Day 1:
It was finally the day we leave to go to Vietnam
The plane ride passed by unexpectedly fast, as we were oh-so-excited to land in this country with a completely different culture, history, outlook on the world… a different everything! But let’s start with the very eventful flight to Vietnam from Singapore Singapore
As we were driving to the hotel, a fleet of motorbikes in the traffic greeted us with so much energy, way before the hotel receptionists did, and from that moment, we were brimming with excitement! It seems quite hard to cross the road, as Mr Glover said, perhaps our fate would be even more unfortunate than an amateur playing Frogger. > o <
Well, we still feel hungry now; we have made a long journey and we need to be well-fed for the long days ahead! We have to check in to the hotel and go immediately for dinner! What kind of Vietnam Vietnam
We have to get up early tomorrow and be ready for the hard work in the following days. Anyway, an exciting journey has shown a promising start today. Hopefully we will all rest well and have great dreams, while we prepare to make the dreams of the Vietnamese villagers in Long An, a reality!
Nada Taki and Yunli Huang
Day 7
What a great way the start the day! After a night of games and fun, it was finally time to say farewell to the Long An province. Today was the last day of housebuilding and the time had come to finally hand over the homes to the homeowners.
We made our way to both the build sites that OFS teams were working on to attend their closing ceremonies; this closing ceremony gave both the government officials, the homeowners and of course, representatives from our OFS team to acknowledge the work we had done so far at these homes. At the first build site, Sneha and Marie represented the OFS team working on the house as a whole to give a small joint speech, thanking them for their hospitality and their warmth in welcoming, feeding and hosting us, whereas Victor spoke on behalf of the second work site to explain how much we loved the experience as a whole.
The family also had a chance to thank us for our blood sweat and tears that went into making this house, a home. Since our OFS team was spiltg up to work in two different build sites, this closing ceremony gave an opportunity to the oher build team to see and appreciate the work done by the other team as well.
But it wasn't just us who enjoyed the quality of the other team's work – Habitat for Humanity values the time and effort that we have put into this whole journey of creating the foundation of a house. They presented us with personalised certificates where each one of us had our names imprinted on a laminated sheet of paper, surrounded by border filled with pictures of the recipient, to make the whole event, all the more a touching experience.
The two teams then returned to their respective build sites to have one final meal with their families, before we bid farewell to the families and Long An. To end the ceremony on a bittersweet note, our team was able to gather enough extra money from our expenditure, that we were able to pay for the schooling of Mai, the little girl in the second build site, for her special needs in education at the Kindergarten level. Knowing that she would now be guaranteed a place in elementary school was just the icing on the cake after all we had done to build sturdy houses for the families.
Emotional Moments of the Day
The closing ceremony left us with many memories to take back to Singapore and cherish for a long time to come. Some of us started to feel happiness flooding their veins when the homeowners received the pictures of OFS in front of what was once an unfinished home, showing that even though it might be a task of small significance to us, the homeowners really value our hard work and dedication into make their dream of having a home, become a reality. In fact, during lunch, the homeowners came up to us and personally thanked us, saying “ what you did was very noble, and what we did will change a person's life”. This homeowners eyes were filled with tears, whereas in the second build site, happiness and sorrow choked up the homeowner so much that he said “ I have nothing to say, except, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You - It wouldn't be enough to say some many Thank You 's”
The kids of the village, who were once, the shy kids who were afraid of us or mystified by us, were all now crowding us with their love and affection. They followed us as we came into the build site, and out as we boarded the bus, waving us goodbye, and jumping while shouting our their newly learnt English word “ Hello! Ba-bye!”, as the bus took off back to the hotel, and the images of the children waned away to a field of green grass, and just a memory to look back upon....
Hello again, Saigon
We checked out from our hotel in Long An, bags in hand and bottles in crates, carried straight to the bus. The night before, we played an amazing trivia-riddle-charade-pictionary-team cheer and team shout game, with teams split up into Connie's, Victor's and Malavika's mini teams. Connie's team had come in first by 9 points, followed by Malavika's team and finally Victor's team. So, when we boarded the bus, thanks to the teachers wonderful generosity, we all had amazing bags of goodies to share and eat from. And we munched on and on and on, for the 2 hours we were travelling to Ho Chi Minh City.
When we reached, Ho Chi Minh City, some of us decided to go to the market with Ms Rogozinski and Mr Schieb, while others went with Mr Glover to shop for some art, and some of stayed back at the hotel. The marketplace was a huge area for shopping, at least four times the size of Ikea in Tampines. They sold almost everything and anything under the sun, for the cheapest rates you can get them at – ceramic plates, jewellery, food, drinks, and much much more.
After shopping for these wonderful souvenirs to take back to Singapore, we had dinner at the lovely Bonsai river cruise. It was absolutely magical! There was a delicious buffet, beautifule dances and live music to keep us entertained. What's more – they even offered everyone a complimentary ten minute head and shoulder massage! Yin Shu, Yunli and Gabriel were given the chance to dance like a traditional bamboo dancer, and boy, must I say, they were absolutely spectacular! Garett, also had a chance to show that he was equally skilled at playing novel instruments, not just his base guitar, when he came up on stage to play a traditional instrument that resembles the Indonesian Gamelan. Towards the end, everyone was singing and dancing along to the performances given by the two beautiful and highly talented singers on stage, who were our hosts for the night.
But the night was far from over – we took a bus to the fabulous Rex Hotel – famous for housing the American troops back during the Vietnam War. The teachers the took us to Rex Hotel's rooftop restaurant and we each ordered a drink or dessert, and were further captivated by the songs the live musicians had to offer. The OFS team was clapping and moving to the rhythm of the songs. We hung out there for an hour after which we took a small refreshing walk back to our hotel. Everyone is cranky and completely exhausted, but tomorrow morning we're sure, nostalgia and excitement will overwhelm us as we make our way back home to Singapore...
Victor Eriksson, Trym Ellegard Been, Sneha Barman
