A Month Since Sapa

At least a month has gone by since I left the wonderful kids and life at Sapa O'Chau, and I've been very lazy with keeping my blog up-to-date, so potentially nobody will be reading this, except me, and possibly my folks!

Anyhow, The trip to Hanoi with all 26 children from Sapa was a great success; HCM Mausoleum, the Worker's Theatre for anti-trafficking exhibitions and interactive theatre and then to finish off VIP seats to see Simple Plan and other well-known bands at the MTV Exit concert. The loved it and were jumping around in their seats for the whole 2 1/2 hours, along with 40 000 other people. I think it was pretty mind blowing for them.

More pictures of the Hanoi trip can be seen here

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED SAPA O'CHAU IN MAKING THIS HAPPEN.

We raised enough money to fund another trip for the non-residential students, who unfortunately couldn't come on the Hanoi trip.

Some new pictures

I've uploaded quite a few new pictures on my Picassa webpage. Here is the link for those who don't have it:

MY PHOTOS

And here is Jenna and I in complete Hmong dress last Friday. I couldn't believe how hot I was in the layers of dark hemp - and that's without hiking up a large mountain carrying large amounts of vegetables or chickens on my back...

HANOI HERE WE COME!!

With just 5 full days to go, we have raised over $700 which is enough to take all the residential students to Hanoi, and the remainder will go towards another school trip for the day students. 
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED. The children at the school are very very excited, as are we!


After Hanoi, the students will return to Sapa. Simple Plan - one of the main bands playing at the concert on Saturday - will then visit Sapa O'Chau and spend two days with the children. Here, they will learn more about human trafficking and play a part in a music documentary (of human trafficking), compiled by MTV Exit. Unfortunately I won't be in Sapa for this recording but I can tell you they are learning the songs well and enthusiastically play them over and over again on their phones. 

School Trip to Hanoi 26/05

As some of you already know, Sapa O'Chau is trying to raise $500 to take the residential students of the school on a trip of a lifetime to Hanoi, to:

1. Raise the students’ awareness of human trafficking

(a big problem in Sapa) 

2. Go to the MTV Exit’s Anti-Trafficking concert

3. Visit important Vietnamese cultural sites 

4. Give them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Hanoi

Most of our students have never even been out of the Sapa, or Lao Cai district so going to Hanoi is something they've only ever dreamed of!

 Please visit our website if you'd like to donatewww.sapaochau.org.

In Hanoi we will take the students to the MTV Anti-Human Trafficking concert http://mtvexit.org/vietnam/ where there will be bands from Canada, Korea, Australia and Vietnam performing. 

Visit Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and Ethnology Museum  http://www.vme.org.vn/aboutus_history.asp

I am teaching them the lyrics of some of Simple Plan's (Pop group from Canada) songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSxmPoe_fCM, which they have all now downloaded onto their phones and play incessantly. 

For the Hmong and Vietnamese (especially the Hmong) singing and dancing is a bit part of their culture, so it feels good to be teaching them English through a medium which they enjoy and can easily relate to. 

It's amazing to see how quickly they learn new words through song, and I don't know why we don't do more singing in secondary schools back home. Probably because the teenagers there wouldn't be seen dead joining in the community spirit of a group sing-song!

So, I'm excited about Hanoi, but also looking forward to the day where I don't wake up with Simple Plan's Summer Paradise running round and round in my head like a mouse on an exercise wheel! It reminds me a little Joe Simpson's description in Touching the Void with the tune Brown Girl in the Ring stuck in his head. Obviously I am not on the brink of death, struggling to find base camp in the Andes mountain range, but I certainly would not want to die with a cheesy pop ballard about love and summer paradise as an ear worm. Perhaps I am now in a good position to climb Fansipan (4100m), and should do so before Summer Paradise is replaced with something else!

Thunderstorms in Sapa

After an unusually dry start to the month of May, the rains have finally come, water is back at the school and so are the students, oh and the teachers.  June and July are apparently the wettest months in North Vietnam, but there is a terrifyingly big and close thunderstorm most nights here now - great crashes in the middle of the night that wake me up and draw me to the window to see the fork lightning overhead.

