It’s almost over. We are almost Master Construction Workers. When we arrived at our work sites three weeks ago there was only a foundation. Now, there’s a house. Over the course of working on the houses we’ve laid brick and tile, plastered walls, sifted sand, painted some walls, dug holes, cleaned up yards, and danced to a lot of music. One of the sites still needs some finishing touches but the other two are ready for the ladies to move in. We will have a closing ceremony for all three houses on Friday as well as a closing party with the Youth Union on Friday night. Tomorrow, the Youth Union will be coming to teach us some Vietnamese songs and dances for us to perform at the party.

Students have also all been working on independent projects over the course of the past two weeks. They were free to choose anything in Vietnam that they would like to learn more about and then they’ll present it to the group when we get to Ha Long Bay. We’ve had students go fishing with some local fishermen, spend an afternoon learning how to sew from a seamstress, learn how to play a song on the piano from a local musician, compile photo journals of our trip, do research on the government of Vietnam, and some students have even spent this afternoon working with a group of ladies at our guesthouse and learning how to prepare Vietnamese food.

We’ve also been able to teach English classes at multiple schools, play with a lot of kids, and paint a wall at the local cemetery. We’ll post some pictures of all of the above after we get some final shots of the closing ceremony.

Until next time,

Janie & Rusty