Reflections by Miranda, Courtney C., Tiffiani, Leilani, Casey, and Colby

Thoughts by Mandy:

As I sit on the beach, digesting my amazing traditional Vietnamese dinner, I reminisce my past few days here. Every time I come to Vietnam, I always feel a connection and spiritual bond. The people, the scenery, the culture, and the food, simply plants this indestructible love for this country. On the first day we visited the War Museum, in the eyes of Vietnamese it was named the American War. Having been here before, I warn my friend Leilani that there are things in this museum that could have a hard impact on her. What I failed to predict, was that I would have felt this impact as well. To see and read what the Vietnam War did to thousands of innocent villagers and civilians rips my heart. From reading history books given to us by U.S. teachers we perceive the American side of the story, but not the side who we fight against. The War Museum is put in the perspective of the North Vietnamese, which is something you don’t hear about very often.
The next day we traveled to the Mekong Delta, one of the longest rivers in the world. The Mekong stretches through many different countries. As we sat on the blue hard benches plastered to the floor of our motorboat, our tour guide provided us with tid-bits of information. When we arrived on Unicorn Island we immediately surrounded the mounds of un-cracked coconuts and learned how to make the infamous coconut candy. Everyone bought on average six packages of different flavored coconut candy. In return the owner of the factory wanted to give us even more coconut candy as a thank you for boosting their sales.
I enjoy every experience I have in Vietnam, I always have something different to try and something new always occurs. Basically, I never get bored in Vietnam.

Thoughts by Courtney C.:

My favorite experience so far

has been the trip to Mango Park. I’d been waiting for this day since the beginning of the trip, I was literally jumping around I was so happy. The moment we got there, the tour guide welcomed us in like we were all friends. I also learned immediately that there was more to this park than I originally thought. Not only was there Ostrich riding, but grass skiing, grass sledding, crocodile farms, and much, much more. I couldn’t believe it. It only got better from there. The first things we saw were the crocodiles. At first, we saw tons and tons of little baby crocs nestling around each other in concrete stalls. Then, as we made our way father down, we noticed the big crocs. Most of them were lying on the ground with their mouths wide open. I couldn’t believe how big they were! The next activity we did was grass sledding. It looked easy when they were demonstrating it, but I soon found out that was definitely not the case. The sleds were a little small and hard to steer. Some rides were good, and some were epically bad. One time, Colby and I actually hit a tree going up a hill and rolled back down. We were fine, though. (Whew (!) say the chaperones!!) After a nice little break, We headed over to the ostriches. I was so ecstatic! When we got there, the ostriches looked a lot bigger than I thought they would. Max and Josh volunteered to go first. I was dead set on going next. Watching the first two was hilarious. I thought it’d be pretty easy. However, when I stepped into that ostrich cage and saw them all towering over me, I started to get kind of scared. As soon as I was helped on to one, it took off. Although I was scared out of my mind, I was also having a blast. It slowed a little, and eventually started sauntering around the cage at a very slow pace. I saw Mandy fall off (she was fine and actually landed standing up!), so I was holding on pretty tight. When my turn was up, I was very satisfied. I felt like I’d accomplished a life goal. That experience was one of the best experiences of my life!

Thoughts by Tiff:

Xin Chao !
This is Tiff, one of the seven freshmen on the trip. In the process of preparing for this trip, I was most definitely looking forward to going to the orphanages, which was a big part of why I decided to go on this trip. The first orphanage we went to was run by Christian nuns, and it was an all girls orphanage filled with girls ranging from about 4-16 years old. I thought these girls were very mature and they even spoke a little English. It was very fun interacting with them and we even played with a Frisbee in a big circle filled with orphans, students, and even the head ‘mama’ at the orphanage. There were four groups of Punahou students who did different activities with them. The activities included decorating t-shirts, watercolor painting and coloring, making bracelets, and making picture frames out of popsicles and other supplies with pictures of each orphan that we took when we were there. Our group of freshmen girls did the bracelet making, which did involve a little skill that they surprisingly picked up very quickly. These girls enjoyed taking pictures with us and one little girl even snapped a few shots on my camera. They became very excited when you showed them the actual picture we just took. It was a little sad leaving the orphanage and hugging the girls goodbye, but it was glad to see them with a huge smile on their face when waving goodbye as we left in the bus.

The second orphanage we went to was a little different because it was in a Buddhist atmosphere. These children were way smaller than the first orphanage; the youngest orphan a baby and the oldest one about 8 years old. There were also a few other orphans at school while we were there. Since they were little and didn’t speak any Vietnamese, it was extremely hard to communicate with them. None of them understood us and it was very hard when we first got there, watching them just stand there with a straight face not knowing what was going on. After a little waiting to get settled, I took a few pictures of the young ones and showed those pictures to them. They became excited and soon wanted me to take more pictures of them. We did our activities under cover on the floor, in the same room where they practice their religion. It was quite comfortable compared to being under the hot sun in the humid air.

After getting settled in the area where we were going to do our activities, I immediately got attached to one of the little girls. She was about three years old and didn’t understand anything I said to her, but somehow the communication between us led to a strong bond throughout the few hours we were there. I pretty much spent every minute with her and didn’t leave her side until we left the orphanage. I believe she became very comfortable with me because as I would bend down to carry her, she somehow automatically knew what I was going to do so she put her arms around me so I could pick her up and carry her. The popsicle picture frame her and I made was of a picture of the two of us, and after we made it she didn’t want to put it down even though there was wet glitter and other things drying on it. As the time to say goodbye started to arrive, I knew I would get extremely sad knowing that I’d most likely not ever see her again. I am seriously considering and wanting to come back in four years and adopt her. After nearly 3 hours, I was very attached to this girl and she was basically already my little sister. Hopefully I’ll come back and see her again. I’m looking forward to spring break in 3 years !

