The following post features student writing by Frankie and photos by trip leader Vi Nguyen.
Today was our last day in the village, which is very sad. Luke, Brandon, and Aidan woke up early to check out a place where they believed a famous battle took place. The rest of us woke up at a normal time and had our last meal (breakfast) at our guest house. Soon after breakfast, we left for House Four for the key ceremony.
Our last evening in Duc Lan Village.
Mr. Tea (Chu Thanh) offering us his delicious tea.
Thank you to the Quang Ngai Youth Union!
Aimie and Izzy loving their gifts from House Four family members!
Jesse and our student Kim!
Cô (Mrs.) Thai adores the Polaroid of us 🙂
After even more photos, we said our final goodbyes to House 4 and its people. We then biked to one of the Youth Union member’s house to eat a gigantic lunch. It was a lot of fun to spend quality time with the Youth Union and the food was delicious! After a nap and some down time at our guest house, we biked to House 1 (Hannah, Monica, Leia, Aden, Noah, and Catherine), House 2 (Thea, Ava, Justin, Molly, and Brandon), House 3 (we all worked on this one). It was a lot of biking, but it was fun and worth saying goodbye.
Ba Sau (Grandma Sau) receiving her 100th birthday gift from our students!
There were a lot of photos, smiles, and hugs during this as we said goodbye to Grandma Sao and the people of House 4. During the ceremony, Jesse and Vi presented the families with the keys and fans for gifts. Directly following the ceremony, we all headed into Grandma Sao’s house to celebrate her 100th birthday. She gave us a picture of her so we would remember her after we left the village.
The village elders loved whenever we gave them Polaroids!
Catherine, Hannah, and Leah with their favorites from House 1!
Those sweet eyes!
Thank you for everything Anh Tuan! We will miss you!
Jesse and our Duc Lan Youth Union members!
Justin and Noah with Chi Lieu!
Catherine!
Before dinner, we visited a coffee shop for drinks and a hot spring for photos. When we got to dinner, everyone was starving, but it was worth the wait. We had a delicious noodle soup with meat. We then biked home and had a debrief of he day led by Jesse. We soon were dismissed for the day to sleep because we have an early morning wake up.
See you soon!
– Frankie