A Village School

In a recent post we made an appeal for help in building a school in a remote village in the mountains of Central Vietnam.

As usual, our donors responded with alacrity and generosity and we were able to send $1000.00 over to the charity Ong Vang to help with the projected costs of $3500.00 for the new school.

A large portion of that money came from the Retired Teachers Organization in Kenora, Ontario. My sister raffled off a beautiful Christmas basket to encourage donations and the group astounded us with the amount that the raffle generated.

Another large donation came from donors who have supported Journeys of the Heart from its inception.

Thanhhuynh Huynh, who heads up Ong Vang in Hoi An has been wonderful in his expressions of gratitude for the donations and now with keeping us posted with the building project.

It is a real slog to climb to the village through mountainous jungle with all of the building materials.

It is just great to see all of these vibrant, young Vietnamese giving their brawn and hearts to such an arduous project. The whole building goes up by hand.

In the above picture you can see on the table to the left the offerings to the ancestors spirits to bless the crew and to bring luck to the project.  The labours continue after dark, which falls early here in the mountains, where the nights get really cool by the time the crew relaxes for the evening.

When Thanh told me that they would build the school in a matter of days....I thought that I did not understand what he was trying to tell me.....but look at what has happened in two days!!!

What an accomplishment! The children will be dry and warm and will be able to concentrate on their studies. 

Thank you friends of Journeys of the Heart! We will post  pictures of the finished school and maybe some of the children's smiles.