Cherry Huong

This was the first time I have participated in voluntary activity with my faculty (FIS). As scheduled, we would visit Duong Lam – an ancient village for a presentation about its old-aged history; then go to Ba Vi to plant trees on hills. We set off at 6:30 A.M with 12 students from different classes (we are the youngest because all of us just begin the major this year). It had been raining the whole night, so it was clear and cool, which was suitable for a trip.

The first destination was Duong Lam. As I mentioned earlier, it was an ancient village. There are several common features you should notice to identify if it is ancient or not. At the gate of an olden village, we can see three things: A deep well, a big tree believed to have ghosts around (we call it “Cay Da” in Vietnamese) and a mysterious temple. Truthfully, it appears to be scary. There is a communal house with curved roof for meeting, festivals, later turned into dating and gossiping. Houses built with leaves or clay. Villagers live mainly on agriculture and self-supplying. Duong Lam is a place like that. I visited Mia’ Pagoda and went round the village. It was really new to me.

Some FIS students and students from the U.S had come there before us to do voluntary work. They lived with local people, taught children English and helped villagers with their housework. It was meaningful, wasn’t it? I am proud that students in my faculty including me have beautiful hearts like … angels (of course, it cannot be devils).

Afterward, we went up to Ba Vi to plant trees. It was about 20 km far away from Duong Lam. Generally, Ba Vi was a remote town with lots of mountains, trees and fog. We had to plant 100 small trees on a high large hill under the hot weather. How tired and dizzy I was when bringing a heavy laden-tree basket, stepping up and up to an extremely high place covered with mud. I wished I had been in a bus then; at least, a bus was much better even though I got carsick.

Nonetheless, only when I put the first tree on the land, could I find myself happy. I did it as if I was blowing soul into its body. It will grow up little by little into a tall tree like the neighboring ones. I told you that FIS students had beautiful hearts like angels earlier. It was all true. Ridiculously, some sudden screams made angels’ hearts broken due to a little lovely (scary) kind of worm living in the deep ground. When we planted trees, we had to hoe up the ground and use our hands to cover land; that’s why our worms became homeless and got angry with us. Poor them!

We finished the work rather fast. How wonderful I felt! I promised myself that I would plant trees more, not on this terrible area, but … at home. Just joking! We returned Hanoi at 3 o’clock. It was sunny and pretty then. What do you think about this activity? It that great?


18th July, 2008

Although I said that my real summer vacation only began when I passed my IELTS, I have got started with a full-of-activity summer since 1st July.

Yesterday, I came to KOTO to meet volunteers from Macquarie University (Australia) for a meeting about Monday evening activity which I have been organizing with KOTO trainees. In fact, the main purpose of this meeting was to discuss about the upcoming Life Skills lessons of Mrs. Phuong on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; I joined them by chance and luckily, we also came up with some ideas for the next 2 Monday nights activity.

To tell something about volunteers from Australia, they are active and proficient in team work. I can prove this point by making comparison between Vietnamese and Australian students in meetings or discussions. Vietnamese students tend to argue rather than discuss. They seem not to respect other opinions much because when someone raises an idea (maybe a little bit stupid actually), they immediately make bad comments on it. Moreover, either wants to listen to others, so the meeting becomes very noisy with a pocket of different opinions without constructive ones. Then, after many times of meeting, they come to nothing. It is sometimes said that Vietnamese students are good at working independently and want to showcase their ability in groups; hence, how can they cooperate with one another?

Australian students (Macquarie ones I am working with), on the other hand, are far more different. When a person speaks, everyone listens and gives constructive comments. None criticizes nor makes fun of the others. Their language is polite, too. If they feel something not reasonable in an idea, they say: “Ok, that’s such a good idea! But I think we can make some changes to improve it by…” Each person joins the discussion enthusiastically. Then, the leader collects all the ideas and makes decision. No argument and refusal, just agreement and construction.

In my view, the Education system is to blame for bad team work skill of Vietnamese students. They are not learnt how to work in groups at school. In developed countries, pupils are usually worked in teams since being small. I do think that Vietnam should focus more on this skill as it is becoming necessary because of the integration amongst countries. In other words, the globalization requires each person the ability to work not only alone but with other people as well.

I am going to return home on July 19th. I should care for my parents, too. Two weeks for voluntary work are enough for me because I am trying to devote myself and my time to disadvantaged children at KOTO now. What I am learning during this summer vacation are Giving and Receiving Love, Self-confidence and Responsibility.

On August, we have to enlist in the military course lasting one month of our university. Students are supposed to live in a remote area and have a life of former soldiers. I am eager to join anyway because I have friends and a chance to train myself.

Good luck to you! Have a nice summer vacation!