After last week’s unusually cold weather, the sun finally decided to come out! We’ve been soaking up the warm rays since Wednesday, and have been on An Bang beach as much as possible. The study center there is equipped with a house, several hammocks, beach chairs and everything you need to play volleyball, so it’s very easy to spend a whole day there.

Saturday, when it was 30 degrees outside, our Field manager Vinh had arranged a full day of activities for us. These included: a quiz that sent us whizzing around town on our bikes, a boat tour, a boat race, a traditional water puppet show, and of course lots of delicious Vietnamese food.

Originally we were supposed to have competed in the boat race, but the local team actually wanted to win, so we had to settle for just watching from the sideline:) After watching the (intensity of the) race, I’m pretty sure we were all happy about not competing!

Vinh had promised prizes for the 1st and 2nd place winners of the Vietnam Day-quiz, and there was definitely a high spirited, competitive atmosphere at the evening dinner, when the winners were announced. 1st place went to the abtly named “The Winning Team”, which included a private boat cruise with cocktails. Not bad!

Next week we will visit a village of the Ka Tu people, one of the 54 ethnic minorities in Vietnam.
Till then!

Dana