UCHANU: factory visits....

This past Saturday we had the opportunity to visit two factories--the Hanosimex textile and clothing factory, and the Yamaha motorbike factory.
After viewing a promotional, informational slideshow and hearing someone talk about Hanosimex, we headed over to our first production room where cotton was being turned into thread. It was really crazy to be in a huge room with lots of machines going, and to see a process that is necessary to make all of our clothes. However, after a while the loudness of the room and the, I don't know how to descibe it, cottony (?) air really started to get to me. I just wanted to get out of there. And this was after like 20 minutes. I felt concerned about the hearing of the workers, since no one was wearing earplugs and the noise was really deafening. I just can't imagine having to work in that environment for 8 hours...After leaving this room, we headed over to the production rooms where clothes are made from the textiles. This environment seemed a lot more pleasant to work in (comparatively, of course), as there was music playing, and the workers looked relatively relaxed. I even noticed one woman listening to music on her cell phone while working.
The Yamaha factory was also really interesting to see. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures. However, I slyly managed to sneak a few...Anyways, I thought it was interesting to really see assembly lines for the first time in my life. We got to see pretty much the entire process of making motorbikes! I noticed the potential for injury with working on the assembly line, since it was common to see people having to lift large parts. I wonder if it is common for workers to suffer back problems, repetitive motion injury, etc. One thing that was really noticeable at Yamaha was that everyone on the assembly line (in the final giant room we visited) was male. This definitely contrasted with the sewing room at Hanosimex, which was almost entirely female.
Anyways, this experience definitely left me with some questions:
-why do some factories have better working conditions and follow regulations better than others?
-seriously...why would someone want to work in that thread production room if they could make the same amount of money or more farming?
-how do the workers at these factories feel about their jobs and their futures?

I hope that I can go back to one of these factories one day, talk to people, and get a better sense of the possible answers to these questions...

Service Learning: Acceptance and Tolerance

First of all, I am so grateful that, for the most part, the children really seem to accept and tolerate our presence in their home twice a week. Personally, I appreciate how accomodating the children try to be in terms of my limited Vietnamese language abilities. It is always nice to see how hard children try to communicate things to me so that I will understand them!

In terms of our acceptance and tolerance regarding the children, I think of the serious behavioral issues that have been an issue recently at the orphanage. One boy in particular (about 13 years old)—who I’ll refer to as “H” has been physically victimizing other children consistently when we’ve been at Xa Mẹ the last several times. This past Thursday, his play fighting with another boy quickly escalated to him scratching the boy’s neck so hard that it bled, and the other boy ended up crying. I was present when the rough-housing began, and told the boys to stop several times while physically trying to pull them away from each other. However, H resisted my efforts and continued fight-wrestling with the other boy. When the other boy was crying, I tried to communicate to H that this was not ok, and he responded by pointing to the place on his hand where the other boy had bit him. I really wish I could have communicate at the time what I wanted to say, which was that neither of the boys should have done these things.

A previous week, seemingly out of nowhere, H slapped one of the youngest boys in the face, causing him to start sobbing. We responded that time with Thuy Linh trying to talk to him about what happened. He wasn’t willing to talk, but she sat near him for at least 15 or 20 minutes. This past time, Kristine talked to him after the incident. She said that he seemed to genuinely feel bad about what happened. John, Kristine, and I talked briefly about trying to have a plan of action for dealing with this issue (this child, and others, consistently picking on other children) during the time that we have left volunteering at Xa Mẹ. We will discuss this issue further when we meet next. My idea for how to deal with it is to make sure to give H, and other children who display these behaviors, positive attention before the problematic behaviors start. I was thinking that maybe each day we could have a Vietnamese-speaking volunteer be responsible for making a special effort to talk to and hang out with these particular kids, to really give them attention before they get it for negative reasons.

The issue I just mentioned relates to tolerance and acceptance in that we should accept all of the children, and not ignore or shun anyone because of their behavior. We need to be warm and caring to everyone. But we can’t tolerate behavior that hurts other children and makes them feel insecure or unsafe “on our watch”. Unfortunately, we can’t always be there when these things happen, but we should at least do the best we can to respond consistently whenever these kinds of problems arise. Especially given the fact that these children are not living with their parents, and may have abandonment issues, we should be really sensitive to children seeming to have low self-esteem, or to be expressing their pain and frustration in destructive ways.

