Instead of going on one of our weekly training rides, we had our first visit to one of the charities yesterday that our ride will be supporting. It was a chance to actually see firsthand where (y)our funding will be going. I rode up a little late as a result of a late night celebration for 7 departing coworkers, but I made it nonetheless.
Introducing: The Thang Long English and Vocational School!
This school supports more than 300 students per year, ranging in age from 12 to 25. The students are mostly from the surrounding areas of districts 4, 8, and 7. They get to attend the school at no cost to them and are taught English skills and get training in different hospitality vocations.
For our visit, we split up into two groups: one to get interviewed by students to practice their English skills and one to be training dummies for the vocational school. After a set time, we switched so everyone got to experience both sides.
First stop: an English classroom.
Agenda for today: can (ability) and getting to know the riders
Rider Joe getting interviewed by some of the students.
Fruit poster in the classroom
I really wanted this
And this. I snapped a dozen photos of my favorite veggies that I didn't know the names of, haha.
I didn't snap that many photos on my camera, so I'll add the rest when the other riders upload them.
Next stop: the vocational station!
Examples of some of the elaborate hairstyles these students are capable of. I know where I'm going once I get my locks grown back!
Rider Sandra getting very festive with her nails - holidaying it up with trees and stuff!
Rider Sarah getting her hair dried before getting styled.
Rider Anna and I getting our hurrr washed and scalp massaged. Congratulations to Nguyen on being the only woman not named Mom to wash my hair!
After about an hour or so, our visit was up. The students were going home and a new group was showing up after lunch. It was great to meet the students and see firsthand where the funding goes and what a big difference it makes in the lives of these children. With such a huge disparity in the opportunities they are afforded, it's nice to help in any way we can. Free training and support for them to build skills that will hopefully lead to employment in VN's growing economy.
The day's riding crew with some of the students, staff and Headmistress Oanh.
All in all, a well-spent morning! Excited for my next visit to another H2H-supported organization - ILACN's orphanage/hospital/shelter.
It's going down, folks: Tin Mai is riding from H2H, Hanoi to the Hoch, up and down mountains, through paddy fields, sporting my spandex,in February of 2012!
Friends and families, with 19 other volunteers, I will be partaking in a month-long, 1,200 mile/2,000km ride down the length of Viet Nam. We will be riding to support three charities that aim to improve the quality of life of the impoverished and less-fortunate children and youth of Viet Nam. The Children's Initiative, Saigon Children's Charity, and the ILA Community Network are all involved in projects that work towards building a better future for the young'ns of Viet Nam by giving "access to education, healthcare, training, and opportunities to fulfill their potential in life."
Why am I doing this? - Well, I recognize the privilege and the opportunity that I have here in Viet Nam, the place I've been calling home for the past 9 months. I want to make the most of my time here and want to give back to the country that has given me so much. The inequalities here are abundant, and I don't mean between the locals and the expats. There are countless children here that don't have opportunities for access to education, healthcare, and much more. The charities listed above are all championing for narrowing those inequalities and alleviating poverty for the disadvantaged. I wanted to do my part in helping the cause and, luckily, landed at ILA, the school where the H2H Charity Ride started 3 years ago. Over the next few months, I will be training with the other volunteers and raising as much money as possible for our charities. We would all appreciate it if you could support us and the charities as well.
What can YOU do to help? - Easy! Check out my page here: firstgiving/tinmai. Donate. Spread my page around. Email blast/facebook blast/tweet it/repost it on your blog. Expenses for safety, fundraising, and financial administration costs will be kept to the absolute essentials so as much of your donations go directly to the charities. We'll have a better idea of what % that will be once we factor in all our deposits and (potential) corporate sponsorships. What that means is you are in no way paying for my month-long charity ride. Along with taking one month off from work (during which I'll not be having any income), I am funding my own way through all of this. The bike (sort of), the cycling gear, the accommodations, the food & drinks, and anything else will be paid for through my own funds. Whaetever you give will be going towards training youth who cannot attend public schools, funds for school materials, construction of a kindergarten, completion of a library project, a micro-loan project for the poorest families in these charities and so many more great projects. Every little bit helps.