Thoughts by Leilani:

One of the most remarkable experiences of my life took place during the exciting adventure my friends and I have been undergoing during spring break, when I explored a Vietnamese War Museum, and understood the perspective of the Vietnam War from their point of view. The moment I stepped into the War Museum, I knew I was in for a shock of a lifetime while finally understanding the consequences that the war had directly towards Vietnamese people. My eyes instantly averted to the huge photographs hanging from the walls, as each different picture was an illusive insight on the pain and agony the Vietnamese people had to face because of our nation's invasion into their homeland, as innocent civilians of all different age groups and families were shown ruthlessly being killed or disfigured due to the violence. As I moved on from one picture to the next, i realized that our nation could have avoided this war altogether, because it was not our war to fight, not our battle to win, and thousands of Vietnamese people could have been saved from there fate. As I moved along the walls of photographs, I instantly stopped in my tracks to stare eye to eye with a beautiful, sad picture of two brothers about to get shot by an American soldier. The older brother then began to protect his younger brother, showing the love they shared. This really hit me as how war affects each and every person in a certain way, no matter who you are. Peace is always the way to go.

Thoughts by Casey:

After seeing the first couple of people riding the Ostrich I was pretty much scared to death. It was really hot and I had to sit on top of an unhappy ostrich, and stay there for a formidable length of time. For some reason I didn’t think that it was the best idea. Finally I was able to convince myself that it would be a “good” experience, so I grabbed a helmet and went into the ostrich pen where I promptly started freaking out. The ostriches were huge, and they didn’t look anything like they do on animal planet. When you think of an ostrich you usually imagine its body being covered in sleek black feathers, these looked NOTHING like that. They were pretty sick looking and bald in many places I’m pretty sure they weren’t supposed to be. The people working there had me step onto a ledge so I could get onto their backs. Unfortunately the ostriches were pretty tired of giving people rides, so they weren’t cooperating. So the workers started to slap them to try and get them to walk over to me. I was really hoping that they weren’t forcing it to do anything it didn’t really want to do since it was bigger than me. As far as I was concerned it could do whatever it wanted. After I was finally situated on its back I was instructed to lean back and hold on tight, and that’s exactly what I did. It wasn’t comfortable, I was half scared to death, my ostrich wasn’t very nice, and I was dying of heat. I can’t even begin to imagine what my facial expression must have looked like. Shocked? Scared? Freaked out? A combination of the three? Regardless that was definitely one of the strangest (and most interesting) experiences ever.

Thoughts by Colby:

Vietnam, what can I say. I couldn't be having a BETTER spring break. I absolutely LOVE this trip, the people, and most of all VIETNAM. Before this, I had never been to Asia, much less anywhere outside of the U.S. besides Canada for a few days, and I am sooo happy to be able to say that I will have spent the first time in Vietnam with some of the best people EVER. These past days have been so exhilirating and amazing. Just to cover some highlights...
Sunsets that fade into blurs of purple, orange, pink, like the colorful, unique, DELICIOUSS food that I want to learn how to make back at home. Not to mention I tasted the very FIRST tea that I have and will probably ever like. I decided to be adventurous and go ahead and try some exotic foods, as some would say. So far I've eaten some delicious crocodile, ostrich, pig bowel, pig brain, and sea cucumber.
Ostriches with pokey butts, shaved for our comfort as we ride them, clutching their wings for dear life, pulling with all our might so we didn't fall off, though some did, mostly due to some pretty vicious and fiesty personalities. My ostrich, that I decided to name Oscar, was luckily awesome. He was a little slow, but nonetheless awesome.
Friendly smiles, detailed with heavy accents, curiously gaze at us as we walk by. The people are so helpful and hard-working, paired with amazing deals and prices with one US dollar equalling 18,000 Vietnmaese dong.
Today was the first full day at this ABSOLUTELY STUNNING AND AMAZING resort. The nicest place I have EVER and probably will ever stay, it makes me count my blessings again and again and again, and appreciate the fact that I was able to come on this trip. Waking up after falling asleep to a pirated version of High School Musical 3 (previously bought the day before for 10,000 dong) at 8:20, the comfy beds embraced and comforted us with welcoming arms, just like the people here. Today was a day full of freedom, we could go to breakfast anytime from 7-10 and do mostly whatever we wanted to. Spending most of our time in the pool and in the sun, surrounded by tropical plants and lizards, we lathered up in sunscreen layer after layer after layer again and again, so scared to get burned. It didnt do much for me though, my shoulders feel like they have been grilled by the hands of the sun, like the delicious spring rolls and egg pancakes at the delicious buffets we've had here. (Sorry mom, but I put aloe on it just now!).
The highlight of this day, however, was definitely towards the end of the day. After finding out jetski-ing would cost $60, it was no loose stitch in the blanket of vietnam, as anything here is phenomenal to me. We strolled along the beach for what seemed like hours, scanning the sand for seashells, discovering so much on the littered and dark shores by the line of resorts. As I found the styrofoam platter, ghetto and lying strayed on the beach, we piled our shimmering treasures onto it, continuing down the miles and miles of sand, which turned out to only be a few hotels distance. I found my very first live barnacles and saw some mussels move themselves, I was super excited by that. We plopped ourselves down when we got tired, stretching out on the soft, silky sand and as we looked up, I saw the most beautiful thing EVER. The sun, sky, and clouds formed a pictoresque painting, seriously looking like, well, heaven. The beams of light were peeping out from the clouds here and there, forming what seems like paths to those pearly gates, all against the pastel of sky, smooth purple and pinks. It was a good day. :)