A great success

The 2012 OFS Vietnam trip was a great success both in its goals and in the enjoyment. All three groups managed to complete their goals and in several cases surpass them which is even better. The students all had an amazing time, even though the work was tiring and back breaking at times we managed to pull through and still enjoy the trip. During the trip we toured several different parts of Vietnam and discovered it was an incredibly beautiful country and that the people were wonderful and amazingly friendly. The work my group had to do was at first just digging several trenches which at first seemed like hard work but only took us the best part of the first day to finish. However the next day we did not have enough space for all of us to work and so the remaining people in group 2 went to help the other two groups. We realised how much easier our worksite was compared to the others after this, especially group 1’s worksite. Group one had to dig much longer trenches and also had to dig through hard crumbly soil which was full of roots and took a machete to hack through at times. Mixing cement was another one of our jobs, which was not too difficult, and the shovelling the sand almost seemed like a welcome break, but carrying the buckets was difficult as many probably weighed about 20 kilograms each. Brick laying was difficult to get the technique right at first so you have the right amount of mortar on the brick and it is level with the rest of the bricks. However kneeling down for more than about 5 minutes really starts to give you sore knees and it became much easier once the bricks were at a level where you could stand and lay them. The tour of the Cu Chi tunnels was also an incredible experience as  I had learnt about them in my history classes but have never been to them before. The tunnels were incredibly cramped and dark but were very interesting to pass through to see what it was like for the Vietnamese who were using the tunnels. It also makes me appreciate how much hard work they did as they could make an underground tunnel that stretches several hundred meters and would have been incredibly hard work especially as they had to bring up the soil and used it to level bomb craters. Overall this trip was a wonderful experience even though at times it was incredibly hard work if I got the chance I would gladly do it again. Thanks, Yan

The Cu Chi Tunnels

Today  was hands down my favorite day as we got to visit the cu chi tunnels and enter them. This was a completely new experience for most of us and I couldn't believe my eyes when I got inside one. It was  pitch dark with barely any space to move and the only way you could move around in them is by kneeing down or by crawling and the tunnels were kilometers long! We also got to see some of the traps they used to fight the Americans and they were brutal, you could feel the pain just by looking at the demos our tour guide showed us. We also had an amazing opportunity of firing guns, which was a new experience for most of us. Such ranged from M1s  to massive M60s machine guns, which, when we were not at the range, had a huge contribution in making the atmosphere as realistic as possible, as that's what the soldiers would have experienced during the war. I was surprised at how complicated the tunnels were which means that it would have been impossible to memorize the whole system. But the best part about this was that it was told from the Vietnamese perspective unlike most other sources such as books or movies which only took into consideration the American perspective of the war. We spent the whole morning there, and the one and a half hour bus ride was definitely worth it, especially if you find war history fascinating like I do. -Marco Triglia

Tour Day

Blog for Sunday, 3rd June 2012 (afternoon to evening) We had lunch by the beach in Ha Tien near the border gate of Vietnam and Cambodia. This lunch was purely the Vietnamese experience and we had tried steamed fish with vegetables, which was simply delicious. After the lunch, we had made our trip by the bus to the boating area, where we then took a boat to an island off Ha Tien which was about a one and a half hour ride as there were a lot of waves that controlled the speed off the boat and we had stopped several times as there was slight problems with the engine. When we had finally got to the beach, few students had decided to swim, some decided to skip rocks and Avik climbed two trees like a monkey. We had dinner on the beach, it was a nice barbeque dinner of beef and soft shelled crabs. The boat had left the beach therefore we had to wait about an hour and a half, which only came to us leaving for Ha Tien at around 6. The boat trip back was about an hour and when we reached the boating area, we had to take the bus trip back to our hotel in Rachia Gia. -Rashmi Phanichkrivalkosil and Yeon Je

