Friendship Village

Yesterday was a quite meaningful day when my classmates and I went to Friendship Village in Van Canh Commune, Ha Tay Province, approximately 11 km west of Hanoi. It is a second home to children and veterans suffered from serious health problems attributed to the lingering effects of Agent Orange, the defoliant sprayed extensively by US forces in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Residents are rotated through the village to receive treatment and then returned to their families as their condition permits.

At exactly 1PM, we all gathered and waited for the minivan to pick us up. While I was chatting with my friends under the shades of green in the Guest House’s yard, I noticed a little boy with backpack was coming along with Gerard, our professor. I made a slip of my tongue: “What a cute kid, is he someone’s little brother?” Damn my shortsighted eyes. When we departed, I found myself in an extremely embarrassed moment as Long, the one I believed to be a cute kid appeared older than me. He is a victim of Agent Orange who was coming to guide us through the village.

Every kid here shows vibrant visage and happy smile. But watching them, a subtle melancholy touched me. Previously, all I knew about Agent Orange is from the media, so seeing dioxin infected kids in person truly hit me. We were guided on a tour round the classroom area with 3 rooms for special training and 4 for vocational training. There are also other buildings for residence. Afterwards, we were divided into group to play with the children here. I had a talk with some kids in the embroider class. Most of them are a little shy, however, very very cute. Plus, they are so talented. Ly and I were completely wrapped up in embroidering some patterns and ended up with little achievement whist Thang, our reluctant instructor almost finished his work. Thang is three years old younger than me. He is affected by Agent Orange, as other kids, but at a less severe level. A totally likeable boy and dexterous craftsman, he just made me realize how clumsy I am. Our conversation went well (although I almost destroyed his artistic work :”>). But when I asked him about his health condition, he just responded with a bashful smile.


Before we came home, I bought a bookmark with fine flower embroidery designs made by Friendship Village’s students. It will be my precious treasure that I will always bring along to remind me of those admirable kids who are struggling to fight their own fate, and tell myself to study harder as well as not to waste any moment of my life.

Benson

“In her glory days she reminded some of Marilyn Monroe, others of Raquel Welch…Her lips were full, sultry or sulking, her expression unblinking; she seldom smiled.”

(Benson, Aug 13th 2009. From The Economist print edition)

What do you think about this description? Surprisingly, it was not a human celebrity, but a UK superstar carp which passed away at the age of 25 in the beginning of this month. Benson the giant carp was at 64lb 2oz (29kg), the biggest common carp in Britain, although mirror carp do come larger. She was also very popular: in 2005 readers of Angler’s Mail voted her Britain’s Favourite Carp.

Benson was well known for she was the UK's most famous fish. But what made her so special, so adorable, was her generosity. Anglers would come from all over the country to her home lake, Kingfisher Lake in Cambridgeshire to catch her, weigh her, take her photograph and put her back again. And, she would show her hospitality by uncomplainingly submitting to the scales and then posing for the photographer, holding her breath and staying unmoved although her whole body’s weight tears her tongue like a razor blade when people hooks her to the limelight. It's estimated her graced the landing nets of more than 60 anglers, dusting them all with immortality. But no more. She was said to have taken a bait of uncooked tiger nuts and now, the angling world is in mourning.
There’s not much to explain why I choose this obituary. It's exceptional, that’s it. Maybe one of the most unusual, beautifully written, sensible and humorous articles I've ever read. And I love the bighearted carp Benson (though I have never seen her). As Benson was so famous that many people wanted to take picture with her, she must have been suffered from being caught so often. However, as Mr. Bridgefoot, the owner, she seemed happy on having her picture taken.

One more intriguing point about this obituary is the sense of a mysterious death. Carps can live to 60 or 70 while Benson was cut down in her prime. In fact, raw tiger nuts have been found on the banks. Unless these nuts are cooked and expertly prepared they can prove toxic to carp and the fear is that Benson could have been poisoned by one of her pursuers, accidentally or some anglers might have gone too far.

