I slept well this last night, getting around six hours of solid sleep, putting a smile on my face, after seeing that I woke up at an hour before the center was to go back to the swimming center (Trung Tam The Thao Duoi Nuoc). After freshening myself up in restroom, I went into the dining room right outside my room and had breakfast. Today's breakfast was french breads and pastries - yum!. One of my older brothers kept coming back and forth, fetching me more and more breads to eat. Now I have a stash in my room to munch on when I am hungry! I decided to take a walk outside, greeting my brothers in the baking school, who were still working since three in the morning or so. I saw some of my brothers from my old house, sitting around, waving me over to them. "You know what today is Ben?" said Manh. "Of course, swimming day!" I replied, noticing more of my brothers coming out to greet me. "Thirty more minutes!" said Bao, one of my younger brothers. Going back to my room, I packed extremely lightly this time, only taking along my phone, a towel, and a little bit of money, in case of emergency. I took a little break.
Singing to myself some songs while relaxing in my chair, I eventually noticed that there was about two more minutes 'till we would leave. Chinh, one of the younger children of the center, knocked on my door and asked for his swimming trunks that he left for me to hold for him after we left the swimming center on Tuesday. We scurried out of the house, bolting all the way down to the entrance of the center. "Oh its cloudy again, I don't need a cap I guess," I said to myself, later regretting that decision. The older children hopped onto bikes and we went off once again. Race? Sure!
Some of the brother's decided that they wanted to get over there as fast as possible, so I stayed up with the pack, keeping an eye on traffic and such as to not get run over (there was only one close moment!). We eventually hit a dead end, as a train was on its way to cross the rails through the street. After about five minutes of waiting and no train appearing, they decided to open the street again, allowing me and probably about five hundred or more people funnel out. Riding on the streets on the bike is quite the experience, much more engaging then sitting in a tour van or bus. Feeling the wind in my hair and facing the traffic is a thrill in-and-of itself! We made it. Parking our bikes again, we all marched on over to the same swimming area as before, excited to swim again.
After stretching and washing ourselves off, we entered back up to the swimming pool, eager to start swimming right away. "Hey, let's try to go to the outside pool, as this inside pool is a little boring," said Thiec, one of the older brothers. "Let's go!" I replied. We found that shortly after trying to come over that there was a military ceremony going over in the other pool (for a reason I never found out) and thus, we decided to stay at the indoor pool. No cramps today! I swam smoothly and have started to get my swimming form back, after a long time of not swimming. For the next hour and a half, our scheduled time to swim, we raced, played games, practiced different swimming strokes (which I am horrible at everything except free style), splashing at each other, and having another great day at the swimming center. Eva, the french assistant director of the center, decided to join us to swim, as she looked after the smaller children. The sun eventually came up and was beaming hotter and brighter than ever, putting a big frown on my face (again, I decided not to bring a cap). Swimming one last lap through the pool after our time was over, I washed off and slipped on my flip flops, walking over to the bike area to get back to the center. Another race? Sure!
I made third place on the way back, making sure not to get too ahead of myself and get lost. Goodness, it was sunny and hot. "Owwww... I'm going inside" said one of the children who forgot to bring his hat on the way. Me too! I waved off the children and made my way back to my room, drinking a nice, cold glass of iced tea that my uncle bought for me. Manh came over to my room to hang out, and we drank a can of an energy drink or some sort that contained a specific bird's saliva and parts of the bird's nest (which is also made out of saliva). I knew about bird's nest soup, but never about an energy drink with it. Mmm... it wasn't too bad, especially since we had it over ice, cooling us down from all the exhaustion. Lunch time!
I spoke to my brothers and host mother about the swimming, my reasons for coming to the center, and my feelings the center. They asked me if I wanted to wake up at three in the morning tomorrow to make bread with them. "Yep, that was my plan for tomorrow morning," I said with a smile (and I still plan to!). One of the other host mothers came in to greet me, asking me about my life and also asking if I had a significant other yet. Everyone of the adults I meet always ask me this question, to which I can only reply "not yet" with a smile. "You're lying," said one of the brothers, laughing with a big smile. I laughed as well,and then finished my meal. "Alright I'm off to take a nap, see you later!" I said, and then went off to my room to relax. I actually never fell asleep, tossing and turning in bed for more than an hour. My alarm went off. Class time!
