Today was a busy day here at Peace House. I think all of us tossed and turned during our first night here...our mattresses are about 3 inches thick. AKA we sleep on plywood, haha. Mom isn't too wild about our accommodations. She thinks Bear Creek is luxurious compared to this! When we use the toilet (western, not squat), we have to toss our TP in the trash can so we don't clog it up. What else...the food is great. It's all served family-style. We have mosquito nets hanging from our beds, but they're not the greatest because they block airflow. It was 91.5 degrees in our room at 10PM last night. Also, there's geckos that crawl all over the walls up by the ceiling. How's that for ambiance?! A few of us climbed up onto the roof this afternoon, which was cool. I assumed we were in the middle of nowhere, but it looks like there's a lot around from the view up top! We also spent some time up there once the sun went down. It was great - there was a lightning storm, which was cool. I tried some Vietnamese beer...not so good, haha. I'm not a beer expert, but I'd say it was pretty similar to our Keystone Light.
Orientation was great. The morning was full of presentations regarding the volunteer organization, cultural differences, dos and don'ts, etc. I'll give more details in a later post. A Our Vietnamese lesson was quite entertaining. We learned some basic conversational phrases to use as well as numbers, etc. Vietnamese is such a tough language because a) they talk so fast! and b) there's a good chance you'll pronounce the words wrong. The language is all about tones. The same word can have up to 6 different meanings depending how you pronounce it! I'm hoping I master the basics in a week. Vietnamese people obviously appreciate visitors attempting to use their language. Also, I've had better success with bargaining when I use basic phrases. I still think we've been ripped off a bit for some things, but it's just so hard to know how much something is really worth. Everything is significantly cheaper than the U.S. as it is, so how low can you go? Hmm..
Hannah, a girl from Australia, and I went biking this afternoon to check out the area. It was quite interesting. We were biking on these half dirt/half pavement roads alongside motorbikes, cars, trucks, animals, people walking, and other bikers. The roads are so narrow - they look like one lane roads that we have in the U.S. Anyways, despite a few close calls, there were no casualties on our ride. We opted to walk our bikes across the street to avoid disaster when turning around to head back.
I'm so excited to visit our project site, Friendship Village, tomorrow. We had a project discussion this afternoon and it sounds great. We'll ride our bikes 2km each way to get there and apparently we have a 2-3 hour lunch in the middle of the day so we'll return to Peace House for the meal. There's approximately 6 houses with 20 kids each at Friendship Village. They also have rooms for war vets, who typically come for 2 months at a time. All of the children have disabilities, most are a result of agent orange exposure that has been passed down in generations. Even though it happened years ago, the Vietnamese people are still feeling the devastating effects.
The children range from 2 - 26 years of age. There's a clinic on site with a rehab, acupuncture, and yoga! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get to work in the clinic because it's so OT (occupational therapy). They also have an organic garden that supplies food for the kids at the village. Their bodies are already affected from the herbicide from the war, so it's better for them to eat pesticide-free food to promote health and prevent further problems. Apparently there's also a need in the homes where the children stay because there's only 1 house mother for 20 kids! We're planning on starting our mornings early so we can assist with the self-care routine (or lack there of) in the houses before school begins. Oh - one other thing. None of the kids are orphans. They're at Friendship Village because their families couldn't provide proper care. Also, Vietnamese consider people with disabilities defective. The stigma is a huge deal - more prominent than in the U.S. They also promote vocational training at the village. There are IT, sewing, embroidery, and flower-making rooms. I can't wait to explore the facilities! There will be 6 volunteers there total. 4 of us our new, 2 have been there for a few weeks already.
UP NEXT: Silk village in AM, Friendship Village in PM tomorrow
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