Visiting village schools in Sa Pa.

Part of this trip to Sa Pa included visits to two village schools where the tribes would send their children for schooling. The schools were pretty way off and because the houses were scattered all over the hills, the children have to travel quite a bit to get to school.

So you can imagine how fit the children were. And this is the view of the surrounding area to the school.

I have always wanted to see rice terraced hills and could only admire them from photographs I saw either online or through documentaries on telly. But to see the hills with terraces cut into the slopes, it was like WOW!! Made me miss being in the classroom ...

For the first school, we went there on a Sunday because of the tight schedule and we had a meeting with the Principal and a small group of her teachers. What we didn't expect the kids to come as well, all nicely dressed in their tribe costumes to greet us.

And while the adults were talking, the children sat quickly without having to be supervised by their teachers. Amazing!!

Managed to take a few shots of the kids and they are really gorgeous. Am not sure if you can see from the photographs, many of the kids had their hands stained and we were curious why. The local guide explained that they helped their parents in dying materials for clothes and as you can see why these are known as the Black Hmong from the colour of their costumes. So they use indigo to dye their clothings to get the dark black colour - thus the stained hands.

And the kids had a fresh look that I just couldn't resist taking photos of them. Aren't they just gorgeous *grins*

Here's another one of the girls in the school ..

The next day we ventured off to another village school and had more time to spend with the teachers and pupils there.

While we were conversing with the Principal and a small group of teachers, the kids were outside exercising, probably part of their Physical Education lessons.

The teachers also organised games for the children and we were also invited to partake in the activities. Don't have any pictures but one where the Singapore team competed with the Vietnam team was through tug of war and we *hangs head in shame* lost.

For example, we played tug-of-war and there were about five of us adults and maybe about 10 YOUNG children. I arrogantly told the teachers that we should let them win. And why did I say 'arrogantly'? Because those kids didn't need us to let them win - they won on their own!!! These are kids who walked through the mountains to get from one place to another, do a lot of work around the house and farm - they were strong!!! And when the female adults competed, yeah, we lost even though their teachers were in heels!! Yes, very humbling experience.

Above is a photograph of some of the kids who watched as we embarassed ourselves during games. I think they were as curious of us as we were of them.

The children here were not used to having visitors to their school and with the language barrier, it didn't help. Initially some of them were afraid of us and didn't know how to react to our gestures like when we waved at them or when one of my colleague carried one of the kids.

As you can see they don't have school uniforms and what caught our attention was that many were also without shoes.

Like I mentioned before, it was a humbling experience in many ways for me. For the teachers who volunteered to teach in an area where resources would understandably be limited, where education may not be top in the parents priority list compared to the need to farm to produce food to feed the family.

The kids who travel daily to school regardless the weather to get an education, to study in classrooms that were covered with bullet holes ...

The school experience was one that touched me the most and it would definitely be good to be able to continue the collaboration with the school sand see how we can work with them for the next few years.

Looking at the pictures of the kids, I definitely have to work on the portrait shots because most of the time, I am clicking away too quickly without much thought to the background, composition etc - am just too focused on not wanting to miss those 'moments' which has happened many a times because am just too slow with my camera *grins*

Below is my favourite photograph for the school visits. I was fortunate enough to be there to catch this lone girl who was watching the others play. She had a piece of what looked like bread in her hand, and she just looked like she could do with a hug. I also like the contrast of the background with her, especially her purple boots. She is such a sweetheart.

And let me introduce our wonderful Vietnamese guide Tien who was knowledgeable and able to share much with us, and took good care of us while we were in Vietnam. Thanks Tien!