Fishing to survive

Some of the children we teach live on the Red River in Hanoi. Dean helped to re-build some of the families' homes as they need replacing every 3-4 years. The villagers have recently drained the water from the river with a pump. They do this to catch the fish and sell them. This is a photo of villagers pulling in a fishing net.

How long is Ha Long?

If you're ever in North Vietnam, your trip won't be complete if you don't visit Ha Long Bay. It is one of the world's natural wonders, with over a thousand limestone formations and we don't know how many islands. If you go to the cave, look out for the big red penis. We went here for a weekend trip away from the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. After sleeping on the floor for over a month, the highlight of Lina's trip was snuggling up in a bed, with a fluffy warm blanket, on board the junk boat cabin. Ahhhh, bed and blanket. The things we miss.

Vietnam traffic and scooters

Dean took this photo when he was on the back of a scooter. The traffic in this shot is pretty quiet for Hanoi. Compulsory helmets have only been required by law in the last few months. Being such a new concept, a lot of Vietnamese people wear helmets that don't fit or are otherwise inappropriate. That's because they don't wear them for safety reasons; they wear them so they don't get fined. As in this photo, it's not unusual to see children without helmets. Most of the time, traffic is totally hectic and the way to cross the road is to literally walk in front of oncoming vehicles - scooters, cars, buses and trucks. In Saigon, we've seen the elderly, the blind and disabled walk across streets with 5-6 lanes of traffic. Crazy? Or ordered chaos?

Community on the Hanoi Red River

This is the home of two girls we teach. They live in a small community on the Hanoi Red River. The families do not have any property rights to the land, so they have built houses on the water. The homes need replacing every 3-4 years due to the poor quality building materials. Before we entered the home, the Vietnamese worker politely asked whether the house would collapse with all four of us in there. When the mother said it would be okay, we walked along the small plank of wood connecting the house to the land. Inside, we sat in the only room of the house, in which both parents and the two sisters sleep. The toilet is a hole in the floor and human waste is disposed of in the river. The house is about 4 metres by 2.5 metres, the size of a typcial Australian bathroom. The mother spoke to the worker about her housing and financial difficulties and they discussed how our organisation could assist with repairs to her home.

Working with kids in Hanoi

We've started our volunteer placement in Hanoi, Vietnam teaching English to a group of children from some of the most disadvantaged parts of this city. The children in the photo all look about 10-12 years old, but they are actually all between 12-16. Small physical stature is just one of the many effects of undernutrition. One of the children in this photo works from 10pm - 7am and comes to our class without having slept. Another child doesn't always come to class because she has to collect rubbish for which she earns about 70 Australian cents a day. The children come to our school for reasons such as not being able to afford schooling or not being able to enrol into mainstream school due to not having identifying information. Some of the children's births have not been registered or their families are illegal immigrants from rural areas. The work has been challenging and the kids are pretty cool. We have five more weeks here.