Each day, two of our volunteers are in charge of telling their experiences and impressions on the Vietnamese culture. Once again, you’ll find below the stories of some of them, as well as some pictures. Every now and then, we will try to send you an update on our activities, our experiences and our impressions on the Vietnamese culture. Day 8 : Iris & Noémie Today after breakfast we divided the group into 2 teams. The first one went to the first « site ». The second one started a new « site » in an other house. The son of this house had already dig a hole and created the foundation of the house. But, our big surprise was that there was a giant rock in the hole. We had to find a solution to make it at least diminish to the level of the floor. All 10 of us participated, using hammer and shovel as we could. When some where sweating on the rock, the other ones where building the first layer of the house. As we where only 10, and we had already learn the different steps on the first house, we worked much quicker and much proper in this new site. In addition of the destruction of the rock, we built 4 layers in only one morning. After this hard work, some of us went to the river to rest. After a delicious meal, the French lesson started. Children had learned a lot since the beginning so this session was mainly dedicated to revisions. We tried to make the course funnier to keep the children interested. For instance, we made a big game to revise the colors: the teacher say a color and the children have to find something of this color in the room faster as they can. We made this game in the dinning room where a lot of colorful fabrics are exposed so children really enjoyed this game. After that, to revise the animals we did some terrible but hilarious imitations (imitate the elephant or the frog is harder than it’s look like). We laughed a lot during these games and the other ones. We feel that children remember better and were more active when the course looks like a game. The kids here especially the boys often play competitive games between them, where they have to be the fastest or the strongest. This time they were fighting to show of their beautiful French. At the end of the afternoon we went to the river and played with the children. With their beautiful French the communication was much easier ! Day 9 : Savannah & Éloi We started our day by eating a « Vietnamese Kebab », as we call it, which gave us all the strengths needed for the work camps. This day was the second one where we were separated on the two houses. On the first house, half of the volunteers, including Savannah helped building the last layers of bricks for the toilet house. We also learnt from the owner how to make a roof with palm tree leaves and bamboos. We needed to alternate the leaves on the bamboo like a braid in order to maintain them and make the roof waterproof. On the other work camp, the other group including Éloi also layered bricks for the house but Éloi quickly had to stop after a honey bee sting. His previous hurts pushed him to help the team by making cement instead of assembling the bricks. Then, a part of the group jumped in the river before coming back for the lunch. After the meal, three of the volunteers including the both of us decided to cut their hair. Savannah shaved her head one more time while Éloi adopted the Vietnamese style haircut. The five volunteers of the day taught to the children new body parts and numbers during the French lesson. After another swim in the river with brand new hair, the team got back to the house. We prepared for the party which started at 7 with a nice buffet of grilled meat, fries, sticky rice and fruits. As it was our last evening with Binh and Hai, we celebrated by drinking local rice alcohol that made some of us a little joyful; at 8, we were all dancing together on French songs. As the owners wanted to sleep, the party ended in the field in front of the house with societal discussions and a Loup Garou. Day 11 : Lisa & Anaïs After having a day off the day before, to recover from the party, we woke up today at seven. Most of us were happy to see that we had Vietnamese pancakes for breakfast, with the local honey. However, for some of us, they are not as good as French « crepes ». Just after breakfast, we went to the construction site to start working on the toilets. We split into 2 groups like the previous day. Those in the first site were able to finish everything. Our group was also very efficient and there is not much left to do to finish the second toilets. We enjoyed working today as it was not as hot as the other days. Moreover, being able to see our progress motivated us to work even harder for the last days ! We started to understand why we should have been more careful about mosquitos and other insects bites as our legs are covered by red spots that scratch so much that we are going mad! As there were some tourists for lunch, we ate even better dishes than usual such as chicken with red pepper and banana doughnuts. We then had a small meeting to discuss about the show we have to prepare for Friday. We would like to share the French music and danse culture. Little by little, the children arrived for their French class and we had the pleasure to receive from Ha and Yuan, two clever little girls with whom we spend most of our time, our daily kisses. At 3pm, the group in charge of teaching started the lesson. We used that time to rest on the bench in front of the astonishing view of the mountains. One hour later, we played « la balle au prisonnier » with all the kids. It was a special moment because it was the first time girls and boys participated to the same activity. We even attracted some spectators (the parents of the children came to see us play). Before dinner, some of us had a great time dancing on French music as the day wasn’t exhausting enough. After our usual dinner, while some decided to go to bed very early, others had some shots of the local mushroom alcohol with the owner’s Vietnamese friends. During the night, Nam shared with us some stories about the local culture. We learned that in this village, girls of our age have to get married and cannot pursue their studies. It made us realize how lucky we are in our European countries. Thank you for reading and see you very soon,
The DVS
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