Saigon Focus: Reminiscing About My Trip Part 1

I arrived in Vietnam on the night of July 11, 2013. The next morning, as I went out for breakfast, I met a small child who was selling cakes to help his parents make some money. The child was about 4’10’’ in height, and he weighed no more than 90 pounds. He told me that he was 14 years old, and he dropped out of school after the 2^nd grade because his family couldn’t afford it. He had two younger siblings, so he was working to help pay for their school fees. He was from North Vietnam, and he went down to Saigon with his parents to work. When my aunt asked him if he liked to go to school, he quickly said “yes.” He seemed very eager to learn, but he couldn’t do so because of several reasons. Besides from his family’s financial struggles, he was not allowed to go to school in Saigon because he didn’t have the requisite paperwork to go to school in Saigon. I don’t know the exact reason as to why his lack of paperwork prevented from him to go to school, but I was surprised by this because this situation would never occur in America. In America, with No Child Left Behind, no child can be denied the right to an education where he lives.

A few days after my arrival, I went to a school to meet the students who were receiving aid from the charity. I went with my aunt, my sister, my brother, and a family friend who is helping with the charity. Since the students didn’t really know each other very well, the atmosphere in the classroom was awkward. Students of all ages who were new to the charity took turns introducing themselves. After that, it was my turn to introduce myself. Since my Vietnamese isn’t very good, I struggled to put what I wanted to say into words. All of the students thought my struggles were funny, and everyone had a great time watching me mess up. Since no one really understood what I was saying, I decided to speak in English and have my sister translate what I was saying into Vietnamese. After the introductions, we distributed books, uniforms, and money for tuition. This was another terrible moment for me because I was forced to call up each student individually by their names. My Vietnamese speaking limitations caused me to struggle with pronouncing the students’ names right, but once again, everyone had fun watching me struggle. When the distribution process was finished, the meeting was over. I had conversations with a few students who were waiting for their parents to pick them up. We shared a few laughs and quickly became friends.

(These are some of the students who are currently receiving aid from Saigon Focus)

Two days later, I, as well as my sister and aunt, drove for a few hours to the province called Ben Tre. Here, we walked around tirelessly for hours to distribute tuition money and books for students. These students were the poorest of all the students we’re helping. They live in one-room shacks they built entirely from trees and bamboo, and many of these homes do not have an adequate roof, bathroom, or beds. Several of these homes we went to were miles from the nearest road (we had to walk deep into a forest trail to reach these houses). The shacks were tiny, but there were often many people living it them at one time. These families live in the worst conditions imaginable, and yet all the children were very eager to go back to school. I was amazed at their passion for learning. When we gave them the money, books, and gift bags filled with food, they all were so happy and grateful. Every home we went to gave us each a coconut to drink from (Ben Tre is famous for its coconuts). We must have had at least 7 or 8 coconuts each that day. This experience showed me how much I take for granted, like having a great education, a safe home to take shelter in, and enough food to eat every day. I never knew how valuable these things were until I met these students. The entire experience just puts into perspective how fortunate I am to live a middle class life in America. There are thousands, if not millions of kids worldwide who will do just about anything to have what I have.

(This is a girl who we are helping. She is holding the books and gifts that we gave her. The room she is standing in is pretty much her entire house.)

(The kitchen in one of our student’s house.)

(Due to their lack of nutrition, these students do not grow properly. I am 17, and I’m the one in the blue shirt. The student I’m standing with is 14.)

After visiting these homes, we went to a local school to meet up with a few more students. We couldn’t travel to everyone’s houses, so we called a meeting to give the students their books, tuition money, and gift bags. The students who came to the meeting were better off than the students we visited earlier, but they still weren’t in great situations. We called each student up individually to receive their packages so that I could meet them for the first time and for them to get a round of applause from their peers. After the meeting concluded, it was time for the 3 hour drive back home. It was the most exhausting day of my whole trip, but it was very enjoyable. This experience was profound in that we got to help many students and it opened my eyes to many horrible living conditions that I never even imagined about.