Service Learning: Society

I think the notion of society is really important in regards to our work with the kids at Xa Mẹ. (Excluding the children of the woman who cooks), it seems that all of the children at the orphanage come from very poor backgrounds. I don't know of any of the children who are orphans in the traditional sense, in that both of their parents have died. Anyways, in a country in which family is so important (in political, cultural, and social terms), I often wonder how the children's living situation affects their lives. Do they get teased in school? Is it hard for them to respond to questions about their parents and families?
I also often think about the place in society that the children will inhabit in the future. There are some children I'm really not too worried about at the moment. They listen, do their homework, and seem to be doing well in school. This past week several of the children were working really hard on class projects for teacher's day. For multiple days they were carefully drawing and coloring posters for the occasion. I imagine these kids continuing to do well in school, and hopefully ending up in college. There are other kids who seem to be struggling--they get really aggressive with other children, and I don't see them doing homework as often. I'm not sure where they will be in 20 years, and I'm not sure what resources (if any) the organization provides them with to make sure that they succeed.
It's also challenging for me to think about how I--as someone who is not a member of Vietnamese society--can really help these kids in the long term when I'm only here for a few months and barely speak the language. I can't really help them with their homework, I can't listen to their stories like Jon, Thuy Linh and Kristine can, they can't really ask me for advice...so I've pretty much come to the conclusion that they best way I am capable of helping them is by just being there and working hard to think about and plan ways that we can be most effective as the XM team.
Going off topic, I've found that even more than other group projects I've been involved in, this service learning experience has showed me how important it is to listen, compromise, and work well with other people in order to achieve a goal. This has been especially true since I have depended on Kristine, Thuy Linh and John so much in terms of translating and actually taking the lead in implementing stuff that we do. I have also really tried to step up my efforts to handle challenging situations and communicate with the kids on my own whenever possible. As my Vietnamese has improved, this has gotten much easier. I hope that I will continue to feel that I can do more on my own and be more effective in the next few weeks that we have with the kids.