Over the past week, the entire Middle School went on a field trip by grade level. The grade 7 students went to Mai Chau this year. Traveling took a while; it took about five hours to get there in total! However, the fun experiences and new memories that were made seemed to have made the time go faster. The boats and buses were filled with laughter and singing all throughout the trip.
When we finally arrived at the Ban Lac village of Mai Chau, rice paddies stretched out alongside the roads. Overall, the village was very peaceful and quiet. Over the next couple of days, we got to make new interesting memories by doing a variety of activities that were planned out for us like hiking, photography, PE games, visiting a nearby school, working on our digital stories, and just simply hanging out with friends during free time.
We split up into two groups for the hike. The hike was more like a walk around the village. It was very hot and tiring, but we got to learn a couple of things about the village, and the things that could be found there. Also, during the hike, the first group got to go to a mountain and went up on the trail. The hike lasted for about two hours in total. We were welcomed by snacks afterwards.
On the second day that we arrived in Mai Chau, we visited a nearby school called “Chieng Chau School”. This was an experience to remember because this is what UNIS students have been doing for the past seven years. Once we got there, the Chieng Chau students did a performance for us, which included a modern dance to the music “Gangnam Style”, and another Vietnamese dance that was done by some of the younger students there. The UNIs choir students also sang “Rolling in the Deep”, and “Paradise”. The UNIS students split up into groups again afterwards and did fun and interesting activities with the students that attended school there, such as doing parachute games, clay, some PE games, origami, teaching them English, and interviewing some of the students there. We also played a couple rounds of tug of war and a Vietnamese bamboo stick game at the end between the UNIS students, and the Chieng Chau students to end our meeting.
On the last night that we were staying there, we had the opportunity to watch a cultural performance. It was very interesting and diverse, and afterwards, we got to interact with the dancers by doing a bamboo stick game. Then, we headed up to one of the stilt houses, and watched “Marley and Me”. The movie was very touching and brought many tears. Sleeping was a bit difficult because we had to share two rooms with all of the girls in grade 7, and the boys had one.
Another interesting activity was having secret buddies throughout the trip. Before actually leaving for Mai Chau, the seventh graders had to randomly pick a name and they would end up being your secret buddy, who you would have to be particularly nice to, buy them small gifts, or just even sending them notes. The whole idea of this is to promote kindness towards each other. This idea that may seem a bit awkward at first, but it really helped some of us get to know each other better and allowed us to make new friends throughout the trip.
I think that most of the students who participated in this trip were pleased with this one of a kind experience that they were allowed to gain.
