Semester at Sea Update

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I thought you might like Matthew’s post on his service visit to a school for deaf kids.  Have a great weekend!


VIETNAM

Day 4: I did a service visit to a school for deaf kids. We sat down for a question and answer session with the principal and then the children put on a performance for us. After that we got to play with the kids. They loved the Romote Control car I got them. One kid really impressed me in how fast he learned how to control it. It was obvious most kids have never played with one in their lives and this kid picked it up right away. I also gave them a kickball. It was really fun. After that we went downstairs and we were paired up with a kid to bring them to the zoo. My partner was Viet. He was really quiet and probably in 1^st grade. All the kids were jumping off the walls but Viet lived in his own little world. I kind of felt bad, but there was something I really liked about him. On the bus ride over there he mostly looked out the window and didn’t understand the games I was playing with him. I let him just be. I wanted him to enjoy himself. He liked looking at my camera which was nice for him to get excited about something.When we got to the zoo we ate lunch with my friend Ashley, Ashley’s girl, and another SAS girl, and her boy and girl. So we sit them down on this bench to eat and Viet gets up and starts peeing right next the bench. Just started peeing, no big deal. When you got to go, you got to go. I let him do his thing. So when SAS says that they are giving you a box lunch it’s just a paper box with a sandwich, banana, Capri sun, Oreo, boiled egg, and a chicken wing. We had a lunch for ourselves and a lunch for each of them. Our lunch was definitely foreign to them cuz the only 2 things Viet really liked was the ketchup and Oreos. He wanted me to put ketchup on his sandwich and he just ended up eating the bread with ketchup on it. Then he had the banana, I gave him mine too. Then he ate his Oreos. He was a mess to say the least. I really felt like a dad, wiping his face and shirt off.
After we ate the 7 of us left. We started walking around the zoo which was pretty nice. We saw all your standard animals you normally see at a zoo. Viet was really funny. He as starting to copy my mannerisms when we saw something. If I saw an animal I would make my eyes big and drop my jaw. He started copying me. He was socially kind of awkward and I think he only was doing it cuz of me. He was fun and he was genuinely getting excited for some animals.
My favorite part was seeing the reptiles. Viet taught me the sign for turtle. (It’s the awkward turtle hand motion, if u know what I’m talking about) I felt bad because I think I was confusing him by talking with my hands. I was trying to tell him with my hands that I saw a long snake and very time we saw a snake he was doing the motion I did when I was trying to tell him it was long. Whatever, he was trying to learn which was cute.
Then we broke the group up the little girls wanted water and I wanted to take the boys to see the lions. So I took Viet and the other girl’s boy along. Wow that was rough. Viet walked really slowly and the other kid was off the wall and wouldn’t follow me. We finally found the tigers but they weren’t out. Then I started getting nervous I had 10 mins to get back to the bus and we were traveling way too slow. Especially because both boys wanted water now cuz it was so hot out. I ended up carrying them in turns for about 50 yards each and kept telling them that we were going to get water. We finally got there in time but I was exhausted.
We got back on the bus and after a short ride I said bye to Viet. I kind of miss him now.

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