamese all laugh at us as we pass their durian stands!  They all know it smells terrible.  According to Tri, “It smells like hell, but tastes like heaven.”  I’ve tasted it, and I think it still tastes like hell.  The smell is so bad that the government in China (I think) has made it against the law to carry durian on any form of public transportation.  And the funny thing is, the people here love this stuff…it’s in their candy, crackers, smoothies, anything.

Okay, enough about that.  So we are actually only going to be building one house for the next three weeks.  We don’t have enough time and people to build the second one.  We wake up every morning around 5:30 to leave for our bike ride on time.  The bike ride is awesome.  We ride through busy streets avoiding all the crazy motorbikes carrying pregnant pigs, live ducks hanging by their feet, and buckets of baby chickens.  Then we turn onto this tiny sidewalk that runs through the jungle and over lots of tiny streams.  After about 30 minutes, we have made it really deep into the jungle and park our bikes at this nice lady’s house before walking further back to our location.  The trail back to the family’s house is barely even marked.  We have to cross 3 of these things called “monkey bridges.”  They are bridges that are just one or two poles of bamboo or a fallen coconut tree.  We actually had to have them put some more bamboo sticks in so we could cross them without falling into the water; but of course, the local people practically run over the normal without any issues.

The family that we are building for is one of the poorest in the whole village.  The mom and dad supposedly have some sort of mental issue.  They can’t speak clear Vietnamese and are unable to do normal work and usually just live off of the land with a little work here and there.  We were told that they will sometimes help out the other villagers with small tasks.  However, they can’t differentiate between different dominations of money, and some of the villagers know this and don’t pay the family what they deserve.  They live in a tiny shack made of dried coconut leaves.  It is literally the size of king-sized bed.  They also have a 15 year-old sun named Ca.  He is the nicest boy with a huge smile, but, when I first saw him, he looked like he was no older than 7.  He supposedly has some mental issues too (but really you can’t tell from looking at any of them that something is wrong) and was going to a special teacher until she left a couple of years ago.  I’m not even sure if he goes to school now.  He is awesome-he loves to help us build his home or show us his sweet fishing techniques.

Getting supplies to the house is pretty hard.  We either have to take it from our guest house on the 30 minute bike ride or transfer it from a boat that they bring up one of the small streams.  Around 11:30, we all ride our bikes to another lady’s house in the village for lunch and to rest (we all lay out on bamboo mats on her front porch-VERY hot and lots of bugs).  The thing that makes me really sad is that Ca will come with us to lunch so that he can get a bike ride to the school later (it’s very far from his home and he doesn’t have a bike), but he doesn’t eat with us.  The only thing I have ever seen him eat is some random fruit he picks off the trees; I’m not sure if he ever has breakfast or lunch or dinner for that matter.  I started bringing him and his cousins some bread and bananas in the morning to help out but they don’t like taking it.

Anyways, after we all chill, it’s time for SUMMER CAMP!  We all head over to the elementary school for two hours of chaotic fun.  The first day, only 20 kids showed up, so our plans to teach 8 different classes didn’t work out so well (things like PE, music, art, science, geography, etc.).  BUT, the next day, they told all of their friends and TONS of kids showed up and kept coming.  I teach PE and the kids love it.  We tie these colorful ribbons around their heads to distinguish their different teams (they all look like mini ninjas) and play lots of field-day games, soccer, baseball, anything.

The kids are the CUTEST THING EVER!  Bao and I have already come up with nick-names for a lot of them: Wisdom  (the next leader of Vietnam), Confu (short for confused), Punk (crazy soccer dude), and baby (the tiny 4 year old that loves to come with her sister).  They do get tired REALLY quickly so that has been a little difficult, but things are going great!

Okay, so finally, about that broken arm…So yesterday, one of the elementary school teachers was just chillin at the school and was PERSISTANT that we play with him and some construction workers at their stadium (really just a small field).  Turns out, he was completely drunk!  He was falling all over the place, interrupting our classes, trying to hook Devyn up with one of his friends, etc.  We were all trying to be really polite but he was a bit of a mess.

