Max's Vietnam

Max spent his Week Without Walls in the hot and humid country of Vietnam. The focus of his educational adventure was community service. Along with 20 classmates and teachers, Max traveled to rural Vietnam to build a house for a family living in poverty. This experience also taught Max about the culture and history of Vietnam.

The group spent their first day in Hanoi city, the capital of Vietnam. Max enjoyed the culinary experience of eating lots of Vietnamese food -- rice, chicken, stir fried vegetables, sweet and sour pork, fresh pineapple and mango, fish cooked in bamboo leaves. They visited the Museum of Ethnology to view exhibits of religious ceremonies, traditional costumes, and tools for domestic life.

Max and friends working on the roof

Then the team moved out of the city to spend 4 days in rural Vietnam among one of the ethnic minorities: the White Thai people. These are a group of farmers that live in abject poverty. Max's team of students worked alongside men from the community to build a family a stilt house! Part of the cost of Max's trip was to contribute money for the supplies. This house was built on 10 foot stilts and it is one room used for sleeping and living. The ground under this living area is usually for the kitchen and a small garden. 

The finished house. Max is not in the picture because he was still working!

Max's team stayed in a large hut camp and walked 5 km each day to the work site. The students were given tasks such as lifting support beams, cutting bamboo open and flattening it to make the floor, and attaching the palm leaves to the roof beams for the thatched roof. It was hot and exhausting work.

But the reward was an emotional ceremony to hand over the keys of this new home to a family with two children who desperately needed shelter. The students also contributed extra money to purchase household items for the family: mosquito nets, a rice-cooker, backpacks for the kids, pillows, fans.

The trip ended with a relaxing "cruise" of Ha Long Bay. The students spent 24 hours on a sleeper boat that toured the 3000 limestone peaks rising as islands in the secluded bay. Max learned about karst topography: the limestone has been dissolved and now has caves and underground drainage systems on each island. The students had earned this rest, complete with fresh seafood buffet cooked and served on-board.