Greetings from Vietnam!! I still cannot believe how fast time is flying by. I spent last week in the gorgeous, beautiful, Lac Village. And this week is my last week in Vietnam. I leave next Monday to head on to South Africa.
This Thai village is located about 4 hours away from Hanoi. After arriving I quickly began to appreciate the fresh air, warmer weather and finally not having to worry about traffic every time I took a step. It was such a nice break from the city life. After arriving we had some time to get settled in our traditional thai guest house, (similar to a tree house). All 30 of the students in my group were all in this one house all on mats on the floor. It was such a great experience. I really enjoyed everyone being together! :)
We had our classes in a gorgeous community building down the road from our guesthouse. The views on our walk to class every morning consisted of livestock, rice fields and lots of dogs even some puppies too! :)
Our classroom :)
We even played volleyball with the locals one day!! TEAM USA won for the first time in 8 years! Definitely was great to get playing with everyone! So fun! :)
Playing some volleyball!!
Throughout the week we were able to travel to two separate villages outside of the Lac Village. The first village we traveled to was another Thai village and a 2.5 hour hike!! We split up into groups with translators and were invited into their homes to meet with the families. After hearing about their daily lives in the village each of us in the group was able to reciprocate and tell apart of our story as well. It was an amazing experience!
We next went into questions related to health and access to health care. When questions were asked about nutrition in foods for children the response was that the people were too poor to be able to focus on that aspect of a healthy lifestyle. Pre-natal care only occurred once or twice throughout the pregnancy. These responses really made me analyze the thoughts and ideas that I had preconceived about what poverty looks like. These families lived in houses that were smaller, perhaps not the best insulated but nothing that shouted out to me as poverty like I have seen on previous service trips before. I have begun to unwind my notions and the media representations of what I assume all poverty to be and encompass. After leaving the home we were able to stop by a school and watch the children perform for us. We even got up on stage and did some improvising after they insisted that we dance for them as well. (The 5 year old students definitely did way better than us :)
The students getting ready to perform for us!
Later in the week we travelled to the H'mong village. We were able to see the health center and listen to information about the work and health problems within this community. The doctor had stated that he was the only doctor for the 7,000 community members in the H'mong village as well another village 45 minutes away therefore leaving both of these village with little to no access to health care.
After arriving to our first house I quickly began to see and hear the poverty I had originally imagined would look like. My first step into the house was filled with smoke from the open fire that was in the middle of their home. The man of the house quickly started to tell us all about his story and how he plans to work until he physically cannot anymore. His family spends most of their day in the fields after age 13 because school is only free at the primary level. He finished the conversation with a few questions for us. Much to our surprise all of these questions were medically related and all in reference to how he should treat certain ailments he had been feeling. It was an incredibly awful feeling in regards to how much privilege we carry as students from the US. It was almost like he felt we could treat his illness or ailments. I will never take my access to health care for granted ever again especially after the second house we visited.
This house was a little bigger but filled with many more people. There was so much chatter that filled the air, only if I could understand the language. This family spoke about their three month old baby that was born in their home. He is now three months old and still has not yet seen a doctor... (She planned to go when the baby was three months because that is the only time the doctor would be available). The questions that this mother asked us all surrounded the health of her baby which once again was not easy to hear. We tried our best to answer the questions to the best of our ability but we do not have the knowledge that they seemed to assume we had :(
This week was filled with so many questions. How is my access to health care in the United States almost viewed as a human right while in so many other countries across the world access to even minimal care is hard to come by? Why do you have to pay for an education after primary school? Why is having an open fire with no ventilation the only way to heat your home? I have found that many of my questions have started to surround the injustices in the world therefore they are almost impossible to answer. I could not have asked for a better group of faculty to help our group sort through all of this information and work together to learn from our experiences from a not so "typical" week compared to our others. The biggest question of them all is how do you really make the world a better place? Who decides what needs to be "fixed"? And finally where do the standards in which we contrast and compare other communities, cities, and countries come from? I do know that making the world a better place does not just come from one aspect of discipline it comes from all across the academic spectrum. The discussions we have in class each day are such an amazing aspect of this program. The voices of each and every member of my group have become so valuable and important to me. Although we all attend American Universities we all come from so many cultural backgrounds. This allows for our learning environment to be enriched with such amazing wonderful contribution each and everyday.
group picture by campfire :)
The last night of our stay at the village we had a special dinner and even celebrated a birthday of a member of our group! :) We were also able to see a traditional dance by local vietnamese women. It was gorgeous to watch!
After our four hour bus ride we made in back to Hanoi. I am excited for what this week has to offer. Definitely already missing the Lac Village. So hard to believe I leave for South Africa a week from today.
I hope all is well with everyone! :)
I have heard that we will not have much access in South Africa but I will try to post every two weeks if possible! :)
Thank you for your continued support!
Hillary :) xoxo
"Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith what will be"
Hillary- it sounds like an amazing experience! I loved the picture of the rice field . .
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