TIV (This is Vietnam)

Xin Chao,

Ban co khoe khong (How are you?). If this sentence is addressed to an older man, I would say Ahn co khoe khong; to an older woman, Co co khoe khong; to a friend about my age, Chi co khoe khong; and to someone younger than me, Em co khoe khong. Of course there are various accent marks on several of these words, but I don't know how to create them in blogspot yet. I am slowly learning this language, or at least parts of it. One of the teachers at the vocational college, Chi Lien, is going to meet with me once a week while I am here to teach me Vietnamese. I'm quite excited. My students are also teaching me. If I can hold a basic conversation with someone by the time I leave this summer, then I will be happy.

Jen, our Operations Manager, said that if I wasn't careful, I would have plans 24/7 my entire time here. Once I purchased a cell phone yesterday, I realized that she was right. Last night I went with several teachers from Duy Tan University to sing karaoke. They said I'm a great singer. I think they need their hearing checked.

This morning, I visited Social Support, one of the poorest orphanages GVN (Global Volunteer Network) works with. My camera was out of battery, so I'll have to share photos the next time I go. They work with both disabled kids up to 24 and babies at this orphanage. Several of the kids have cerebral palsy and some are in extremely contorted positions. One little girl was fine until she was dropped by a babysitter and hit her head. Now she has severe brain damage and is very low functioning. A few kids also have Downs Syndrome. We play with the kids, hold them and entertain them. In the baby room, there are about 10 babies waiting to be adopted and most will be adopted by the time they are one year old. Unfortunately the US agreement with Vietnam to allow adoption has expired so the babies go to Italy, Canada and other countries who still have such an agreement. One of the volunteers, Kerry from New York, was in the process of adopting a girl named Yang (who is absolutely adorable) when the agreement expired. Now Kerry splits her time between the US and and Vietnam, spending the vast majority of her time in Vietnam.

The babies love to be cuddled, hugged and loved. They reach up to be picked up and bury their little faces in our shoulders. It is so wonderful to spend time with them.

Today I went for a beautiful run along the river, just as the sun was setting. The weather was beautiful, barely humid and high 70s-low 80s. The only thing I don't like about running is the stares. I am stared at all the time, no matter how I'm dressed or what I'm doing, simply because there aren't that many Caucasians in DaNang City. However, when I run, EVERYONE stares. Oh well, TIV.

Hope all is well at home. I'm enjoying another day in paradise!

I love teaching!

Xin Chao (Hello),

Today marks the end of my first week of teaching. Tomorrow I have the day off because it's a national holiday. I'll be going to social support (an orphanage) in the morning and having lunch with a teacher at noon. I'm sure by tonight, I will have plenty of other plans this weekend. I'm meeting with a large group of students from one of my classes on Saturday morning for coffee. The students are very eager to learn and take every opportunity to speak with me. They even presented me with flowers in my class at the vocational college this morning!

I absolutely love teaching. The first few sessions were really tough because I really wasn't sure what I was doing. Because I haven't trained in ESL (English as a Second Language), it was a bit difficult to determine what games I should be playing, what information I should be teaching and how best to engage the students. I think I have it down now. I try to play a lot of games with the students and encourage them to use their language skills. I am teaching 2-3 times per day for 2 hours. It is exhausting but absolutely rewarding. The students all ask me to come back for follow-up classes. I hope I can manage to teach all of them. The teachers are also wonderful. It's a bit intimidating to be told that I have a class to teach on my own for 2 hours, but I've managed. Each time I figure out a new game to play or a new way to encourage speaking, listening or pronunciation skills.

Vietnamese people LOVE to sing, so I've been practicing my (very poor) singing skills on a regular basis. Today, I taught my morning class the song "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. Apparently you could hear all of us from 5 classrooms over where the other volunteer was teaching. Oops. One of the biggest issues we have is encouraging our students to speak loudly, so even if we were a bit too loud, I'm still happy that my students are so enthusiastic. My afternoon class sang two beautiful Vietnamese-language songs for me. I really enjoyed those.

Several classes have sung a song for me called "I say gold". If you would like to hear it, you can watch the music video for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7KuMtsf5D0. This song defines Vietnam for me. The refrain is: "You think yellow, I say gold, it's the color of my real skin, I am young but I am told that my history flows within. You think yellow, I say gold, feel the current of red river through my soul. You think yellow, I say gold."