What's the deal, really? - Starting back in September, the volunteers started doing twice-a-week training rides around Saigon. Each ride is roughly 20 miles/30km and lasts a bit over 2 hours. We'll be ramping up our rides as the date moves closer, eventually tackling 55+ miles/90+km rides to mimic the actual February ride. The average ride will probably be somewhere around 43-50 miles/70-80 km/day, with the shortest day about 30 miles/49km and the longest about 68miles/110km. Just this past week, I did a 75 mile/120km ride that started around 7 a.m. and finished at 5 p.m. That was absolutely bananas. I've got a long way to go before I can be in top form to be able to do this for a month straight.
So, let's get to it. Please spread the word and help/support the cause. Thank you!
I awoke this morning way too early. Outside my bedroom window I could hear a gaggle of young ruffians shouting for their dear friend in an adjacent apartment:
"phong!
phong oi!
phong!
phong oi!
phong!
phong oi!
..."
A minute of that went by and there was no Phong to be found. A more concerned person would be wondering if something terrible had happened to Phong. What if he slipped in the shower and knocked himself out?? Poor Phong!
But no, dude. I wasn't having any of that. I opened my window and shushed them. Silence, yes. Let me get back to nursing my pained back from not having my hugging pillow unpacked yet in my new (temporary) apartment.
And then the doorbell rings. Maintenance workers arrive to repair the plastic shingle covering the terrace. Power tooling and shooting projectile snot out of their nose with the 'cover-one-nostril-and-blow' technique - and thus, my precious Saturday off from work begins.
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The past week has been quite an adventure. Rainy season has been playing hide-n-seek on a daily/nightly basis. My first ride through almost a foot of flooded water on Hanoi Highway into district 2 + getting lost for an hour = not the bidnit. As much as I enjoy the freedom and the cacophonous soundtrack the hustle and bustle of the city offers on a motorbike ride, I am definitely missing having a windshield. Something about having tiny droplets of water feel like a dozen daggers through my eyes at 60km an hour just doesn't make it worth it sometimes.
The way that night started should have been a warning to me about how it might end. A few hours celebrating at a friend's housewarming and I was ready to make the almost hour drive back home. Now, I was under the impression that if I were to do as the locals do, I'd be pretty safe. Roll through Saigon and you'll see hella (sadly, I've begun to use this word less and less. Can some folks from home start visiting so I can brush up on my Bay vocab?) folks ready to zip through red lights. Oh my 30km commute from home, it would happen on every red light. As the counter counts down, the engines start revving at 3 seconds left, and boom! - away they go.I guess there are some things I still need to learn.
4 seconds is way too early apparently. The duo cảnh sát busted a U and pulled up next to me and I have my first run in with the law!
Gone are the days of speaking only English and thinking you'll get away by appearing just so damn ignorant. The cops here (especially at night & on weekends) know that learning a bit of English will net them so much more when they pull over foreigners.
He asked for my license and I gave to him. After about 8 or so times of looking at it, I can hear him telling his partner that it was fake as shit and he was going to impound my bike for 30 days. When he told me, I couldn't call Bullshit or else he'd call me on my bullshit! I just kept asking why why why why why and then he said, "okay. 500,000." One of the few times I was glad to be as broke as I did. I knew he'd settle for whatever he could get, so I busted out my wallet and showed him my 120,000VND lining my empty wallet. He chuckles to his partner and accepts my pittance.
My last act of passive-aggressive defiance and I was off:
Obviously, I changed my name to Fuob Yso.
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The next day, swagger mode was on full blast.
So, I haven't mentioned it much yet, but the company I work for is ILA (International Language Academy). One of the reasons this company was very appealing to me was because of their extensive community network (ILACN, of course). They're involved with several different orphanages and a cancer hospital around the area. Keeping true to my roots back home, I was drawn towards ILA and signed up for the various volunteer opportunities. Now, I have yet to actually get involved because my work schedule overlaps with the times the group visits the youth, but this past Sunday was the annual charity fundraiser.