Well, we decided to meet them at the field after teaching after all.  We all started playing a great game-the other team was really good and a lot of high-schoolers started playing too.  Well, after about an hour of playing, this kid and I go for the ball and hit each other REALLY hard…it was a LOUD tackle and everyone was asking if we were okay.  I was fine, even though my shin was pulsing, but when I looked at the kid, his wrist was twisted.  Turns out, after the tackle he went flying through the air and landed weird on his arm.  I started FREAKING out and kept telling the boy I was so sorry even though he probably didn’t understand anything that I was saying!  The kid didn’t cry one-it was like he was in shock or something.  The drunk teacher, of course, decided to come over and try to twist the arm back EEEEEK!  We all stopped him and another adult took the kid on his motor bike to the hospital.  Well…we decided to call it a game after that!

When I got back to the guest house, I immediately found Tri, our program director, and asked him if there was a way that I could pay for the injury-most village children do not have insurance and the cost to fix a broken arm is very high for people here.  He called around and found out that  the boy had dislocated his wrist or something and, somehow, the doctors were able to pop it back in and wrap it up without any major problems or costs.  THANK GOD! Well, at least he can always tell his friends about that American girl that broke his arm!? Let’s just say I didn’t play the next day L

Quick overview of the coming weekend:

1.  Planning for the “FUN RUN” we will be throwing on Saturday, July 30^th.  It’s a short run for the entire community complete with t-shirts and prizes. Coca-Cola is sponsoring the event and donating money for a scholarship fund for the poorest kids in the village.

2.  A soccer match against the local, competitive team. (Hopefully, I won’t hurt anyone again!)

3.  A personal interview with a Vietnamese War Veteran

Should all be fun and interesting!  

Missing cereal, apples, salmon, salads, and chocolate!!!!

xo

Logan

Mushroom at her best!

The Best Roomie Ever

Shroomie!!! I will miss you soooooo much!

  

Purty Pictures

 Me and Devyn on side of a mountian in Quang Bing

 The boat ride to the caves

 Our finished restroom

The restroom team!

Goodbye to Quang Tri

The first half of our trip has come to a sad end.  I had to say goodbye to everyone at the youth center, the principles, constructions workers, the Vietnamese roommates, and, most importantly, my little Mushroomie.

BUT, before I go into all of that, let’s catch you up!

Okay.  So, we ran into another BIG issue last week.  Katie, a Duke student, had her stuff stolen from her room for the SECOND time!  She was robbed the first week we were in Quang Tri.  The robbers took her laptop and wallet!  This time, the robbers snuck into her room while we were all outside in the front of the hotel (I was teaching the whole neighborhood cardio dance! SO fun!)  They broke her window, slashed her luggage, and stole her big, expensive camera and her ipod.  So long story short, we had to switch hotels last minute and everything was pretty chaotic.

Anyways, that weekend, after some of the craziness settled, we were able to go to the most beautiful site that I have seen thus far in Vietnam.  We went to a town called Quang Binh and went inside these GINORMOUS caves.  We all got into these wooden, dragon boats and went up this beautiful river into the “wet cave.”  It totally looked like we were in Hawaii with the turquoise water and green, jagged mountains.  The caves are up for becoming part of this year’s “7 Wonders of the World” and were featured in National Geographic a couple of months ago.  We went really deep into the cave (over 20 minutes) and it was awesome-lots of stalagmites thingys!  Then we hiked up tons of stairs to the top of the mountain where there was a “dry” cave.  We all kept saying how crazy it was that we could just walk around the cave and go wherever we wanted-if this was in America, there would be guards everywhere, fences, ropes, etc.

