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Sandie McKay writes...

...about her experiences while volunteering in Vietnam.

I was going to be very organised and write a journal entry every week while in Vietnam to provide info for those coming behind me....good plan...should have done it as Andrew the October volunteer was from my home town in Tasmania....but life in Vietnam and being a volunteer is so busy, exciting and so much more, that by the time I emailed family and friends..another day in paradise had gone.

New volunteers in the Hoian placement be prepared...your life is about to change forever...Hoian is a beautiful town, great food, people, bring a very large suitcase, very few clothes, but bring lots of pictures of your favourite shoes and clothes...so you can have them all made at ridiculously low prices (leather sandles start from $U2 a pair)...check out the book at the volunteer house for the names of all the good places to go and when you have shoes made tell them "sandie sent you". That is an unforgettable experience and I can guarantee they will last as this is my second trip to Hoian.

BUT.....Cahor orphanage is equally an unforgettable experience. It is a 5-10 minute bike ride from our house (depending on whether the bike has a flat tyre that day). the conditions are much better than I expected, basic but very clean. The description on the web site is pretty accurate, and the orphanage is unique in that most of the kids have a parent or a living relative which makes adoption impossible. It is also hard for the kids as they will often get a letter or a visit from family and this upsets them.

The first week was pretty hard for us as it was the first week of a new school year after a summer break of 4 months. We had to wait a couple of days for the school timetable so it was hard to establish lessons. It was also hard as some long term volunteers (who the kids loved) had left, there were 4 new orphans and we arrived! . Could not speak the language, did not know their names, had no hope of learning cause they would often tell us a different name each time we asked. We were very much new kids on the block, I now know how a relief teacher feels!!!

After the first week it settled down, The young ones are like most kids "to tired" for english today..I know how they feel, I was not used to teaching in 35 degree heat with only a ceiling fan to cool me..but if you make it fun its OK. Word bingo is great for revision of words at the START of the lesson!! (don't forget to have lollies as prizes). We also carried on the "bribery" programme started by Hilary an earlier volunteer. A star against your name if you attend class...10 stars and you get a sachet of MILO...

Second week of September is New Year in Vietnam. this is similar to the Chinese New Year where they have dragon dancing in the street...and in your house if you don't shut/LOCK your door. The only problem was everyone in Vietnam is practising beating a drum from 5am until midnight 7 days a week....including our kids. Two of our boys Than and Trung used the excuse of "having to practice the drums" to get out of attending english class.

This was soon remedied by confiscating the drum sticks until after their english lesson. ....kids are the same all over the world when it comes to learning...the Cahor kids just do it in a way that you know you are being conned but you just want to hug them anyway.

I have so many happy memories of Cahor but I guess one of my special memories was of Hoa, a new orphan, a 13 year old from Cham Island. It was my first day and she had just returned from her first day of school. She sat on her bed and burst into tears, and all she said was "I miss my mum". I had a lump in my throat as I recalled my first day of boarding school when I was 11 yrs old and I had a family to go home to... all we could do was hug her...Anyway a happy ending..by the end of the first week she was smiling, laughing and blowing kisses to me. by the end of the month...she was still smiling and laughing and I was bursting into tears....as I did not want to leave her....Hoa has family but Cham Island does not have a secondary school so by coming to the orphanage she can learn english and have an education.

School in Vietnam starts around 6.30am so most of the kids are up at 5am. They have a break from 11.30 - 2pm then back to school until 5.30pm...6 days a week. Most of the children from Hoian town help their parents in their various businessess before school and again in the evening. Everyone works very hard. They do not have the luxury of social security so if you don't work you don't eat.

As well as teaching at Cahor, 2 days a week we are at Mr Kim's. this is a class of 20 11 year old children from the community. The children attend school during the day for Vietnamese studies + maths, science etc but they are from very poor families and cannot afford english classes. these lessons are the only english they get and the kids are very grateful for the opportunity. They are very attentive and very bright...so volunteers for Hoian, be prepared to do lesson plans...heaps of ideas available at the house. Again these kids love word bingo.

A third place we taught was at a language centre for adults. This was a bit of a disaster for us. We were told we would have a vietnamese teacher and our role was for pronounciation only....when we arrived the co-ordinator was rather drunk...he handed us a book each and pointed to the classrooms....I was lucky..or so I thought as I had a teacher so the first part of the lesson was to read the exercise in english and then ask questions...this was easy....but then I got told I was "teaching" the rest of the lesson on my own....its a 2 hour lesson and we had been there for half an hour....I was teaching advanced tourism !!!.....

Once I got over the shock, it was OK and actually pretty funny but I also found it a bit frustrating as the text books are quite outdated...but you have to teach it...I completed the exercise but then produced a map of Hoian and asked the students to direct me to different places and tell me about their town. this was much more beneficial I thought and the students enjoyed it.

It is the same with most of the text books, outdated and not relevant to Vietnam today. Conversational english is the way to go as these people are basically shy and if you can encourage them to converse with you and other students it will help them in the future.

Our house is a dream..We moved the 2nd week we were there. The first house was also great,a typical vietnam house, lounge and kitchen downstairs, bedrooms upstairs..this house was very central, right in town, bank next door, internet 2 doors up, laundry down the end of the street. Our new house is a bit further out of town, but have our own garden and a bit more privacy...well by the end of the first day everyone in the town knew where we lived..so I don't know...everyone you saw said.."oh yeah you have moved to the pink house"!!! We have a beautiful cook called Huy who comes in 3 times a day...she gets very upset if we are late for our meals or don't eat everything she prepares as she thinks we don't like it...the truth is she provides so much we can't eat it. I am not used to having 3 cooked meals a day, starting with eggs and fruit for breakfast..

