Community Service Tour – Vietnam
A constructive experience
A 9 day tour to change the lives of 28 students
“our lives will never be the same”
Vietnam – Quick Facts
 Capital: Hanoi
 Population: 88 million
 Population of Delta: 25 million
 Gross National Income: 2,700 per capita
 Life expectancy at birth: males – 70, females – 75
 U5M: 14 per 1,000 live births
 WHO Region: Western Pacific
Essendon Keilor College and Greensborough College joined forces for the tour of a
life time. The challenge was to raise the funds for the materials required to build
two houses and to build them both in two days!
We all know that fundraising is hard work. For our group of dedicated and hard
working students it required long hours of cooking staff dinners, turning sausages on
the BBQ, walking the streets selling Easter egg raffle tickets, selling chocolate frogs
and collecting money on casual clothes days. The target $3,500! It seemed like a lot
of money and a task that was never going to be achievable. On reflection though, it
was easy!
We also realise now that $3,500 was a drop in the ocean compared to what is really
needed in a developing country like Vietnam. We also feel that it helped but does
not go anywhere near to alleviating the pain, suffering and absolute poverty that we
experienced personally amongst the community that was to become our home and
family for four days.
The community that welcomed us with opened arms, feed us their amazingly fresh
and healthy food, kept us free from mosquitoes’ under our mosquito nets at night
time, taught us how to us a “toilet” room to do a number one and a large pond to
“go to the toilet” to do a number two, explained the importance of a cold 30 second
shower, the need for the government to switch off the water and electricity at least
once a week, the water well and the need to hydrate in the hot humid climate. So
many different cultural experiences, so many new things to learn, so many
inhabitations to conquer, so many sad stories to hear.
We set off on our constructive experience on the last Friday of the school holidays two different schools, two different but very similar groups of students all
wondering about how their lives compared to that of the lives of people in
developing countries. Some of the tour group had travelled overseas; many had not
even been on a plane. The facial expressions on stepping out from the airport in
Vietnam told us that many were wondering when they could catch the next flight
home to the safety of Australia.
No chance though because we were off on a cyclo (a rickshaw propelled by a cyclist)
to explore dynamic Ho Chi Min City, the power house of the south and a place of
fascinating contrasts. One street has extreme poverty, the next has Rolex! This
emerging city with its wealth and poverty mingled together was viewed at slow
speed in our cyclos. Our eyes and senses we awakened and our educational tour
had begun. Visiting the Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral, we begun to
understand the influence of the French and we even found a yummy French pastry.
Riding on a cyclo through the busy streets of Ho Chi Min City
(Bridgette Gywnne and Ashleigh Armstead)
Our education in Vietnam history included a visit to the infamous Cu Chi Tunnels,
once home to the communist guerrillas in their struggle against the French and
Americans. It was in this area of South Vietnam about 1½ hours from Ho Chi Min
where the fiercest fighting occurred during the American conflict. This area was also
subjected to an extensive air defoliation program. Our war history lesson continued
to the War Remnants Museum were we learnt about the Vietnam War from a local
perspective. After seeing and reading the shocking accounts of guerrilla and
chemical warfare, we began to question the reason for any war and particularly,
why the Americans were so free with the use of chemicals such as Agent Orange.
The pictures and real formaldehyde models of foetuses and the effects of these
chemicals left many in tears and angry. The tourist vendors outside of the museum
with visible physical deformities left us wondering how long the legacy of the
Vietnam War will be with these poor Vietnamese people.
Shocking reminders of the
Vietnam War
The dark, hot and tiny Cu Chi Tunnels
(Ashley Murphy)
Our first few days of sightseeing and adapting to the cultural changes allowed us to
explore Ho Chi Min City and further understand the lives of the people we were
meeting. Other tourist destinations included Reunification Palace from where the
South Vietnamese Government once controlled the war effort until it was defeated
on 30th April 1975.
A cooking class gave us the opportunity to take part in hands on cooking to learn
some of the secrets of Vietnamese Culture. Our head chef (who spoke no English)
guided us through 4 dishes which become part a very long dinner and graduation
ceremony from Saigon Culinary Art Centre.
Cooking Vietnamese style - Sally Lasslett & Chrissy Collins
When teaching students about the differences between a developed and a
developing country it is hard for them to really understand, until they find
themselves immersed in the culture, poverty and daily struggles faced by these
amazing, happy, yet sad and very resourceful people. Our four day and three night
stay with our community certainly allowed us to experience real life in a developing
country.