My class was scheduled for the university students and the middle schoolers, since I was gone this morning. Hmm... where could they be? I marched on down to discover them still napping, having napped since 11:30 AM. Wow! They nap for a long time! By this time, the sun was literally smashing down on us with such intensity that I felt my head was on fire. I woke up Luong, one of the younger boys, and he woke up all the other children to tell them to go to class. They looked a little tired, but got all their items, freshened up in the bathroom, and went on up to the library with me. We first worked on constructing sentences with some of the vocabulary I had given them the other day. They were understanding my lessons quite well, as they were to a put where they could translate Vietnamese to English with little to no grammatical errors. I made sure to place emphasis on grammar in the beginning of this lesson, making sure that everyone of the nine students of this class understood what was going on. I must say once again that if I decided to come here to teach English, but did not speak Vietnamese, I would be done for, as now I am learning through experience how hard it is to teach a foreign language to people, especially to children who may or may not have much exposure to the language outside of the classroom. One of the older sisters, Dao (a senior in college about to apply to a masters degree program), joined us about forty five minutes into the class. As I said before, she is not an orphan on the center, but a volunteer who has been here for the last few years, living on the site and going to college from the site. She was quite the inspiration, graduating with honors from her university and having so many accolades under her belt, including many research papers, foreign exchange programs, languages, and community service activities. She was a role model for everyone in the center, including me. About half way through the lesson, a young man, dressed in a blue uniform, popped into the classroom and asked to talk to me. "So where is the gardener?" he asked, his fellow uniformed members right behind him. "There he is down there" I replied, gazing out at a group of nearly thirty people, dressed in different uniforms. Where could they be from?
"Ben, can you end class a little early today?" asked the gardener of the center, telling me that these visitors were university students from around Vietnam working for a program known as Green Peace or some name like that but in Vietnamese. "Yeah, sure, I will try" I replied, smiling a bit, then returning to the lesson. The university students were going to perform and give out food to the children hear, volunteering for the benefit of the orphans at the center. Apparently, I was to participate in the performances as well, one of my younger siblings told me. Anyways, I finished the lesson early for the middle schoolers, stopping at the end of the next batch of vocabulary. Shortly after, me and Dao worked on conversational English, as she was getting ready for an interview on Monday, interviewing for a job to teach at her university. So there we were, working through mock-interviews, tips, and chatting about our philosophies on life. I was very impressed by her work ethic, which after seeing her resume, is phenomenal. I ended class at four, and waved her off, while running back to my room to grab my camera. Hmm... the common room was set up and a sack of goodies was left in the back...
I went down to the houses of the younger children near the entrance of the center, noticing all the university students, dressed in blue, green, white, yellow, and orange uniforms, playing and taking pictures with the kids. It seemed as though they knew each other well, calling each other by name and having a good time. I went right off to meet some of them. "So where are you from?" one of the older male students asked me, "are you from Vietnam or outside?" So I went and told him and many other of the students that huddled around me about my life and my reasons for coming to the center. They were very friendly and asked me to take photos with them and the children. I was looking forward to see their performance for the center, as was everyone else. Jumping and hollering our way up to the common room, we sat down in our rows of chairs, chatting while we waited for the show to start. And then it began.
What a celebration! We went from singing, to games, to jokes, to dances, to me performing a piece on my drum pad, to taking endless amounts of photos, to eating junk food, and had an amazing time with one another. It great to see so much love for the children here, especially from people from their own country, as it was inspiring to see the university students in action. They were on a tour throughout Vietnam to visit centers and perform for the underprivileged. After about two hours of fun with one another, we said our sweet goodbyes, exchanging some information about one another (me and some of the students). And then they were off, hopping onto their vans, off to another place to show their kindness. "Hey Ben, can you teach me how to fly?" asked one of my brothers. "Yeah sure, just get a broom like you saw in the Harry Potter movie" I replied laughing. So there I was, playing with the younger children and some of my brothers who decided to join us down near the entrance of the center. "Dinner time!" yelled some of the older sisters, and we all headed back to our respective dining rooms to eat, with me going back up to have dinner with the baking school brothers.
It was a nice dinner, filling my stomach for the rest of night (hopefully). I told them when I left to go back to my room that I would be up at three to make bread with them. "Alright, we'll hold you to it," said one of my brothers with a smile on his face. And so here I am, about thirty minutes from going to bed, about to read a little bit before I go to bed. I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store. See you!
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