Vietnam 25th - 27th May

At this point of time it became kind of confusing on how many countries we've actually been to so far. On the brink of almost forgetting which country we are at almost. We just wanted a break and some rest from stuff. We heard that it was dangerous to go out at night in Hanoi at night. But to me, it is only dangerous if you think it is dangerous. It's very psychological how you scare yourself into thinking what is reality. I didn't really wanted to risk it because I had my camera equipment with me. Rather not risk it. This was the first country where most of the locals were fair-skinned so that was why Pete was mistaken to be local, finally not me. Which made me come to the conclusion that there wasn't a lot of sun in Vietnam, thus the majority of fair-skinned people.

We went to this non-profit school called 'Blue Dragon' which is supported by World Vision and opened by 2 Australian, Michael and some other person. The reason why it's called that is because actually Vietnam is shaped like a dragon, Hanoi being the tail and Saigon being the head. It was even interesting how they came up with the logo because how they came up with the logo was through the many drawings of dragons done by many different children of the school. The other person in charge on that day was called, Binh. These 2 people were I think one of the few most benevolent people in the people I knew as they have such good intentions of trying to help out these Vietnamese school drop-outs. Instead of just letting them waste their lives away at home, they offer knowledge and life skills for these young people so they learn something that might be useful for them in the future. You can really tell that these children are really happy to be there and that these children really treasure the things they learn there and they seem like one big happy family. I feel that its good that these children are given the opportunity to know what it feels like to have someone care about your growth in education and allow them to realise and pursue their dreams. I think it's really big of them to want to start up this school for the Vietnamese children and want to improve their lives. Makes you think that it is a much more worthwhile cause to spend your money on rather than just yourself. I might want to come back to visit them again and maybe share some of my knowledge because I've always enjoyed being a teacher and being able to share my my knowledge with the younger generations.

We had an interpreter following us, he was an English teacher in University, called Tuanh. He was a natural comedian and he was practically taking over the show from Pete as he was helping him translate. I think he was putting in his own jokes as the children were all laughing whilst he was talking. Tuanh shared us a lot of insight regarding the education system in Vietnam. How the teachers didn't have a system to improve the teaching standards and how teachers don't see the need to nurture the children to become good adults rather than just to input information into their brains. And he was comparing it to Singapore's education system where the teachers here would have bonding sessions and sharing sessions to learn from each other so that they will be able to improve their styles of teaching. Somehow I agree that some teachers, even in Singapore don't see the importance of their roles in making sure that instead of just planting facts into the heads of children, they have to nurture traits like discipline and respect for the elders. They play a significant part to what they eventually turn into as adults.

What I liked about the Viet schools was the places that we brought to in the schools. One was in a courtyard, where there were these humongous trees which provide shade for the children to sit around on small plastic stools and carry own with their activities. I'd love to study in that kind of environment. Next was actually the school canteen where rearranged all the tables and chairs so that all the students would face the front and neatly- arranged.