Creating the Communication Boards

A blessing from the print shop:

After many hours tucked away and eyes glued to a computer, I was finally able to print off some of the communication boards I discussed in my recent blogs. This project has been my main priority within the daycare so I was very excited to start turning our digital copies into something more tangible for the children to use.

To recap my project, I have been working on creating "Communication Boards" that the children can use to express themselves. Many children at the daycare have sensory disabilities and/or motor deficiencies that hinder their ability to speak and communicate. To make matters even worse, the volunteers going to the daycare all speak different languages so it makes communcating with the children even more difficult. These children aren't going to school so development and language acquisition at this point in their lives are crucial. Therefore, we came up with the idea of using "Key-Word Sign" boards that display pictures translated in both Vietnamese and in English. I designed the boards to show vocabulary words and transitional words that correspond to the likes, dislikes, emotions, and learning goals of each child.

The first day at the print shop was very difficult. The language barrier made it hard to explain to the print-staff how I wanted to each board to look like. Two hours and a large headache later, I was able to walk away with 2 out of the 3 booklets printed and laminated. I want to thank the Hamills, Aunt Donna, and my Grandpa for supplying me with money to help pay for the boards =) I still have 7-9 more booklets to make so the donations are very appreciated.

The next day I had to go back to the print shop and finish printing the last communication board and feeding poster. This attempt went much more smoothly and I was able to get everything printed in record time without any mishaps! That was the first blessing =) Then, as I was getting ready to pay, the print-shop owner flagged down another woman standing to the side and whispered some words to her that she later translated into English for me. Ben and I had were pretty frequent costumers in printing manuals and other educational devices for the kids so owner wanted to thank us for our help in the school. She gave us the poster and the 3rd booklet for free =)

I was originally very worried about publicly printing out the manuals. As a volunteer, I try to keep the work we do private because there is a fine line between wanting to help from a passionate point of view and being portrayed as someone carrying the "white-man's burden." Everyone from the shop kept looking at the posters and reading them so I was afraid of looking like the latter. However, I was wrong. The staff was very happy and grateful for our work =) As I was leaving the woman who translated for me asked for my number and invited me out for coffee. She is very interested in learning about our project and what our volunteer group is doing.

Here is a snapshot of just 2 out of the 30 communication board pages:

Implementing a Feeding Manual

We are finally making progress!!! Our group's ideas are slowly infiltrating into the daycare and we are seeing results!

Children with cerebral palsy face have motor impairments that hinder their ability to chew and swallow properly. The disconnection between their brains and motor functions make it hard for them to tell when there is a spoon in their mouth or feel the difference between soft or solid food. While people without CP associate food with pleasure, kids with CP have a much more difficult time with it and it becomes more of a chore.  To make matters even worse, many volunteers coming into the program ( including me ) aren't trained to properly feed and prevent the children from choking on their food. Many of the kids were fed laying down and there was confusion to which child was fed purred food vs.solid. Therefore, our group took notes, talked to occupational therapists, researched, and payed attention to the feeding behavior of each child.

We made feeding posters (written in both English and Vietnamese) and a volunteer manual to help educate the new volunteers on how to properly feed the children.

Ben designed the feeding poster. He put a lot of work into the daycare and was the only other stable volunteer with me from  Day 1 so it was difficult saying goodbye to him this weekend :(

Halloween at the Disabled Daycare :)

Enjoying Halloween, Vietnamese Style:

Although Halloween is typically an American tradition, many Vietnamese also celebrate and enjoy Halloween. In the states, we typically dress up in costumes and the children go door-to-door trick-or-treating. However, in Vietnam, most people who choose to celebrate in the tradition go to the "backpackers" district to join the forgeiners who dress up. 

The district where I am staying didn't participate but our group decided to bring a Halloween party into the Daycare for the children. So being a student on a budget, I took an old white bedsheet a former volunteer left behind and transformed myself into a mummy. Then, I joined the other volunteers dressed up in witch hats and pumpkin hats, and we took our daily 15-minute walk through the city to the daycare. We recieved so many stares that which I had it captured on tape.

However, the awkward walk was completely worth it when we showed up to the daycare and the kids went wild! They loved the costumes! We bought white paper plates and used crayons, markers, and glitter ( thank you Mrs. Tooley and Aunt Dianne for the donations :)) to transform the plates into masks. Then, we distributed trick-or-treats to the kids. We passed out small chocolate cakes and plastic animals ( thank you mom & dad) as treats. However, the children soon realized that the animals had small holes in the bottom that could be filled with water and used as squirt guns to play "tricks" on the volunteers. We had such a good time playing and just being silly with the kids. It also gave them a a day-off from their bookwork to work on fine-motor and creativity skills.

Here are some pictures from the event. I hope they bring a smile to your face :)

Trinh making a mask

                                                                  

Trinh's completed mask

Duoy showing off the mask he made

Ben and Son

Hai's mask

Hai loves peace signs :)

Two of the volunteers wearing their costumes

Yen wearing a volunteer's witch hat

The Hospital's Research Symposium

The three weeks following our travels were a blurr. The days were packed with sending out resumes, research presentations, a ceremony acknowledging the hospitals 30th anniversary, and putting some finishing touches on some of the projects our group has been working on for the daycare. 

