Volunteering in Nha Trang
After accumilating yet another round of fresh bruises from the bumpy, 12 hour ride to Nha Trang, we got ourselves booked into a $7 a night mini hotel.
Upon awaking at around midday, we made a beeline for a place called Crazy Kim’s about 5 blocks from where we are staying. We’d read a little about Kimmy Lee’s (that’s crazy to you and me) one woman battle against the rise of peadophillia in this small beachside city and that they were always looking for volunteers. After filling up on a strawberry lassi, a kind of shake mixed with youghurt, which the woman-hysterically- thought was Lauren’s because it looked so girly, we signed up to begin helping out the following morning.
We then made a second beeline to the beach. ‘S ok I suppose, nothing compared to Koh Tao but there is one significant difference which is interesting. In Thailand, the beaches are for the tourists and the tourists only, I don’t think I once saw a Thai in the sea, or sun bathing. Here, however, the beach had plenty of Vietnamese kids playing in the water, and as the shadows got longer, more and more Vietnamese families turned up to sit by the sea.
Today we went to volunteer for the first time at Crazy Kims. It was such good fun, we are teaching English to disadvantaged children, i.e. children who haven’t ever been to school, the poorest of the poor. It was really fun, a guy form Brighton called Brian had taken a three month sabbatical from being a dentist to come out to Vietnam. He lead the class while Lauren and I took mental notes as we will probably be having to do something similar soon. The kids were all very sweet and even though there was only 8 or so in our class (the 2nd morning class being for younger and special needs children and therefore taught seperately,) it was amazing to see how class politics and stereotypes are still prevailant in a class so small and on the other side of the world, the girls are still first to put their hands up, the boys just want to talk football, when in groups no-one wants to come to the front to discuss their group’s findings. It was great fun though and this evening Lauren and I are going to the advanced conversational English class, held for anyone who wants to turn up, to help out. It’s a great way to get talking to the locals of Nha Trang and is rewarding and almost as importantly, free.
Volutneering backpackers, does it come any smugger?
Tags: Nha Trang, Travel, vietnam, Volunteering
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