Reflections by Haven Kha

After coming home and recovering from jet lag, I’ve had a lot of time to reminisce on my trip to Vietnam. It was truly an experience of a lifetime and I’m thankful for every second of this opportunity. What was so neat about this trip was that we got to experience a lot of Vietnam (North to South) and we even had a tour guide, which made the process of finding places to visit a lot easier. This trip not only provided me with new experiences outside my comfort zone but has widened my perspective on many things. Honestly, I loved everything so it’s hard to narrow it down to three things, but if I had to pick and share here are my top 3 things I enjoyed on this trip.

First, I loved Ha Long Bay. It was absolutely breathtaking and a great break from the busy city. Being surround by water and limestone formations and watching a sunset with friends is really relaxing. We got to kayak, swim, go to the beach, and climbed 426 steps to look in awe at a beautiful view.

Additionally, I loved Sapa. Sapa was a place like no other. It was “fresher” in the sense that it wasn’t as hot, which was a nice difference from all the heat. Sapa is beautiful with lush green and water wherever you looked and houses the Hmong people. Before making it to our homestay we had a bumpy trip up the mountain to the market where many of the Hmong sell their products. It was amazing to see all the tapestry, jewelry, and food that they were selling just to make some money to provide for their families. We had a homestay which gave us a little glimpse into what living there was like for the Hmong. We even got to sleep under mosquito nets. This was quite personal because I am Hmong and I was able to get a glimpse into how my grandparents used to live. In the morning we hiked for three hours with some rain, which added to the whole experience of living like the Hmong. We were told that there were only 62 days of sunshine per year and we got to experience one of those days the first day we got there. We always joke about how Chi, our tour guide, told us that this hike was the easy route with paved roads. We definitely did not agree with that during our hike though. It was incredibly hard and tiring but super rewarding once we had finished.

Lastly, something I enjoyed was getting the opportunity to grow new friendships and strengthen old ones. This trip comes with many challenges being that you were with 34 different people for two weeks. I think our group did pretty good being able to hang out with different people every day. This allowed us to learn the importance of teamwork and being able to bond with one another even with our differences. We got to share such a great experience and serve the people of Vietnam with our service projects together. I am thankful that this trip allowed me to get to know the teachers, our classmates, and even chaperones more.

To conclude, there is so much beauty and the world is so much bigger outside of New Holland, but we are honestly so fortunate to live in the place that we do. I thank all the teachers, parents, and the community who allowed 28 students and 7 adults of Garden Spot High School to get this life-changing experience. I will truly remember and talk about the memories and lessons learned on this trip for the rest of my life.

Many of the following pictures courtesy of Amy Marburger