Vietnam

Vietnam had been high on my list for a long time. It was also one of the places where I hoped to volunteer. But it wasn’t where I imagined I would go after India. Since my path had been moving east, the plan was to stop in Thailand to visit friends, then continue on to Vietnam. It turned out both friends were out of the country during that period, so I changed course and moved Vietnam to the top of the list. I went back on my volunteer application and found an NGO called Catalyst for Change, which among other things works with a network of English teaching centers. Normally I prefer having things planned a bit earlier, but it turned out to be a good chance to practice staying calm when plans shift. In the end it worked out very well. The NGO has many centers in their network, and I found out near the end of the process that I would be going to a small village in the north of the country. I flew into Hanoi, and my host traveled all the way to the airport to pick me up.

She owns and manages the center by herself, which has grown into a successful school with over one hundred students between the ages of seven and thirteen. She has done this while studying for various degrees, raising a family with her husband, and tending to their shrimp farm. I was eager to get started. She explained how I would be taking some of her classes to teach on my own, some we would teach together, and some she would continue teaching. I hadn’t taught a full class alone since my time volunteering at an afterschool program in Brazil, and I enjoyed returning to it. Each class was an hour and a half, so I had to prepare and know what I would be doing for each day. She has collected many books and teaching tools over the years and helped me understand what to teach in order to follow her curriculum and goals. After the first few classes, everything felt familiar and flowed naturally.

Whenever possible she arranged activities outside the center. One day we went to a nearby field with one of the classes. We rode our bikes, two adults with eighteen students. The boys and one girl were eager to play soccer. At first I thought I would only watch, but the random team division we had made the night before ended up a bit unbalanced, and the students quickly pointed it out. So she asked me to play to help even things out. I was hesitant because the last time I played a pick up game of sand volleyball, I hurt my back. I reminded myself to be careful and aware of how I moved. I played mostly in defense and managed not to get hurt. We all had a great deal of fun, and no one seemed to be keeping score, which I found refreshing. Afterward we had iced tea and fruit. One called Quả cóc, or ambarella, was new to me. It is green, crunchy, slightly tangy, and we ate it with salt and chili powder.

On one of my days off I visited Hang Múa with the taxi driver from the village, who also joined me in exploring the area. The mountains and valleys there are beautiful and reminded me of when I visited Viñales, Cuba. I did a little searching and it turns out they share a topography known as Karst. Along with a small cave you can walk through, the highlight is more than five hundred steps that take you to the top of a mountain. Some steps were steep and made for an exciting climb. Among the mountains and rivers from the view, we also saw a lotus farm, and only after looking for a while did I notice that the paths within it formed the shape of a lotus flower. Later we walked those paths and saw the lotus flowers up close, including a few in bloom.

I was fortunate to enjoy daily home cooked meals. Being close to the ocean meant trying many kinds of seafood. We ate together most days for lunch and again after our last class. The variety of fish and the different preparations were wonderful, and I tried many things I had not had before. I also enjoyed milk tea with brown pearls (trà sữa) many times. There are milk tea shops all over the village, and it is very popular. The only thing I found interesting is that unsweetened milk tea was not common. It always came with some sugar, but it was still very tasty.

A few days before I left, it was Teacher’s Day. Most schools were closed, and teachers had the day off, including us. In the morning we went with the whole family to shop for a jacket for me, then had lunch at a buffet where each table had a small grill to cook the food. Later that afternoon she invited about eighteen students to her home to hang out and have dinner. We played games until it was time to eat. She then placed the food on the floor in the living room, and we all sat around it in a big circle to share the meal.

There were many other moments throughout my time there, far too many to list. I saw great kindness and hard work everywhere. At a small salt farm we stopped by, an older woman worked alone using a slow, manual process that looked like it had been done the same way for generations. I also noticed how at many construction sites about half the workers were women, something very different from other places I have visited. Most of all, I saw how much my host cares for her family, her students, and the wider village. Her dedication to the people around her was an important part of my time there.