The whole bike riding thing is another experience unique to Vietnam...I love riding but in Hobart there are too many hills, and I dislike the idea of putting a bike in the car and driving to a bike track....loses something somehow.

Anyway...no hills in Vietnam and a 4km ride to the beach is a delight...along the way you see people working in the rice fields, drying rice on the side of the road, men fishing are just a few sights, and by the time you have navigated your bike around other bikes, carts, cows, motor bikes, people carrying various food delights to sell, you are ready for a swim....in water that was at least 25 degrees.

The road rules in Vietnam for a bike rider.....well there are none....traffic lights....for decoration only. No helmuts and if you have a bike with brakes and no flat tyres...hey you have it made. Hoian got 2 new bikes for the October volunteers..

OK...left hand drive, right hand side of the road...BUT basically you ride 4-5 abreast in the middle of the road...if you hear a horn it means someone is passing, so you move slightly to the right hand side of the road for them to pass. Peak hour traffic is 11.30 am and 5.30 pm...school comes out and there are literally hundreds of bikes on the road...most have 3-4 to a bike.

The thing is, the traffic works well. Because there are so many bikes on the road, motorists and motor bike drivers are very considerate of the bikes and go around you. It is so different from Hobart where motorists literally try and run you off the road.

Enjoy the experience, my family were horrified when I told them I was on the road with no helmut amongst cars, bikes, cows, carts, people and any other mode of transport and at night with no lights, often riding in torrential rain ... but you have to be here to understand how it works and you "just keep riding"...if you stop it confuses everyone. AND another great thing....I lost weight..

The people of the town embrace the volunteers.. It is so very different working in another country as opposed to being a "tourist". Everyone is very grateful you are helping the orphans and they literally open their homes to you. The local tourist office provides very good travel discounts for volunteers but everywhere you go, people know who you are..and if they don't they soon find out...

Once you find out the going price for things you learn the bartering system...as a volunteer. things are so cheap and if you make it a fun thing... the locals laugh along with you....we were buying bottles of water and knew the "local price" was 5000 dong (about 50cents)..We were quoted 10000 dong and when we said "hey we are not tourists...we work at the orphanage"..the price dropped by half and they spent the rest of the day apologising to you....next time you saw them, they waved and smiled...a new fiend was made.. AND if you forgot to wave....well that was another story.

We had weekends off which was another bonus as it allowed us to travel to other parts of the country..Hue is a beautiful town..but if you take a tour of the tombs, DON'T book the $2 boat tour from your hotel...you will be on the boat for 8 hours....even if you love boats....this is way too long...AND you are a "tourist" there so the price goes up...not much but when you are used to being "a local".....

Another great experience is a motor bike....but on the back with an experienced driver...it will cost you $50000 dong(return) to go to China Beach (about $5)..they will drop you off and come back at whatever time you want. If there are a few of you, be prepared for a bit of a race with the drivers..3 of us went to China Beach and soon found that when the "boys" hit the open road they turn into racing bike drivers..they have to pass everything in front of them....and if one of the drivers pass you....hang on cause you know your driver will not stay in 2nd place for long...

Go to HOAs place and the owner will look after you. This is a great little cafe at China Beach and the owner will also rent out rooms if you want to stay. His daughter works as an interpreter for GVN in the DaNang orphanage and he loves having the volunteers. He will treat you like family, introduce you to everyone who comes along and loves to drink beer with you....at 10am in the morning.

Again, check out the Volunteers book at the Hoian house for all the info.

I also had the opportunity to visit Cham Island. GVN are opening a school on the island as well as teaching english to the local community. I helped with the interviews for an interpreter and looked at the facilities for the classrooms and the living quarters for the volunteers.

The schools on the island are only from kinder to year 7. Students who want to attend secondary school or learn english must go to school in Hoian..this is a 20 minute boat ride on a fast boat or about 2 hours on the slow boat..it is a poor fishing community so most cannot afford this.

Very few tourists go there at the moment, and I totally disrupted the island...I went into the class rooms and spoke english with some of the kids...they all knew how to say "hello" where are you from... and then they would burst out laughing...they then followed us around the island..it was such a fun day and another very special memory.

An eco tourist resort is being built there and part of the reef will be zoned for diving so many of the local fisherman will lose their livelihood. The idea is to teach english to the older children and locals to allow them to gain employment when the resort opens...it will be a huge challenge for the new volunteers going there but also an exciting time. I have provided some info for volunteers for Viet to pass on as there is no electricity on the island and when bad weather hits, you are unable to get off the island for several days. Bring plenty of reading material as there is no entertainment that I could see.

I also worry that the people have no concept of how much their lives will change when tourism hits the island...anyone with diving experience, interest in marine life etc would love this opportunity as the people will need to learn these skills as well as learn english. I hope to come back to Vietnam next year and will be interested in seeing how things are going on Cham Island.

My time as a volunteer has ended but a huge part of me in still in Vietnam...since being back in Tasmania I am already questioning why am I here...I have seen my family and friends, they have all survived without me, life is going on, back at work...nothing has changed....AND it is still raining.....why would I want to be here when I can be riding a bike in Paradise...waving to everyone as they all wave to me, drinking freshly squeezed nuoc chanh (lime juice)....hanging out with some amazing kids who have such sad stories to tell.....but you never hear about them...because life goes on...

Yes volunteering has changed my life...Thank you GVN for the most amazing experience and I will be back next year...sooner if I can win the lottery..