A “boat house” on the Mekong Delta
Our transport to the village of Giao Hoa in the Chau Thanh district of the Ben Tre
province (Mekong Delta) was different to say the least. A sanpan, a donkey & cart
and a beautiful wooden boat. Our boat driver (who we were to later find out was
also our builder) helped us to explore the Mekong River from the water. The Delta
which is home to about 25 million people is a busy place. Old rickety wooden boats
which are also homes, trip up and down this amazing water way carrying anything
from coconut and pineapples to fish and petrol. Life on the Delta is friendly, laid
back and very polluted!
Travelling the Delta
Giao Hoa Village (greater district) is home to over 10,000 people, with the
community where we were to live and work harder than we have ever in our life,
was called the Giao Hoa Hamlet and has a population of 700 people. We were
warned on route to the village to be aware, be very aware! Many of the 700 in the
village had not travelled far and Westerners were going to be a new and amazing
site – we were a bit like a new attraction at the zoo.
Arriving at the jetty that led us to the village, we were greeted, hugged and touched
by many of the community leaders. Children lined the road way as we pedalled our
ill fitting bikes to our home stay for the three nights. It was an amazing welcome,
one many of us will relive over and over again. On our first night with our local
home stay family, we experienced true Vietnamese hospitality. Our host family
treated us to a delicious Delta meal and we learnt lots more from the local people
and their English speaking representative, Chin, about what it really means to live in
such a beautiful, yet isolated and poverty stricken place. After such a wonderful
welcome it was early to bed under our mosquito nets ready for a building project
that none us was really prepared for.
Alarm clocks are not needed in Giao Hoa - the rooster crows; the dogs bark and the
community news speaker do this job. Each morning we were awoken at 4am by first
the rooster outside our window, without glass, then the dogs barking and the
community news speaker who provides the whole village with local news and
information over a loud speaker. In Giao Hoa as with all other villages along the
Delta, a community speaker is given the most important job of reading the “news”
over the microphone. The speaker moves to a different location in the village each
morning. As we really were such BIG (in body size and shape) news, the village
speaker was outside our home stay each morning to make sure we were awake and
ready to work!
Work begins early all over the village because of the heat. Our guide warned us of
the heat in the Delta but I think being Aussies we thought we could cope but high
temperatures, humidity and very hard physical labour took its toll throughout our
stay in the village with almost all students and staff members feeling the effects of
dehydration and heat exhaustion. Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) can be taught as
a strategy to improve health in developing countries – we were experiencing this
first hand and were using ORT at least 3 times a day to compensate for the
perspiration lost. By lunchtime in the Delta we found that we had to drink at least 2
1/2 litres of water or our bodies began to wilt. Soft drink, to replace the lost sugar,
became something we told students to have and to have at least 4 cans per day.
Something health teachers and mums! would never tell their children to do.
The highlight and sometimes low light (due to fatigue, heat exhaustion and
dehydration) of our trip was our two day house building project. We built two
houses, in two days, for two families who had nothing. The two families were
chosen by the community due to the fact that they were most in need. As the
pictures show, absolute poverty, poor housing and illness plagued these two
families.
A house for a family of 4
The kitchen- indoor cooking
When we first visited our families before the building began, tears of shock were
flowing amongst the group. Adolescent males big and burly, teachers and even our
trusty tour guide Xuyen, were overcome by the conditions under which these
families had been living. We knew at this stage we had come for a purpose. As a
team we made a pact not to leave, not to whinge and not to give up until we were
done. A pact not to be broken, a team building experience and a super human
effort would be needed from all to get a very very big job done!
Overcrowding and poor shelter
The bathroom and toilet
The house of a woman and her two teenage sons - this house was held together by plastic bags!
Our house building project took the form of practical building and labouring work. A
variety of tasks were under taken by each “builder”. We cut bamboo to make
flooring, walls and a roof. We constructed framework for an outside kitchen –
indoor pollution is a burden of disease in Vietnam. We all did tasks we had never
done before - hammering, sawing, brick laying, laying of tiles, constructing verandas,
levelling floors, digging dirt, making cement and mortar, painting (which is really our
rendering), transporting materials and weaving. Finally after two days of the
hardest work many of us had ever done, after digging deep and pushing ourselves
like we did not think we could, we had constructed two houses for two very
deserving families.
