I have already said that I am not, by choice, or by my natural inclination, a 'traveller'. I much prefer to be well within my comfort zone - in familiar surroundings, with everything normal and how it should be. And yet, the trip to Vietnam was a brilliant adventure, well out of my comfort zone, in very unfamiliar surroundings, with everything about as far away from normal as it was possible to be. And I was loving it.
Part of the decision making in deciding whether to go, for me, had been the possibility of meeting our sponsored child. We started sponsoring a child about 15 or 16 years ago, and we have sponsored 3 children so far with Plan International (UK). The charity works long term in developing countries to improve infra-structure, health-care facilities and education, and links up sponsor families to a named child as a way of personalising the project work.
Our sponsored child in Vietnam lives with her farmer parents in Bac Giang Province, about 80km NW of Hanoi. The opportunity was too good to miss, and once all the paperwork was complete in the UK the date was set: Thursday 9th April. The charity arranged everything very meticulously, and we were met in the hotel lobby at 6.30am by our interpreter for the day, Phong, and our driver.
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| 'tiep tuc day manh toan dien cong cuoc doi moi xay dung thanh cong va bao ve vung chac to quoc Viet nam xa hoi chu nghia. Ngan hoa dang dang' Google translate says: 'continue to promote comprehensive renovation process to successfully build and firmly protect the Vietnam Fatherland Socialist. Ngan flower book book.' |
We would quite often pass propaganda posters, some with more writing than others. I was very pleased with the results of running the above through Google translate.
As ever, driving in Vietnam was something of a leap of faith, but actually throughout the holiday/adventure, whichever driver we had, we felt safe and secure in our air-conditioned chariot. We had another 20-seater mini-bus, which at first seemed a bit excessive, but after the 2.5hr drive there we soon realised why we had such a large vehicle. We were to be the taxi for the whole party.
Once in Bac Giang province we were taken firstly to the charity's regional office to meet the officials and put any questions we had to them. It seemed quite formal, we were taken to a room in a municipal building, introduced to the officials - the Plan Head of Region, the previous Head of Region, the Head of the Commune, and a police officer called Ken, and offered tea. We drank the tea, and the officials followed protocol by addressing any conversation towards Simon firstly - as the male is seen as the head of the family and deference is given to him in Vietnamese custom.
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| 'trung tam hoc tap cong dong' - The Centre of Community Learning: the Office where we met the various officials |
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| The view from the steps of the Centre of Community Learning in Bac Giang province - our interpreter, Phong, is in the blue jacket with red messenger bag |
We asked about the sort of work they do in the area, how long Plan had been active there, how many people lived in the region, had they had other sponsor families visit them? (yes, we were the fourth family to visit in 2 years, the other families were from Canada, Belgium and London), that sort of thing. Then we were back on the bus (after a quick trip to the loo, unfortunately the least hygienic we'd seen on the trip) which was getting quite full of people now, and off to visit a pre-School which had been entirely funded by Plan International.
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| handing each child a balloon and a jelly-baby |
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| the School garden |
The school had been built by Plan and had 4 classrooms, toilets, an office for the teachers and a kitchen. School meals were cooked on site and the vegetables were grown in the school garden. We gave jelly-babies and balloons to two classes and when the balloons ran out I think we moved onto Iced Gems. The teachers said the children liked the jelly babies although they'd not had anything like it before.
After this visit we went to see two more schools: one was a primary, which the officials all noted that Tom would have attended if he lived in Vietnam, and then another pre-School.
The primary school had been expanded with funds from Plan, and a dominant Asian supermarket chain, Lotte. We were introduced to the head teacher and offered tea. We asked questions about how many pupils were in the school, how far they travelled to school and how did they travel, what were the normal school hours and such like. Once the officials learned that I work in a library they were keen to show me their school library, which again had had funding from Plan.
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| the primary school library (and wet-weather play area) |
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| Vietnamese Ludo - a teaching aid / wet-weather play game |
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| the international language of Chess - the teacher started the game, but Tom and Phoebe were a stronger team... |
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| We'd taken various gifts suitable for a school - construction toy, crayons, frisbee, and here Tom was demonstrating what you do with a set of storycubes (https://www.storycubes.com/) |
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| more official photo-shoots with school officials - Tom was very popular with all the adults, they all wanted their photo taken with the young fair blue-eyed boy... |
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| Tom faces some Vietnamese paparatizzi |
By the time we visited the third school the gifts were starting to run a bit thin. I think all I'd got left was a class-size box of colouring pencils by then. Anyhow, the school welcomed us and the children sang us a song about road safety, which was very charming.
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| Tom giving out what sweets we had left - this time Iced Gems |
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| the pre-school grounds/play area |
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| The pre-school children singing us a song about road safety. They're standing on wooden pallets which had matting on top. As we'd arrived they were just about to have their nap - the teachers were getting the children to lie down sardine like. It was a little chilly (by comparison to the south!) around 17`C or so, so they may have had blankets, but we'd disrupted their routine a little, so I don't know. |
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| the pre-school kitchen - making good use of abundant natural resources, I can't remember how many children in this pre-school, but they all ate lunch from the school kitchen |
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| the pre-school gates |
Throughout the school visits all the children were very well behaved. Either they were on their 'best behaviour' or they were stupefied to see a foreign family visit during the school day. Some seemed a little shy, but they were all delightfully endearing, and it was an absolute privilege for us to be allowed to see their routine and get a feel for their schools. I will be forever grateful that we were granted such access so openly, and the sights and sounds of the visits will stay with me always.
And then we went on to meet our Sponsored Child.
Kat
