Accidents happen, and they did happen, not only to just one of the children, but to two, myself get involved in one of them. For the most part, this was a normal day, up until after my 2nd class of the day. So let's get this day started.
Following the good night's sleep, free from nightmares and unexpected guests, I got up at my usual seven o'clock wake-up time, freshening up and preparing my lessons for the morning class. It was a bright morning, I could see the children playing and resting around like usual, after their morning chores. I could definitely notice the increase in the number of children at the center, making it feel that much more populated. By this time, the children had gotten to know me rather well, even the students who had recently come back from their home villages. I told one of the sisters of the Anh Dao house that I would be eating with them the following week, by order of Mrs. Hong. She smiled and ran back with all her sisters, who were huddled up by the entrance of the their house talking and relaxing. My brothers from the Thanh Truc were all huddled up in their house, sitting around and relaxing, many of the older brothers with phones sitting around and texting or watching movies they downloaded onto their devices. The cell phone policy was that the child would have to be finished with high school in order to have one, which added up to about ten or so children in the center having them (and they were very much attached to them as well, noticing some of them using their phones late into the night, messaging friends and such). "Oh hey Ben!" said Hai and Manh, both sitting on one of the bottom beds, of one of the two bunks, in one of the rooms, of the house (very specific I know!). In their house, there was about five rooms, a storage room, a room for the mother, a bathroom, and a dining room. "So, did you get attacked by that ghosts last night?" they asked, poking at me. "Nope, I slept soundly" I said, calmly. "Oh... okay... well you just wait!" one of the brothers replied. I stuck around for a bit, sitting around and enjoying their company. The older brothers came in, asking me how I was in English and sitting down with us as well. Many of them had finished up their studies for the year and were awaiting the start of the next academic year in their universities, which is happening in around late August. "Ben, are you going swim moming this?" said one of the children. Oops... I forgot. I actually had to turn down the offer, though desperately wanting to go again. I said that I could not because Mr. Van, a benefactor of the center from France was going to be coming to Hue around either this day or the next, and I needed and wanted to see him. "That's too bad, but can I have your ticket for this one day?" said Van, one of the returning brothers who just recently confirmed that he's been accepted to both of the universities he applied to. "Yeah sure, here you go" I said, handing him my crumpled up ticket, that I have failed to take care of.
I still taught that morning, albeit to a smaller group. The morning class was for the university aged students, of which there were about three in the center at the time, the others either being busy, or off swimming. Many of the university students could understand my English, but just needed some help with their grammar and pronunciation, something that I could easily help them with. We spent most of the class going over pronunciation and had conversations with one another, about different song artists in America and listening to songs from my laptop. Many of the children, though liking some songs in English, told me that they preferred to listen to Vietnamese songs (with good reason since they can actually understand all the lyrics). I am still trying my best to supplement my classes with good listening opportunities whether it be songs or even movies. When my class ended at about ten, I waved off Ron and Yen, and headed back to my room to store away my things. I was a little tired, but still decided to go and visit Ron, Luat, and Than, the older brothers in my old house to catch up on things. Than was still sick and was laying in bed, telling me that the doctor says he still needs to take medicine and rest. Luat was running around the house, tending to chores, and moving things in and out of the house, by the command of his mother, Ms. Be (surrogate mother). Ron went back to reading his books on his phone, relaxing. Eventually all the children came back, noticing them come around the back of the garden where I ended up helping cut vegetables with Tam, Yen, Lan Anh, and Luat. They handed me a raw yam to much on, telling me that they were tasty. They were sweet and earthy, taking a while to chew. We munched on them for about twenty minutes, the children doing most of the talking. Luat was bragging about how he was the most clean of all the guys of their house, the girls saying otherwise of him. I decided to walk down to the younger childrens' houses to see how the returning children fared.
"Ben, did you get a stomachache?" said Luong, one of the younger boys. "No, I am fine at the moment" I replied, a little puzzled about what the commotion was about. "Oh, I see, because eight or so of the children have gotten stomachaches since yesterday, we think it is from the food we ate for the party" he replied. Oh, that definitely would be it, as I remembered that a couple brothers from the older boys house told me they had gone to the bathroom numerous times in the morning. I myself eventually had to go twice that day, maybe being a sign of me also catching the bug. "I couldn't swim, my stomach hurt so much" said Phe, another one of the small children. I decided to go around the houses after my lunch with the Ngoc Lanh house, and ask if anyone was feeling sick, and I soon became surprised at the reactions. It was the food, and many of the children were tired and dehydrated as a result of the stomachaches. I decided to leave and let them nap, I to deciding it was time to take a break for the day.
