This post was written on July 5 and features student writing.

Hi, I’m Connor from Larchmont, New York. I chose to do the Vietnam community service trip this year because I wanted to explore a part of the world more deeply than I would have if I’d gone with family — I looked forward to being able to experience a different culture and see how people’s lifestyles are different than the one I have. I chose Vietnam specifically because I was interested in seeing Southeast Asia in a more interactive way.

For our first weekend trip, we went to the coastal resort town of Xã Phổ Châu. During the bus ride, we stopped at a supermarket in Quảng Ngãi City where everyone bought snacks. I bought a candy called Fruit Plus, which was pretty good. We arrived at the resort at around 1:30 and had lunch, then went in the pool. We went from the pool to the ocean, where we stayed for about two more hours. That evening, we had a nice dinner and ordered our own dishes for the first time. We ate cake, sang songs, and had some sparklers for the 4th of July.

We woke up this morning and ate at a breakfast buffet with a typically Vietnamese selection, then packed up and went to a Buddhist temple that was used as an American military base during the war. Later we visited the historical ground of the My Lai Massacre, where the U.S. army slaughtered innocent people during the war, which was depressing. It started to storm today and we had to cancel our trip to the bomb shelter, so we returned to our hotel and ate dinner. We get back to the work sites tomorrow to continue building homes. We look forward to the week ahead!

 – Connor