Sunday, July 10, 2011

Day 2: And It's Our God-forsaken Right To Be Loved





Woke up at about 5:10 am. Went around floors 4,5, and 6 to make sure everyone there is awake.
After a nice breakfast, we took the bus and headed to Đức Huệ, Long An to give scholarships to 50 poor students of Bình Hòa Nam Elementary. After 2 hours through the countryside and about 20 minutes on the Vàm Cỏ River, we reached our destination and were immediately welcomed by the many nervous yet heartwarming smiles. The ceremony proceeded as scheduled with speeches from Dr. Duy, Mr. Long (the Social Worker), a student representative, and mine. Oh, I almost forgot, Tuan Ngo got called on by Mr. Long at the end and was forced to deliver a speech on the spot. He was able to make a lot of the kids laugh, so props to him. We then got to hand backpacks and 400,000 VND to each kids. I got to hand my portion to an adorable girl. She was so shy; after saying "thank you," she slowly edged backward to her friends. I really wish I got to talk to her. Times to mingle with the kids after the ceremony was cut short because of a small drizzle, as the students rushed home quickly to try and beat the rain. Although we spent a minimal amount of times with the students, I am still happy. The money, which maybe sounds mediocre to us, makes a big difference in the lives of these students. I hope that these scholarships, along with how proud we are of these students, would motivate them to work even harder to achieve their goals.
Aside from the scholarship ceremony, Steven, Tran and Sean went separately to visit a house built for one of the girl receiving the scholarship. MEMO had 14,000,000 VND worth of leftover medicines, and the authority of Đức Huệ donated another 7,000,000 VND to her family, who had not have a house for three generations. The house is not fully complete, as it still needs to be painted, but at least now this family has a permanent place to live.















The ride back was quite pleasantly relaxing. We got back to the hotel just in time to get ready for dinner. If you went to 4G, you will remember the outdoor buffet restaurant site. Yes, we went there today. Well, not necessarily there…It turns out this restaurant operates in many sites, and we went to another site aside from the one from last year. The scenery was just as nice and the food was just as good. It was a dinner full of bánh xèo (Vietnamese crepes), snails, BBQ Pork, and so much more Southern Vietnamese food. It is hands down my favorite restaurant on the mission.
It is surprising to say that the food was not the highlight at the restaurant. Well, at least to me it wasn’t. Wait, before I get to my favorite part, there is another thing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AI-VY!!!!! We got up on stage and sing happy birthday! Hope you enjoyed all the happy birthday singing that we did. =]
Throughout the meal, there were performances by a band going on constantly. As we finished the meals, the couples in our group (Franklin &Sophia and Andrew& Jannett) got up and showed us amazing dance skills. Also, we happened to have dinner at the same time with another group, which appeared to be a group of foreign volunteers working with children with Down Syndrome. A little girl in that group came over and asked the guys in our group to dance. She danced with Jonathan, then with Kevin, and the Jeremy, and then me. Thank you Kevin, Jon, and Jeremy for giving me the courage to go up and dance (which is something I am not comfortable doing). It was so much fun!! The little girl has so much energy! After a while she pulled Natalie up too and the three of us got into a circle and dance. It is one of those moments that you just forget about everything. Stuff like that is what makes life beautiful: it doesn’t happen too often, but once it does it just lifts your hearts up. She was adorable, innocent, and talented. It is just amazing to see someone less fortunate and had went through so much still smiles and laughs and have fun. Maybe to me she had gone through a lot, but it seems that she continues to look forward and be happy. Not only that, she was able to spread her joy to others like me.
“I’m Yours” was played next. The little girl pulled Jerome and danced with him. The song was just perfect for the moment. EVERYONE got up and join hands with Jerome and her into one big gigantic circle while singing to that song. It was an a amazing way to end the evening.





And it’s our god-forsaken right to be loved loved loved loved loved <3
Over and Out.
Wait not yet, just one more thing. People seemed to be really tired on the bus today.





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