Wrap-up of trip to HCMC

Well, my whirlwind of a week came to an end yesterday night when I took a plane back to Hanoi. I was sad to go, but it felt nice to be sleeping in my own bed again. The week ended on a high note even though my trip to An Giang Province didn't happen. A former president of Vietnam died, so the government cancelled all big events nationwide. As we were supposed to be attending an outdoor event for street youth at An Giang University, that meant the event had to be postponed until next weekend. We kept very busy in HCMC, though.

Saturday night, we delivered mooncakes in yet another part of HCMC, to celebrate Monday's mid-autumn festival (a festival specifically for children). The area where we delivered the mooncakes was even poorer than any of the other places I'd seen (you could rent a room for less than $1/day), but the people were so lovely and the mooncakes really seemed to make their day! Assisting with mooncake delivery was a former street youth, Sang, who is now living in an apartment with his wife and child. We all went out to eat afterwards, and I got to meet his family, which was such an honor.
Below are some photos of mooncake delivery and the dinner.

^Me, Sang, and his adorable 5-month-old baby!

The next day, I went to a training for peer educators in Thu Duc district with three staff members from the Child Focused team. In attendance were about 20 PEs, including two from Linh Xuan. The training began with some games, after which anh Tien (Save the Children staff) gave a presentation about the three ways that HIV/AIDS can be transmitted, what the differences between HIV and AIDS are, the types of medicine people living with HIV/AIDS must take, what a CD4 count is, what stigma and discrimination means, etc. Then, after a short tea break, the children played a game where they were asked to place pictures under column headings regarding HIV/AIDS transmission. For example, if they were given a picture of two people having sex, it would go under the column "Spreads HIV/AIDS" and if they were given a picture of someone getting bitten by a mosquito, it would go under the column "Does not spread HIV/AIDS." After the game, the kids helped me and anh Nhan (Save the Children staff) test out the game from Dartmouth, and gave us some helpful feedback. Below are some pictures from the training.

Yesterday, after spending some time saying goodbyes at the HCMC office, I headed back to Hanoi. Can't wait for my next trip down south! In other news, I heard from one of my colleagues here that over the weekend, children from the community in Ba Vi delivered mooncakes to the children living with HIV/AIDS in Center II in Ba Vi. And, according to the director of the Center, school officials and families are also becoming more supportive of the idea of integration. This is great news, and really shows the positive impact our camp had on attitudes of people in the Ba Vi community.