A long and winding bus ride with magical views of the lush green hills of northern Thailand has ended at our hotel in Chiang Rai. We have had an amazing few days in the village and will tell you more about it in the following posts.
By Jade and Jasmine
Today, we started off with an early morning wake-up. For breakfast, we enjoyed jasmine tea and Vietnamese coffee, combined with eggs, bread and fresh local mangoes. We next hopped on the boat, ready for the day ahead. After a 30-minute boat ride to our village build, we arrived ready to work. We were separated into little groups, each with different jobs, as we all play important yet different roles in the creation of the house. After yesterday’s build, we had reached a point where the bricks were above our heads. This meant we had to create scaffolds to reach the higher points of the house, and muscles were required to lift the cement to the higher places. We were taught how to weave wires, make the cement, layer and stack the bricks. We dripped in sweat and the work was challenging, but the smiles of the family we were building for kept us determined.
At 10, we all had a quick snack break. We feasted on local fruits such as the longan berry (similar taste to lycee) and guava dipped in salt. After working for another two hours, we had a lunch break. We ate rice, fried chicken and eggplant dipped in the world-famous fish sauce, and noodles with fresh fish and soup. During lunch, it began to rain quite heavily. As the walls rose higher, our enthusiasm rose. The weather cooled and a light rain started as early afternoon began.
In the early afternoon, we finished building. Hai organised a school visit for us the Au Binh C primary school, with students in Years 3 and 4 learning English. Initially, this was difficult as there were major language barriers. The guides and teacher were very helpful as they were able to translate for us. As we taught the children new words, the rain started coming down heavily. We sang to the kids and taught them various songs and nursery rhymes that they were able to then recite themselves. They sang to us Frere Jacques in Vietnamese as we departed. We walked back in moderate rainfall, through puddles and muddy spots that were visible. We then took our boat ride home through the falling rain, and all had a shower upon reaching the homestay.
At the end of the day, we were extremely excited to have gotten this far in the creation of the house. We are looking forward to passing it over to the Huong family. The local people we have meet have strengthened these emotions and really motivated all of us to do as much as possible tomorrow.
Jade: To everyone back home, I am missing you guys so much. I am having an awesome time here. I can’t wait to tell you all about all the amazing memories that I have made (and the delicious food in Vietnam). Looking forward to seeing you soon. Love you, Jade.
Jasmine: to the family back at home, I miss you all so much. I am having an awesome time and I love the food. Love you Mum, Dad, Alex, Kim, Mimi, Clayton and Disney’s. Hai is my guide, yay! Keep Max happy and send him my kisses. Wish me a happy birthday. Xxxxx Jazza.
Our Yangtze River cruise is now complete, and we are sitting in a restaurant in Yichang…we have some wifi here, so we will attempt to upload a few photos. Blogs and more pics soon!
Vietnam Red will be returning to Ho Chi Minh tomorrow and will be able to update their blog then.
They are happy and healthy and looking forward to sharing their experience and photos with you.
By Hugh M and Mia
Today, we all worked together for Day 2 of the house build, with each person in our group being given different roles in the house. While yesterday focused on setting up the frame of the house and cutting up bamboo for a variety of roles, today we played a more active role in assembling the house itself.
Our group awoke at around 6am to get ready for breakfast, which is a necessity for a hard-working day. Breakfast consisted of fried rice which is abnormal in a traditional western breakfast. By 7:45, everyone’s bags were packed, sunscreen was on, water bottles were filled up with water and Hydrolyte, and were we ready to commence our one hour walk to the village. As we walked to our destination we had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful Vietnamese country side. The limestone mountains looming amongst the clouds and the vast countryside filled with rice fields stretch across the land. Later that morning we arrived in the village and were greeted by the community again. The builders had already started for the day when we arrived but we all just jumped straight in and tried to finish up our jobs from yesterday. Our group guide, Hoang, told us that we were waiting upon a truck carrying leaves required for the roof and then the whole group walked up and down the road carrying the palm leaves towards the house.
Next we began to put the roof in place. We split into pairs and began passing leaves up to the workers on the roof. There was one person holding a long bamboo stick, while the other person placed a set of leaves at the end of the stick. The person holding the stick pushed it up to the roof to the workers who would then attach them to the roof. The job of pushing up the bamboo stick was exhausting to say the least! Each pair fell into their own rhythm and we got the job done at a good pace. While this was happening many people were continuing to chop the bamboo for the floor. Once that job was finished, and we had had another yummy lunchbox lunch, many students, along with workers, were sent up the nail the floorboards into the house. As this was happening, there were people doing lots of different jobs: moving timber boards from the truck to the house, painting a canvas to go inside the house and sweeping up the dust and rubbish to set up for the volleyball match. They swept the floor with brooms made of leaves and re-painted the lines of the court. During this experience, we had to learn things from the local villagers. This proved tough as we did not speak the same language, so most of the communication was done through hand signals and pointing. This was actually really interesting to experience and surprising that it ended up being so easy to understand what they wanted us to do.
Ultimately, today was hard work but rewarding to assist in bettering the life of needy family. To further the family’s wellbeing as a group we have decided to each donate an extra 250,000 dong on top of our fundraising to purchase a female cow for the family. This is more important than one might think because Vietnamese people treat cows and buffalos as pets more than cats and dogs. The cow will be able to raise calves that can be sold or used for work in the village, potentially providing the family with money at some point in the future when it might be needed.
Today we all arrived in the village we will be staying in for the next 2 nights. Internet is poor so we can’t upload photos yet. It was an incredible day and this short post can’t do justice to the experience. Everyone is safe and happy and detailed updates will follow on Saturday.