All the proceeds went to a place out in Cu Chi that houses orphans and mentally ill children and adults. Hopefully it was enough for them to repair their kitchen roof and build a raised platform for the kitchen so the rain doesn't leave them without food when it floods.
But another good thing about spending the night giving to charity? Make an ass of myself in an air guitar band competition!
The prep:
Their costumes. I, of course, had my natural, long, luscious locks!
Our band leader practicing his solo
Getting our choreography down the day before.
The end result:
Posing with our only other competition after we won.
Good thing it was not costume based, but rather bias-based!
Pantera's Love Child ftw!
And of course, our terribly awesome/awesomely terrible performance:
My fellow band mate and coworkers
And what happens after the party? The after party!
14 (or so) snake line of Jager bombs. Cue "new haircut."
And here's how it worked:
And what happens after the after party? The karaoke party!
How most of my night was - a blurrrrrRRrr.
My infamous headband making its rounds
Sarah trying to whisper sweet nothings in my ear.
My "night" ended at 6 a.m. and work of course starts at 8:30 a.m. The first time in my life I partied into the morning like that. Definitely not something I want to make a habit of. A bit awkward rolling home close to 7 a.m. with my aunt opening the gate wondering where I'd been. I'll admit though, my classes that day went better than most. I ran through most of the day on adrenaline from all the partying. Good times.
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And I just finished going through the videos from karaoke. Apparently, I REALLY love "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." For my eyes only!
It feels good to finally be busy. The 5 weeks following the completion of my CELTA drove me crazy(-ier??) by the day. Being cooped up 45minutes from the hustle and bustle of the city with no income was not the business. I'm glad it's all behind me now.
The first week of my new job for the next who-knows-how-long just wrapped up and it was like I imagined it to be: messy. I don't understand how going through a CELTA course to receive a certificate in teaching to adults enables me to handle a dozen 6-11 year olds for 3 hours a day (some days, 6 hours!). I think I got progressively worse as a teacher as the days crept on. But, I'm not worried. Of course, there's the learning curve for a brand-spanking new teacher, plus, I'm still getting over a slump of being on slob mode for the past 5 weeks. I mean, who wants to spend time prepping when they could be out drinking 70¢ beers and listening to some live Diplo?
I kid. I'll get better. This is what I came here for. Anyway, I'm enjoying the job (for the most part). The school I work for is pretty bad-ass. Specifically, my centre (look at that shit. I hang out with too many English people and it's rubbing off on me). We've got quite the assortment of characters here. I think more than half are from the UK, with a handful of Americans and a sprinkle of the random Aussie & Kiwi. I'll admit, I wanted to be at a different centre initially - the one I started training at because it was my home base, yo! I made friends with the people there and the students and I wanted to be back with them. But, since arriving at centre 5, I've been glad. We've got quite a decent number of teachers here (~30 vs. 60-100 at the biggest ones) and it's a lot more personable since everyone knows each other. That and this:
That's Kelly. I know teachers are supposed to be fair and all that shit, but dude..this girl is crazy. She barely level tested into this class I think and she's at the youngest end of the age admitted into this level. She's bright, but way shy. But that's not why I think she's dope:
Word searching like a boss.
Screw the rules, Kelly! You forge your own path and make them words however you damn well please, hah.
Then there's this girl:
Yup, that's right. I prefer to call my students by their proper Vietnamese name, but if they ask, I'll use their English names. This is one of those cases - Magic Milk. Her sister bestowed this English name unto her, and that's what she wrote on her name card, so I greet Miss Milk as such.
Also, I made one of the students cry the other day. I didn't expect it to happen so soon, but I'm sure teachers go through a few sometime over the course of the career. Let's not make a habit of it, tin.
Other than work, not much else going on yet. Random outings at night, practicing my Vietnamese with the TAs at work (with my Bac accent which, for some reason, they find extremely hilarious). Buncha racists...
Oh, did I mention I'm entered in a 4-person band/air guitar competition? More on this later!
