#10 Day Five by Mia Nguyen

The first activity of the morning was a social with the college students from Danang College of Foreign Language. We all played games like trying to sing a song after only hearing it once, wheelbarrow races to bob for lychees, and learning how to do the Electric Slide from Nancy. To wrap the social up, everyone went picture crazy and the room was a frenzy of camera flashes. My mouth hurt from smiling so much! Next were the workshops. Thai and Chi Pham led a workshop on Leadership Styles and made us divide into smaller groups to do the “human knot.” My group was really quick at it and was able to undo the knot twice, while most other groups didn’t get a chance to finish. I think this was mostly because we had Tuan in our group and he was really good at bossing us all around. Ca Dao and Chi Tran led a workshop called “Strung Out,” in which we had to discuss a heavy topic while passing around a ball of string. It made us realize how different it is to be the one speaking and to be the one listening. Then we returned to Daesco hotel for lunch. My group went to eat com ga, chicken and rice. After lunch we had more workshops on the 10th floor. One was about public speaking and was led by Phuong Tran and Viet and the other was about safety led by Phuong Huynh. At 4:30 half of the group went to Cam Ne Village and the other group was supposed to go to SOS Orphanage, but those plans fell through and some SEALNet representatives will meet with the director on Tuesday to work out the details. Tonight’s spotlight was on me, which was kind of a scary experience. But at the same time, it was very freeing to share with other members of the team. Shi-Hua’s spotlight was postponed for today, since everyone was sleepy. I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say.

– Mia Nguyen