Last night was the best fork lighting I have ever seen! It traveled the entire distance across the sky, sometimes hitting the mountains behind Sapa and illuminating the entire ridge but mainly littering the night sky with giant forks. I didn't take any pictures of videos but it looked a bit like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2o8tCGui_s

One of the other volunteers is here as part of her Geography Masters research trip and is spending her time interviewing mainly the Hill Tribes. This is to find out how much the local weather conditions have changed over the last few years, and how this has impacted on their crop production - especially the staple rice.  I don't know what her findings are yet, but when I find out I will post more information! I do know that Vietnam is one of the countries at high risk from climate change, with her long coastline, low-lying areas and dependence on agriculture nationwide. I found this report on the WorldBank website, and have only read the summary as the rest looks dense and long http://climatechange.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/documents/Vietnam-EACC-Social.pdf

But, now we have some rain:

• The rice paddies are full of light green tender shoot
• The corn in the school garden is 2 feet high
• And, my pumpkin, cucumber and bean sprouts have shot up to10cm in just 2 days!

Me on my balcony

What a view!!

School's out for 2 days!!

Sapa is heaving with Vietnamese holiday-ers as every body has 2 days off work and school to celebration the liberation of Vietnam - the end of the Vietnam War when the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon (now Ho Chi Min City). There are an extra 10 000 tourists in Sapa for 4 days, with drinking, games, music, dancing and more drinking. It has a fantastic buzz about it but crossing the road is now a daily challenge, as is walking somewhere without being asked to buy an embroidered purse or skirt...

Yesterday (Monday) afternoon the few kids, who were hanging around at school, took us to the local village of Cat Cat where the river runs full and clear. We all swam, braved cliff jumps and splashed about in the water. Most of the kids could just fashion a doggy paddle, I suppose having taught themselves how to swim in the river. So, it was no surprise that they were tentative about jumping into the deep and dark pool.

Tom and Ngoc Chau, Jenna and Makayla

The, Kai, Cau, Chin and See swimming in river at Cat Cat 

The boys playing their bamboo flutes!

Most days are now hot, sunny and very clear and today I feel lethargic because of it. The rest of Vietnam is apparently at around 40-45 degrees so I should count my lucky stars that I'm not dissolving in a pool of my own sweat!

SAPA O'CHAU ON INVITE MR WRIGHT TV!

Mr. Wright is a British glob-trotting TV presenter who makes short and often funny documentaries about interesting things across the world, Sapa and the hill tribes who live there being one of them!
He came to Sapa last year and spent quite some time with Sapa O'chau, teaching the children how to take photographs and talking to Shu Tan about her visions and ambitions for the project.
The show was shown LIVE on Friday afternoon in the Hmong Sisters Bar in Sapa. We took all 35-40 students and staff from the cafe and squished them into the bar like sardines in a can. They sat there intently watching themselves on television as they snacked on rare treats of choco-pies, crisps and fanta.

What a strange paradox, I thought: such un-worldy children watching themselves broadcast on TV shown across the whole of Asia. These kids don't even understand the concept of fame and most have never even been out of Sapa. They laughed at themselves, at Mr Wright's silliness and intolerance to rice wine and probably from their own intolerance to sugary drinks and choco-pies!
Me, Jenna and Tom also enjoyed an afternoon off from teaching an something different out of the classroom.

Gawping at the television

A short walk through the Sapa mountain range

Here are some pictures from my homestay in Giang Tao Chai Village, with my student guide Miss. Zer. 

My loft room in the Homestay at Giang Tao Chai

Jess and Jasmine

My humble guide, Miss  Zer

I wish I'd brought my swimming cossie!

Ssssssnakes in Sapa

So far I have seen an alive snake whistling through the forest, thankfully in the opposite direction to me. I've also seen two dead snakes, one bright green one with it's head squished into the ground and another, larger, brown one crushed under a stone. I can only assume that they're not liked around here, because of their poisonous nature. There probably aren't 'many left either, given the number of snake heads I have seen in medicinal jars.

On Sunday afternoon I am walking through the streets of Sapa, enjoying the sunshine and laughter of the locals playing in the street. In the corner of my eye I see a large snake, flipping its body around the branch of a tree. Then I see another. Then another! "Arrrrrrgh!!! There are snakes on the loose in Sapa!" I think. I soon realise that theses snakes have been caught in the forest and their heads are tied to the branches, so that all they can do is flip their bodies about but are not able to escape. A small crowd of Hmong and Vietnamese gathers. A man then arrives carrying a large butcher knife and picks up the largest, brown snake with its head. He teases it and all the onlookers squeal and jump backwards. He then cuts deep into the snake's chest, revealing its still beating heart and proceeds to squeeze fresh blood that drips into a beer glass. The heart continues to pound inside the snake as he is squeezed dry of his own  blood.