UCHANU: leaving Vietnam for two hours

Craving French toast, Sharon and I took the bus over to Joma Cafe--a restaurant/cafe catering to a foreign crowd in the Old Quarter. After walking inside, I literally felt like I had just stepped out of Hanoi and into LA or San Francisco. We ordered the mango French toast and headed upstairs, where I continued to be amazed by the lack of anything reminding me of Vietnam. There weren't any Vietnamese customers when we came in, and it was very surreal to be sitting in leather chairs and studying in this environment. The food was amazing, though really expensive for Vietnam--64.000đ for the French toast. Interestingly, the structure of the building really cut us off from the outside, as there was a big gate in front of the cafe, and several floors with big walls and relatively small windows. The only real sign that we were in Hanoi was the dim sound of honking coming in through the walls. Even though it was comfortable and the food was good, this experience was definitely disturbing to me. There was no Vietnamese influence on the food or space--the whole thing was basically a carbon copy of a western cafe/breakfast place. It specifically disturbed me when I noticed a title on the back of a French guy's newspaper--something like "Flood leaves 30 dead or missing." This sight just reminded me of how the people eating at this restaurant have the privilege to distance themselves from negative aspects of the "real" Vietnam and the struggles that everyday Vietnamese people have to face. It almost seems like "real" Vietnamese people are intentially excluded from this space which seems to exist solely to provide a familiar escape for westerners.
However, overall Sharon and I definitely enjoyed the experience. To be honest, it was nice to escape the noise and pollution of crowded Hanoi streets, and to eat familiar foods we missed. It was nice to study in a comfortable leather chair, and to enjoy the aesthetically pleasing and relaxing atmosphere of the cafe. And I like French toast! So, ultimately I was both pleased and disturbed by this experience. If anyone reads this, I'd appreciate your comments/ideas about this cafe and experience.

Service Learning: Challenges with Inclusion

The issues of inclusion and exclusion have become especially apparent recently at Xa Mẹ. We have always been concerned about trying to build relationships and have a positive impact on all of the children. This has been particularly difficult to do with the older children, most of whom almost always choose not to participate in our lessons or activities. Of course, we can’t blame them, since means doing what the younger kids are doing—something that’s not that appealing to older teenagers. Our plan for dealing with this issue was to have John and Kristine (and now Thuy Linh) take the time to reach out to the older children and talk to them. We also made plans to develop and career/higher education workship that would be especially relevant to the older kids. Recently, however, inclusion has become even more of an issue. About two weeks ago we decided to split the kids into two groups for English lessons—the older kids (somewhat more advanced) and the younger kids (beginners). This plan turned into Thuy Linh and I teaching the more advanced kids, and Kristine and John teaching the beginners on Thursdays, and Kristine and I teaching the more advanced kids, and John teaching the younger kids on Tuesdays, when Thuy Linh can’t join us.
This worked out well the first day. Thuy Linh and I ended up teaching a group of about six boys (several girls did homework at a table in the back of the room), and they had their notebooks out and were relatively attentive and responsive. However, things became more challenging as fewer kids have wanted to participate in the more advanced class. Also, more of the more advanced children have wanted to do English homework rather than participate in the lesson during this time. One day I found myself working one-on-one with one child on the English lesson that was planned for the day, while Thuy Linh helped one or two children with their homework. Obviously, it may not be the best use of our time to plan English lessons if only one or two children are participating each time. This past Tuesday, I found myself struggling to review the English lesson with two kids on my own while Thuy Linh had her hands full with helping multiple kids at once with their English homework (this situation was not helped by the fact that I forgot my dictionaries that day). I would say that I hit my low point at Xa Mẹ on this day. My English lesson didn't go very well (I was having trouble teaching without my dicitonaries or a translator) and I just felt really useless. I should mention that this was totally not any of the other volunteers' fault, and none of these issues were communicated at the time. I plan to bring up these issues when we meet tomorrow morning.
From the perspective of working with the older kids, it now seems that our original plan of teaching planned English lessons is not as effective as we originally hoped, and many of the children are not even included in the teaching that is going on. If less and less children want to participate in one of our main activities—learning English—then we are clearly not having an inclusive enough impact during our time at the orphanage. Since Kristine and I were in Sapa this weekend, we haven't had a real chance to communicate as a group since Thursday, and, as I mentioned, we are meeting tomorrow. It will definitely be important to check in and seriously discuss how we plan to deal with these challenges and adjust our overall plan in the future. It may end up having a more inclusive impact to focus more on games, homework help, meaningful activities, and individually reaching out than on English.
More broadly, I definitely feel that it is important to remember that the kids who are choosing to not participate may be the ones who could benefit the most from our presence. I think that this is a issue that extends beyond Xa Mẹ to classrooms and afterschool programs all over the world. I think it's really important that we set aside time and energy to devote to the kids who could potentially be "slipping through the cracks" during our volunteer time. We can't slack off about really working hard to come up with some creative strategies to effectively help and involve as many children as possible. It's our responsibility as volunteers to try to be inclusive in this way.
I definitely look forward to trying to work through some of these issues when our group meets up tomorrow.

