PROJECT VIETNAM
BY SAM KRAUSKOPF & AVERY ROUX

  We began our project the first semester of our senior year. We began by working out the costs and necessities of the trip to Vietnam, such as plane tickets, what we would teach and so on… We began formulating ideas to  raise money for the Di Linh Leprosy Community, which included a fundraiser at the Goji Kitchen in Santa Rosa, and fundraising at Montgomery Village event nights. Having raised enough money we planned the itinerary for our trip to Vietnam and left on the 26th of December 2104. We spent 2 days in Saigon where we met our translator and guide Sherry, who, by the way, was a phenomenal help in helping us communicate with the children and helping keep us from getting lost in the town! The next day we left on a five-hour drive to Di Linh, where we were going to teach English to children of the town.

   When we began teaching, it was hard to come up with activities and lessons for the children because they were at all different levels in their ability to speak English. We focused on teaching them basic vocabulary such as tree, sun, and airplane and greetings like “Hello, what is your name” and “how are you?” To help us teach and practice these things we played BINGO with their vocabulary words, did multiple treasure hunts, which they loved, and played games with them. We only had the high school students for a short time and Mrs. Trent worked with them on forming basic sentences.

   We believe that our efforts helped them not only with their knowledge of English, but also helped them build relationships with one another. Throughout our time teaching the children we formed bonds that will never be forgotten and these experiences left an impact on each of us that will last a lifetime. Although there were challenges that we faced along the way, the tremendous life experience simply outweighs the struggles.