Service Learning

To be quite truthful, I was a little bit nervous going into this service learning project and although I have volunteered with similar organizations and have plenty of experience with my own family, I knew this would be very different. There are the obvious obstacles such as the language barrier and my limited time in Vietnam. I understand Vietnamese but speak only a small amount and rarely complete sentences and subsequently, I knew I wouldn’t be able to articulate what I feel or what I am thinking to the children. After my first week, my fears were confirmed and at times it gets extremely frustrating. I get along absolutely great with the children but I realize that there is so much I could tell them and help them with if my Vietnamese was more proficient. For example, they were trying to teach me a card game but due to the language barrier I wasn’t able to pick it up. However despite this obvious obstacle, this has motivated me to another level to improve my Vietnamese and to be able to communicate better with the children.

Besides the language barrier, another issue that has been bothering me is the fact that I am only going to be here for a limited amount of time and on top of that I am only scheduled to work 2 days a week. I don’t want the children to feel as though I am obligated to volunteer and in the end I will be gone leaving them as if nothing happened. This is very difficult for me because although I have only been with these kids for a week, I care tremendously for each and every one of them. For me, playing and interacting with the children is very natural because of my large family and the experience I have had with children. I understand that I am supposed to keep my “distance” due to the fact that I will be leaving in 5 months and the impact on the children would be far worse, but I can help but start to feel connected and attached to them. I must admit that the first day was the most difficult in particular because initially I felt pity for these children. While my mother loved me tremendously, my father wanted nothing to do with me and although the reasons may be different, I understand how it feels to not be wanted. I truly feel that it’s the worse feeling to ever experience, to want so badly another’s affection and not to be able to acquire it. So the dilemma for me is how to be able to keep my distance emotionally so that the children are not so badly affected when I leave. I can already sense the children getting attached and I am still trying to find a solution but I’m not sure I can.

My goal for the next four months is help the children realize that they are all very special and capable of anything they put their mind to and I truly believe it. People may say its cliché or I’m giving them false hope but I truly feel I can make an impact. I will obviously help teach them English and things that are essential to life, but I want to influence them in a way that they can forever remember. I want to give these children something that they can utilize and will be applicable in their life. What exactly am I hoping to accomplish is still developing but I will try my best and in the short time I’m here I will certainly do everything in my power.