Pictures from the final day at Hoi Tu Thien

Here are some pictures from our last day at Hoi Tu Thien. Enjoy!


Our end-of-the-summer celebration started with a fantastic play that eight of the children starred in. It was great! Here's a scene from the play. (For video clip of this scene and more information about the play, check out one of the recent posts below.)


The kids put a lot of work into designing and making their costumes. Here is Ngoan, Loc, and Houng displaying their costumes. The bird costume (worn by Loc in the middle) was particularly a big hit!


After the play, we played the balloon game (the same game we played at the pagoda--see pictures from last post). Here is An and Houng doing their best to move their balloon across the room without using their hands.


At HTT, we played another balloon game that involved trying to pop everyone else's balloon (attached to ankles) while trying to keep yours alive and unpopped. It's tougher than it looks!


We also had a pushup competiton. These kids are strong!


Me and Thao Le, one of the college students who helped out with the program. Learn more about her by reading her past post below. She's awesome!


Loan, Hue, Thao (#1), Jack, and Lam. What a great group of leaders!


An and Vu posing after the performance


Jack and Alice with some of the kids.


Me and Jack with Dao, Huong, Dai, and Vu.


Phung, Loan, me, Lam, and Hue, with Dao sneaking in the shot in front.


Phung and Loan posing with their "Terrific Teacher" awards.


What's a celebration without cake! This one was especially for HTT.


Thao Candy and Lam. Read more about these amazing students in previous posts below.


Let's Dance!


Hooray! What a great summer it was!

Pictures from the final day at the pagoda

Here are some pictures from the last day of the summer program in Can Tho. This first set is from the pagoda. HTT pictures coming soon. Enjoy!

Ly and Quy (left) and Van Ahn and Vy (right) playing the "balloon game." Teams of two tried to move a balloon from one end of the room to the other--no hands allowed! Will they make it?!


(Left) Little Nhi with the balloons, and doing her own impression of a balloon! (Right) Vu, Quy, and Ly getting ready to play the game.


No celebration is complete without doing the Funky Chicken Dance!


Of course, we also sang a bunch of songs. Vu (left) and Xuan Anh (right) led a couple songs for the group that night.


Lam and I awarded each child a certificate (titled "Awesome Kid Award") and a program T-shirt.


Van Ahn accepting her certificate and T-shirt. She's truly an Awesome Kid!


Van Ahn proudly displaying her certificate.

We also awarded "Terrific Teacher Awards" to the volunteers and staff who were all so critical to the success of the program. Clockwise from the top, here is Thao Candy, Thao Le, Hue, and Minh receiving their awards.


We also had a great dinner that evening. Here are some of the older kids enjoying amazing chicken and rice and washing it down with delicious sugar cane juice.


We indulged in some delicious cake to celebrate the end of the program. Yum!


Here's a closeup of the cake before we devoured it.


Me and Phu with her certificate and T-shirt.


I love this picture of Minh and one of the little gals from the "baby hangout" on the second floor.

What a great group of kids and teachers!

A scene from the play "An Khe Tra Vang" at Hoi Tu Thien

The video below is one of the beginning scenes of the play put on at Hoi Tu Thien on the last day of the program. The name of the play is "An Khe Tra Vang" which translates into English as "The Golden Starfruit Tree." In brief, the story is about two brothers--the older brother is rich and greedy while the younger brother is poor and kind. The moral of the story is that greed can get you into trouble. To read a translated version of the full story, visit http://www.vietnam-culture.com/articles-15-4/The-Golden-star-fruit-tree.aspx.

In this scene, the wife of the older brother (in yellow) orders the wife of the younger brother to give her a massage, while the older brother orders his younger brother to sweep up the banana peels he intentionally throws on the floor. Bravo to these young, aspiring actors!

Meet "Little Thao"... An big inspiration to all!

