Thoai Son District

Saturday morning I had arranged to meet with some students and visit Thoai Son District with them. I had previously been with these students to this area and was anticipating another good trip. We all met at the gate and rode off on the motorbikes to Thoai Son. When we arrived the students had organised to meet one of their friends there and we ate breakfast. I felt really special as I had ordered the same meal as my students yet the lady who prepared the food would not let me eat any of them as she prepared a special meal for me. It was worth the wait as it tasted great.

Following breakfast we toured the town and then proceeded to move to a high school called Thoai Giang. This was when the real reason for the trip was revealed to me – introduce the students to a native English speaker. The students amazed me since with very little resources the students had studied their English lessons well. I felt that the school had achieved quite a lot given the demanding conditions. At lunch we met the principal of the school, whose daughter was in the class I had just been with.

We went for lunch at the local hospital canteen and I believe that hospital food is possibly the same around the world. I noticed that there were not too many other places to eat where we were. After lunch we returned to the school and continued what we did in the morning with a new class. This class were just beginners so we quickly launched into songs as I met them during their usual singing lesson. That was the last lesson of the day for them and as we left there was an opportunity to have a group photo.

We returned to town and wanted to visit the Thoai Son tourist area. It is more domestic tourists than international, as Thoai Son is really of the beaten track. This, I feel, gives it its charm. We were surprised that the prices had gone up more than 3 times since the last time we visited and thought we might find something else to do.

Luckily there are many restaurants to choose from and one member of our team knew exactly which one to visit – Le Quyt. Here we enjoyed Beef wrapped in vine leaves, noodles, vegetables, and rice paper. We finished the meal with juicy watermelon. To chase this delicious food down we had banana rice wine. As we sat and talked we talked a lot about my leaving of An Giang, what will I do, will I return etc., and I felt proud at how well my students had improved there English in the short time I have been with them.

We said good bye to our host and started to return to Long Xuyen. As we exited the town on the bridge I took a last look at the collapsing mountain, and was overcome with a sense of finality as I might not see it again for a long time. We made good progress on the way home and we stopped at an orphanage.

This was a strange place. It looks so empty from the outside yet when you walk in about 100m or more you start to see that the place is alive. I was moved by some of the stories of the situations that made these children orphans such as poverty and disease. However they all seemed so happy without a care in the world. Once we had finished there it was off to return home for a well deserved rest.