A Hanoi Summer: And then I became a camp counselor

As noted in the last post, I spent this weekend in Haiphong inexplicably teaching a seminar on public speaking for Vietnamese children. The levels of English that these kids spoke varied greatly, but they were all very sweet.

That being said, the cultural contrast that the American volunteers experienced at the seminar was insane. We were basically there as show ponies, Westerners recruited to show how credible the camp was. And everyone wanted a picture with us, or to practice English with us, or to add us on Facebook. The amount of friend requests I received from people whose names I can't pronounce is amazing. And my mouth is still aching from all the unenthusiastic smiling I did for pictures with children and parents.

Of course, they were all very nice to us. But it was strange to see how differently white people are treated outside of Hanoi.

So. Much. Smiling.

For example, I walked to the market during my break at one point to get some snacks from a shop (I'm starting to get a little tired of rice). The girl working the shop must have been about 8 or 9 and she simply stared at me when I walked in. I assumed she didn't speak English. But then after a minute or so she said "Where you from?"

"America." I answered.

She walked a little closer and stared at me a bit more and then said. "You so beautiful. I...no."

I was shocked. She was a cute little girl, and I can't imagine saying that to a stranger. Also, I was sweaty and exhausted and most definitely did not look beautiful.

Later that day we did an exercise where the kids had to give a speech about themselves. One of the (ill-chosen) questions that they had to answer was "what do you like most about your body and what do you like the least?" Great question for a room full of adolescents.

90% of the girls in that room either said they hated their "fat stomach" (they were all twigs) or their "big nose" (they all had cute little noses). Not only was I shocked that they had such a poor perception of themselves, the fact that they were willing to announce it to a room full of their peers was surprising.

The obsession with Western ideals seemed very pronounced outside of a major city. In Hanoi, I think we are seen as tourists, moneybags, or nuisances. But there, everyone wanted to be like us, to speak with us, to take pictures with us. It was emotionally exhausting to be constantly socializing with non-English speakers and running on 5 hours of sleep.

Fortunately we got the chance to walk around Haiphong a little bit: