Author: ldaniels

With a start around 6 o’clock, woken by sunrise in the village long rooms and a relaxing breakfast overlooking the waking nature of the Mekong Delta, today was our first day of construction. We travelled by boat to the construction site where working in the heat slowly began to take its toll. With a team of brick layers and a team of cement mixers, by 11 o’clock we had half the walls in the house done. Tired and exhausted from the humidity we headed next door to a host family for lunch. They invited us into their home to enjoy a delicious meal and relax for a couple of hours. Despite the constant worry of being fed fried frogs, we got to indulge into a fantastic lunch of the average Vietnamese meal and the newly discovered fried pumpkin flowers.

After our lunch and well earned chill time we headed back to the site to finish our day’s work, reaching well past what was expected. As the cement team started shovelling and mixing faster, the brick laying team started to pick up speed and skill and before we knew it we had teams of 2 up on small scaffolds laying bricks that were out of arm’s reach.

We all worked together and became a very effective group of builders. We were all eager to get back to the village to jump into the showers. After fighting over shower orders and getting all the dirt and cement off ourselves we spent our wind down time before dinner playing cards and games together. We had a new assortment of dishes for dinner, including fried quail eggs and Vietnamese pancakes. After dinner we had a brief circle time to reflect on the hard day’s work and prepare us for another busy day to come.

By Ella C and Darci W

After an early start we began our long bus ride to the Mekong Delta. Mr. Tudor played the ukulele along the way. Halfway through the trip we stopped at a small shop and bought some traditional Vietnamese snacks. We had a lot of fun selecting the different types of lollies, ranging from sesame seed cakes to sweet, sugary, dried fruits. Most of us were extremely tired from the long bus trip but cheered up straight away after having a quick bite to eat. When we got off the bus we caught a boat to look at the brick factory. The factory was extremely hot and made us all very sweaty. We saw the process of how bricks and pottery objects were made and got to see some items being transferred into a massive kiln. This was very interesting and lifted our spirits for tomorrow when we start building a brick house. After we got out of the brick factory we went to the place where we indulged in lunch. We were served a whole fish from the river and tried to make rice paper rolls with salad.

After a filling lunch we took a bike ride around the area to witness how people lived and see the foundation of the house we would be building. This was quite an eye opener for us as we had never seen such dire living conditions before. It also made us more motivated to make a good job of the house we are building.

We travelled by boat to the guest house in which we will be staying at for the next few days. It is perched right on the water’s edge and is set up with hammocks, dorm-style bedrooms and plenty of tables to play cards around. This was a nice end to our long day and helped us relax for an early wake up tomorrow.

 

   By Katie M and Samara K

Today we embarked on a journey to the Cu Chi Tunnels to learn more about the Vietnam War and how they lived during this time. It was fascinating to see how these Vietnamese people adapted to the conditions by building incredibly small underground tunnels.  We watched demonstrations on how the Vietnamese would outsmart the Americans by setting well hidden traps to kill or injure their enemies.  The sound of the guns from the firing range really gave you a sense of how loud and scary the war would have actually been. Going down into the tunnels was very different from what I thought – it was so small, dark and confronting. The tunnels cover 200 square kilometres and connect to different areas in South Vietnam. Crawling only 20 metres was enough for me as I felt trapped and was amazed by how people could live in the tunnels. After walking around we settled by the river to enjoy a traditional Vietnamese lunch, which usually includes rice, meats and vegetables.

After a long bus trip we then arrived at the Thien Phuoc Orphanage where we were greeted by Miss Kim who is the manageress of the orphanage.  Altogether there were about 60 children and each had a disability. This was confronting at first but when you saw the kids smiling you couldn’t help but smile yourself. Upon first entering the orphanage we didn’t have an idea about how moving this experience would be, but after we settled in time flew and we didn’t want to leave.

 I can assure you that every St Leonard’s student bonded and connected with these kids – even though they could not communicate they understood our facial expressions and gestures. After two hours there it was time to say goodbye and we left presents with Miss Kim to give to the children. We then headed back for dinner and refreshments in small groups around Ho Chi Minh City, followed by a quick shop at the night market, which was lively and busy as usual.  

Phoebe J and Paddy S

Tomorrow we head to a village (with no internet access) in the Mekong Delta for 4 days. We will be in touch again after that. Until then….

This morning we woke up at 7:30am for a buffet breakfast in our hotel. There was an assortment of food including Chinese, Vietnamese and Western. We then embarked on a short bus journey to the War Remnants Museum. We learnt all about the Vietnam War and Agent Orange and its effects even to this day. Although it was very confronting, it really helped us to understand how the Vietnamese lived and felt during this time. Next we went to a very crowded food market in the Chinese district where it was extremely hard to walk through the narrow aisles (but we all got out safely). Then we came back to the hotel to refresh ourselves before having two hours of free time to go out in small groups to get lunch. In the afternoon we headed to the post office, built over 100 years ago, to post our lovely families some post cards via snail mail (you will probably receive them around Christmas time). From there we visited a French-inspired church before walking to the biggest market in Ho Chi Minh City. We all practised bargaining with the locals – our main purchases were T-shirts, genie pants, watches, water and fans to keep us cool. After a short walk back to our hotel we freshened up and headed off to the local Pho diner for a lovely meal of traditional Vietnamese noodle soup. Now we are ready for a well deserved night’s sleep.

Sophie B and Darcy N

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the Monkeys travelled extremely well. We were met at the airport by our Vietnamese guide and marvelled at the abundance of motor bikes en route to our hotel. After a delicious dinner at a nearby restaurant, it’s off to bed ready for our adventures to really begin tomorrow.