We’ve been in Vietnam for a little less than two weeks, but we have something that few travelers ever get – a routine. Our 8th day of work was pretty much the same as the last seven, and we couldn’t be happier!
Each day several athletically ambitious students and wake up at 6:15am to go for a run with Eileen. There are, however, several students (and one leader!) who wish to sleep in for an extra precious forty five minutes. We all gather at 7:15 for a breakfast in the courtyard of the Hy Suu Guesthouse, where we eat fresh fruit, Vietnamese style omelets, rice porridge, noodles, and French style bread. We (Eileen and Ted) even bring out fancy jams, coffees, and chocolate spread every day, just to spoil everyone even more!
By 8:00am we head out to our respective work areas. The labor is definitely intense but we are already seeing incredible results. At all of our three compassion house construction sites, our students have mixed cement, set foundations, laid hundreds to thousands of bricks to build up the walls, and assisted local workers as they measured and constructed the roofs of each home. Not bad for a few days work! Right now we are mastering our wall cementing technique with mixed results. We just can’t seem to make the walls quite smooth enough yet… but it’ll come with practice.
One of the biggest rewards of this experience is working alongside local volunteers and the families that will eventually live in the houses. We already have a list of characters who have become our friends.
At site one you can’t walk for more than twenty feet without running into Tien, an adorable three year old boy whose smile would make anyone melt! The students definitely make some “baby time” each day to play with Tien and two of the most precious infants who live near the worksite. Site one also benefits from having Ky and Xo around. They are two volunteers in their early twenties who, on top of having a lot of construction expertise, make the work day fun with jokes and frequent watermelon breaks.
At site two, students are constantly entertained by the “Hip Hop Boys” a group of local 12-14 year old boys who bust out the craziest dance moves-- head stands, back flips and crazy flying kicks! From time to time we try to join them, but for the most part, we prefer to avoid embarrassment. The students are also serenaded quite often with the Vietnamese version of What is Love? (Baby Don’t Hurt Me!). Except the Vietnamese version sounds a bit more like “Baby don’t heart me”…
Site three is quickly becoming gluttony central because our kids are always getting fed! Twice a day an adorable elderly man comes by at 10:00am and 3:00pm and motions for the students to stop working. He eagerly says “Chop! Chop!” which we’ve taken to mean as snack time. They eat bean dumplings, soup, ramen style noodles, fruit, cookies… and the list goes on. (This is on top of the big lunches that we eat at 11:30am everyday!) Needless to say, we refer to our old friend affectionately as “Mr. Chop Chop”. And everyday after lunch a few students from this site watch a Vietnamese Soap Opera with the neighbors. The rest of the group gets intense, daily updates!
We leave the worksites everyday at about 4:30pm. The bike ride back to the guesthouse is always more difficult than the morning ride because we are exhausted. Yet somehow we manage to go to the beach nearly every day! Nothing is better than ending a long, sweaty day of manual labor with a dip in the South China Sea. Though our time at the beach is usually only an hour, it gives us the opportunity to even out the ridiculous 'farmer tans' on the back of our necks and forearms. And the water is always calm and cool… it is heaven on earth!
We finish off each day with yet another delicious meal and a group meeting. Group meetings are a great time to reflect on our days. We give shout outs to students who perform an exceptional task, everyone shares their high and low moment of the day, we go over announcements, and we usually end it with a game. We’ve had some intense rounds of Mafia over the past few nights!
This weekend we’ll be breaking from the same old same old. We have a long weekend excursion to Hoi An, an historical port city located two and a half hours (by bus) away from here. Hoi An is known as the textile capital of Vietnam… so expect a lot of gifts to come from this city.
And next week we’re back to the same routine for five more days. It is so difficult to believe how fast time is passing. But you can be sure… we are savoring every minute of our Vietnamese adventure!
More later,
Ted and Eileen