The Vietnamese people are beautiful, hard-working, proud and happy. My students smile constantly and are eager to learn and understand. They ask on a regular basis what I think of their country, their music, food, traffic and their weather. I have nothing but good things to say about them (well except the traffic). I have been invited for coffee, for dinner, for lunch, to visit homes, to meet up anytime, anywhere. I have never felt so welcomed in my life. I just purchased a cell phone because all the teachers asked for my number. I imagine this is what being famous is like, without all the hassle of the paparazzi. I'm not sure why I chose Vietnam, I suppose I felt drawn to this country. After being here for two weeks, I can firmly state that Vietnam somehow chose me because I feel like I belong here. I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time in this beautiful country.

One of the things I like most, is discovering the people who live in my city. DaNang is the third largest city, with just over a million people. There are women in the traditional straw hats with two baskets balanced between a board that they carry over their shoulders. They walk all over the city every day selling from these baskets. I think I am tired from teaching but I can't even imagine how tired they are every day. Everyone has a motorbike, and I frequently see entire families on one "moto". EVERYTHING is carried on motorbikes, from groceries to children to washing machines. There are little stands everywhere, selling everything from bread to chickens. Many older Vietnamese people sit next to their family's stand, sitting back on their heels and watching the world go by. Most older people have no teeth or only one or two. Vietnam is developing quickly but their dental and health care systems haven't caught up yet.

I have a wonderful location in the city; right by the river. I only have to run 3 blocks to a sort of "promenade" on the riverfront. I thought 5:30 a.m. was early, but half (or more) of the city is already awake! There are people out playing badminton or shuttlecock, walking, doing tai chi or running. The running most people do is different than my running. They run 20 feet, stop, turn around, run 30 feet, stop, run, stop, run, stop and do this several times over. I have to be careful when I run, because yesterday I face planted when my foot got caught in an iron ring used to pull up manholes in the sidewalk. Jen, our operations manager, calls me "Grace", short for graceful... because I'm not.

Look for more photos today or tomorrow.

Tam Biet, (good bye)
Erika

______________________
If you would like to know more about what I am doing in Vietnam, here is a synopsis of my trip that I wrote up for my family's church newsletter.

Ten toi la Erika French-Arnold (My name is Erika French-Arnold). I am the daughter of Susan and Rich French-Arnold and I am volunteering and traveling for about 14 months in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

I am currently living in DaNang City in Vietnam. I will be here for the next three months, teaching at two universities (Duy Tan and DaNang) and a vocational college. I teach all different levels and classes, from beginners to rather advanced English-major students. I constantly need to encourage them to speak louder and articulate. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language). I'll get there eventually!

I will also be spending time with orphans at the Center for Agent Orange Victims near my house. I'm working with an organization called Global Volunteer Network and they support several different orphanages in the city. Most of the kids either have parents who are too poor to care for them or their parents are deceased. A few of them are disabled, either from residual effects of Agent Orange or from other causes. When you come in, the kids run up and jump into your arms. Because they don't have parents, they aren't shy like other kids are. They just want love!

I live at a house GVN rents in the middle of DaNang city, near the river. I arrived about a week and a half ago and I'm having a great time! With GVN, I paid a certain fee (about $2200) for three months, which covers my room, board and supports some of the programs here.

In the US, I'm considered far too pale, but here everyone loves my skin! Several times, older women have come up and stroked my arm or my face. Light skin is prized and all the girls cover up to try to stay as pale as possible. Today a man who works for one of the universities asked me what was wrong with my skin. Our housekeeper told him I had freckles. He asked if I got them here and I had to explain that I was born with them. I guess he thought my freckles were some horrible disease! TIV= This is Vietnam.

Later this year, from August 15-November 15, I will be going to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to work with an organization called Harpswell Foundation. I will be living in one of two dorms built by the organization and will be teaching intermediate and advanced English and leadership skills and mentoring the the 84 Cambodian female college students who live in the dorm. The Harpswell Foundation seeks to train the future leaders of Cambodia and to help them recover from the genocide of the 1970s.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Look for more updates from me in upcoming months! My email address is msfrench001@gmail.com and my blog is erikasbigtrip.blogspot.com.

Tam biet, (good bye)
Erika