I walk away at this point. Obviously drinking snake's blood fresh from the live animal is good for you! Who wouldn't think that?! Apparently if the "Snake Wine" is drunk directly from the snake it can cure everything from farsightedness to hairloss and is believed to improve health, virility and sexual performance. Poor little snakey. I think I'll stick to my Bia Hoi, thanks very much.

Here Comes the Sun

The sun is finally shining in Sapa and the strange cold has dispersed+, for now. It's too hot for my morning jogs around the lake and I now feel very lethargic, and more lazy because of the heat. This is heightened by the fact I no longer have a phone for an alarm, so rely my circadian rhythm to wake me - which is sometimes just 20 minutes before school! Run Run The teacher's late!!

I am teaching the class Here Comes the Sun , as they seem to love Beatles songs and it's also appropriate given the pleasant change in weather. Folk songs are a huge part of the Hmong traditions, so every student is engaged and really enjoys learning new songs and tunes. Will this method work when I am teaching back home in Seondary Schools? I'm not sure somehow...

On Monday I  spent the night in Topas Eco Lodge, possibly one of the most spectacular place I've ever been to (LandMark Trust in Hereford was pretty good too, mind you). Check it out: http://www.topasecolodge.com/

At 6pm on Monday night Peter said, "Jess! Jess! I want you to come to Topas, my friend is having a party". I had 3 minutes to pack my things and get on the back of a scooter to drive the 18km there, along bumpy roads with the warm evening sun setting behind the glorious mountains. "this is the life" I thought.  A day here is never the same and life here is really teaching me to try new things and make the most out of new opportunities. I won't be eating the bugs, however freshly they are caught I'm afraid.

The evening felt very decadent, drinking gin and tonics and eating ice-cream before  the BBQ main course. I saw a bird moth bigger than my hand, ate some delicious chicken (oops), chatted in my pigeon Vietnamese and lost to Vietnamese cards.

The Food

I did see a puppy's carcass in the cafe we ate at last night, but chose to have the tofu and tomato instead - my daily bread and butter!
Most of the locals eat meat when they're at the market, or out for dinner, but it's easy and more delicious ( I think) to avoid the meat. I normally have vegetable noodle soup for lunch, at about 50/60p. Then for tea myself and some other volunteers and small children normally eat out and just share different dishes - rice is staple, fried tofu and tomato (mmmm), green beans and garlic, 'vegetable' (which is normally watercress in abundance), bamboo shoots, small but pungent mushrooms and then chilli sauce to dip. Everything is cooked in MSG, sometimes so overpowering that i get a headache and you can't taste anything else. Potentially all my dishes will taste bland as a raw potato when I return!

Miss Khu cooking at the cafe

The market is the most interesting place to eat - the food is cooked in front of you, often with a baby strapped to the  back of the chef. All the meat and veggies are layed out on the table that you eat from, so if you don't mind having a chicken's bottom in your face then it's the place to be.  The Hmong and Dhao ladies are crammed in cheek by jowl slurping their noodle soup and picking bits of tough chicken from their teeth.  

Tofu, spring rolls, mushrooms, cabbage...mmm

For breakfast here they eat rice or noodles here. I normally go for a whole pineapple (which I've learned after the 3rd time of eating it in one sitting that it gives me belly ache...) so now I buy an omlette or fried eggs in a French bagette from a Vietnamese lady who has a wee stall. It's the equivalent of getting your sausage and egg butty back home. They pack the omlette with fresh mint and coriander - Dad you'd love it! Things that I'd never think of putting in mine back home but certainly will from now on. 

SAPA O'Chau

SAPA O'Chau is the name of the residential school, created (mainly) for the Black Hmong ethnic tribes people to have the opportunity to come and learn English, with the hope to get a better job. Most of them are expected to help their family on the land (especially the girls), or sell crafts in the market for a small price so that they can get a bit of meat on the table.

Everybody at SAPA O'Chau

Mr Tee

There are 30-40 children ( I say children because they are all half my height and look about 12! The youngest is 11 and she is the same height as Jenna's 4 year old :) They range between 11-24 years of age and their ability is just as varied - some struggle with even using the alphabet, and others have English good enough to translate between Hmong, or Vietnamese.  They are all wonderful - bright, sparky, incredibly caring and tactile towards each other.  Most are eager to learn and respond well to games, creativity and variety in the teaching. They especially like it when the teachers make fools of them, so Jenna and I aim to do this as often as possible.

