Service Learning- Individual

Every week that I've been coming to Thanh Xuan, I feel myself becoming more and more attached to the students. It's absolutely crazy considering the fact that, before this, I dreaded going to service learning. I know it seems really bad, too. But now, after coming back from Mien Nam, I had this excitement to come back. I love playing with the students, making jokes with them, tickling them, everything.

I think what really did it for me, in terms of how much of an impact I could possibly have on these students, was when Mai, Miki, Peter, and I decided to go visit the students on our day off. It was Nhung's birthday there and we decided to surprise her with cake. We didn't know how it would be but we decided to go anyway. What we thought would be an awkward dreadful hour worth of time turned into a hilarious game of Hot Potato, food fights, and seeing Peter bust out in Vietnamese song that we never thought we'd see. At the end, one of the students told us it was one of his greatest memories ever. It hella warmed my heart. I think this is really what it means to do service learning. There was a completely new meaning to service learning because we were able to bring joy to them with just a simple cake.

Also, we decided to paint one of their walls with the hands of the Thanh Xuan kids. We created a huge heart out of their hands and put "Toi <3 Thanh Xuan" with a bunch of clouds, and flowers decorated around it. Although getting the materials was stressful and last-minute, we managed to pull it together and have the kids absolutely enjoy it. Although some of the nurses were giving us crap the wall, I think that the wall we created was special compared to many of the others. For I think the first time ever, the students were allowed to collaborate in a painting project like this. I mean, the students are what makes up Hoa Binh so they should be able to beautify it themselves, right? At that moment, it wasn't about our enjoyment but the enjoyment of the children. In a sense, it was their creation, not ours.

From this project, I really wonder what else we can do. What forms of empowerment can we give these students. What sense of teamwork and collaboration is there, versus us doing something FOR them. In the long run, them creating art in the way they want it is gonna be much more beneficial than us creating things for them.