Compassion House and Spending My Birthday in Vietnam

June 18, 2013

I was lucky enough to spend my 21st birthday in Vietnam. On the day of the 18th, we began our work at the Compassion House. The Compassion House is a project sponsored by the Lotus Humanitarian Aid Foundation. The foundation builds and renovates houses for families in need. We met John Ward, the country director of the foundation in Vietnam. We learned that the lady we will be building the house for, Thuy, is a single mother with three sons. We arrived at the village expecting to build a house from the bottom up. We were surprised to find that the house was almost done and only needed to be painted with a few touch-ups. So we jumped right in and divided up into small teams and started our work. Some of the team painted the interior and exterior of the house with homemade brushes. We worked under the instruction of the two contractors with the help of the Vietnamese students as translators. Many of us struggled and had to adjust to using the makeshift brushes. I was part of the group that worked outside moving sand and gravel to level out the ground in front of the house to plant trees later on. It was a very hot day. We took turns shoveling and moving the gravel. The heat made the work extremely difficult. Halfway through the work I had to take a break because I was feeling nauseous. Many of my group mates had been feeling sick for a few days and we were also exhausted from traveling. The following day at the Compassion House, we planted flowers and trees in front of the house. We also continued the paint job.

In the afternoon of the 18th, we returned to the hotel and had a time to wash up for dinner. We ate dinner at the hotel and it was delicious as usual. At the end of dinner, one of the Vietnamese students, Linh, turned off the lights. Our program leader ThuyAnh and Truc came out with two birthday cakes. I was so surprised that tears were brimming. Everyone gathered and sang Happy Birthday in Vietnamese and English. It was my first ever surprise party so I was overjoyed. The cakes were delicious and the moment was beautiful. That night we also went karoaking, another new experience for me. We sang songs from "Lean on me" to "We will rock you." As we linked arms and swayed, I felt a strong connection to the group and it felt like a gathering of close friends. After rocking out and singing the night away, we headed to bed. My birthday in Vietnam was like no other. I was able to volunteer and contribute to the making of a lovely home and spend the day with my GIEU family. It was an experience that will stay with me for all the birthdays to come.