That Sunday, we had to head back to the restroom to finish everything up.  At the end of our stay in Qunag Tri, we ended up building an entire new restroom (with a sweet mural on one side) and renovating the old one.  It’s pretty amazing to see that all the hours we worked and sweated through finally made something that this community and school really needed.

On Monday, we woke up early to visit each of the sites that our Duke Engage team built-the restroom and the parking structure-to take pictures.  That night, we had a closing banquet with all of the people that worked with us at this completely open restaurant right along a lilly pond.  After dinner, we all headed over to the final cultural show at the youth center.

There were over 20 performances-lots of kids dancing, singing, doing ballet, rapping, break-dancing, and karate- all filmed live on Vietnamese television!  My cardio dance skills really came in handy.  I taught our entire group the dance to “Waving Flag.”  We had to practice A LOT before the big show, but it ended up going great!

Alright, so as soon as the show ended, things started to get very sad very quickly.  This was pretty much going to be the last time we would ever see these kids.  I totally lost it and started balling when one of my favorite soccer buddies came up to give me a gift and started crying.  Then more and more of my high school soccer boys started crying!  It was SO sad. For over an hour and a half, we were all crying, hugging, and taking tear-filled.  The worst was when we all had to board the bus and drive away L

The next day just got worse.  I had to say goodbye to my best friend, my Mushy, Mushroomie, Shroomie, Shroom aka Mushroom! She is the happiest, craziest person I know, and is so determined to be the best that she can be.  I will never forget her or her crazy-good rapping skills! "What's up dog!" Hehe

Saying goodbye to all of the roommates that we had grown so close with over the past month was terrible.  We spent so much time with these kids-- getting to know all of their quirks, sweating and shoveling alongside them for hours on end, teaching and dancing, and laughing through all the funny times and translation confusions.  Let’s just say it was one, big tear fest!

After saying goodbye, we boarded a train for a 20, yes TWENTY!!!!!, hour ride back to Saigon.  You know those pictures of the trains in places like India with people piled into them, stacked in every corner and crevice, even riding on the roof…..well, this wasn’t that bad, but it’s definitely a close second!  We were told that we would have 2 private cabins for our group.  Sounds nice right??? Well, turns out that the “cabins” are tiny rooms the size of a large pantry with SIX beds inside.  It was hilarious, suffocating, fun, and terrible all at the same time.  We all ended up getting a good laugh from it all, but geesh…it was scary.  And don’t even get me started on the bathroom situation on that train!!!!!

Okay, so anyways, now we are in Saigon and have only 24 hours until we meet our next set of roommates.  It’s actually really tough because it feels like we just broke up with our best friends and have to turn around the next day and make new ones.  It’s hard to think that I could ever get a roommate that will be as great as Mushroom, but I still have to remember that this new group is so excited to meet us and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be as great as the last group experience.

After we meet our roommates tomorrow, we will have 2 days in Saigon to plan for our trip to Ben Tre, the southern part of Vietnam.  It will be monsoon season there so there will be TONS of rain in the afternoons.  Alice told us that this place will be even more rural than the place before, which I am actually really excited about.  In Ben Tre, we will be building 2 different houses for needy families in the morning and then teaching subjects of our choosing at the local elementary school in the afternoons!

                Time for round 2!

Xo

Logan

Hue and the Perfume River

Me and Allison

Hi again!

            Alrighty, here it goes.  So this past weekend we went to Hue.  This is the city that all of our roommates go to college in.  It is super pretty and definitely my favorite place thus far.  Surprisingly, there are TONS of tourists there.  Most of them are French, and in all the markets they kept calling me “Madam.”

The city is super pretty (cool jungle)and has the Perfume River that running through it.  On the first day, we visited lots of different monuments.  We went to this place where all of the Kings lived (VERY similar to the “Forbidden City” in China).  We also went to a bunch of the Kings’ tombs/burial areas-super ornate carvings and statues.  Each “tomb” was this HUGE area that looked like a giant, decorated park.  We also went to this thing called a Pagoda which is some sort of religious temple and got to see all of these monks chanting and singing.

