Yes, I am still in Vietnam. I have been gone so long, it is hard to imagine being home. Ha!! But I have had a good trip. I haven't been sick, lost only one thing-a notebook. I will return to Portland Oct. 14, so now thinking a little about my return, but first I fly back to Saigon on Saturday.
The teaching at the high school has been interesting and enjoyable. There are 7 volunteers that go everyday to the high school. We generally leave at 8:15 am by van and arrive about 9 am. Then we all have our teaching schedules. Last Monday, my room numbers were all wrong, so I spent a lot of time walking around trying to find the right class. You would think the head of the Eng. dept. would know but she couldn't help me. In fact, her Eng. was very limited, which is not that unusal. The regular Eng. teachers are not always good at speaking Eng. so I guess that is why we were invited. The younger teachers are generally more eager to have us in the room, while older teachers are more reserve in their enthusiasm. It is understandable.
In some ways, the school reminds me of a normal high school in the U.S. You can have students not listening, or goofing off, semidisruptive. For example, in one class, I saw a student throw a pen across the room, hitting another student. The regular teacher said nothing. But they tell me that some students are expelled if their behavior is not good. Most of the students are eager to participate but they do not always understand. The classes seemed to be tracked, like math majors or physics majors. The class will always stand when you walk in the room, and at the end of class, the students never leave the room until the teacher leaves. There is a drum they use to begin and end classes, which I like better than a bell. There is a big push in Vietnam for all schools to teach English.
After we get back to the hotel, I often walk to a park that has a lake where you can see hundreds of locals exercising everyday. I walk around the lake but everytime, I am asked by some stranger to help them practicing their Eng. They are always university students, like the civil engineering student who I talked to yesterday. This student first asked me about Freddie Mac and the financial crisis in the U.S. Wow!! Then he want to know about J.P. Morgan, who I vaguely remember reading about in high school or college!! Ha! I am always to impressed with the young people here who seem to really understand how important education is and how thirsty they are for learning, especially English.
Today, I went with 2 other volunteers to the HaNoi Hilton. This is the Hoa Long Prison that the North used during the Vietnam war. John MacCain was in this prison for 6 years. A lot of the prison was destroyed but some of the original building remains. It is always interesting to see a place like this from another country's point of view. Some of the propaganda is obvious, but it was interesting. It talks a lot about the France ruling the country and dealing with Vietnamese resistance befor 1954. There are some photos of American prisoners who were shot down and captured, but they all looked more like army camp than a prison.
The school has planned a field trip for us tomorrow and a party tomorrow night. Then, after that we have only one more day. I have made some new friends with this new volunteer trip, and hopefully some of us will keep in contact. Some of the volunteer look to me if they have questions about Vietnam because I have been here so many times. Like, one volunteer always rides with me if we go in a taxi because she says I know what I am doing, where I am going and how to deal with the taxi driver if there is a dispute, and there have been a few. Ha!!
Well, I have to go to class. Take care all....Sweet dreams!
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