Day 6: Learning from the locals

And so, our final day in Phong Thanh has arrived. However, today was the day whereby a lot of lessons were learnt from the villagers here at Phong Thanh!

Our first lesson came from house-visiting some of the locals' homes. We were split into 5 different groups, and members of the Phong Thanh community acted as our guides for this trip. Armed with a Minitoons sponsored teddy bear, some rice, LollyTalk candy and other small goodies such as a Goh Yeow Seng mini torch-light, all of us made our way through the village market, located at the centre of the village itself. Group by group, we slowly split up and entered the 5 allocated houses.

Aishah and Wei Ling giving the Minitoons bears a last cuddle before handing them over to the villagers!

Yining in-charge of carrying the small bag of goodies for our beneficiaries. Goodies include a Minitoons water bottle, LollyTalk  candy and a torchlight from Goh Yeow Seng.

During the house visits, which included large families with many children as well as elderly living alone, we got insights into how village life was like. In Singapore, a busy, hustling and bustling city, many of us have not experienced first-hand how kampung life is like! Here in Phong Thanh, many of them lived simple but happy lives, with caring neighbours. One of the elderly ladies we visited explained that she sold home-made cookies and pastries for a living, after her husband and son died in the Vietnam War, but that she was content with what she has now. After a long and meaningful chat with these families (with the V team members as our translators of course! Thanks V team!!), learning about their stories and lives, we presented to them some gifts. The Minitoons bear and LollyTalk candy were given to the children of the house while other necessities such as rice and torch-lights were gifted to the breadwinner. It may not be much, but we sincerely hope that we brought some joy and friendship into their homes this morning.

Hulk inside the household they visited! The elderly lady lives alone in this hut she built herself. woah.

Spiderman house-visiting this small family Look at that cute baby!

Our next lesson involved walking 20min down the main road, to our Auntie Chef's home! On this walk, we witnessed acres of beautiful, picturesque paddy fields and more local homes! It was definitely a sight to behold, how we wish we could run into the fields and houses for photos!! Once we arrived at the Chef's house, we were led to her backyard, which has a rectangular pond. And inside the pond, was none other than..... 20 fishes! Our mission was to capture these 20 fishes, and failing to do so would mean no supper tonight!!!

Burden Peiyu and Jia Yi riding the car while the rest of us walked TSK

Look how picturesque the paddy fields are! So pretty!

Once we heard that, the more daring amongst us immediately rolled up our sleeves and plunged into the muddy waters. It was truly an hour of dirty, good ol' fashioned fun! We were digging with our bare hands, and using baskets to trap the fishes. Even some of those who didn't join the fishing got splashed with mud whilst cheering the fishermen and fisherwomen on. Inn the end, after an hour, we managed to capture 19 out of the 20 fishes (with the help of some of the locals, who taught us methods on how to catch them), which is definitely no mean feat.

Dickson Fred, Ying Zhen, Sad and Felicia looking on as the others fished!

WOAH DAVE CAUGHT A HUGE ONE!!! Nice!

Trying but failing badly to catch a fish.

After lunch, all of us were called together to clean up the commune area one last time as an entire COR and EVG. Those that have not cleaned the toilets before were assigned to do so while the rest swept and mopped our sleeping rooms and kitchen! As mothers always say, "Leave the place cleaner than when you arrived", and all of us cleaned harder than before!

Afterwhich, we then split into our respective groups to rehearse for our cultural night dances. As you may or may not know, Hulk is going to do Indian dance, Captain America the Eurasian Dance, Spiderman the Chinese Dance and Wolverine, Malay Dance! The intense practice sessions lasted for about an hour before we finally headed down to the school for the cultural night.

The temporary stag area set-up earlier in the day by the construction team!

All of us eagerly awaiting the start of the event! (we only occupied about 1/3 of the seats FYI)

Once we arrived, we were all taken aback by the sheer scale of the event! The whole village was invited! Even the town mayor, as well as the EVG president, Harry was present! The pressure was definitely on us to deliver our performances well. Besides, not only were we performing, the school children were too! We were all awed by their well-rehearsed dances, singing and "wushu" performances, as well as their cuteness!! Alot of effort was definitely put into their items and we truly learnt more about Vietnamese dances from them.

Starting the ceremony with a gift from Singapore to the Phong Thanh commune!

The primary school girls dancing to traditional Vietnamese folk songs.

While the girls were singing at the back, a group of primary school boys performed a martial arts segment!

 Apart from that, the EVG team also put up a surprise song and dance skit for us! Never did we know that they were so graceful, as we only got to see their strong side from construction! Everyone was really talented tonight.

The V team surprising us with a dance item that they secretly practiced!

Finally, when it was our turn to perform, everything went surprisingly well! Those who had to flip prata flipped it perfectly, those who had to fight fought convincingly, and the children in the audience laughed at our jokes and antics. One of the girls even ran up to us and gave us 2 thumbs up after we had danced our 4 different cultural dances. It was truly satisfying to see that everyone enjoyed what we had practiced so hard for, making all our efforts worth it.

OH NO! Why is everyone so scared???

Wolverine with their Malay moves.

Hulk with their Bollywood style dance.

Captain America showing off some Western Hip-hop!

Cultural night ended off with a campfire, whereby the fire "flew" into the campfire to light it up! It was indeed a roaring good start to the night. We started by circling the campfire to local Vietnamese beats and lots of jumping and dancing around. Everyone just let their hair down for the night.

You can't see the size of the actual campfire here but it sure was HUGE and HOT.

Unfortunately, the campfire session was cut short by a sudden downpour, but even heavy rain could not dampen our mood! We simply took our dancing indoors and onto the sheltered temporary stage area, where a "clubbing" session ensued. Even the EVG members joined in the fun! It was truly a wild night, which some say may be better than Zouk?

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and we walked back in the dark to the commune for supper. The trek back was immensely tranquil (despite the terrifying darkness), as we were all surrounded by a sky full of stars (LITERALLY). It was truly a moment to remember as we sang old school tunes and stared up at the sky.

Back at the commune, we were surprised with fish porridge! That's right! If you still remember, the fish that were cooked were caught with our hands earlier today! We almost forgot about it but were all grateful for the warm supper cooked once again by the Chef Auntie.

'Twas a good end, to a good day.