Day 5 – Service Time & Rainy Afternoon
Authors – K. Mitchell, A. Grazioso
Summary –
We woke up to a traditional Vietnamese breakfast, consisting of rice noodle soup, man
go, and bread shaped as a lizard. This was tasty but not very filling to prepare us for a long hot day at work. We went off to our work sites around 7:30 and began working. It was very humid, however there was cloud cover so it was not too sunny. The morning flew by as we mixed cement and laid bricks.
We were all exhausted and ready for lunch at our usual spot, a two minute walk from the homestay. Lunch consisted of delicious spring rolls, which had pork, mint, carrot and taro root. These were absolutely delicious and they went well with the main dish, egg fried rice and catfish. We tried a new fruit Mangostine for desert. We learned to open this fruit carefully to not to damage the sweet white fruit inside. It tasted like a very sugary and less citrusy orange and was pure white.
After this we had a quick two hour break at the homestay where we played cards and took naps before our afternoon of work, then fishing. We arrived at the work site and it immediately started to rain, so we stoped and started to talk with the young children at the site and workers. The girls made us grashopeers out of leaves, and
the workers gave us watermelon. The 
rain was not passing so we ran back to the homestay. W e were drenched when we got back, so a few of us decided to shower in the rain. It was a fun afternoon even though we did not get to go fishing!
Personal Thought/Reflection –
Kat: I had a great day bonding with the young girls at our work site. Even though we did not have a common language we were able to laugh and play with them. This is an experience I will remember for a long time. I also had a lot of fun in the rain for it was a nice break from the intense heat we have been experiencing.
Alex: We got a lot done on the house in the morning but were completely shut down in the afternoon by the persistent rain. The day definitely would have been more fun without the rain, because we were all soaked and did not get to go fishing, which I wanted to do. However, it was nice to get a few extra hours just to hang out and relax.
Day 6 – Service Time, Pagoda, School Visit
Authors – B. Capobianco, D. Tai
Summary – We woke up in the morning and had breakfast at around seven; we had sesame bread, eggs, little bananas, and green tea as usual. After that, we went off to work. Both groups made some progress toward finishing their house. Today we only worked in the morning
until 10:30. The weather was hot, but compared to the other days it didn’t feel that hot.
Afterwe finished working we had lunch. Today’s lunch was one of the best meals we have had on the trip so far. It was chicken curry, roasted chicken, garlic and greens, rice noodles, and a really tasty fruit.
Then we biked to a pagoda in the rain. A pagoda is a Buddhist place of worship. It was very cal
m and when we walked in there were multiple people chanting prayers. There were also a lot of statues of different Buddha. After we left the pagoda we biked to another school. We handed the kids different gifts and then we got to play games with them. It was a lot of fun to meet another group of kids.
Then we returned to the homestay and ate dinner shortly after. It was another good meal and a lot of us tried rat. Overall it was a very good day.
Personal Thought/Reflection -
Brian: Today was very cool because we got to go to a pagoda and see a completely new culture. I had never been to a pagoda before and found it very interesting that there were so many different Buddha. It was also awesome to be able to bond with some of the kids from school even though they did not speak much English. I
t was a fun day because we got to see what another culture is really about and overall it was a really fun day.
Darcy: Today was another great day of the trip. The experience of building up walls with my own hands is amazing, and seeing the house getting toward finishing is really rewarding. It is also nice to visit a local Pagoda, because it represented the religion of the local people. The best thing happened today was seeing the happiness on the kids faces at the school visited. The process of me and the kids trying to break the language barrier and communicate was really enjoyable, although we still couldn’t fully understand each other.