Then we ate at this AMAZING five-star restaurant right on the river.  We all got to eat this cool, crunchy rice that is cooked in little individual clay pots.  They also had all this stuff that had been steamed in leaves (I call them Asian tamales).  Ummmm….some kids tried the fried, frog skin but I was NOT one of them.  Sorry I’m not sorry!

That night we ate at this Italian restaurant because Alice thought that we might all be missing American food.  We had weird pizza and desserts….it was HILARIOUS to see the Vietnamese kids pick at and push around their food.  Mushroom was not a happy camper, and neither were most of the other Vietnamese kids. HAHA !  It was so funny to see them act like we usually do around all the strange Vietnamese food.  We also tried to tell them that this isn’t really “American” food (aka-the food was pretty bad and we didn’t want to give them the wrong impression).

That night we got to take a boat ride (on a sweet dragon boat) up the Perfume River.  Traditional musicians and singers in these beautiful Kimono-like outfits performed for us!

We ended up spending the night in Hue so that the roommates could give us their own personal tours of their city on Sunday.  Mushroom and I had a ball!  We got to ride everywhere on her motorbike which is totally the best way to see Vietnam.  We drove through markets, rice patties, farms, the countryside, gardens, everything…

First we went to this village known for its arts and crafts.  We got to go into this lady’s house and use this black ink to smear onto stamps and then press onto hand-made paper.  Then we got to paint them and roll them up into bamboo holders.  Then we went to this old man’s house where he makes these beautiful paper flowers.  We each got to make a petal by wrapping paper and a string around this wooden thing and then hammering it…mine came out terribly!  But my little Mushroom decided to buy me a whole bouquet!

Then it was off to the market to buy supplies for our lunch.  Mushroom and I joined Joey and his roommate Hien at Hien’s house.  Hien’s mother made us this amazing salad thing with super thinly sliced vegetables. It took her all day to make it and it was yummy!

Then Mushroom and I went to this beautiful garden and looked around before hitting the neatest market ever (we spent about 2 hours there).  Finally, we ended at this huge place called the Co-op Mart.  It’s kinda like a multi-level Walmart with a food court.  We decided that is would be fun to sit down (finally!) and paint pottery.  We were the oldest kids by at least 10 years but it was worth it!  All the kids kept laughing at my pink, poka-dotted elephant and would ask Mushroom if I was crazy! Ha!

This week has been UBER tiring!  Bao’s soccer tournament started on Monday and I have been playing soccer nonstop since, LITERALLY!  We play morning, noon, and night!  My girls’ team has lost every game so far, but I am still so excited that they were willing to play against all of these boys!  They all started off really scared and nervous, but really started to get better towards the end of the tournament.

Tomorrow is the final day of teaching...so sad!  I am going to miss them all so much!  They all keep coming to the guesthouse to play soccer with me, look at my pictures, and listen to my music.  The kids have ALL asked for my email address, yahoo messenger account (I don’t have one), and just recently told me that they can’t find me on facebook!  I feel like a celebrity!  Just kidding??  My class is super excited about the letters I am having them write to students in America.  They’ve brought in pictures to attach and most have written over 3 pages.  Should be fun for them to have American pen-pals!  To celebrate the last day tomorrow, we are going to throw a big party with movies, music, and All-American pb&js! 

The restroom we are building is coming along as well and should hopefully be finished by tomorrow (fingers crossed).  We doing all of the finishing touches and are even painting a sweet mural on one wall.

This weekend we are heading to Quang Binh, Mushroom’s hometown, to see neat sea caves and more tunnels!  Should be fun!  Can’t believe we leave for Saigon on Tuesday (20 hour train ride UGH).  I will miss these roommates and all of the great people I’ve meet along the way (we get new roommates for the second half of our stay here).

Ahhh, can’t think about that now….gotta go play badminton with the school girls.

Xo

Logan

Our Typical Bike Ride