Some highlights of the trip would be the exchange program run in conjunction with Petrus Ky Middle School in Binh Duong, tour of the Vietnam Singapore industrial park, repairing and upgrading computer labs in Tan Uyen district, aiding in the construction of the foundation layer of a Kitchen in Tan Uyen district and teaching the College of Technology (Binh Duong) about Web & New Media; Facebook, application on Google Apps, Google Docs, Google Maps and exchanging experience in building e-commerce.
The whole Service Learning group was broken up into 2 teams, the Servicing team which would handle repairs and refurbishment to the computer lab in the Tan Uyen district and the New Media team which would do education and lessons of New Media to the College of Technology (Binh Duong). The group was split so that the agenda of the trip can be completed with greater efficiency as both objectives were given 3 days in total to be completed. The teams were headed by Julia and Jerry respectively.
The Service team was very efficient in the refurbishment of the lab as the team was committed to getting the work done on schedule and everyone chipped in to help one another. Be it their technical expertise in desktop hardware maintenance or setting up a server, everyone put their “know-how” to good use. This activity also gave some the opportunity to see what a desktop motherboard looks like! Apart from sweating bucket loads from the heat, everyone from the Service team felt accomplished when all the work was done and as they had completed the lab earlier than expected, they also had some time to visit the nearby orphanage to spend some time with the local children there. A very meaningful aspect of the trip for them.The New Media team on the other hand had a more uphill challenge, which was to cover a very comprehensive lesson structure of Web & New media which was taken from our own C111 module and cram the fundamental aspects into a 3-day crash course for the youths in Binh Duong to make use of in their daily lives. I would say a large aspect of this course balanced on the way that we communicate with them in ensuring that what we speak, they understand. Thankfully, we had several students from our team who were conversant with Vietnamese and we managed to do the lessons with as little hiccups as possible. Our team has also faced several setbacks during the lessons, however we managed to overcome them by substituting and playing by ear. At the end of the 3rd day, I would say that the lessons were fruitful and I feel that we have truly imparted a set of soft-skills for them to take home and empower them for their personal use in the future. Thus in the end, both teams accomplished their agenda and the outcome of the trip is a great success. Now with this complete, we managed to move onto the next part of the trip.
After completing the Service Learning aspect of the trip, the team then went on to do some sightseeing in the area, mainly, paying a visit to Dai Nam theme park, a tour of the historical Cu Chi tunnels and then finally heading back to spend 2 nights in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to have some well-deserved rest & relaxation as well as some intensive retail therapy before heading back home to Singapore.In HCMC itself, the team also spent some time to sightsee the different tourist attractions of the city apart from shopping to visit some places of interest such as the Reunification Palace of Vietnam; Bin Thanh market and the Saigon Notre-Dame.
In closure, everyone who attended this Service Leaning Trip has benefitted greatly, to achieve what could not be achieved in the classroom. This Service Learning Trip was certainly more than just an education of the mind, but truly an education of the heart as well.
