Teaching English at Ban Pho Secondary School

Bao Nhai Primary - Day 3

Bao Nhai Primary B Principal

Lunch with the Bao Nhai Principal, Vice Principal and teachers

Tea time



Completed the water holding tank today. We said "goodbye" to the students and teachers, gifted the principal with money to purchase the students winter clothes and shoes and danced one last time.

There are 47 boys and 25 girls grades who stay overnight all week at this school because the walk home is much too long - 100% Hmong minority kids. By providing these clothes and shoes we have helped the teachers to get the kids to remain in school and stay overnight, assuring they will be at school every day. Because of the ammenities of clean water and warm clothes, the school can provide more to the children than they can get at home, so their parents are encouraged for them to stay overnight and remain in school.

Off to School. . .

Mon-Wed we spent at a very poor rural primary school. During our time there, we intended to do a few things, including:

· Help build a VERY large water holding tank for the school, out of concrete and bricks

· Get to know the principle and some of the teachers better, building on interactions from previous Cool River visits

· Share some fun with the kids

· Go fishing (well, that one was uniquely Chuck ;-)

So here we go!

The first day when we arrived we met with the vice-principle for tea, because the principle was at an all-day meeting offsite. She was so warm and welcoming, and after tea we got a tour of the school. We saw where the boarding students sleep, 3 per twin bunk, and where the meals are cooked over a wood burning grate. We heard about their vision to expand the dining room (currently only about half of the school’s 120 students fit in the room), and add more boarding space to more comfortably accommodate the kiddos who stay during the week. We learned that they’d prefer students to board at the school M-F, because the students who sleep at home often miss school due to rain (the walk is over an hour each way) or if their parents want their help working at home.

After the tour, we got to work!! Lots of mixing sand/concrete, shoveling concrete and carrying pails of it to use for the tank base/bricklaying, and carrying bricks right to the2 bricklayers so they could more efficiently complete the thick walls of the tank. Holly and Jen both attempted bricklaying, but got “fired” quickly – Jen for lack of speed in the task and Holly for something we’re still not sure we can identify. So materials prep and handling seemed to be where our value lay. The work was hard but fun, and we all worked up quite a sweat in the humidity, except Chuck who didn’t sweat a bit! Ha!

After about an hour we heard Euro techno music start blasting over a loudspeaker, at which point all the kids rushed out of the classrooms into the main courtyard, where they began dancing choreographed routines with a drill-sargeant-esque teacher leading them from the front. We jumped in to dance with them, bring many giggles and stares from the kids - who were those giant sweaty creatures with curly hair and WHERE did they come from?!? These kids come from families so poor that they have one outfit, only rice to eat, no TVs, phones, or computers, so they rarely if ever have seen tall western-looking people…we were quite the novelty.

After dancing, back to work!! We worked some more, then went to a little outdoor café for lunch, then back to work. It was a long, fun, and tiring day. Tuesday was similar with a little less work but more play (including leading them in silly kids songs – Jen drew the short straw on that one), and we had ample time to talk at length with the school principle and a couple other teachers. We were all thrilled to be learning about each others’ day to day lives, and cultural/professional challenges. We learned of their struggles teaching at such a poor school, and their dreams for improving it. In one instance they shared that although school started two months ago, none of the expected government funds to cover costs had yet arrived. They were so grateful for us coming and funding this water tank for them. The pictures we had brought them on Monday taken on previous trips (thanks Angela!) were posted on their board and the principle got tears in her eyes as she thanked us for the pictures, and our support of the school.

Oh, and Chuck finally did get to use that fishing rod he carted from Colorado. Sadly he’d left his flies at home, but the schoolchildren dug some worms and Chuck had captured 2 frogs, and so on one of our breaks we hiked down to the river behind the school to watch him try his hand at fly fishing, “worm-style”!

Jen

Nodding Off to Sleep

The homestay feels like glorified camping, with better food! We sleep hostel-style on floor mats in a big thatch-roofed house, with mosquito nets over us to protect us from all varieties of critters that may wander into the space. We share a of couple toilets and showers rooms.

There is an area to hang wet clothes on a line, a camping hammock hanging from the roof, and an outdoor area with tables to eat/read/play cards/relax at. We’ve had a couple great evenings after long work days sitting around those tables conversing with our Vietnamese friends about everything from regional accents to parenting styles, from spirituality to GMO’s.

His wife cooks for us – everything from fried eggs or crepes for breakfast with Vietnamese-style filter coffee to pho, sautéed cabbage, and sesame chicken for dinner, always with fruit for dessert. She’s a great cook! Often around dinnertime we play with their 8-yr-old son or get to hold their oh-so-precious new little baby girl. Chickens and roosters roam the property, often waking us once or twice (or 6 times) during the night with their rooster alarms– talk about free range eggs and meat!

Jen

Between the Clouds and the Dirt, in Lao Cai Province

We've spoken at length several times about whether or not these folks would be better off with most or all of the technological conveniences that almost everyone in the western world enjoys. These people who still live very much the way they did 20, 50, and even 200 years ago. Not exactly the way they did, but approximately.

Many of the women still wear heavy, thick, beaded skirts, shirts, and leg wraps; even when the temperature and humidity are very high. They still handle raw pork with a bare hand in the market, eating afterwards with the same bare hand, having only wiped the hand on a shirt, with no knowledge of the risk they are taking. We've seen very few refrigerators, and no microwaves. We've watched a barefoot elderly man plow a rice field with a steel blade on a wooden apparatus pulled by a buffalo.

Would these folks be better off with polyester blend breathable quick drying clothes, anti-bacterial gel, moist handi-wipes, GE, LG, and John Deere? We have our suspicions. We even have strong suspicions. But our strongest suspicion is that even if we think we know, we might not be justified in thinking that we know. And we might even be wrong.

Chuck

Bao Nhai Primary School - Day 2 Water Holding Tank Progress

Even though the pictures don't prove it, our team actually did a lot of work on Day 2. Work and play, work and play. . . great day!

Bao Nhai Primary School - Day 1

I'm sitting in the Sao Mai Hotel lobby writing tonight. We are having a terrific time! The Northwood team is pretty fun to travel with, but the GVI staff are fantasticly funny! It feels like we are at camp for a bunch of 30 somethings. I have never laughed so hard in my life. . .constantly!

We just ate dinner at Sa's. Soon I'm off to bed.

I thought you would enjoy a video from one of today's work breaks. And the pictures below are of the work we are doing on the 15meter water holding tank that is being built.

Back at the primary School tomorrow!

Amy