working in World Vision - Hai Phong

I was lucky to find a position in WV right after ILMC finised, so I moved to WV right after ILMC came to an end without any interval.

I worked for WV for nearly 3 years (1st Apr 2006 - 30 August 2008). My position was based in Hai PHong, with occasional travel to Thanh Xuan, Hanoi because the project which I was working for was located in Thanh Xuan, Hanoi and Hai Phong.



When a vocational training course began, I often went to attend the opening ceremony. In the pix above, I was making a speech on behalf of World Vision Vietnam in Tien Lang district. Oh my God, that was the first time I made a speech in front of governmental authorities. I was nervous in the begginning but it went ok later to the end of the speech. Participants in the ceremony were surprised to see a very young speech maker representing WV. They may think "it's very strange to have such a young boy to make a speech".

Now I still feel very funny about that experience!





YOu can see in the pix above the atmosphere of a festival, which was organized in a primary school in Dong Khe ward, Ngo Quyen district, Hai Phong. The festival was organized for the whole school students, a lot of whom were children in difficult circumstances and they were receiving support from my project. The festival was wonderful with musical and artistic performances by the students and the students also had chance to put tents within the campus of the school. I felt very happy to come to such events!

Teacher and students on Ma river

A corner of Canh Nang town

The photos below show you a corner of Canh Nang town from my room window in Mrs Dinh's house (where I stayed when I worked in Canh Nang. I paid her 300,000 VND per month). This is the main road in Canh Nang and Canh Nang is where all importants governmental agencies of Ba Thuoc are located, such as Ba Thuoc People's Council, Ba Thuoc People's Committee...).

Canh Nang is surrounded by mountainns and Canh Nang road is in parallel with Ma river. The street is large and quiet. It is very relaxing when you get our of your house and go for a walk on Canh Nang road.

I often walk from my place to Canh Nang market and vice-versa to practise my legs. From my room window I can see the Politics Training Center of Ba Thuoc district, where there is a loud speaker often irritating me in early morning.

My friend Benoit had adopted a son

This is a very good news for my friend Benoit. We had share with his happiness when he became a father from that day! Myriam, Duong and I tried to drop by his place to play with the little boy, who his God father named him Remi.

Huong and Myriam's visit to Hai Phong

Finally we managed to arrange a visit for Myriam to Hai Phong. Not only Myriam but also little Huong - the intern in ILMC from Hanoi also participated in the visit, which is amazing because four of us Thang, Duong, Huong and Myriam often meet in Canh Nang on the weekends.

We often call Myriam chi gai and she call us "cac em". We take her to some places in Hai Phong. The morning aften she visited my house in Kien An and then we leave for Do Son. However the visit in Hai Phong is very short, just one night and one day. Then Myriam and Huong return to Hanoi.

But that is wonderful. We now stil meet Huong in Hanoi but for a long time we do not contact Myriam. Myriam oi, how are you now? Are you coming back to Vietnam one day?

Night visit to Dung's family in Thiet Ong commune

Oh my God, tonight we will go to visit Dung's house in Thiet Ong commune. We had many time to visit his family at day, but today we will visit his family at night. We will travel from Canh Nang to his house in Thiet Ong commune by minsks.

It will be very interesting again because we will have chance to drink pipe wine in his hourse-on-stilt again. You can see in the pix our friend Myriam also drink pipe very enthusiastically.

The weather is cold because now it is January but no problem because wine and excitement can help warm us up.

At Myriam's place

When we worked in Canh Nang, Ba Thuoc, we often had a lot of parties. The foreingers and local people had many chances to get together. We said cheers and danced. Life there was so relaxing!

Chi Vui and anh Manh also danced with us!

How can we have it again?

Di choi in Thiet Ong

These are the pix from the visit to Dung's house in Thiet Ong commune. As usual, we go to discover the local land and people by first visit to the local friend's family in Thiet Ong. That's Dung's family.

Dung's family lives on the house-on-stilt in the middle of a very large piece of land, including a big garden, a lot of trees, vegetables, chickens, buffaloes and a pond. These kinds of things can be found just in here, never be found in cities.



The scenery in Ba Thuong is very picturesque, which is created by ranges of mountains and a very big and long Ma river. Here you can put your feet in very cool water streams. The scenery you see in the pix above is located on the way from Thiet Ong commune to Thiet Ke commune.



That's food we were offered in Dung's house. A lot of nutritious food!



Dung's garden is very large. We asked Dung to go to his house again in the harvest season because we are eager to help his family with the gardening tasks.



Dung's house-on-stilt is very traditional and typical for ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Now a lot of ethnic minority families in Vietnam do not have houses-on-stilt because the cost to construct this kind of house is very expensive. I like living in this kind of house because it's very friendly to the environment. That's why local people here are living very healthily.



Thank you Dung for your invitation to your house. I hope that we will have chance to to back to your house very soon.