Blogging Dallas, Mitchell, Andrew, Lyndsay, and Hailey

Student: Dallas
School: Fort Erie S.S

So we left the DRRC and head to the airport where we sat till about 1:30. Once I turned 18 at 12:00, I opened a card my mom got me and there were seven scratch tickets. It took me a while to finish them. I didn’t win but I’m glad I got to play. When we got to Hong Kong at 4 the next day, we sat there ‘til 8, then we got a plane to Vietnam. When we got here, we took a tour throughout the city. We got to see the Cu Chi tunnels, then went to the Palace, and the War Museum. We got to join a cooking class which was awesome, and also saw a Water Puppet show (I kept drifting off). The same day, we went to the market to do some shopping, then the next day toured the Mekong Delta, which was today. The hotels are so nice, and the people are even nicer. Everywhere you go they make you feel welcome and comfortable.

- Dallas
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Student: Mitch
School: Centennial S.S

Busy, crowded, chaotic, yet above all, amazing. This pretty much sums up this distant country. Arriving here after the long, long, long flight in a glorified sardine can has been something of a dream. Not only is the geography different, but so is the culture. Motor bikes fly by us in the thousands or more, road safety is not like ours, and the Vietnamese for some reason, feel the need to touch the tall white boys. The food is good, but very different. I am not hungry, but man I sure could go for a big plate of pasta! Anyways… this is awesome and I am having so much fun. Love you Mom, Dad, Duke… alright, you too Alex. See ya later.

P.S. I am amazing at haggling (don’t know how to spell).

Mitchell
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Student: Andrew
School: A.N Myer S.S

The sound of boats, the view of wall-to-wall slums on river banks, the feeling of sadness for the people living in residences far below decent…
These are all things that can be observed from where we sit on the 6th floor patio of our hotel. I can see a constant flow of men and women driving their boats down the river transporting goods to earn money and support their families. Across the river is wall-to-wall buildings….well, basically slums. The buildings are built upon wood piles driven into the river bed and extend out into the water forming a dock like structure so the boats can be loaded and unloaded right out their back doors. I have never seen such a sight before. The buildings are mostly 2 or 3 storey buildings and are built from wood, steel, concrete, and the sight of rusted steel on roof upon roof goes along the entire river. Even though the state of these buildings and these peoples’ lives are strained, I have to say the sight from where I stand is very pretty. It is breath-taking, like something that is seen in a movie.

Everybody at home, I would just like to say I miss you all.

- Andrew
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Student: Lyndsay
School: Port Colborne S.S

“I’d like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly. What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street? Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep? What do you feel when you look in the mirror, are you proud? How do you sleep while the rest of them cry? How do you walk with your head held high? Can you even look me in the eye and tell me why? Let me tell you about hard work -- building a bed out of a cardboard box. You don’t know anything about hard work.” – Pink (with some changes to fit the perspective here in Vietnam).

I heard this song and thought it was perfect, while I sat in my air conditioned hotel room on a queen sized bed, wearing silky kimono, and looking out at kids bathing in a river as bags of garbage and filth floated by. I was looking at houses sitting on rotten pieces of metal as a roof and sheets for walls and doors. I couldn’t help but feel disturbed. I realized that if I look in the mirror I would be proud because I’m here working for a group who has built approximately 7 thousand homes here and this team and I will be adding 2 more. We have all come to a realization that we want to help everyone here. Especially the pig-tailed 6 year old girls begging for money, looking up at you with broken dreams, and hanging onto any thread of hope that they have. But we can’t help everyone, we can only help a few at a time and we have to accept that. Even though it seems like no matter how much we help, there will always be bad living conditions here and around the world. That what we are doing here with Habitat, is the first step and the right step to make. We may not be able to change the entire world but two families is a difference, and that’s all that matters.

-Lyndsay
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Student: Hailey
School: Westlane S.S

It’s beautiful here - - it really is. Everything from the noisy, busy Ben Thanh Market to the quiet rice paddies of the countryside is simple and beautiful. I have never seen this side of nature before. Just by looking outside the windows of the tour bus, your mind is at peace and you want to embrace everything with your eyes. It feels like you’d miss something if you close your eyes for just one second. The temperature, I find, is very calming (more so in the country), and even when you’re drenched in sweat like a damped sponge, once the breeze hits you, it feels really nice and relieving. The lifestyle may seem very bizarre to us Canadians, but realize that open minds (and tastes) comes with travelling.

I am overwhelmed by the Vietnamese culture, although, I too, am Vietnamese. There are so many things that I was so unaware of, even after visiting this country for a second time. I think it’s because I feel more like a tourist this time, looking into everything from the outside, an observer (I guess you can call it). I am slowly learning more and more about my heritage, and my parents’ and older siblings’ home country. We visited many places and learned numerous things, such as seeing a picture of a Self-Immolator at the War Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, and learning facts from our lovely Vietnamese tour guide, Cherry (Blossom), who told us that approximately 12, 000 people die each year in motor bike accidents. We left Ho Chi Minh City today to My Tho, and are currently just settling in to the hotel here, as we get ready for the build in a couple of days. My Tho is also very beautiful which I will tell you about this place in the next blog entry! As of now, I'm going to go enjoy another Vietnamese dish.

P.S. Miss everyone at home and congratulations WL Grad Class of 2010! Also, Shawn, check your viet_unit3 e-mail! Ok, MISS YA’LL.

- Hailey Dang