Waking up at around one, I got up and worked on my blog, uploading some photos online, and also surfing the web, reading up a little more on Vietnamese culture (despite being right in the middle of it). When I opened the door to go to my first class, the first thing that struck me was the intense heat and brightness of the whole center, nearly ignited my hair as I steadily marched over to the library to open it for my afternoon class, today with the junior high children. I decided to show the students a movie, us all deciding to watch Avatar, many of them knowing the movie or have already seen the movie dubbed in Vietnamese. So we watched the movie, joined by some of the primary school students coming up to see what all the noise from the room was. While they watched, I took some time to read up on my books, every now and then coming back to check up on where the movie was at, having already seen it. At around four thirty, we decided to pause the movie, heading back to the activities of the day. After setting my stuff back in my room, that was when the accidents began.
I decided to first visit the brothers at the bakery school, noticing a lot of commotion going on in their house. They were testing, and having an examination on producing some samples of the breads. I luckily came at a good time, getting to try free samples that they were baking. "We aren't selling these, we're actually going to give it to all the children at the center" one of the brothers said, handing me a baguette. I gladly accepted, standing there munching on the bread and looking at all their creations. They had baked a lot of types of breads, continually taking stuff out of the ovens and putting more stuff in, checking each and every creation for quality and recording points. One of the senior brothers, the current teacher to the students, told me all this information, also taking telling me the names of all the of creations. They made some fun shapes, some of animals, trees, and other objects. Some of the breads were also decorated with chocolate, which is becoming ever more popular with the Vietnamese people. I decided to take some breads down, followed by Leticia, the french director or something of the sort of the bakery school. She carried down something like twenty breads, me with about five in my hands, giving them to the mothers of each house. The children rushed at us, asking us to give us some, to which I handed huge baguettes for them to split up. However upon entering the Ngoc Lanh house, I was told that Man, one of the younger children, had broken his arm today while playing soccer, having fallen onto the ground and bracing himself on just one arm. After handing off the breads, I went over to the sisters' room, seeing Hac, Phuong, Hien, and Thuy, sitting in a circle, some of them with tears in their eyes. Phuong told me what had happened, and Thuy had told me that she was going to go to the hospital to check up on Man, who was being X-rayed and would receive his cast later that day. I sat with them for a bit, receiving some of their sadness, and trying to cheer them up, though I too eventually fell at a loss for words. I decided to leave them, going out to the open play area between the three houses for the younger children (two being occupied at the moment) and noticed many of the older children had come down. About thirty of us were there, playing, talking, and standing around, waiting for someone to initiate a game. I eventually decided to join them in their games, first starting with hide and seek.
I followed the younger boys, who told me they knew the best spot in the area, one with the "best safety in the center," coming from Chinh. Upon being spotted after ten minutes of sitting around, I ran to the entrance of the center, noticing that Chien, one of junior high children, sitting with Phuoc, Hien, and Luong. I decided to see what was up, as they were all huddled up together sitting on the gate. Phuoc was in tears. I instantly knew why. Phuoc was a recent child into the center, an only child, and having just joined for a few days. I knew he missed his mother, who was the only parent left of both his parents. His mother lived far away in his home village, not making enough and having the health to support Phuoc. I saw her the day she brought Phuoc to the center. I sat next to Phuoc, putting my arm around him. I said nothing. "Why don't you cheer him up?" said Luong. "Its better to let him weep, he's new, he needs some time to get used to living away from his family," I replied, patting him on the back. Hien, one of the older sisters was with him, holding him as well, trying to cheer him up. Eventually Hien walked Phuoc back to the house, leaving me, Chien, and Luong at the gate. Immediately after, Yen, Lan Anh, and Hieu come running by, hiding behind a banana tree near the entrance, running from Nga, the of Phuong by blood. "Ben you are out of the game, you ran to far away from the game area" they told me. "It wasn't on purpose, I was called over here, and I found Phuoc crying" I replied, starting to walk back towards the play area.
