Day 11

After a long night of karaoke, we deserved a high class breakfast. We found a nice restaurant to eat breakfast at near our hotel and it looked as if weddings were held there. Afterwards, we went to a giant indoor market. We spent two hours panning over every item imaginable. Poor Vuong shops with me, which means he will spend at least $20 extra over the course of the trip just because he hangs out with me and they jack up the prices so much initially. Bargaining is fun but after a while it is very tiring and annoying, as you just want a fair deal and you never know if you actually got one.

After, we wanted to get our nails done but we tried two salons and both were no good. One didn't do nails and the other smelled terrible and they wanted to sell us more stuff so we just left. After a siesta, we went and ate chicken with rice for lunch and then headed to the school and distributed food to the families. We gave them rice, sugar, salt, fish sauce, soy sauce, oil, milk, toothbrush, toothpaste and tylenol. We rationed the amounts based on the members in the family. They lined up outside like a mob, it was quite a scene. I was taking pictures of every family as they came in. When it was all said and done, it was very fulfilling to know we helped them out so much. One man came up to me sitting on the ground just to look me in the eye and give me a firm handshake. Tomorrow we will try and get our doctor/immunization situation worked out. Until then friends.

Tom

Day 10 Last Day with the Kids and Karaoke

Today we had our second informational day. It was sad to know that today was our last day at the school but we had a fun day planned for the students. We started off with hand washing, breakfast, and then played nutritional bingo. Our bingo sheets were filled with various types of healthy and unhealthy foods. Each round we explained that certain foods such as bananas and broccoli were good to eat because they helped bodies stay strong and healthy. We also used sunflower seeds as the bingo markers but realized we should have used something else because many of the kids wanted to eat them. After the bingo game, the classroom was covered in sunflower seed shells! It was a mess! Because the kids enjoyed the game so much, we decided to give the bingo game to the school so they could play it again. (*A BIG thank you to Shannon and Minh for making the bingo game!)

We then divided the students into three groups: boys older than 11years, girls older than 11 years, and all kids under 11 years old. The older boys and girls learned about human growth and development. We taught them about what to expect as their bodies changed. Surprisingly, they were very open about discussing it. All the students received deodorant and the girls were also given pads. Since the girls were shy about carrying their hygiene products around, we thought it would be okay to leave them in the back of the classroom until class was over. We thought wrong! At the end of the day we discovered that a mother of the one of the students instructed her son to steal all of the girls’ hygiene bags! All of us were too busy playing with the kids that we didn’t even notice! We were all shocked but there was nothing we could do about it. We assumed she stole them so she could sell them back for money. The school informed us that they knew who she was and would handle the situation. Luckily, we had some extra deodorants to give to a few of the girls.

While the older kids learned about human growth and development, the younger kids colored and made cards that said both “thank you” and “cam on” (thank you in Vietnamese). The cards turned out great so I can’t wait to give them to everyone who donated supplies and helped with our project.

Next, we did a pulmonary activity with the entire group to learn about the effects of smoking. We showed them pictures of a healthy lung, a black smoker’s lung, white teeth, and yellow smoker’s teeth. We definitely got our point across because the expression on their faces was priceless! Many of the students shouted, “ewww!!!” when they saw the black lungs and teeth. We also handed out coffee straws, had the students jump for 1 minute, and told them to try to breathe through the straw. This activity was meant to show them how difficult it was to breathe when you smoke. The kids really liked this activity because they were able to jump around.

The last thing we did was a drawing contest. The students were given the option to draw anything they learned that was related to health or draw what they hoped their future would be like. It was fun to see how excited all the kids were to draw because they all wanted to win a prize. The prizes included cute stuffed animals, animal backpacks, and robot toys. The robot toys were the most popular. All the kids wanted them! We chose 11 winners and the other kids who didn’t win were given a bag of candy so that everyone would have a prize.

Later that night, our group decided to go out to a karaoke place. We got our own private room to sing in too. It was a lot of fun singing Gangsta Paradise, Yeah!, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, and many more songs I don’t remember! We stayed there so late they had to kick us out! The cost was also only $2/hour! Tomorrow we will be handing out health kits and food to each family. We will also be taking family photos.

mai