Cultural exchange

Today, we went to Vietnamese school for cultural exchange. When we arrived at the school, there were 6 Vietnam people playing volley ball, and some of our OFS students went to play against them. They were better than us, but it was interesting to see our students and teachers playing against them. After the volley ball match, a Vietnamese man started to dance with a loud music on. After the short performance, we went to perform. Firstly, we sang our school song. Vietnamese people looked so bored since they couldn’t understand English. After we sang our school song, students who were assigned to dance went out to perform. Some students of our school also danced so hilariously that all the Vietnamese people laughed. After all the performances have finished, I played soccer with Vietnamese kids. I saw one kid who got his feet injured, but he couldn’t do anything since there are not enough medical aid in Vietnamese. I felt sorry for him and decided to work harder tomorrow. -Jong Woo

Monday morning

The morning opened up early, as usual, because our tour day was over and it was time to go back to work! Work on my site had moved on; we were no longer digging the trenches needed for the foundation, but filling them with concrete, and later, bricking them up as well. While mixing cement was a nice change of pace from the digging earlier, doing it out in the sun was harsh. At the same time, there had been a thunderstorm that night, so the ground was wet and muddy. However, skies were clear for the rest of the day, so that problem was swiftly remedied. In another house, some walls had been partially built up, and it was time to tear the former walls down. Unfortunately, one was too close to one of the freshly built brick walls, so both came down! It was a full day's worth of bricks, but in the long run I suppose it wouldn't set us back so far. For lunch, our meal was fish in a chili sauce along with rice, which was very tasty, as the food usually is! But the morning was over, and it was time to go on. -Daniel

On Friday

On Friday we had to wake up at 3:30 because our flight to Rachia Gia was scheduled at 5:45. It was difficult because most of us were sleep deprived on the first night. But we managed to wake up and board the bus on time. So we rushed to the Airport which took a long time to check in our baggage by the time all this was done. We were almost late for the flight. So we rushed to the landing area and got on a bus that shuttled us to the plane. After landing in Rachia Gia we went on a bus to our new hotel called “Henry Hotel”. Many people liked the Henry Hotel much better than our first hotel because the rooms consists of a nice bathroom as well as two queen size beds. After having breakfast at the hotel we went on a bus and went to the Habitat Orientation. The Orientation was very interesting as we learned a lot about the history of Habitat For Humanity. After the orientation we went to a restaurant on the river where we experience a traditional Vietnamese meal. -Eric

Hard Work

Our second day in Vietnam was met with some sleepy faces after some decided Karoke was in order last night. Breakfast was like the day before, friends anticipating the busy day ahead.    It was a boring ride to the build site and a light drizzle of rain began. Of course we had to work despite the conditions, but it ended just as we began to work, and we were split back into our original posts for first few minutes. As we switched between the jobs, most have moved to the un-finished house which needed digging to prepare to fill foundations. I switched between having to create metal supports for the concrete to set and hammering metal bars, to digging non-stop. The majority of people were assisting in digging the trenches of the undemolished house, in which the sun was blazing down on us and forcing us to take constant breaks, while many of us tried to brave the heat and do much more before stopping. - Tharon

Working under the sun

Today, we headed to the worksite early in the morning to officially start our Construction for the local villagers. As we arrived, the locals greeted us with a friendly smile.  There were few babies at the working site. They were cute and made us learn how to speak vietnamese language to communicate with them. We brought an electronic dictionary to find few words because we were unable to speak with them even a word yesterday. The local workers who arrived earlier were mostly local  charity workers like us. They were friendly and helpful but we had difficulties in working with them and follow their instructions because not many of them could speak English.  As we were working, the humid weather Made us desperate for water and made critical affect on our working progress. Our clothes were soaked with sweat which made me feel very uncomfortable for the occasion.  Inside the house that we're working for reconstruction, people were focusing on digging holes at the exterior parts of the building. which sounds easy but was infested with plant roots that we had to use a machete in order to cut out the Roots and start digging with our shovels. Others were making cement for the other house directly below the sun. -Tae Wong

The Kids

After the lunch I could rest for a while. During this time I played with kids of the family. At first it was very hard to communicate with them because the family could not speak English and the only Vietnamese I knew was xinchao (which means hello). So I used electronic dictionary and searched some Vietnamese. Although it was not very successful, it was very fun to play with them. After playing with kids I made some pillars and stacked some blocks with cement. It was quite difficult and challenging, but I felt very achieved. -Hyun Ji