Miss May

Banoffee Pie @ SAPA  O'Chau
We tailored a cookery lesson so that they could apply the new words and terms from the theme of cooking. 30 of them learned how to make Banoffee pie, all helping with whipping cream and splattering it all over themselves. I think this was a first. We piled into the cafe and they each had a small taste of something very sweet and moreish. I have never seen so much patience from children making pudding - not one of them licked a spoon or a finger or a bowl! I would have eaten most of the mixture and felt so sick that even the word banoffee pie would make me retch...

Earth Hour 
We raised awareness of saving electricity and helping our planet with the kids last Saturday - spent an hour in the dark with only candles, body warmth and spooky stories  to keep us entertained! Everybody loved it (apart from Jenna's 4 year old who was terrified and buried her head into her mum's tummy to hide from the monsters) and  I especially enjoyed learning about the Hmong spirits that disturb their lives and have to be dealt with using a Shaman or holy water.

Red Zhao Homestay

Red Zhao women selling their crafts

I've just returned to Sapa after spending a night with a Red Zhao family in the nearby village of Ta Phin, a 'homestay' as it is called here. Sapa seems over-crowded and touristy in comparison to the simple and quiet life of the villages we passed on our walk to find the 'homestay' providers.

So, we set off yesterday morning along the road to Lao Cai (entry to China) passing paddy fields, buffalo and Red Zhao women on the way. They get their name from the red head dress that they wear, and also  shave off their eyebrows and any hair near their forehead. Perhaps I'll come back looking the same...

Olivier, a French man who came to visit Vietnam 7 years ago and has stayed ever since, met us in the village. He wears wellies but the rest of him is Zhao - his clothes and headwear and he also speaks nearly fluently to the local women. He appears bleary eyed, and a bit dazed, having been on the rice wine over lunch perhaps. 

40 minutes later and we arrive at his large wooden shed, or shack, is the only way I can describe it. It has a hardened earth floor and corrugated metal roof, but the rest is wood and bamboo. This is a middle class home in the Zhao tribe, complete with an open fire to cook on, pot-bellied pigs and chickens outside. Here he lives with his Zhao wife (Ta May, meaning 1st child), her 3 children, and 2 grandmothers. Kashia and I wait patiently as Oliver starts to cook and our bellies rumble. He serves us French fries as a snack - the best I've ever tasted! Then we all eat together around the fire - rice with tofu and tomato, fried bamboo and runner beans followed by slightly salted steamed dumplings, Chinese style. The food is so simple but is the tastiest meal I've had in weeks! Perhaps it's the whole experience which makes it so appealing.

For such a primitive way of life, there is electricity, 4 lightbulbs in fact. These are powered by a micro-hydro water turbine, fitted below the house where all the water is channeled through pipes to the turbine. In the wet season, they have enough power for a laptop. This amazed me! There are power cuts in Sapa every other day, a comparatively rich town full of hotels and tourists, but the Zhao family has power all the time, as long as there is rain and water flowing through the hills, which there seems to be. 

It's 9.30pm and it's bed-time in Ta May and Olivier's family. The children are adorable and incredibly well behaved, going to bed straight away with no fuss. We do the same, although we make a fuss about the giant spider that lurks in the rafters by our pillow. Ta May bravely cuts off its head and crushes its body with a sharp tool I don't know the name of. I'm happy there is no longer a spider to creep in my ears, but still wrap my bed tightly in a mosquito net and curl into a ball under my duvet so that no fingers or toes are at risk from other creepy crawelys. uuuuuuuuggghghghgh shudder. 

The Zhao families here work hard, every day they plough, plant and pick the fields and crops to feed their families. They make 1.7 tonnes of rice a year - enough to feed a family of 5 for that amount of time. They sell beautifully embroidered indigo fabrics and silver bracelets made from molten old French coins  to tourists. Their day starts at 5am, or sometimes earlier if they have to walk 3 hours to the village to sell their crafts. We might see them as poor, but they're undeniably happy in their close knit communities and with a strong purpose to their daily lives. I feel privileged to be welcomed into their home and experience their custom first hand and arrive back in Sapa feeling deflated after experiencing such peacefulness with the lovely family. I miss my family!!