COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching and Mixed Health
WRITTEN BY: Melissa Muang
During our first night in Vietnam, our supervisor took us to eat traditional Vietnamese cuisine near our hotel. A dish that we had all tried was ‘Bun bo Hue’, which is a popular Vietnamese soup containing rice vermicelli and beef in extremely spicy broth (see photo below). As the majority of the group grew up eating Western cuisine, the spiciness and new flavours were a definite shock to our palettes. That being said, it was wonderful and only $3 too! After dinner, we were guided to our nearby laundromat for those of us who needed to clean our dirty garments. When we got there, it shocked us all to see how the Vietnamese did their washing. It involved hanging the washed garments onto a pole, which was then placed outside the second story window to dry (and for everyone to see!).
Another shock to the system was the amount of traffic on a Sunday night. It was pandemonium! There were hundreds of motorbikes travelling around on the streets, whizzing back and forth, in a state of harmonious chaos. As such, we always had significant trouble crossing the streets trying to avoid getting hit. We always had to be on our toes, as motorbikes would come out from unexpected directions, from small laneways, to turning into streets without warning, and sometimes even drive directly towards you. As you can imagine, we all initially hesitated to cross the road as it felt that there was a high likelihood of one of us getting hit. The tip we got from our supervisor was to 'cross when there was a small gap on the road and avoid hesitation'. Thus, one of the goals to achieve by the end of the work placement is to ‘cross a road in Vietnam without getting hit’.
On our first full day in Vietnam, we were taken around by a tour guide to explore Ho Chi Minh City. We got to see to different places, the Reunification Palace, the Historic Post Office, the War Remnants Museum, as well as many other historical buildings. The group also spent some time at the local Ben Thanh markets where we experienced first hand the hot and humid environment in which tourists try their best to snap up a bargain with locals vendors. After that, we stopped by a Vietnamese Coffee Shop, Trung Nguyen Café, which is the Vietnamese equivalent of Starbucks.
On our first day of placement, we left the hotel at 7am. No one knew what to expect or what we were going to be dealing with when we got there. On arrival, we were given the opportunity to meet the director. She allocated us to different age groups depending on what we studied. The standard work day commenced at 8am, with lunch at 11:30am, and nap time between 12pm and 2pm. What we found interesting was that naptime is actually a norm in the Vietnamese culture!
Our day ended at 5pm where our bus took us back to the hotel. Despite being so exhausted on our first day, we decided to treat ourselves by seeing a Vietnamese show at the Saigon Opera House. It was somewhat similar to Cirque De Soleil, but the acrobatic show incorporated elements of the Vietnamese culture, which was very insightful and enjoyable.
On reflection, my first week of work was very intense but inspiring. The centre took care of 250 abandoned children, ranging from newborn babies to 23+ year olds, who had illnesses from autism to cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus. On my first day of placement, there were a few times that I felt I was going to become overwhelmed with emotion. It was quite difficult to see children who were bed ridden, crying, and struggling with deformed limbs. I knew pretty soon that this was going to be a real eye opening experience. After the work placement, I found that it was definitely helpful to speak with the other students about their experiences and how they found it as well, as we were all in a bit of shock and somewhat overwhelmed by what we had seen.
The students in the first group are blind, so it was a massive help to have a fluent Vietnamese speaking student with us. The second group of students are girls who have experienced some form of abuse during their childhood. We work closely together with the both groups in their school homework. The Vietnamese student on our team was able to help them with geography, mathematics, biology, and chemistry. The other students were able to assist them with English. Overall, in the first week we felt that this was an emotional journey. We learnt lots about how to work the blind students and young girls. We need to be very gentle working with the girls at all time as they are very fragile.
Another huge challenge that we found as a collective group was communicating with the local populace. Due to the language barrier, it was difficult to converse. Having to work with children, our main way of communicating was through body language and hand signals. Simple words, such as "Xin Chao", which is 'hello' brought a smile to their faces and we felt like that suddenly helped us build a bond with them. As a social worker, I am currently working with students who are in primary school and assisting them with their maths homework every weekday when they finish school. So naturally, I have learnt how to say a few numbers from 1 to 10 in Vietnamese and have found it very helpful.
On the last day of work placement for the week, we were invited to a picnic with a number of the children. A public pool was rented out for a few hours to enable the children to splash around in the water with inflatable toys. After swimming, the children played soccer in the park with us. There were smiles all around and plenty of laughter. It was so heart-warming to see these children so happy, as they got to run around and enjoy the day. The morning ended with a lovely lunch by the water. We then headed back to the centre where the children got ready for their nap. As a group, we all enjoyed going to the picnic as it was a new experience and provided a different environment to interact with the children.
Before we knew it, it was the weekend. Some students decided to stay around Ho Chi Minh city, whilst others planned to catch a plane to Nha Trang (which is a beach), and Hue, or traverse on a 3-hour drive to Ho Tram. There is so much to see and do both in and out of the city centre. It is an understatement to say that we needed some rest and recreation after our long and busy first week! We will all return on Sunday night to prepare ourselves for a second week of work placement. We'll keep you posted!
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