Apparently, Benson the carp could be a model for me in some way: her kindness and her ability of adapt to changes in life. And definitely not a model of greed to be poisoned by harmful nuts. I’m kidding. LOL

The presence of some irresponsible anglers who might have caused the death of Benson reminds me of Vietnam’s pollution destroying the natural world and threatening health, most of which caused by people’s irresponsibility such as the incident of Thi Vai river. Seeing a whole nation show their civility by how they treat their animals makes me wonder what people would do if there were such a big carp in Vietnam. They would make carp gruel before the fat carp is widely known, for sure =)).

The article reveals that Benson’s owner will keep her in deep freeze and open guided tours for people to come and pay respect to her. I would come there when I get to the UK, hopefully.

“Benson, carp, born 1984, died 2009. Leaves behind numerous widows, thousands of offspring and 60-odd lovelorn captors.” (John Bailey, The Guardian)

R.I.P, Benson.

My very first post

Lazy Sunday Morning - 클래지콰이

I am at home now with my family, enjoying a lazy Sunday. Recently, I was told to write my own autobiography as weekly assignment, and there have to be a total of 35 pages of text by the end of the semester. Oh.

I used to keep a diary, long time ago, not very well-written I’m afraid :)). I don’t write much so it’d be good practice to write autobiography. Moreover, as I grow older, I find that I lose memories of special events, objects, people, etc. and I want this to not only help me with my identity, but also with my memories. Thank you Professor :D. Still, the hardest part is definitely starting.

Lately I was in such a bustle, birthday parties, highschool reunion, etc. =)). Meeting with the UC team was great, everybody is nice. Some speaks Vietnamese surprisingly very well, I was so impressed. I wish I have a photo of UC & HANU to post but I don’t. I love to tell a story with photos so I will talk about my latest trip. Last Sunday I went to Thien Son - Suoi Nga, a famous tourist site just 2 hours traveling by bus far from the centre of Hanoi. Located on the eastern side of the Ba Vi mountain range in Ha Tay Province, this ecotourism site replaces the noisy and dusty atmosphere of the city with the cool and fresh air of undulating mountains and forests. Thien Son - Suoi Nga is also surrounded by the historical legend of the competition between Son Tinh (Mountain Genie) and Thuy Tinh (Water Genie) to become the King Hung's son-in-law.

Thien Son is divided into three parts including Ha Son (lower), Trung Son (middle), and Ngoan Son (upper) mountains. However, since I was in a training tour, I was not allowed to go far from Ha Son. Still, the trip was great as Ha Son has the most poetic landscape with Tam Cap waterfall and many beautiful streams.



Along with the fascinating landscape, the diversified ecosystem of Thien Son and Suoi Nga amused me. Here, one can learn about the rare and valuable plants of the Ba Vi National Park thanks to name-tags on the tree-trunks.

What is distinctive about the trip is that I was with my volunteer team (we are working on food safety in HANU’s area, you can check this link www.hangquansach.org for further details and vote for your favorite restaurant in HANU). During the day, we had two training sections with Tam Viet Group, the leading organization in educating leadership skills, team work and organization skills in Vietnam. I did learn a lot, thank you so much Tam Viet, and Action for the City as well.

It was also quite coincident about the funny girl I met on the trip, who turned out to be my classmate in UC program. Does any one recognize her? (note: she was borrowing my Chinese fan :D)

This is my volunteer team on the trip, about 30 people, and teachers from Tam Viet. Our uniform is designed by me ;))

A super cute Chinese dog I saw on the way.

Starting from tomorrow, we will send you, HANUers and UCers in HANU ;)) , some cards to cast your vote. Be sure to involve :X

Cheers.

P/S: As I have mentioned above, I'm practicing. So I would be very pleased to have you corrected my grammar, word choice, etc. Thanks a bunch!