Another fantastic college student who helped to lead and shape the summer program is Vo Thi Thanh Thao, also known as "Little Thao." (That's Little Thao on the left with me in the picture). But don't let her nickname fool you. Trust me, there's nothing little about Thao's talent in the arts, her care and encouragement of the children, and her dedication to the program!

Thao took on the directorial duties of organizing and putting on a play at Hoi Tu Thien for the last day of the program. She did an absolutely AMAZING job! The play and the children's performances were incredible! She is truly an inspiration to everyone. Here are some of her thoughts on her experience being part of the leadership team this summer...

Raoul Wallenberg youth summer program finally has gone to its end. To me, however, everything has just happened yesterday. It seems clear to me that the day Thao Le gave me the program plan and called for me to apply. At that time I wondered if I should join or not because there were many things I got confused. What was Raoul Wallenberg? Everything was too great for me to do. Dance? Sing? Or draw? How can I teach them while my skills are not good at? Yet, it was love to children that urged me to apply this program.

At the first day at HTT: I started to get to know with all children, and try to remember their name and hometown as much as possible. Most of them were very enthusiastic to talk with me. One of them is Loc (lucky) who is both very lovely and polite. She told me a lot of things about her family. "My hometown is Ca Mau. However, her parents and two brothers are living in Ho Chi Minh City now?" Why so? I asked. "Because my family is so poor that they have to leave my younger sister and myself here and go to HCM City for earning living". Ohh! Poor them!

How about the others? They were very active, energetic to join all activities we suggested. On the other hand, some were not willing to talk. They just focused on their knitting. Surprisingly, both girls and boys can make sweaters, children's sock, or hat professionally.

Some days later I continued to come there to help them perform a play (a fairy tale called "An Khe Tra Vang"). Although it was not an easy job, it helps me find out some ways to approach as well as calling their attention. Happily, the more we worked together, the more we laughed and got closely. At that time, I wish I could work with them like Phung and Loan.

Whenever I came, they were so exciting to welcome me. They hugged me as if they haven't seen me for a long time. How warm it was! They all looked very good and innocent. I wondered if love is so wonderful.

Each child in this orphanage has different situations. The child that made deep impression on me is Ly Dai [see picture on right] who played the role of ambitious and cruel older brother in the play An Khe Tra Vang successfully. He is about 14 years old and one of the most intelligent students in Loan's class. Both his mother and father remarriage, noone want to take care of him. When someone asks him" where is your father? : "They all have already died," he answers. Why could his parents leave him alone to find their own happiness? A simple question seems easy to answer but….

The other child that I would like to talk about is Huong, a little girl [see picture below]. She was the wife of younger brother in the play. She is so shy, timid and usually shaked her body whenever she act, which made me laugh into tears. Her situation is not like to anyone in this orphanage. Her father had a motorbike accident last year, so his legs were injured seriously. Moreover, he has been put in prison for a year because her family was too poor to compensate money to the patient. This is also the reason why her mother becomes mad. I am sure that when someone being in this situation, they can understand all feelings Huong has to suffer for a long time. If you were Huong, what would you do...?

Dahn An and Huong practicing their lines in rehearsal.

To me, I have grown up so much after this project. I have learnt many things from all people around me. They are valuable experiences that aren't written by any books. Thanks to children, my attitude to life is more optimistic. Whenever I fail in doing something before like failing in the exam… I myself felt that I am the poorest girl in the world. How embarrassed I am? Moreover I really respect enthusiasm in working of Kate, Jack, and Thao Candy, Lam and the others. I would never forget everything and everyone in this program and believe that there is always a Raoul Wallenberg in all of us.

--Little Thao

The play's incredible cast with their certificates after the play.
They were led beautifully by Loan (on the left) and Little Thao (in front).

End of Summer Compilation Videos by Lâm and Canh

We will be posting more details, including pix and stories, about the last day of the program soon, but in the meantime, enjoy these amazing videos compiled by "Volunteer Extraordinaire" Lâm and Canh, one of the older boys living at Buu Tri pagoda whom Lâm taught how to turn digital pictures into videos this summer. (Pretty cool, eh?!) Check them out--they're great!

Lam's End of Summer Compilation Video


Canh's video featuring the children and staff at Buu Tri pagoda.

Tapping into the Raoul Wallenberg in Yourself and Others

I wrote this blog last night and only got a chance to post it now. Enjoy.

We just finished preparing for tomorrow’s end-of-program celebration at Buu Tri Pagoda and Hoi Tu Thien orphanages. There was much work to do, but the team pulled together beautifully to get it all done! I have truly enjoyed working with everyone this summer. Everyone has such a good heart and warm spirit.

When we started this project a while back, the motto we came up with was short and simple: “Learning and Having Fun Together.” We laughed then (and still laugh now) about how simple it is, but we also recognized tonight how perfectly it sums up what this summer program has come to mean for everyone—the kids, the staff at the orphanages, and us, the leadership team. We have all learned a lot and have certainly had such a blast having fun together, too.

Here are some shots of us in our new, nifty program T-shirts.

Over the course of planning and implementing this summer program, I have obviously thought quite a bit about Raoul Wallenberg, the man whom we named this summer program after. Because of the generous travel grant I received from the Wallenberg Endowment at the University of Michigan, I was able to come here to Vietnam and get this program off the ground and running. Raoul Wallenberg, who was born in Sweden and was a University of Michigan alumnus, was a consummate and courageous humanitarian. He is best known for saving the lives of upwards of 100,000 Jews during the Holocaust when he led a rescue mission on behalf of the Swedish government.

Even though Wallenberg’s life story casts him as superhuman and as a man who would be difficult to emulate, there was something so pure and simple in him that led him to dedicate and sacrifice his life for others: He loved people. During his summers in college, he traveled all around the United States, exploring the cities and countryside, meeting new people, seeking to learn about them and learn from them. I think everyone involved with this project—from the leadership team to the orphanage staff and to the kids we work with—has that kind of philanthropic urge to explore, to learn, and to love.

In short, there is a Raoul Wallenberg in all of us, in you, in everyone we meet in life! And if we continue to seek to “learn and have fun together” in all that we do, if we continue to tap into the Raoul Wallenberg in ourselves and others, this world would certainly be a better place. I’d like to think that this summer program touched a few lives here in Can Tho in that regard (I know my life has been touched), and maybe we have inspired in each other to be more like Raoul Wallenberg, to serve, to explore, to learn about and from others, to live life to the fullest and make the world a better place (even if it’s just one game, one arts-and-crafts activity, one group song at a time)—together.

Meet Thảo Le, an exceptional and compassionate leader

Thảo Le is another Cần Thơ University student who has devoted her summer to this program. She is exceptional! She is great with the kids and is a natural leader. Here she is leading a group of the kids through a fun arts-and-crafts activity (picture on left).

Thảo wanted to share some of her experiences and reflections with you via this blog...

What should I write in this blog? Too many feeling and too many things I want to say. So it would take a long long long blog. So, I just want to tell a story I’ve seen at Buu Tri Pagoda. It is what I really mean. Otherwise, my friends told lots of things before I do, so a real story sketches another image of what we are doing and why we do this.

It just happened last week, when I came to the pagoda at dinner time. I saw Quy (the one Thao Candy has talked about) crying, I didn’t know why so I asked Van Anh (the older girl) for the reason. Van Anh said that Quy was said because his father was going to leave after visiting him. I had a little surprise because I thought all the kids here were orphans but I didn’t ask more. I didn’t want to hurt them. And Van Anh continued saying, she pointed to Xuan Anh (a 6 years old kid, picture below) and told me that Xuan Anh’s father used to visited her but he was old and he died, so now, Xuan Anh had no one.

One more surprise to me because Xuan Anh was a 6 years old kid, so why her father was old and died. A voice stopped my thinking, that was of Xuan Anh, “ I am an orphan”. At that time, I felt embarrassing about my unintentional careless to let her recall her sad story. I was wrong. Because she repeated again, “I am an orphan” with a normal tone like “ I am Xuan Anh” with no sadness, no sorrow. I surprised by her normal tone so I asked her why she said that. And she showed me the board in front of the house, written by Su Co, “I am Budhist nun named Tam Niem, thanks for all the helpers to build this house for orphans…”. So I knew the reason why. She lived in this house and this house is for orphans so she was an orphan. So logical! At that time, I was touched by that simple thinking of Xuan Anh. She was too innocent to understand the whole meaning of the word “orphan”. I wondered when she grow up, can she say this sentence “I am an orphan” as easy and normal as she told me on that day?

And about Quy, a day after, I saw Quy was happy again. He said to me happily, “ Only three days more, my father would come to visit me again. (that days was the celebrated day in middle of July in Lunar Calendar). I slept one night and only two days more. And one more night, there was only one day left. And after that day, my Dad would come to visit me! I would sleep well so my Dad would come earlier.”

Several days after, I asked the nannies here and I knew that all the kids here are actually orphans. Some of visitors arrived and they liked the kids so they took the roles of God-fathers or God-mothers for some of them. The kids believe they are their real fathers and mothers so they are really happy when they come and of course, feeling sad when they leave. Some of them don’t have the one to visit or take them home in weekends like others. Quy and Xuan Anh are also these cases.

Thảo Le, Nhi, and Jack learning and having fun.

When I saw all the kids at HTT and Buu Tri Pagoda and all the things we shared together recently, especially impressed with the story I told you. I knew more clearly the reason why I am there and why I joined in this program. The program is going to end, but I am just in the beginning. Thanks to Kate and this program I got the chance to connect to these kids. It’s not only for the kids, it’s for me. And I learned from them a lot.

An update on the pagoda's littlest girl

Some of you may be interested to hear an update about the newborn who arrived at Buu Tri Pagoda the same day our program kicked off. I wrote about her in one of our first posts.

She does not have a name yet, but I'm guessing she will get one soon. She is doing quite well health-wise, although there is worry that she might be blind. Both of her parents were supposedly blind and she has not shown much response to light or much ability to follow movement with her eyes.

However, when I snapped this picture of her, I swear I saw her squirm a bit, as if to say, "Hey, lady! Can't you see I'm trying to get some sleep right now! Bug off!"

Despite how raucous the "baby hangout" is where her many new siblings live, she sleeps a lot and is eating well. Her first day at the pagoda was my first day, so I feel a special connection with her. She is absolutely adorable, isn't she?

Sights and sounds along the Mekong

I wasn't able to fit this in the last post... Here is a video capturing the sights and sounds of our river boat trip along the Mekong. (Apologies for the amateur videography!)

A special day for everyone at the pagoda

The last post talked about the typical, routine day for the children at the pagoda. But every rare once-in-a-while, the children get to experience something very special...

Yesterday, a large group from the pagoda went on a special field trip to the countryside to commemorate the death anniversary of Su Co's mother. In Vietnamese tradition, the death anniversary is a festive occasion when many family members and close friends get together to reconnect, eat good food, and remember their loved one together. Alice, Julia, and I were honored to join the group to Hau Giang, a three-hour boat ride down beautiful branches of the Mekong River from Can Tho. Here are some pictures from this special trip.


Alice and Khiem, one of the little guys, eating dragon fruit on the boat en route to Hau Giang.


We made a pitstop at a park where we stretched our legs, saw many animals (including alligators and pigs), and enjoyed a horse-driven buggy ride. This is Su Co with some of the kids on the buggy.


We enjoyed a delicious lunch of catfish (freshly caught that day), vegetable soup, and sticky rice desserts that are specially served on death anniversary occasions. This is a group of us with Su Co's uncle posing for a picture after indulging in the great food.


The graves of Su Co's parents are located in a beautiful garden behind their family's house.