The research presentations brought in doctors and therapists from all over Vietnam, to share their departments progress and/or findings. Most of the presentations were in Vietnamese but our volunteers were able to grasp some of the information through pictures, help from the translators, and recognizing some of the words that we knew. Talk about a way to practice my Vietnamese. Since I'm volunteering in an Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospital, most of the research presentations were about bone reconstructive surgeries and physical therapy techniques. However, my favorite presentation was one that discussed the benefits of exercise. The doctor explained how exercise supplies more blood flow to the brain and stimulates neuronal formation. I learned about this concept in a neurology class I took at Ithaca but it was interesting to hear about it from a different country's point of view. 

However, at the end of the presentation a man stood up and asked why the doctor used and trusted "outside" or American research ( the presentation had American research articles to use as sources). Ironically, I was sitting right in front of the man giving the argument so the whole room turned around to listen to the debate.... Yupp I was the only American sitting in the room, awkwardly in-between two doctors heatedly discussing the legitimacy of American science. 

Studying neurology in college gave me the resources to know and experiment with the different neurological concepts we learned about in textbooks. From experience, I have a stronger faith in American science but, I can see from the doctors point of view---science is a fluid and constantly changing field so who has the right to say one belief is better than another? 

Here are some pictures from the research presentation. I was a part of the welcoming committee and was able to borrow an ao dai to wear:

Wearing a Vietnamese Traditional Dress

                                                

My mentor, Xuan and I

Vu, Zara, and I welcoming the hospital guests

My good friends Tiep and Duong ( Left 1 & 2) who also work at the hospital

Sapa Valley

Sapa

We left Hanoi and traveled to Sapa via a sleeper bus. It was bumpy and rocky but we made it there safety around 6 am. Tired and a little groggy, we stumbled to a giant Catholic Church steps and waited for Mama Chu.

We called Mama Chu a few days previously and asked if it would be okay to stay with her family for a night. She is usually booked through a tour agency but we decided to call her directly so that her family would pay without the large and unfair cuts that the agents take out.

Mama Chu arrived shortly afterwards, dressed in traditional H'Mung attire. She was beautiful!! She was short, petite, had dark, tanned skin, and wore her long, black hair in a pony tail that wrapped around her head and was fastened by a small white comb. She took us to the market where we ate Phò. This is a rice noodle soup that I usually order with vegetables and tofu. Mama Chu was afraid we weren't eating enough so she kept telling us to keep eat more, eat more....I was pretty sure that I was going to have to be rolled out of the market. However, I now understand why she pushed us to fill our stomachs--- the rest of our meals were meager bowls of rice and bamboo.

After breakfast, we waited at the church to join some other families going mountain trekking. Once we all congregated, we put our water bottles in Mama Chu's wooden basket that she carried on her back, and hit the mountains.

We hiked the mountains for 4 1/2 hours! It was absolutely breathtaking. I came into the volunteer placement with the false thinking I was going to work outside of the city. I really wanted a cultural experience of the typical Vietnamese lifestyle so this trip did the trick. Here are some of the pictures that will describe my trip much better than words: 

Hanoi

Megan and I first decided to travel to Hanoi in order to meet-up with two of our fellow volunteers. They each bought a motorbike, Vietnamese licenses, and biked cross country from HCM in the south---all the way up to Hanoi in northern Vietnam. Megan and I decided just to fly there to say goodbye to them before they flew home for good.

Megan and I arrived to Hanoi safety and then navigated our way throughout the city, ready to backpack our way around North Vietnam ( We saved a lot of money walking everywhere and refusing to take a taxi if we couldn't find our way. We looked like complete tourists because we constantly had a map stuck in our noses but hey, we saved money and learned the streets). Once in Hanoi we stayed at a hostel and met scores of other travelers who have been backpacking throughout Asia for months. It's very common for people in other countries to work, quit their jobs to travel, then work again, travel, ect. American obligations to work and school hinder many people to leave the country so the other backpackers are always surprised to see Americans in the hostels. I was nervous to stay in a hostel because they have a lot of negative connotations but for $7 a night (includes free breakfast and free beer on Sundays), the accommodations were cleaner and more comfortable than the college I'm in staying in HCM!

In Hanoi, Megan and I saw the Hỏa Ló prison. The prison was built in 1886 and originally  run by the French before Vietnam gained its independence from colonialism, in 1945. The conditions were very, very poor and used for huge devices such as the guillotine, electric shock, whips ect. Prisoners, including women and their children, were chained to large slabs of concrete and fed diseased food. According to the museum, the Vietnamese prison reformed its policies to be more humane after French independence. However,  I read up on the conditions that were portrayed in the museum and it seems like there are a lot of conflicting stories about how the US war veterans were treated.

Afterwards, Megan and I traveled to the Women's History museum. It described women's roles in street-vending, religion, marriage, child bearing, and fashion. For an example, street vending played a major in rebuilding HCM city after the war. Every street is lined with women cooking and/or selling food to people passing by. Many women leave their homes in the countryside to work and sell goods within  the major cities to provide for their families--- they only return home a couple of times a year to see families.

So all-in-all, we had a great time in Hanoi. There are major differences that still exist between the North and the South such as language, culture, food ect. so it was interesting to experience it. Plus, the free beer on Sunday was a great plus ;)

Here are some pictures from Hanoi:

The view of the city from our Hostel

                                             My travel buddy Megan talking to our tour guide

The classic motorbike

During our downtime, we joined some backpackers traveling from all over the world and played Poker. We didn't want bet with money so we used Vietnamese co-co puffs =)

      
                                           Pictures taken from the Women's History Museum                                                    

                                                 This is child from the  H'Mung tribe in Sapa.