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
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