After returning to the play area, we decided to play a new game, one that I never have heard of, but the children regard it as the "Huuuuuuuuuu" game. Very interesting. "Just watch and you will understand" said Lan Anh, breaking up the large group of twenty children into two teams. The way the game worked was that there were two teams trying to snatch players from the other team over a line in the middle of the play area. The teams would take turns sending one person to cross the line and tag people. After tagging people the person would have to run back past to line, slipping past the hands of the people of the other team trying to s game immobilize them. The key part of this game, and the basis for its name, is that the person running into enemy territory has to maintain a constant "huuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" sound for the entire duration of their trip to the other side. By either running out of air or being seized by the other team, the player is jailed on the other side, waiting in hopes for a teammate to tag them so they can run back. The goal was to essentially jail the entire opposite team. And so we played, me eventually understanding the game and enjoying myself. It was back and forth, the children taunting one another and calling names. When it was my turn up to run to the other side, I had forgot that I had to hold my breath the whole time and was called out. This happened twice, as I once again forgot after tagging my three teammates jailed on the other side. Things went well for my side, as we ended up jailing all the players on the other team, save for three people.
It was the opposite team's turn to run someone in. I kept my eyes locked on the players, looking for would cross the line in order to immobilize them. We all got in a defensive position, keeping our hands out to grab the runner. Eventually someone rushed, Nga, yelling "huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" running towards the my left side. I strafed sideways and eventually run towards her, my arms wide. I collided stopping her. Bang! My chin sharply struck right above the left eyebrow of Vung, one of the new girls to the center. She didn't cry, but was in definite pain. My face instantly flushed into concern. "Blood, blood, stop the game!" yelled Hieu, taking Vung up to the house and calling for help. "Oh no" I thought, shaking my head. Everyone stopped, and held their breath. Blood was seeping from a small cut on her head, coming out uncontrollably. I walked up to the house, watching the sisters applying cotton balls and antiseptic to the cut. I took a cotton ball and helped with the clean up, sweating like crazy at that point, many of the children noticing. "Its okay Ben, its just a small cut, its nothing serious," said one of the sisters, trying to calm the concerned look on my face. I did not respond. When at last one of the mothers called for Vung to go to her house, she walked off with a couple of her sisters. I apologized to her then, but was met without a reply. Some of my brothers joked at me, telling me now I would have to take Vung back to America and raise her, some of the girls laughing as well. I still remained silent. Mr. Hung, the gardener of the center came back from the hospital with Man's X-rays of his arm. Me and his sisters of the Ngoc Lanh house stood around the dinner table, all looking at the X-rays and commenting amongst ourselves. He had fractured both his radius and ulna of his left hand. He eventually came home a little bit later after I walked back up. He had a cast on, I was told, and was resting. I did finally break my silence during the talk about Man's X-rays with the sisters, telling them what I knew about fractures and also commenting a little bit on the accident with Vung. "You know, I may not be hurting physically, but emotional I am distraught right now" I told them, letting out a sigh. They tried to console, telling me it was nothing. Lan Anh tried to tell me that this meant that their house would get more milk and other treats as a result for Vung's injury. I still shook my head, deciding to sit a bit before walking up. Many children
followed me around that night, trying to get an idea of what was going on in my head. The accident occurred at around six or so. I did not return back to my room until nine.
For that three hours I had, I sat and talked. First with the younger children, then to the older girls, and finally with my brothers from my old house. Every one was trying to tell me that it was okay and that it was just an accident. I spent a lot of time trapped in thought, thinking over my unawareness of that moment, and in some sense, engaging in self deprecation. Eventually I released myself from my mental prison and got up, walking up to the director's house. I told her what happened, to which she told me that it was not a problem, and just an accident. Two of the brothers that I had not seen before returned home. They were about to go to France to study at a university. They were warmly greeted as I walked back with them to their house with the older brothers. The sisters greeted them and asked them a few questions about how they were doing, both of them living in their home villages, awaiting their journey to France in August. I did return to my room, but grabbed my items and decided to sleep over in the Thanh Truc house, my reasons being that I would be leaving the next day for Da Nang with my uncle and not see the children for three days. I played chess and talked with my brothers into the night, finishing a blog entry at around half past midnight. I grabbed my pillow and walked over to one of the rooms with all the brothers, nearly all of them asleep. I dropped my pillow on the ground and slept, absolving myself of the stress that plagued my mind a few hours ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment