Meet the team

As part of this program, I am working with some fantastic college students (and a couple very recent graduates) who will help lead activities for the children. Most of the students study (or studied) at Can Tho University here in town. Two students study in Ho Chi Minh City and have come down to Can Tho just to be involved with the program.

One group of students I'm working with is from the VietHope University Scholarship Program (USP). Their names are: Tien Nguyen, Thảo Lê, "Little" Thảo Vo, Thảo "Candy" Nguyen, and Lâm Lê. (Yes, three of the five students are named Thảo, hence the nicknames!) I received a number of exceptional applications from USP students across Vietnam, but these guys were the cream of the crop.

Another group of students helping to lead the program is the current Can Tho Youth Empowerment staff, all of whom have been teaching English or computers to the children at Hoi Tu Thien (another orphange in town) and the pagoda for the past two years. They are incredibly gifted and dedicated teachers; it has been so fun and inspirational to get to know each of them! Their names are: Minh, Thảo "#1", Phụng, Huế, Loan, and Nhật.

Needless-to-say, both groups of students are AWESOME! They all have such fantastic ideas for the program. A few of them have already led activities for the children and did a great job! I know already we will all learn a lot and have a lot of fun from working with each other as a team.

Last but not least, I also have to mention another person who has already done SO MUCH for orphans in Can Tho and for this program as well... My brother, Jack Thirolf! For the past two years, Jack has been a Princeton-in-Asia fellow teaching English at a community college in Rach Gia, Vietnam, about 120 kilometers from Can Tho. He got involved in leading the Can Tho Youth Empowerment Project through fellow PiA fellow and friend, Dan White (read more about Dan in the first blog post). It is because of Jack that this extra summer program is happening right now. I (and the orphanages) truly can't thank him enough!

Maybe its because of his freakish height (his nickname in Vietnam is hai met, or "two meters") or his all around fun, loving nature, but the kids at the pagoda and Hoi Tu Thien LOVE LOVE LOVE Jack! They climb on him like jungle gym equipment and all it takes is a big Jack smile to spark laughs and giggles from all the kids for minutes on end. It's quite a sight. Pictures of Jack and the kids coming soon.

This morning we had a super successful Game Day at Hoi Tu Thien. The kids were great! Full of energy and eager to have fun, even at 8:00 a.m. in the morning. Pictures coming soon.

In the meantime, here are a few more pictures from our first day at the pagoda and from one of our team brainstorm meetings when we discussed the activities and the schedule. Enjoy!

That's Jack, Me, and Quang (from VietHope) hanging out with the kids at the pagoda.

On the left, that's Little Thảo, Loan, and Thảo "#1" contributing their ideas at the meeting. On the right, that's Lâm, Phụng, and me.