I’m glad that I chose volunteering in Vietnam for the Ho Chi Minh Community Involvement project. It’s because it wasn’t purely just volunteering as there was also a fun cultural week. During the cultural week, I learned a lot about the culture in Vietnam and was able to explore the famous places in Ho Chi Minh as well. Apart from the amazing time I had during the cultural week, I was more keen for my week of volunteering to come, as that was my main purpose of enrolling myself to this program. I’ve never been happier that I chose to work in a school as I; myself enjoy having children around me.
While working in the school, it was quite shocking for me to accept how different they teach their children. The coordinators did warn us that we would encounter stricter methods of discipline whilst working at the school. Furthermore, I would say language barrier is one of the main problems I encountered while volunteering.
There were times when the children came up to me and talk in their own mother tongue yet I couldn’t answer them. Other than that, I really enjoyed volunteering at the school.
