Now that we’ve reached the end of our volunteering service at Xa Me I want to take the opportunity to reflect on the goals and expectations we initially had and whether it was met. While things obviously changed and got modified over the course of these few months, I think several themes or goals remain constant. For one, I wanted to make a positive impact on the children and allow them to have the feeling that they could have someone to rely on and not feel disappointed. Did I make a positive impact on the children? I think I certainly accomplished that goal in several regards. Through certain activities and through conversations, I think we got the children to think a little bit about their future and what they would like to pursue when they got older. Perhaps they’ve always thought about being a singer or a policeman, but I think by giving them the opportunity to talk about it, makes it more of a reality and much more reachable. Further, I think we have helped to give a lot of the children more self-confidence and a love for themselves. For example, one boy name Canh was completely miserable when we first got there and for weeks he was quiet and kept to himself. This was understandable considering that he was new to Xa Me and he really missed his home. I could only imagine what was going through his mind about his family giving him up. I think he was questioning his worth as a person because he was now living at an orphanage. However, as we encouraged him to participate in the games he slowly began to open up. Things improve even more when we taught English. He was in the English class I thought and although it was clear he did not know the basic, he was very eager and enthusiastic to learn. Now if you go there, he’s definitely one of the more active kids, running and joking around. I’m not saying that we changed the kid’s life but I would like to think we certainly made an impact. This is only one example and there are many more. The second previously mentioned goal of being there for them I think was certainly met and they know we make an incredible effort to be there. For this I would like to point out two examples when I was sick and still went to Xa Me as regularly scheduled. So on two separate occasion I showed up ill and it was quite obviously by my demeanor and the exhaustion on my face that I was not feeling well. To my surprise many of the children asked me why did I show up when I was not feeling well and that I should go home. I told them that I wanted to be there and did not want to miss the opportunity to see them. By the look on the children’s face I could tell that they really appreciated it. They also asked me to stay there and spend the night if I couldn’t make it home. For me and I believe for many people, all we ever want is to have people who will be there and who will be there consistently. Before I continue on about my own goals and expectation I would like to diverge and reflect on other people’s expectation for us at Xa Me.
I’ll start first with the organization. I did not get the opportunity to initially meet with the owners, but from what I heard they wanted us to teach the children English in a very informal setting. Other than that there were very few ground rules or expectations given to us. First let me point out the fact that there was poor communications between ourselves and the organization that I wish could have been better. For example, on a couple of occasions we would show up and the children told us “bà” won’t let us come in and visit with the children because they were painting the house and we should come back the next day. The next day we would show up and another excuse was given about not being allowed to come in. I believe that this was a way for getting back at us because the wife of the owner told us we did not inform them about going to Southern Vietnam for a week and the children were terribly worried. However, I recall that one of us did inform the children of our absents. Honestly, I don’t think the owners have much expectations or goals for us and that’s why they did not care what we did. In terms of teaching English, we dropped the formal structural lesson plan because we saw no point in teaching English especially when some did not want to learn. However, I think informal teaching lessons were given throughout and that’s exactly what the owners wanted. Subsequently, I must say that we met their expectations and if anything exceeded it.
Anh Thai had a more realistic expectation for our time at Xa Me and that was if you could impact just one kid then you were successful. He knew that we weren’t going to be able to help all of the children and perhaps he wanted us to feel better about ourselves. Or perhaps by saying that he wanted to motivate us to do more and from this perspective I would say it certainly work. The celebration/party we had last week was a huge success and epitomized our time at Xa Me. At times it would get crazy and chaotic, but we are constantly adjusting and in the end things always work out for the best. The party was not supposed to occur that day but when we put our plan to action thing worked out perfectly. We were able to procure all the food and games at a very reasonable price and the day turn out to be a success.
So in concluding this reflection on goals and expectations I think we did pretty well. Of course there are things we could have change and improve but life is too unexpected. We took what we were given and made the best of it and things certainly worked out fine. I feel a lot better now leaving the children because I think we did make a positive impact on these children. I can honestly say that we will leave the children with something they can use later on in life. For some it was a good English lesson, for others it was helping them talk about and deal with life issue, and for other it was giving them the self-confidence they needed.
:)
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