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.
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