This entry is more about showing pictures and videos from the school at Peace Village. The Peace Village placement has proven to be fantastic and as good as any that I have done. As I had mentioned, I was in a class 'teaching' extremely low functioning kids, most who can’t talk, some who can’t control body functions and some who are just completely in a world of their own. It has been challenging to say the least…but it has been incredibly satisfying when even just a tiny bit of the door is opened as to what is going on inside their private world.

However, a steady, full time diet of working with these kids is difficult and tedious and draining…and very often without much satisfaction in that moment . So this school, which actually has 4 classrooms with various degrees of retardation, has been great in letting me move around between all of the classes during the day. Just perfect and I’m loving it. And it is neat to see the dynamic that exists within this school community of these 4 classrooms…. between the kids, the teachers, the administrators & the volunteers…it is really like one big classroom family with everybody interacting with everyone. Amazing the atmosphere that exists in this very, very special school.


One thing more and unrelated to the teaching…. This part of the city where VPV is located is the real, genuine experience of Hanoi life, not catering to the tourist. It became obvious when Ryan, Gee and I wanted to stop off for a drink and some food on our way home from work. Well, we sat down at the table, the owner brought us the menu to order and then we realized….it was entirely in Vietnamese, no translation and no pictures… . So there was no way to even have a close guess as to what we would be ordering…. And in this country, you want to know what it is you are ordering. Very easily can be chicken feet, something cooked in snake blood and who knows what else. Since, no one spoke English, we just had to get up and leave. Really bizarre. 


So on the way back, we ate at what is fairly common…these local mom & pop type locations on the streets where I think just local people cook and you sit down and eat and pay them…as you’ll see in the pics, it is ‘cafeteria’ style with the locals & you sit on these tiny, tiny stools. When lunch time is over at around 2pm, these instant restaurants are packed away, the pot & kettle cleaned, and everyone leaves until the next meal is set up around dinner hour. Got to love it here.