It’s an interesting but challenging trip for 30 students from the Imperial College London during their two weeks in Vietnam without visiting tourist sites, nor hotels.
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| English students teach English and computer skills to children in Tra Vinh |
Also, they had to tackle a challenge set out by a secret letter in Ho Chi Minh City.
One of their days in the city began with a Vietnamese song at Tortoise Lake in the city’s center. Only when their pronunciation in the song was fluent enough to get a nod from local volunteers were they given a secret letter to find the answer.
The puzzle was to go to a cafeteria shop where guests were all sitting flat on the ground and find a way to get VND10,000, just half a US dollar, from a local.
Some surfed on mobile phone to access Google and GPS, others traced on a printed map to find a bus route. In reality, the venue was just a short walk from the lake.
The site is the April 30 Park, next to the Notre Dame Church and in front of the Unification Palace in District 1, where they decided to sell paper hankerchiefs to coffee drinkers to earn 10,000 dong.
But no one agreed to buy them unless the students sang a local song. One student, Fiona, tried but failed, and she was only given the sum after performing a break dance as a substitute.
Other missions followed, such as finding the way to a Highlands coffee shop, walking along streets packed with motorbikes, and visiting the War Remnants Museum.
Home stay in the Mekong Delta
Before their trip back to HCMC, the group had experienced several days with locals in the Mekong Delta Province of Tra Vinh, where they donated computers, taught English and built a solar electricity generator for locals.
“I'd only seen a few documentaries about Vietnam on TV and was not very sure what to expect but I absolutely love it! The people are so friendly, no matter where we went we always received a warm reception and were welcomed into people's homes,” said Holly Wilson, 20, a biology student.
“The country itself is beautiful and has such an amazing buzz about it that even though there are some culture shocks you can't help but have a great time!”
She admitted some of the shocks include “the heat and the lack of running water/toilets were a big shock but everybody found it easy to adapt to these conditions.”
“To be honest, I think the fact that we were all thrown into these conditions together meant we became a lot closer as we got through it as a team with everybody in the same boat.
“It really opened my eyes to how ridiculous some of the modern day commodities are as a lot of the people in Tra Vinh have very basic conditions compared to people in the city, but they were so happy and always willing to share whatever they had with us.”
Holly added that, “Everyday holds such great memories. I'd just seen what a big difference our work had done with the locals saying they never even thought having electricity was possible and describing how it had changed the way they lived, and finally everyone was together performing as one team to the children, and even though it was pouring down rain everybody was excited and happy to see what we'd achieved and all the community from Tra Vinh had turned up to join in celebrating with us.”
Benjamin Edward Sandy recalled his time in Tra Vinh, “I had heard about similar places and so I could imagine what the facilities would be like and how the people would be living. What I didn’t expect was how amazingly welcoming and hospitable the people were. Everyone was incredibly nice to us and made us feel so welcome in their village. The people brought us so much fruit and the children came to see us and showed us their toys.
“What really struck me was how the people in Tra Vinh seemed so happy despite having such a basic lifestyle. I really liked seeing all the children smiling and running around laughing in the school, even though some of their clothes were ripped or old,” he added. “I felt happy to see that the children were not so concerned with the items that they have like many of the children in England are.”
Civil engineering student Manuel David Abreu, 21, admitted, “I had no expectations regarding what Vietnam would look like once I got there, but I was indeed surprised on the one hand by how recent and marking the war was, and on the other hand by how tolerating the Vietnamese people can be...”
