Second week of competitions and our weekend at the beach

The Friday competitions are great. It is almost like organized chaos at times because we are all so competitive, but we need translators to convey our message to the kids during the competition, so we are never sure how our screaming actually is interpreted.

My orange morning team, despite a tough week of volleyball practice, did pretty well in the competitions. For us that means top three out of four. With only 7 kids, 6 when one misses competition day, and 5 when one hurts his wrist, we give it our best and do it with class.

My orange afternoon team is a little is very sporadic. They either come in first or last in everything is seems. They work hard but take their time, so relays are not our best event. I am not sure where either of my teams stand at the moment, but I will be very happy if we get second place overall.

Academically, we had the highest score on the life skills test (thanks to a near perfect score by one of our team captains Duc). Leadership and team building is more difficult than you would think to teach to kids who have never even heard of such concepts, let alone had to be apart of a sports team.

For our third weekend in Vietnam we went to a beach resort about 4 hours south east of where we stay. The resort was very nice and the beach as quite. The weather was nice and the people were hospitable.




A view of the coast as we leave on our boat toward our semi-private island.



The Vietnamese students and I on the boat. It was about an hour boat ride to the island where we stayed for the day. The island was near the well known Mouse Island, and had a sand bar connecting it an adjacent island. The boat ride was very nice on the way out to the island at about 8am. It was already about 85 degrees and the sun was just coming out from behind a curtain of clouds.
As we move away from the coast we can see our resort hotel. Each one of those little villas is a separate set of rooms, each one with a view of the ocean.

We pulled up to a small fishing island and docked the boat. Here you see a small fishing boat the locals use. To the right is the island we stayed at for the day, and to the left is another island - the two are connected by a giant sandbar where we spent the day swimming. We were able to walk across the sandbar to the other island and have someone climb a tree and get us fresh coconuts. We ate some and drank the fresh coconut milk. I love coconut, but the coconut milk is not my favorite. Regardless is was really cool to hang out and walk around the island. It seemed like only a handful (10) people lived on this island.


There was a family on the island that fed us an amazing seafood feast of a lunch. They had hammocks up all over the place so everyone had a chance to relax and let the sunburns cool down before heading back.

A beautiful ending to an awesome day on a remote island. It was very relaxing, and a perfect getaway from the hectic weekly routine we have had.

After getting back to the center, Graham and I immediately took a taxi with Nghi back to Can Tho city to try on our suit jackets at the tailor. It looks like they are going to be very sharp.