Frienship House 4th July-9th July

The project at Friendship house began on Tuesday with mandatory speech making and by the staff from Friendship House and the British Council. We then started working with the children by doing morning exercises led by the YGCP and some somewhat chaotic ice-breaking games including the mandatory OCEP Hokey-Kokey. The morning session was an exercise in stringing out material and improvisation as we quickly rushed through what we had prepared and found ourselves at a loose end. The second session of the day we spent teaching basic English lesson covering the standard 'About Me' questions.

Once the day had finished we were invited back to Binh's house for dinner and Bia Hoi, where we played several English drinking games and logic puzzles!

The second day we ran rotating lessons, teaching Animals, Household Items and Body Parts, using a string of prompts, cues and games. We had also learnt from the problems of day 1 and were able to divide the classes up into 3 based on ability. The top class cut through the prepared lessons with ease, whilst the lower classes still sruggled somewhat. We were however able to drive home the material with the lower classes and by the time we returned later, the younger students were still able to recall all the different animal names!

In the afternoon we had scheduled a team challenge style activity. This turned out to be an exercise in phenomenal quantities of faff, as we disagreed with the YGCP over how best to organise the afternoon. What should have been a simple rotating games afternoon was split into two parts so that some of the teams could compete in relays against each other. Inevitably groups finished some activities quickly and others took ages, resulting in some teams sitting around with nothing to do whilst others had scarcely started. We finished the evening off by reviewing over coffee.

The 6th July we had planned a day trip to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and his stilt house in the grounds of the presidential palace. Despite the stresses of keeping 25 children together in bustling crowds and sweltering heat, the day out was a complete success topped off by taking the children out for ice-cream after the visit. We returned to Friendship House at lunch and in the afternoon we started the children making models from clay. The kids loved this and the activity remained sane and controllable as they enjoyed the novelty of modelling and moulding the clay.

The day after our excursion, we returned to the usual combination of English lessons and activities. The activities included painting the clay form the previous day and decorating the childrens dormitories with materials supplied by the BC.

The final day of the project was a manic string of activities starting at 8AM and only finishing at 8PM. In the morning we taught a clothes lesson which was met with delight by all the students as we got them to put on clothes whilst naming them, and played clothing relay races. The afternoon was dedicated to preparation for a talent show to be held in the evening. The students were split into groups and each had to prepare a song, dance and dress up a child for a fashion show. They were also to compete in an English quiz/race testing them on the week's lessons. Despite tears during the preparation as one of the models became vastly dissatisfied with her dress, the show itself ran smoothly and everyone, including the BC staff seemed to enjoy it!

Once the show was over, we were fed dinner in the orphanage (we had also been taking our lunches there). Once we had eaten, we all gathered with the students in the yard outside and to counter the heat someone made the foolish error of dowsing themself with water. Before long bottles appeared and massive water fight broke out from which no body emerged dry! Finally at about 8PM, we ordered a taxi and dripping left Friendship House.

Leaving the house was a traumatic experience as we watched the kids pressed against the railing tears streaming as we drove away. A sorry sight which was duplicated when we visited them after the end of the camps.

Sunday we had as a day off (and to prepare) before the project a Nguyen Dinh Chieu.