The Food

We have been experiencing authentic and freshly produced Vietnamese food. For lunch our group had river fish, presumably by the lack of fishy flavor a Red Groupa steamed and served with soya sauce and some and a small amount of Vietnamese fish sauce which is very commonly used within traditional Vietnamese cooking. The main course was a soup that contained a river-fish that i was told was related to sharks and had a relatively tough texture. However the fish had been precooked before being put into the soup and left to boil and absorb the flavors of the contents of the soup, namely the cut chillies and the and the assorted fresh vegetables that were put. For dinner we had a multitude of dishes to select from. From simple garlic-fried rice to to more complex and equally tasty local treats like barbequed fish. The fish was came in two types with two separate sauces. Much to my chagrin i'm only able to truly recall one of the dishes which was a fish, presumably a river fish for its lack of overall fishy flavor, barbequed with a sauce made from chili, honey, fish sauce and some other spices. -Ken

Contact Information

Good evening parents, After a couple of very busy and tiring days we have started to get settled in Vietnam. The students have all been enjoying themselves. They have been very well behaved and have begun to bond as a group. I wanted to give you our contact information here, in case you need to get in touch. Our mobile phone numbers in Vietnam are: Mr Woods 0128 445 9840 Mrs Smith 0128 3556 6493 Mr Calumarte 0128 486 5124 Please keep in mind that we are one hour behind Singapore time. Also, I will be checking my email twice a day (morning and evening), so feel free to get in touch that way if you'd like. My email address is tim_woods@ofs.edu.sg You can also contact Mrs Mares at OFS for any queries.

Our Epic Quest Begins

Hey guys, it’s Aaron. Yesterday, we flew into Saigon from Singapore. And Julian’s dad, Mr. Julio Rosales, decided to surprize us all by showing up personally to fly us there! It was one of the smoothest flights I’ve been on in ages, so hats off to him. The first night in Saigon was uneventful, yet it did give us a glimpse into Vietnamese cuisine, and of how the city is like. This morning, we got up very early, at about 3am to catch the 5am flight to where we are now. Today, we had our first glimpse and our first shift on working at the work site. I must say personally that I am pleased with what we managed to do in the few hours we had at our disposal today. As a group, we did various things like cutting steel reinforcement wires, hammering them into shape, and then forming them into reinforcement rings in which cement would eventually be poured, to form the foundation of the new house that we are going to erect. It can and will be said that though we are all exhausted after this exertion, we all came out with an excellent state of mind, as we all had fun, with this new experience, and that we did this in the full knowledge of the fact that we did this for a cause greater than ourselves.

As a quick introduction to the blog let me start by welcoming you all to the OFS Vietnam Blog for 2012. In the run-up to our departure this Blog will serve to help you all prepare for the trip. Once we leave it will serve both as a place for your family and friends to check to see what you have be doing in Vietnam and as an online record of the amazing experiences you are all going to share.

Navigating the Blog

In order to make our Blog easier to navigate we have divided it into different pages that are linked in the sidebar on the right. We hope you enjoy all the posts and would like to encourage you all to post a comment if you feel so inclined. Please post your comments in the comment box at the bottom of this page.

Previous Trips to Vietnam

For those of you who are interested, here are a couple of pictures from past trips as well as links to the blogs from previous trips.

Vietnam-2009
Vietnam-2010
Vietnam-2011

Here is a link to a video that captures the spirit of Habitat for Humanity Vietnam. This video was made by a Habitat team at the same build site OFS worked on last year.

If you are interested in finding out more about the OFS trip to Cambodia here is a link to their Blog

CAMBODIA

http://ofscambodia2011.blogspot.com/

TEAMS

We have decided to divide the Vietnam group into teams so that we can share responsibilities and duties. Each team will have a designated student leader who will be responsible for coordinating activities. Each team will also be supervised by a teacher. If you have any questions or need to contact us while we are Vietnam please calll the teacher supervising the group your child belongs to. We will be posting telephone numbers once we have bought sim-cards in Vietnam.