UCHANU: Cultural and International Exchange

The last few days have been filled with a lot of interesting intercultural and international exchanges. Now, of course, every day I experience here is filled with these exchanges, BUT I think they were particularly striking to me the last few days. On Sunday we all experienced the last day of the 1000 Years of Hanoi Thang Long celebration. Some of us were excited to see the festivities, and others were just happy that the week long event—and associated traffic, bus problems, etc.—was over. On Sunday, I found myself, and Khương’s relatives and friends, watching the Thang Long parade on TV. I was struck by the organization and control of the people involved, and the repetition of group after group of people marching. At one point, I jokingly pointed to the screen and said it was boring. I then randomly found myself thinking about the San Francisco Gay Pride and deciding that it would be interesting to at least show Khương some clips from past parades on youtube (which I learned today is pronounced “youtubee” here). What followed was the somewhat strange experience of watching pride parade participants dancing, wearing crazy costumes, and holding signs about who they are and what they stand for while hearing the “Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh” song in the background and comparing the two parades and the parts of the world where they took place. First of all, it was crazy to be showing someone something totally different from anything they’d ever seen before, and to see their reactions to the experience. It’s still crazy to me how the internet can expose people to so many things going on all over the world. Secondly, it was interesting to talk about somewhat broader cultural differences (generalizations) that the comparisons inspired.
Also, this experience, plus others, such as showing Khương some Austin Powers clips, reminded me that I am not just being affected by my experience here, but my presence here is affecting other people as well. It's interesting to think that I am in some ways representing America to the people I come in contact with here. This is funny to me, because I always think about all the cultural, political, and ideological differences in America. I know that I have to remember that Vietnam is a much more diverse place than I will ever really be able to understand during my time here. Instead of making generalizations, I want to make an even greater effort to keep my eyes open to the diversity in lifestyles, beliefs, power, perspectives, etc. that is all around me.

Service Learning: Organizational Structure

A recent experience gave me some unique insights into how things are run at Xa Mẹ. When we arrived at XM on Monday of last week, we were surprised to see that the kids were acting much differently from the way that they usually do. They were really quiet, didn’t smile that much, seemed a little tense and didn’t seem that excited when we arrived. We soon realized that the older woman who co-runs the orphanage, “Bà,” was there. She informed us that the children were going to start having lessons during the time that we volunteer, and that we would have to reschedule our Monday hours. It was really striking to experience a completely different atmosphere in the space—to see the children so somber and controlled, especially since they are often somewhat wild when we are working with them. This experience suggested to me that Bà, and possibly the older man who also runs the orphanage, are really strict with the children. This, along with the fact that the children are not allowed to go outside, emphasized to me the ways in which the children are extremely controlled at the orphanage. It also made me reflect on the fact that it is possible to control the children more effectively, and that we need continue to talk about and reflect on how we as volunteers can structure our interactions with the children in the best way possible.
Actually, it seems that the children are simultaneously unusually controlled and unusually free at Xa Mẹ. I think the structure of the organization supports this, in that the man and woman at the top, who co-run XM, are very cautious and controlled about what the children can do and who they can interact with, but the other people involved in the children’s lives, such as the woman who cooks for them, exert much more limited control. If the structure of the organization, in terms of people who regularly interact with the children, consists of very controlling people at the top, and a very “laissez-faire” person at the bottom (the woman who cooks for them), then this creates a situation where the children have both some extreme limitations in their lives, but also have a degree of “extreme freedom.” Additionally, the fact that some of the children do sneak out shows this structural issue in action, since the children are probably largely motivated to sneak out by the fact that they have such limited freedom, and are able to sneak out because of the lack of complete control that the organization actually has over them.
Other than what I’ve mentioned, we know relatively little about how the organization is run, and have almost no contact with the people who run the organization. Our interactions with the heads of the organization actually also reflect this aspect of extreme control and lack of oversight in that they were very concerned about who we were before we became involved, and listed a lot of rules, but don't check in with us at all in terms of what we do with the children every week. We essentially met the people who run the organization and then were given a pretty free reign. In response to this situation, I do think it would be a good idea to update the XM leadership regularly on what we are doing with the children, and what our plans and goals are. In this way we can document our volunteer work for them while also proving our commitment and how seriously we take our work. This may ultimate increase their trust in us, and help persuade them to let us to do more with the children, such as going on a field trip or having a picnic outside on our last day. Ultimately, I hope to make a more active effort to learn more about the organizational structure and how things are run at Xa Mẹ, and to continue to pay attention to the ways in which we can most effectively control and structure our time and interactions at the orphanage.

