Ben Tre

I had the opportunity to go to a countryside village to volunteer and it was one of my best days yet :)

I must admit that I am not posting this in a timely manner, but it is very hard to get everything done...

Anyway, it was on a Sunday about two weeks ago that I was invited to go to Ben Tre, which is South of HCMC and in the Mekong Delta area (at least that was my understanding). The drive was rather long ( I am thinking 3ish hours...but it felt longer). We stopped along the way for snacks. This was a very cool experience because it was just a local road side stop (ie: vendor cart on the side of the road with several small plastic tables and stools) . We were treated just like the locals - which was great. We ordered a coconut type fruit and sugar cane juice. The sugar cane juice was very interesting because we had to cut the sugar cane and juice it ourselves!

Sugar cane juice is made by pressing the sugar cane through a machine that looks almost like a paper roller, you just jam it in and it gets pressed. You keep doing this until the sugar cane pulp is dry. I am sure after having to do it a million times it loses its appeal but for me, I rather enjoyed it. After our snack we were on our way.

When we arrived at our destination, which was a church that facilitates a scholarship program to help underpriviledged children get an education, we were greeted by many excited but shy children. There were 70 children there in total and we were broken off into groups. Our group was about 20 students and we simply played games and sang songs that taught English vocabulary (Head and shoulders, anyone?). After the games were over, there was a regrouping, where we all got back together and some of the students were awarded prizes for participation and effort (this was done by the leader in hopes of inspiring the childrent to always try their best - not sure how I felt about it but...anyway), we then had cake together and the children sang some Vietnamese songs. They were very sweet and I look forward to working with them again.

Our final job was to have dinner. It was the best food I have had here, and I have had a lot (and I mean a lot) of great food. It was all traditional food prepared by the ladies as a thank you for our time with there children. I don't even think writing about it would be fair because words can not do justice to the flavours and combinations we were served. So, I will leave it at that.

We left after our meal and headed back to HCMC. Nothing really crazy or exciting, just a great day :). I am glad that I had the experience and I look forward to future excursions. Krista and I have started a clothing drive for another project and we are going to a remote village to deliver them in October. I am sure I will have a lot to write about after that experience! I'll keep you posted.