(Mitchell Flavel)
Levelling the floor to prevent flood damage - this house was situated
on its own little island which was prone to flood
Lizzy Miles and Bridgette Gwynne
Tiling and grouting the house before the roof is constructed
Constructing the framework for an outside kitchen
The kitchen walls were made of the leaves from the coconut tree
The completion of our house building was emotional. We were sad because it
meant we had to leave our new village home, teary because of the gratitude and
absolute enjoyment of our new home owners and we were all absolutely mentally
and physically exhausted.
My amazing house building grou - my own Bob and Wendy’s.
Well done guys - you are awesome!
The team at House Number One
The team at House Number Two
Our exhaustion was short lived as an “us” against “them” soccer match was being
planned. No time for resting - off on our bikes again to the village soccer field (a dirt
pitch on the side of the road) for a friendly game of soccer. When we arrived it
appeared that no shoes were the go and that there was no way in the world the
Aussies had a chance. They, the village of Giao Hoa, had pulled out the big guns,
well rested all day for this important community gathering.
After a tough but friendly game, we were invited into the Phat Minh pagoda, the
home to the village Monks and 56 orphans. These peaceful and friendly monks had
laughed at our soccer match and then told us of the awful outcome for many
children in this village whose parents simply could not afford to keep them. The
orphanage began after a child only 4 weeks old was left at the monks’ gates during
the night by a village mother who could not afford to keep her baby. Ever since, the
monks had been opening their doors and arms to children, the often tiny and silent
victims of poverty. On the day we arrived a two week old baby had been left again
by a mother and father who simply could not afford to feed, shelter or provide
clothes for their new infant. For many of us this was a very emotional and
disturbing experience.
We left here different. I will certainly never ever take anything for granted again
and will cherish every second that I spend with my two beautiful boys. Children
should be cherished and should never ever have to go though the torment that
poverty places on their tiny heads.
Orphaned children from the Phat Minh pagoda
Small baby and physically and mentally disabled girl, both of whom had found a home at the
Phat Minh pagoda. It was so difficult to understand why we could not just bring them home!
Back to our home stay but still no time for resting - we are all running on some sort
or stored energy. Only time for a shower (30 second in length, cold water and
without soap) and a very quick meal and we were off again to the village centre.
The children had come out for the night and we were able to play, colour in with
colouring books and coloured pencils which many had never seen or used before.
Stickers were a winner, again something not seen by many.
(Sam Wylie)
Spending time with the local children
(Mitchell Flavel)
That evening the heavens opened and the rain was torrential - good luck in Vietnam.
It means happy and safe home for a new house. Someone was watching us!
The next morning our village stay came to an end. We woke, again very early, to be
greeted by our home stay family and a traditional Vietnamese breakfast. This would
provide the energy we were told we need for a community celebration. This
celebration formed the lasting memories that we will all have of Gioa Hoa. The sun
shone, hot, children came from everywhere, the orphans came from the pagoda and
we celebrated! We sang songs, played with balloons, gave gifts (we all felt like
Santa, but unfortunately although we had hundreds of gifts we still felt like we did
not bring enough). A very loud and friendly walk to the jetty to get on our boat,
transport back to Ho Chi Min City, we said our tearful goodbyes. Students took off
shoes they had on their feet to give to people who had none, t-shirts, books, shorts,
sunglasses bought cheaply in the Ben Thanh market, anything we could give was left
and we were off. An experience of a lifetime was over. As I type I am crying about
those we left behind. We did so much, gave so much of ourselves but really it just
was not enough.
Our farewell celebrations
Our boat trip back was quiet - students reflected, most if not all cried, tears of
sadness, disbelief and I think frustration in part at a lack of ability to make a bigger
difference to those who have nothing. For all of us on that boat on that day our
lives will be different!
Human Development Index (HDI), Millennium Development goals and absolute
poverty, words defined, case studies analysed, programs previewed. There is no
substitute from real life experiences. Experiences and moments that our wonderful
group of young people had, over and over again! Memories that will live with them
forever and will be invaluable when answering relevant SAC and exam questions.
But, most importantly as they travel through their own lives, they will be forever
grateful for the country that they live in, of the peace/lack of conflict that they
experience and of the possessions that they have. I also feel that they will never
ever forget the difference they have made, although small to the lives of so many in
the village of Gioa Hoa.
An amazing group of students who will take so much knowledge home with them on top of a
working tank at the Cu Chi tunnels.
Sally Lasslett
Essendon Keilor College
Vietnam Community Service Co-ordinator
Thanks to my special group of students. You have made me very proud and I will
live with the experience that we shared together forever, long after you leave us
here as Essendon Keilor College to go and change the world. Good luck and once
again you are AWESOME! WOW!