UCHANU: Rice Harvesting!

This past Sunday my UCHANU pals and I had the opportunity to harvest rice in a village near Hanoi. We woke up early, filed into two buses, and made our way over to the village, where we found that we were actually going to be harvesting in a super muddy field rather than a dry one. After toiling for about two hours, we finished up helping a farmer put our rice into a thresher, washed off in a lake, and walked over to the house for lunch. After lunch, we talked to locals in an effort to learn about changes and jobs in the village. We found that the job categorizations on our sheet (who is poor, medium, and rich) were not considered very accurate by the people we talked to. For example, there were comments that construction workers were not necessarily poor, and that bankers were the rich people. This probably reflects the variation that exists among different villages, as well as our small interview sample size.
Ultimately, I learned a lot from this experience. I feel like it really takes getting down and dirty with tough physical jobs to truly appreciate the work that so many people in Vietnam do. This experience humbled me and reminded me of all the skills I have not developed. I hope that I will have the opportunity to talk to more farmers and learn about the work that they do. Ideally, it would be awesome to try out the skills required for a few jobs while I’m here. For example, learning how to do what rat catchers, phỏ sellers, traditional cake makers, etc. do. Dirty jobs Vietnam! I plan to make a concerted effort to talk to people with different jobs (ideally with the help of someone more proficient in Vietnamese) and see if they might be willing to teach me some new skills.

Service Learning: Public, Private, and Physical Space

Despite the fact that the Xa Mẹ’s building has several floors, space is an issue in several ways. First of all, the children don’t seem to have any “private” space—the girls and boys sleep in separate rooms and share large beds (which is the norm in Vietnam). Also, we are somewhat limited in terms of the kinds of activities we can implement in the the available space. This is mainly an issue when it comes to physical activities, such as playing games with the children. We recognize that the kids have tons of pent up energy to release, and love playing active games, but the main space we use is somewhat small for running around. We try minimize the children’s risk of injury while still allowing them to run around and have fun. For example, instead of having running relay races, we had “crab walking” relay races, where everyone had to essentially crawl upsidown on their hands and feet.
But going back to the issue of personal space…while my instinctive feeling is that children should have some private space at home, I recognize that my perception is totally influenced by my cultural background. Growing up, I always had my own room, and most of my friends did, too. I think it was always emphasized to me that having privacy and private possessions was normal and important. Given that there is much more shared space at home in Vietnam (i.e. many homes consist of one or two large rooms), I shouldn’t automatically assume that the children at Xa Mẹ are experiencing any significant negative effects from only having shared space at home. In fact, I think this spacial arrangement is probably beneficial to the children in many ways, for example: by helping children learn how to share and get along with others, by providing the children with a familial atmosphere, and by helping the children become closer with each other. I could also have an incorrect perception of the salient personal spaces that the children do have at the orphanage. For example, it could be the case that the children always sleep in the same place on the beds, and therefore feel a sense of personal ownership in this way.
Beyond these questions, it is interesting to notice the ways that we and the children interact with the spaces of Xa Mẹ. The children are officially not allowed to leave the building. However, sometimes the older children sneak out. In this way they seem to be forging an independent identity (part of growing up) and resisting the authority of the people who run the orphanage. Also, I’ve noticed that children move around the different parts of Xa Mẹ a lot. A child might watch TV for a little while, then come check out what we are doing in the main room, and then might head upstairs. In this way, the spatial arrangement of the building provides the children with a relatively large degree of freedom, even though they are theoretically stuck inside. Additionally, the large space and lack of an adult presence means that the children have a lot of autonomy and independence while not having a lot of privacy and personal space. I wonder how the children interact with the space differently during the day, when the head of the organization is in the building. I also wonder how they engage in the space when John, Kristine, and I are not there. In the future, I plan to pay more attention to how the children interact with the space at Xa Mẹ, and to think of ways that we can maximize the effectiveness of our time with the children within the space available to us.