As the seventh day started, the crew woke up once again to a pack of very loud animals. Waking up at 6 is still a struggle for some people. Once we had finished breakfast we went to give the village children some presents we had bought them. The smiles on their faces were priceless and I’m sure they enjoyed singing their Vietnamese song as much as we did our cup song. Up next was construction.
It was the final day of construction so it was sad to leave all the hard workers and the family of the Travenh village. Again, there were people carrying bricks, weaving the roof for the bamboo kitchen, mixing cement, laying the tiles for the floor, and laying bricks. Being a person who laid bricks with the workers everyday, I feel like I finally understand how big an impact we are making for the family. It is surprising that after only knowing these people that speak no English for three days, you learn to understand them through actions, and you also learn a few words of Vietnamese and they learn some English. It was very hard to say goodbye to the family and workers but it had to be done. We exchanged our thank yous and after Eden made a speech, Maddi presented them with gifts. We took some photos and headed back over to have our final lunch made by the villagers.
It was a lovely meal but it went too quickly and we had to say more goodbyes to the family we had developed friendships with. After eating some water coconut fruit we jumped back on the boat down the Mekong to the bus. We arrived at Vinh Long and jumped on another boat down the Mekong before jumping on to some small boats. We wore some lovely conical hats as we were rowed down the river. We hopped off and some of us purchased cold beverages. We made our way towards some farmers’ homes and they gave us exotic fruits and some very hot tea. After that we met a friendly snake (a 60kg boa constrictor!) and got to take photos whilst holding it. We arrived at our home stay and were met by the family and got to see our amazing rooms where we had hot showers. After the showers we gathered around and listened to some beautiful traditional music.
Lachie and Max
