Video produced/edited by Lev & McKenna

Special Feature:  Interview with Bui Dinh, Deaf Tour Guide

Video produced & edited by Niven 

Special Feature:  War Remnants Museum 

Video produced/created by Lev

Hello people!

It’s a great time to be alive and another wonderful day to experience! Today’s morning started with us waking up early at 6 am to eat breakfast that we bought the previous night  because we would have a long drive to visit our first Deaf school on this International Studies trip. On the way to the deaf school, our tour guide was telling us about how the first person to set up a Vietnamese Pride group in Vietnam was a Deaf woman in 2022. This is very recent considering how the Pride movement in the US started decades ago. She lead a pride parade recently in support of the LBGTQ plus community. He also explained to us that the sign language here is not VSL (Vietnamese Sign Language), rather it is HCMSL (Ho Chi Minh Sign Language). He then handed out stickers of Vietnamese Pride and HCMSL to sell to us in order to support the cause. Many of us donated to the cause and bought stickers. It feels fulfilling helping a cause that others are so passionate about.

We had finally finished the long drive and had arrived to the school. When we arrived to the school, it was of old structure looking like a white average school from the early 1900’s with green outlines being doors and windows. We walked into the school and met the principals of the school who greeted us in a very respectful way. We were tremendously respectful because we didn’t want to disrespect them in any sort of way. We watched a short film that explained the history of the school. Trounce Mau Ciao Hoa Lani (the name of the school)was founded by the French in 1886 and then later claimed as Vietnamese in 1903. 

After that brief information, we headed outside to socialize with the students of the school who were currently in recess. I walked out side and kids started swarming me like I was water on a hot day. They grabbed me and demanded my attention. I calmly resided my fear (they are around 10 years old). They interrogated me with questions such as “HOW OLD ARE YOU?”, “ARE YOU AMERICAN?”, “CAN WE BE FRIENDS?”. I tried my best to not let the fear take over and bravely answered the questions with a puffed chest. The teachers of the school called the kids back to class. “Thank lord” I muttered. It was over. 

Next, we went into several classrooms explaining who we are and where we are from. We gifted each class ASL stickers that said TSD in sign language. The kids took the gifts with overwhelming gratitude. At the end of the tour we then thanked the two principals by gifting them three signed ASL books by us to give to their school. We also gifted them individual welded TSD logos saying “Thank You” on it. We headed to the bus to go to our next location of the day.

It was around 1:30 pm where we arrived to Banh Vot and tried out a series of meat for lunch. The meat consisted of different types of pork, fermented meat and chicken. We would then add vegetables to our meat and wrap the food with rice paper. They gave us two different sauces to try from. One was brown and tasted like chicken broth. The other one was light red and tasted like soy sauce. My personal favorite was the brown one because I am a die hard chicken fan.

Anyways, after our meat tasting session we headed to the War Remnant Museum. The museum was large with displays of military outside and inside. The building inside was packed making it hard to read some of the displays. Nevertheless, with hard work and the dedication of deaf power, we got through. The museum talks about the tragedies of the Vietnam war heavily blaming the US. There was many disturbing pictures and stories of what happened to the Vietnamese to the point where some of us had to leave the room. However, it was a very important thing for us to be educated about since we are from the US and we walk among Vietnamese which demands a little more respect.

After that, we decided to zen our emotions out a bit with going to the Jade Emperor Pagoda where we were met with several large gold Buddha’s and followers praying. In the middle of the pagoda was a pond full of catfishes. I was actually entranced with the catfish so much where I looked at them for over 10 minutes. They would sleep, fight, calm down, and repeat. I found it to be like the yin and yang cycle. As we walked forwards the front of the temple inside we had to remove our shoes out of respect. Walking inside, I noticed that the walls were red and gold with a pristine effect of a hidden glow. There were golden Buddhas everywhere and people getting on their knees to pray. It gave a very sacred vibe where we showed upmost respect.

Next, we decided to pink things out by going to the pink church named Tan Dinh. Unfortunately, the church didn’t open until 2 pm. We still had more than ten minutes to spare so we went inside a shop for AC. When the church opened we went outside the church areas to take many pictures of the beautiful castle and waited for the church to open. We grew impatient and left due to our tight schedule.

We then took a quick stop at the post offices where we would write and send post letters to our lovely families. We all picked postcards that cost 5,000 Vietnamese dong each. The staff educated some of the students how to formally write a postcard and where to write your letter. After everyone was satisfied, Wilmonda and Jennifer talked with the post office workers and got it sent. I hope y’all got it (for the families of the students that are reading this)! 

It was nearing the end of the afternoon so we went to downtown Ho Chi Minh City and saw the Ho Chi Minh statue. We would end up taking millions of pictures when ever staff saw a beautiful view. There were sever stands showing clothing of the cultural Vietnamese.The Vietnamese guide would explain to us the clothing of the Vietnamese and how that showed their status in society. 

We were all getting incredibly hungry so we went to a very luxurious restaurant (luxurious for Vietnam).  I ordered 3 water bottles since I was dying of thirst throughout the entirety of the day. I accidentally ended up ordering the kids meal since I was attracted to the American French fries that it offered. Nevertheless, they did not fail to disappoint. During the end of our meal, Wilmonda and Jennifer explained our question of the day which would take upon a new idea of us being partners and writing our partners answer rather than our own answer. The question was “What was the most traumatic thing you saw at the War Remnant Museum and why”. My partner was Dylan and we both ended up having a long good conversation about the Vietnam war. That was the main intention behind this new question of the day format.

After being burnt out, we slugged back onto the bus and headed to the convenience store to buy breakfast for tomorrow morning. I headed back to the hotel and into my room drenched in sweaty from the long hot day, sat down and started typing this blog. Thank you everyone for reading and see y’all next time!

Peace!

Will S.