Before:
1.Could you tell us a little about yourself? (Nationality, Age, Education etc . . .)
Hannah Pugh-U’Ren, Aussie (caucasian), 19.
Finished year 12 @ Bendigo Senior Secondary College in 2003.
Currently studying Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Indonesian and Asian Studies) at Deakin University, Burwood.
2.Could you give a brief description of your volunteer abroad work? (When, Where, etc . . .)
I volunteered for all of January in 2005, in Tam Ky, Vietnam (central coast)
3.Why did you decide to volunteer abroad?
I really wanted to travel but didn’t want to do just the touristy thing- I wanted to get to know and understand the country and meet real, everyday people.
4.What organization did you volunteer through? How was your experience with them?
I went through Global Volunteers Network. Looking back it was a great organisation to work with, but I remember at the time being really frustrated at times with lack of communication. Still not sure if that was perhaps due to the Vietnam side of it. Everything only really came together at the very last minute and it seemed hard to get information before we left about the program and what to expect.
5.How did you find your volunteer opportunity?
Not sure if you mean how did I find out about it, or enjoy it…
I found it on the Internet, just came across the site when searching. And also a friend had applied and told me about it.
6.How did you fund your volunteer work?
I had the year (2004) off school so was working full time, and had plenty of money to get me around Vietnam. My friend Bridget who I went with got funding from her old workplace, Community Telco (Bendigo) to cover the cost of the program fee. We also did some fundraising for the orphanages. We did this by organising a movie night at a local cinema. We put on a Vietnamese film, had posters made advertising it and then on the night made a Vietnamese feast to go with the movie. People were really generous and interested in what we were doing, we found a lot of people just giving extra money. We ended up with over $500! And this obviously went a long way in Vietnam.
7.How did you prepare yourself to volunteer abroad?
There wasn’t really much we could do. My sister had done a similar thing in China, so had tips, and nearly everyone I met had some kind of advice. Most of our time and energy was put into the movie night, and then just visas and flight information. I think we actually weren’t very prepared at all, having no idea what to expect. But it didn’t seem to matter at all.
During:
8.What did you bring with you?
We packed some children’s storybooks, we were told this is what they needed. These hardly got used, but the few times they did it was successful. We also took some plastic Australian animals, which we used for prizes with the older kids English classes. We packed some textas and also blutak.
Besides this all we really had was the money we had raised, but it was easy to buy anything we needed over there, such as craft materials, fruit and milk for the orphanages.
9.What item do you wish you left behind?
Maybe a few books, we were travelling for a month before hand, it wasn’t really worth the extra weight in our packs! And any craft things we took could have easily been brought in Tam Ky.
10.What item do you wish you brought?
I wish I had packed more photos of my family and home in Australia. The kids really liked seeing this kind of thing, and hearing all their names and about them.
11.What kind of work did you do?
I was teaching English and guitar at an orphanage called ‘Home of Affection” where the kids were about 9-18 years old. And also teaching at ‘Baby Orphanage’ where our role was more just playing with the kids who were aged between 2 months- 6 years old.
12.What were your living conditions like?
We (myself and 5 other volunteers) were housed in a government building, which we think was a doctors office. It was simple but had everything we could possibly want. We shared a room with one other, and then all shared the bathrooms and toilets. We had 3 cooks who cooked 3 amazing and huge meals for us everyday!
13.What was your daily life like?
Each day I had about 1 and half hours of volunteer work at the ‘Baby Orphanage’ in the morning and then often nothing until our guitar lessons in the evening. Depending on the day I might have another English class in there somewhere.
14.What did you do in your free time?
I spent a lot of time riding my bike (which was provided) around town, going to the market, or Internet, or if I was feeling energetic it was about a 40-minute ride to the beach. We also spent a fair bit of time preparing for our classes. People around the town were very friendly- or more to the point fascinated by us. At the market you would be followed around, and people would touch your ‘white’ skin. We developed regular shops we would visit and got to know in the time we were there. We had a local café where we would go to at night for a beer and a game of cards. We also had a dvd player- so watched about 3 dvds (the only ones we had!) over and over again.
15.What was the greatest challenge? Reward? Surprise?
The whole experience was both a challenge and most rewarding thing I have ever done!
I think the biggest reward was the relationships we made with some of the orphans, especially when it suddenly felt like you had got through to them, they had opened up to you and then you felt like what we were doing was beneficial.
16.What kind of support did the organization give you?
It was hard to get the support we needed whilst in Vietnam, often simply due to the language barrier and sometimes cultural barriers. The organisation in New Zealand was very helpful while we were there, answering any questions or problems we had straight away, but this was all via email. Viet, the organiser in Vietnam was very helpful when he was around, but not good to rely on as he wasn’t based in the same town as us and was rarely there.
After
17.Do you feel your efforts helped?
Many of the kids we met took a long time to warm to us (in particular at the Baby Orphanage) and I think this may be because they are used to volunteers like us just coming and going. Many of these children seemed unhappy and unstable, it just didn’t seem that helpful what we were doing. But I am sure us playing with them was a little beneficial. Our English classes and guitar classes with the older kids would have been a lot more helpful- and I think they are able to deal with the changes.
18.What was the scariest moment? Happiest? Saddest?
Scariest? Probably being thrown into a room of excited Vietnamese children and expected to teach them English! Ah no- when we were told we were to be teaching piano and dance! (we got out of that one)
Happiest would be just playing with the kids, badminton, soccer, drawing, hugging, and hearing them use your name!
Saddest moment was definitely our last days there and saying goodbye. Even though I got to know the older kids better and they were all upset to say good bye, it was hardest saying goodbye to the little ones that didn’t really understand and were just expecting to see us the next morning.
19.What was the biggest hurdle?
Probably understanding that we weren’t able to make their lives suddenly full of joy and love, but what we were doing was helpful anyway- we hope!
20.What is the most valuable lesson you learned?
That children don’t only need a roof over their head and food in their bellies. They need to be loved and cared for. And they need this constantly. This is where we and the program failed. As they will always go through the process of learning to trust and love, only to be left again.
21.What are the biggest myths people have about volunteering abroad?
I don’t really know of any…… not off the top of my head.
22.Did your volunteer abroad work change your life? How?
I don’t know if I’d say it changed my life, but I think it defiantly improved my life and made me more aware of what is available to me in life. I feel like I have a lot more direction now, already planning my next trip to Vietnam and have developed a strong interest in South East Asia. I am interested in working in a similar area of work to what I was doing in Vietnam, perhaps with schools or volunteer organisations. Before my trip over there I had no idea what I wanted to do with my arts degree, now I do so its great!
23.If you were to volunteer abroad again, what would you do differently?
When I do it again I will definitely go for a lot longer – one month was a good amount of time to begin with but next time I think I’ll aim for 6 months-1 year. I think by doing this I could immerse myself in the culture a lot more, learn the language and hopefully be of greater benefit to the education of the children. I think I may try to go independent of an organisation, if possible, I would like to work more hours than I did this time, and for a longer period of time-so depending on what organisations I can find. I would defiantly go with GVN again if they supported this type of work.
