Meeting our sponsored child (part two)

After we'd seen the three schools, given the gifts and taken photographs, we got back into our bus-taxi to be taken to meet our sponsored child M.  We've sponsored M. for almost 5 years, and have received regular updates on both the project work done by Plan International in M.s district, and have received letters, drawings and photographs by and of M. and her family.  The anticipation of finally meeting her was palpable.  My hands were damp, my mouth was dry and my heart was racing a little.  I was ready to cry.

The taxi took us out of the town area, and along an ever narrower road, into denser vegetation, away from the population to a small village crossroads.  We saw the concrete drainage ditches put in with Plan's aid (there was a sign with the Plan logo on it).  Ah ha, I thought, as we stopped, we must be here.  No.  The village elder climbed aboard, and off we went, leaving the village's good road behind.

We were now bumping along on a very dusty red-mud single track road, with ruts where the rains must run in the wet season.  There was lush undergrowth close by, banana trees, some walls of properties here and there, and no sign of where we were going at all.  A couple of motorbikes came across us, but we were the only vehicle on the track, and a significant vehicle at that.

We finally got M.'s house and the taxi pulled into a small slip in front of a grassy driveway - which was just as well as a tractor approached from the opposite direction.  We all got out of the taxi, and our interpreter introduced us to M. and her family.

The first photo I took at M's house is of hens...

In all the fuss of being introduced, and saying 'Sin Chow', and shaking hands, and smiling, and high-fiving with M, and being photographed, and invited inside for a drink, I didn't take nearly as many photographs myself as I'd have liked.  But there was also the exquisite embarrassment of not wanting to offend M's family by taking too many photographs.  This was when the language barrier and the cultural gulf felt most awkward.  Not oppressively, but this was a situation where I had absolutely no idea of how to behave, of what was expected and of what was acceptable and equally not acceptable.

M's mother had prepared a meal for us all - a feast in fact, as there were by now about 10 people in the entourage, plus the guests that M's family had also invited.  We were obviously a big attraction ourselves.  M's father gave us his home-made rice wine to drink with the meal (the cloudy bottle), which tasted mainly of ginger, and had a dry kick to it.  He was very happy to keep proposing a toast to us, and whenever we had an empty glass it had to be filled again.  The same went with the food.  Whenever our bowls were empty, M's mother would offer us something else and was determined to put something in our bowl.

We'd got over the indiscretion of us being vegetarian by the children eating some chicken, and us eating the greens and they made us a quick omelette.  The rice we were served was their own - grown in their fields - and was plump, with a good bite, and a slightly nutty flavour - delicious.

With M in their main room - sleeping area behind us

M's parents.  Don't know what was behind the curtain.  The Vietnamese officials travelling with us were seated on matting on the floor behind M's father and ate there whilst we had the benches and table.

M's parents were lovely.  The were in their mid 40s and had 3 other older children, now all left home and working elsewhere.  They looked us squarely in the eye and smiled broadly.  We could see their lives etched into their faces, and they were honest and happy, hard-working and straight-forward.  I felt lucky to have met them.  It was a moving experience and we were overwhelmed with their kindness of spirit towards us.

The view out from the door of their building/house.  They lived in a small complex of buildings around the courtyard.  The bicycle is what M. travels to school on - 30 minutes ride away up and down the dusty red-earth track.

That's all for tonight.  More adventures next time.

Kat.

 

Meeting our sponsored child (pt. 1)

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.

'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.

'trung tam hoc tap cong dong' - The Centre of Community Learning:  the Office where we met the various officials

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.

handing each child a balloon and a jelly-baby

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.

the primary school library (and wet-weather play area)

Vietnamese Ludo - a teaching aid / wet-weather play game

the international language of Chess - the teacher started the game, but Tom and Phoebe were a stronger team...

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/)

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...

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.

 

Tom giving out what sweets we had left - this time Iced Gems

the pre-school grounds/play area

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.

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



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