Kindergarten&College Project

Hello dear ones,
A few days have passed since I was in Ninh Binh over the weekend. In the meantime, I have already started and finished my volunteer project because unfortunately, I only had four days with the kids.
This is because I am flying out next Monday and there is no volunteer work on Friday.
That means I was only in the project from Monday to Thursday. Last week I received my introduction, and my typical day looked like this: I drove to the kindergarten at 8:30 AM with my friends who are doing the same project. Normally, you would take a bus, but it's actually much faster and cheaper to order a GRAB, the Vietnamese UBER- a taxi, so to speak.
In the morning, I was always in the preschool class for 2 hours. The children there are 5-6 years old, and our task was to teach them essential basic concepts in English. Our theme this week was food; on Monday we started with six terms and then spread them out over the next few days. It was really great because the kids were very eager to learn, and we progressed much faster than we thought.

Today, on the last day, the children could already form complete sentences in English, which they couldn't do before.

“I like chicken and rice,” for example:)

The kindergarten is located in the heart of Hanoi, and what stands out immediately is the incredible lack of space there.

In a room that is about the size of an average bedroom, the children spend the whole day. From 7:00 AM to typically 4:00 PM, as the coordinators explained to me. Vietnam has a very strict working culture where it is not common to work part-time or not at all. Often, this is also because families cannot afford to do so.

The children are doing well; they spend the whole day in this small room with a small toilet, and everything is done there- playing, learning, sleeping, eating, and creating a lot of chaos.

I found the children to be very friendly and polite; they always thanked us and greeted and said goodbye very sweetly. But that is the general atmosphere here. The people are incredibly respectful and welcoming.

At noon, we always chose something delicious to eat; it’s truly unbelievable how cheap the food is here. We received about €1.50 per day from the organization to buy something while we were out. That may sound like very little, but you can actually manage quite well. A typical Ban Mi- a very tasty filled sandwich or a Pho soup with a drink can easily be bought with that money.

After that, I always returned to the accommodation and then went to a college with another group to teach English there as well. These students were obviously older; we had different classes, with ages ranging from 16 to even 21. Often, students have to repeat classes, and the general English level was truly low.

Here we mainly played many games to get the students talking. These students were also very polite and interested; the first thing they usually asked was whether one had a boyfriend or not:)

Sometimes the afternoon classes were a bit tough because the language barrier was just too big. Often, students can only imagine very minimally, and of course, it’s very challenging to discuss topics such as hobbies, favorite foods, or similar.

Afterwards, we were all pretty exhausted and usually took a short afternoon nap. This is quite common here, almost like the midday siesta in Spain. Usually, one just sleeps on the floor on a small bamboo mat without a pillow.

The Vietnamese swear that this is much better for the back and overall health.

In the evenings, we sometimes went out and bought something delicious for dinner. (As I said, the food is so cheap, one simply must take advantage of it) or we spent the evening playing cards.

Once, we also went to a Water Puppet Show in the evening, which is very famous here in Vietnam.

I feel that the education system in Vietnam still has a lot of room for improvement, and just like in Costa Rica and Ecuador, I have to say that education is the key to everything. We are so lucky to receive free and high-quality education in Germany as it opens doors for our future. The schools here in Vietnam and also the kindergarten are often so expensive compared to the income that many families only send their children to school up to the tenth grade, integrating them into the family business, such as their own shop or small retail.

It’s common to be served in a restaurant by eight-year-old boys who start working early.

Last weekend I secretly slipped 20,000 Dong into the hand of a boy as a thank you for serving us, and he started crying. It was truly an intense moment since for me, 20,000 Dong is not even one Euro, and for him, that's actually quite a lot of money.

I have inquired, and the average hourly wage here in Vietnam is about 25,000-30,000 Dong, which is roughly €1 to €1.20. That really is a surreal ratio compared to us in Germany.

Again and again, I come to the point where I am deeply grateful for how privileged and well-cared-for I have grown up.

The people here are not doing poorly; they just will never receive the same opportunities in life that I have.

So, enough of these deep thoughts, I had to say goodbye to the kids with a heavy heart because we are looking forward to an exciting weekend in Ha Long Bay. I have already told many of you about it; it’s the coastal region known for its beautiful landscape and the rock formations in the water.

I'll get back in touch and hope that you all have a great start to the weekend! 

Feel huge hugs,

Best regards 

Your Paula