Part 1

Part 2

Video produced/edited by Tamara

Good morning, our beautiful curious people, 

Its only 2 nights left for us before going back to America as the sunset is approaching.  Our hotel was comfy and cozy to sleep.  I woke with good feelings as I could start off with good energy to give back to the students at the first school (Cao Dang Su Pham Trang Uong) we visited.  It was a blessing to see that student, and that students were really smart, and we are really glad they really stood up for their education indeed.  I also have to admit that the questions they asked us were good, such as talking about the LGBTQ community, the American War, and the laws of America's Indeed. As I have responded to my truth about the American War, it has done those wrong as we should not have war, as I have seen at the museum, which has shown the Vietnamese resistance living harder than just America does.  I'm sure you agree with us, right?

Then we stopped by Large Market as we shopped for some things we wanted to bring to America.  After this, we stopped by to eat our lunch, which was good, as I ordered a Pho with a meatball (ground beef).  Then we have another mini road trip to another school (Lop hoc cua Tre Diec), which has all deaf teachers and one hearing teacher who can sign.  When we arrived a little late, I could see the students' eyes glow, showing that they were really grateful to us for coming to give a warm connection as they needed to see more of the deaf community.  We bring great wisdom to tell those young students.  Here is a little explanation of this school; this school recently started in 2019 but is not documented under the government.  This means this school is paid by parents to keep this private school to continue till it's confirmed by the government.  As of now, those students have to wait for 5 years to be able to join another school as the teachers teach them to increase their knowledge so they could show that those kids are ready to go to school as the same time they want show their ability to start school as who known they could support that since they send good students with talent is there too.  Now you know more about this school, right?  Anyway, back to the point, we play two games, the same as before, the telephone game and the Elephant game. 

We went back to the hotel to rest for an hour, then we went to gather with deaf people, as some people from the school that we visited came.  It was absolutely fun.  Also, before that, we split the group who wanted to eat Banh Mi, which was good!  I got two sandwiches, double egg and another sandwich with egg and hotdog, which were absolutely good.  The other group ate fried rice as they tried silkworm, and they said it tasted not bad.  Savannah said it tasted like peanut butter.  After that, we met many deaf people who had been there before we arrived.  Before I explain the best part, I ordered twice there.  Was the first drink I bought was the Grapefruit tea, and then in the second order, I drank watermelon juice; I swear those drinks are the best in the world.  Also, this coffee cafe has deaf workers, so it is a lot easier to communicate and even get a vibe with the workers.  Now, I am going to explain what we did in the cafe; there was society time as we chatted to get to know more and learn Vietnamese signs at the same time.  As I have explained this, I'm impressed with one guy who is a freshman and has been practicing the English translation from Vietnamese, as there were four pages of translation, and he said there is still more to go till he graduates.  So, y'all can see how passionate people are about their countries.  Therefore, we have to be grateful and think what we get from America provides us with the best education needs, so we really need to take this seriously, or are we wasting their time, as they work as hard as they think we are doing the same things?  Do what it does and learn it.  Also, I met many people, and we enjoyed talking about many, from funny to serious topics, as we (students of TSD) took this opportunity before we zoomed to America, where this moment was an unforgettable memory of a whole two weeks in Vietnam. 

We play two of Vietnam's famous games for the deaf community.  In one of them, there will be three different colors, red/yellow/black, then they will split into groups of two, and each of those groups will make ideas of facial expressions for each color as here example (🔴=😛) ( 🟡=😲) (⚫️=😐+😑).  There will be a line, and each person should look the other way till someone taps you to give you the look of the facial expression of a color.  Then you give the same expression to the next person, and then the last person runs to point the right color to win.  If you choose the wrong color, you will lose.

The second game was kinda fun.  Each of us will take a folded paper and not look at it until the leader says so.  While you can't look at the paper, you exchange the paper with others who have paper; also, walking around till there's a sign of a start, look at each of your papers to find others who have the same word, too.  You can sign the word mentioned on your paper to take attention to find a matching word.  If I get the word pig, I now have to sign the word pig, as once I find someone who has the same word, I have to sit down together to avoid being the last person standing.

That's all for the long day. Good night see y'all tomorrow,

-Theo