Our first stop was at the school of a village called Ma Trang. Cy helped distribute some of the school supplies and wellingtons that we purchased that morning with her - unfortunately she also demanded that we also bring some candy for the kids, something that we had promised never to do! Cy did not take 'No' for an answer... On the positive side, Trung had suggested that we also pick up some noodles for the kids, which turned out to be a great idea.
Unlike Trung, Cy was not particularly discrete in distributing the supplies, and the whole thing became a circus with Cy directing the kids and telling them to line up to receive their candies and whatnot... We cringed while she disrupted all the classes! The last thing we wanted to do was put the kids under the spotlight or embarrass them - unfortunately we did a little of both.
All that said, Cy was vivacious and adorable and really enjoyed her role distributing the supplies - she loved keeping track of all the inventory, constantly counting and recounting the goods and determining how they were to be allocated - exactly one of each item per kid! Every time she finished handing out something, she would recount the inventory, and dutifully report to us, again and again and again and again, how the remainder would be distributed... man, we got very dizzy! Thankfully we had the cameras in hand to distract us from her!
These first 12 pics are from Ma Trong school - the first is a group shot of some of the 100 kids from the school. Cy organized the kids to line up for us (I'm not sure if she even asked permission from the teachers!)
This little boy was all alone, deep in thought, at the entrance to a classroom.
Here are some of the kids with their packaged noodle soup - they were running around excitedly showing them off to each other.
Another good pic of young H'Mong girls carrying and caring for their baby siblings.
These next two shots are of the school's youngest class. They were gorgeous. Before the class started, one little girl grabbed a straw broom and dutifully swept the floor. Perhaps it was her assigned task for the day...
This girl seemed to be the youngest in the above class.
These poor kids were made to sing for us by their teachers! They did a great job - we have a video clip of them singing which we will post when we can. I'm not sure if they were singing the national anthem - the only phrase we recognized was 'Ho Chi Minh'
Here is a shot of three girls after they realized what our camera could do!
And some more shots of some of the school girls
Walking to the next school, we ran into these kids on the road... Cy dutifully handed one piece of candy to each kid.
Isn't she beautiful?
Here are two pics from a school we visited that was officially in Sapa, although it was a few miles out of town
We then stopped at another village, Sin Chai, but the school was closed. Cy took us into one of the homes where a baby was about to take a bath - she was the only baby we have seen crying in any of the villages.
This gorgeous little girl was in the same home. The wooden structure just to her right is the ladder to get to the upper floor where the beds are. (Cy also demanded that we take a photo of some dried corn that was hanging from the ceiling)
Many of the homes are 'Stilt' homes, where the animals (mostly pigs) live on the ground floor under the main home. The floors are plain concrete with an open fire in the middle of the house used for cooking (including cooking food for the pigs)
These next six pics are taken on the pathway through the village.
We thought this woman was the grandmother of the baby, but she is actually the mother. It's amazing how quickly the women seem to age here. Women here tend to be married by 15 years old - in fact our guide Cy said that she was too old to ever get married at the ripe old age of 19!
Another cutie without pants!
And another preschooler looking after her baby sibling
Cy then took us to her home village, Lao Chai.
These two pics are of some boys playing in the mud.
These next two pics are of some of the girls who tried to sell us something or other. All of the villages are very adept at striking up a conversation in order to begin the selling process. The three main questions are: 1) You buy from me? 2) Where you from? 3) How old are you? The girls even have responses tailored to each nationality!
This next shot is of a family of three working in the field, with the baby horizontal on mum's back as she toiled the crop which feeds the family's pigs. According to Cy, once this crop is harvested, they actually cook it before feeding it to the pigs.
Cy took us to her family home - here is her mum cooking rice on the concrete floor in the middle of the house with Cy's baby step-sister on her back. Cy's 5 year old sister, her uncle and her step-dad also live in this tiny little house. The house was very dark during the middle of the day (no windows), full of smoke from the cooking such that we could hardly keep our eyes open. It may be hard to see in the picture but Cy's mum was sitting on a tiny wooden stool, just an inch or two off the ground.
Our internet situation has been generally difficult for a variety of reasons, resulting in delayed postings and such. We are currently blocked from actually even seeing this blog, making Quality Control a little difficult! Hopefully things will begin to improve on that front.
More later.
No comments:
Post a Comment