Day 4 (31/5) - Farming experience at Yen En Duc Farm

We would like to develop our students to be a young community where they work to create, maintain and explore sustainable food systems.

At the vegetable farm, our students learned how to grow vegetables. They learned the process of farming from seasoned Vietnamese farmers. This includes setting up plants in rows and deciding on the garden plan details such as how many rows they need, what size they should be, and how much space they need between them. Farm responsibilities were then allocated to the group members. This was to ensure that each participant had an opportunity to experience growing the vegetables.

Through this farming process, the students will come to understand sustainability through the soils, crops, climate and community in which they work. They will gain the systems-based thinking and farming skills needed to make a positive difference in today’s world.

Beautiful padi fields🌞

Learning about rice plantation and the uses of rice 

Jansley hard at work🌱

Plowing hard 💪

Suiting up to go plowing in the fields

Admiring the handy work

Day 4 (31/5) - Vietnam School Experience- Hung Thang Elementary Private School

We had the privilege of visiting Hung Thang Elementary School in Halong Bay. The school offers the national curriculum and offers full-day schooling. Not only that, it also offers many extracurricular classes. Each student has to pay about $250 a month. This includes tuition (roughly $150 a month), meals, and transportation. This cost is apparently on par with most private schools in Hanoi—a number that is increasing rapidly. The staff is trained in information and communications technology (ICT) and they were required to teach by using IT via the LCD placed in front of the classroom. The school was notable for the sheer joy that emanated from its students throughout the campus and in the class that we saw. 

Introducing PSS to our Vietnam friends :)

Vying for victory!

Playing the games our Vietnamese friends prepared for us! 

1, 2, 3... PULL! 

Playing pick-up sticks with the Vietnam students

Listening to our Vietnam friends presenting to us

Day 3 (30/5) - Service-Learning at Tru G Tam Bao Tro Xa Hoi Orphanage

Tru G Tam Bao Tro Xa Hoi Orphanage is where many children have either been abandoned or brought to the centre because their parents are unable to provide for them. We visited this centre to perform our service-learning. Not only that, it is pertinent that these children know that despite their circumstances, they are valued, greatly loved, cherished and that they can have hope for a bright future.

At the orphanage, our student volunteers are assigned to different jobs and tasks, such as assisting the local staff in playing games with children, teaching them English, dance, music, arts and other activities. Not only that, they also helped to clean the premise as well as cooked for the orphans. 

Mr Peh kicking the visit off! 

Activities and interacting with the orphans

Egg-thusiastically helping out with kitchen duties

Who will win?

Day 2 (29/5) - Vietnam History Museum and Army Museum

Vietnam History Museum

Vietnam History Museum lies silently on the back of the renowned Hanoi Opera House, at No.1 Pham Ngu Lao Street, Hoan Kiem District. This museum was built in 1926 under the name Louis Finot Museum by the Ecole Française d’Extreme-Orient and finish in 1932. After being taken over by Vietnamese Government, the museum changed its official name to Museum of Vietnam History and opened to the public on 3 September 1958.

Vietnam Military Museum

Easy to spot thanks to a large collection of weaponry at the front, the Military Museum displays Soviet and Chinese equipment alongside French- and US-made weapons captured during years of warfare. The centrepiece is a Soviet-built MiG-21 jet fighter, triumphant amid the wreckage of French aircraft downed at Dien Bien Phu, and a US F-111.

Day 2 (29/5) - Life of Ho Chi Minh Tour

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex is an important place of pilgrimage for many Vietnamese. A traffic-free area of botanical gardens , monuments, memorials and pagodas, it’s usually crowded with groups of Vietnamese who come from far and wide to pay their respects to 'Uncle Ho'. Within the complex are Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, Ho Chi Minh’s Stilt House and the Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh Museum and the One Pillar Pagoda.

Vietnamese queueing to visit Uncle Ho

Touring the House-on-stilt

The Ho Chi Minh mausoleum

Day 2 (29/5) - Bat Trang Pottery Village

Located in an area rich in clay, the village has advantage of ingredients to create fine ceramics. Moreover, lying besides the Red river, between Thang Long and Pho Hien, two ancient trade centers in the north of Vietnam during 15th-17th century, Bat Trang’s ceramics were favorite products not only in domestic market, but also foreign ones thanks to Japan, Chinese and Western trading boats that were passing by. 

Visiting Bat Trang, tourists can take a walk or join a buffalo tour for sightseeing and shopping. Besides many ceramic stores along the road in the village, tourists should visit Bat Trang Porcelain and Pottery Market where they can directly make pottery products by themselves. Many youngsters and foreign tourists are interested in in this pottery- making experience, and spend a whole day in the market to make a gift for family or friends

Concentrating hard on painting! 

Not as easy as it looks! 

Mdm Ros trying her hand at making ceramics!

Two thumbs up for Chernice's attempt (with a little help)