Mission 2009

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This year, the whole team went to Vietnam. So we were 12 to go there for the 2009 mission .

Everyone was here on August, 4th at 10.30 am with his more or less heavy luggage ( some left with 6 kg, others took 24 kg...) at CDG aiport. Let's go for a 10h40 flight to Seoul. A stop that lasted no less than 12h...Sweet! Then we take another flight and 4h35 later, we get to Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam.

Then we spent a week in Hanoi and a couple of days in the beautiful Ha Long Bay, we went to Hoi An, where the mission takes place.

First thing first when we got there: reach our Vietnamese contacts.
So we met Mrs Lien, a retired French teacher, who took us to the schools we helped. It was also her who introduced us to the children we helped.
Then, we paid Dr Bich Van a visit, who works at the Hoi An's hospital and who speaks French very well, fortunately for us. Thanks to her, we were able to visit the hospital and to meet the hospital director.

First, let's talk about the hospital of Hoi An.
We visited the hospital with Mrs Bich Van and we met the director. Our first impression, which was confirmed by the hospital's members: a dilapidated equipment and a lack of space, compared to the high number of patients.
After we had talked with them about what they needed, we went to Danang, about 10 km from Hoi An. Indeed, as Hoi An is a very small town, we had to go to an other city to buy the medical equipment. According to our budget, we bought the following machines:

Then we spent a day with the children we helped. All of them live in very poor areas and often have difficult family situations. We try to help by buying them school stationery.
At first, we thought we would met about 10 kids but...We actually discovered 23 children, from 6 to 18 years old. The more, the merrier! That didn's scare us, not at all! =).
We first went to the fabric store to buy everyone all the fabric they need to make their uniforms.
Then, we stopped at the shoe store where each on of them chose the pair they liked. Some prefer comfort, anf for others, it's the style that counts!
Later, we went to the school stationery store.There, it became a bit crazy, everyone was running around.They got all the books and notebooks they needed for the year quite fast. That wasn't the hard part...The thing was...Which school bag or pens should they get? A school bag trolley? It is sure practical... But another kid preferred a nice shoulder bag. Red or blue? Yellow for one of them, and green, for the other.
It is true that we sometimes had difficulties to communicate because not all of them speaks English well and none of us can speak Vietnamese. But still, we managed to talk a little bit. We even taught an 8-year-old girl how to use a digital camera. She was a very fast learner and she monopolized the camera to snap away at everyone. Besides, we think that she will become a great photographer about ten years from now and we all get emotional when we think about the idea that it's a bit thanks to us. Here, in Mekong, we sometimes get carried away easily...
In the end, we devoted 1 141€ of our budget to offer them what they need for school for the year.
Moreover, like every year for about 10 years. Mekong pays a handicapped person, called Tung, a visit. He was bought a wheel chair in a previous year. Thus we spent an afternoon with him to get to know him and we discovered he worked on a book. As his wheel chair was in poor condition, we thought we would buy him a new one but after we had talked with him, it turned out that he preferred to have a brand new computer. So that's what we did and we also bought him an USB flash drive so that he can save his work.
We also went for a stroll with him in the surroundings of Hoi An so that he could pay his brother a visit.

We also went to 2 high schools in Hoi An.
Contrary to the previous years, Mekong helped the Tran Quy Cap high school, which Mekong usually helps, but also another high school, which is under construction.
We first met the director of Tran Quy Cap high school. We talked with him and some teachers about what they need this year. They also explained that a new high school was under construction. It was obvious to us that we had to devote a part of our budget to help this brand new school, situated next to the beach. So we bought a water tower (756€) so that the students could have drinking water.
As for Tran Quy Cap high school, we provided them with a video projector (692€) whi will enable the teenagers to study in better conditions.
To thank the association, the director, some students and some students organized a small ceremony for. We danced with them, played some games which were a bit...different from what we're used to =). We didn't expect it at all and we were very touched (even though the dance was embarassing, we were very enthusiastic...more or less... ut it was a good opportunity to share a moment with the high school students, that we didn't see much).

We also spent time within the Kim Dong junior high school.
This school was already equipped quite well; we bought them 6 more computers for 376€ to improve their computer equipment.
We spent most of the time with the Kim Dong students, who were from 12 to 15 years old.
First, we played some games with them. One one hand, the musician of the association made them sing. On the other hand, we played outdoor games. The hardest part was to make mixed teams. Becaus the Vietnamese kids are not only shy with us but also among them. It was almost mission impossible to make a boy and a girl stand right nex to each other.
Then, to share a bit of our culture and as the teachers wanted us to, we gave French classes.
"My name is"..."I'm twelve"..."1, 2, 3..."... They now can speak a bit French.
When we came to say goodbye, we had a great surprise from the kids. Nearly each one of them had a little gift for us. Some girls of the association even received love letters...But don't worry, none of them managed to bring a kid in her suitcase.
Therefore, we left with lots of gifts in our bags and our minds filled with great memories.