Our Trip to the Water Puppets

A couple of weeks ago Linh and I were very fortunate to meet the Director of The Water puppets here in Hue, after a few cups of iced tea, we couldn't resist his invititation to bring the kids to see the show. So on Monday morning whilst I was still sleeping, at 3am, some of the kids were already awake in the village, getting ready with excitement for the day ahead of them. One of the girls who suffers from travel sickness, had already thrown up thinking about the bus two hours before we arrived to pick them up! Ah I love it!

When both buses arrived in the city, we had our first combined group circle of all of the kids in 'The Right to Shine'. What a special moment. As we went around introducing ourselves with an action, I was so impressed at the confidence of the kids, even though I knew that they were all feeling very shy to meet new teenagers! Not only did we want the give the kids an experience of a professional performance, but we wanted to give the kids a chance to get to know each other before their combined VIP performance in 3 weeks time.

After a great show, showing a variety of different puppet styles, we all walked across the road to a lush green park on the banks of the Perfume river. There, we played under the trees, had a picnic lunch, and created short song and dance performances for each other. It was so lovely to see the kids just playing like kids, away from their responsibilities in the village. Then before we knew it, it was time to board the buses again and head back to the countryside. I will let the photos do the talking, but all in all it was a wonderful morning.

Create Create Create

This past week has been an incredible start to the performance creation phase! All the kids have been so eager to work together and bring all of their skills to the stage to do the best performance possible for their communities. In Phuong Dien village, the kids really want to prove to their parents that they are useful and wonderful actors, and in Hai Tien they really want their parents to be proud of them and for their friends to learn from their performance and not go to Saigon. For the performance creation process we've created a storyline for both groups based on their experiences in Saigon and other issues we explored during the conciousness raising phase, so during rehearsals the kids create the content and dialogue for each scene. The performances will follow the kids from life in their beach side villages to the garment factories and late night streets of Saigon. They will be wonderful performances, I am sure of that, and I am very eager to see the responses and reactions from the communities.

We are all buzzing on the kids excitement and commitment to the performances, and my team and I feel like we are so blessed to be able to give this opportunity to the kids. We are doing as much as humanly possible behind the scenes to make sure that the kids SHINE!!! We have been very busy, but loving being a witness to the creation coming together. On Saturday in Hai Tien we had a fantastic afternoon painting backdrops - a city scene and a village scene. The kids did a beautiful job. It was so interesting to watch them work out how they would work together to achieve their goal, they had their ups and downs but they all pulled together to create something very beautiful. I am so proud of them!

Here is a glimpse of the early stages of rehearsals in Phuong Dien Village;


Here are some of the kids comments about how they are feeling at this stage of rehearsals...

• I am very happy with the first 2 scenes. Its an honor for us to do this and we couldn’t do it without the support from Linh, Nam and Skye
• I am excited about the 2 scenes
• I am happy to be on stage performing
• I am happy when I performed today because I didn’t laugh
• I am excited and looking forward to the final performance
• I am happy and a little nervous to be on the stage
• I am excited to be on the stage very soon
• I am excited to be performing with my friends on the stage
• I am excited about going to see the Water puppets next week
• I really like Scene 1 where we tell our dreams on stage and I also like the story which Skye created
• I feel very happy to fulfill my two roles today
• I am happy to be a dancer in scene 1 and also to be the main character in scene 2. I will try my best to be a good actress for the group
• Everyone acted SO WELL today
• I am happy to talk about our dreams and I am looking forward to the performance
• I really like scene 2, I think the newspaper story will have a big effect on the audience and the parents will think about this newspaper story before sending their kids to Saigon
• I am happy to be on stage but a little bit nervous
• I have prepared myself for the upcoming performance
• Its an honour for me to be on the stage to perform, Thank you for your help to make this possible
• Everyone acted really well with these two scenes and I hope that everyone continues to act really well
• I am so happy because you (linh, Nam, Skye) have brought us very special things.

A glimpse at Rehearsals in Hai Tien Village;


When asked how they think their families and friends will respond to their performances....

• My family and friends will want us to become actors after they see us perform
• My family and friends hope that I will perform perfectly in the final performance
• Before this program, my family thought I was uselss, but in the performance I will show them I am a good actor
• My family don’t believe I am a good actor or singer. They always say I do everything like a cat ( an insult in vitenamese). I want to show them they are wrong
• I hope my parents can see me on the stage and will give me compliments
• My family is looking forward to the performance that we will show for the community
• My family hopes I will be a good actress
• My family hope I will do well with the roles I am given
• My friends will be proud of me
• I will try my best in all my roles so my family is proud
• My parents want me to become a real actor

Compassion for others and how we like to be treated

The last week of the 'Conciousness Raising' phase of the project, was Big! We introduced a story about a 13 year long child exploitation case from Hanoi which caused an outrage amongst members of the community and all over Vietnam. This story about a girl named Binh made it to the newspapers, and what caught our eye was the response from the readers in letters to the editors. We wanted to show the kids that there are local people who care about the well being and future of the children in Vietnam. People who are against child labour and are trying to find ways to keep children safe in the workplace and off the streets.

It has been an intense and incredibly rewarding week, seeing what the kids would like to do or say to prevent exploitative and abusive employment from happening to other kids in the future, and also seeing their acceptance of these difficult situations as a normal part of their reality. Some feel that it is just bad luck to end up in a situation like Binh's in Hanoi. I think there is more to it than Bad luck!

Some of the responses to Binh's story

• If I met the employers I would look down on them

• The employers are the devil

• I felt emotional about Binh’s situations, she had to endure great suffering

• Binh is very strong to have survived 13 years of this abuse

• The employers have no sense of humanity and no conscience

• I hope that Binh finds happiness after all the suffering

• I would gather the neighbours to fight against the employers, because we would be stronger as a group

• It was the mother’s fault, her mistake for leaving her child with these people. Parents need to take care when they leave their children to work somewhere

• The mother should have observed the facial expressions of the employers carefully to see their character – if they are good or bad people, before she left her child there.

• As a child you should try to go to work with a friend so you have some support inside. Better to have 2 people, than 1

• Society ignored Binh for 13 years

• I imagine if I was a neighbour, I would try to convince the employers to treat her better or to free her. But the scars on Binhs body will not fade, and the scars will always remind her of her experience.

• I can not help, because I am too young and small

• I can not do by myself, so I will ask many people to come with me. If the employers don’t co-operate then I would ring the authorities

• I would help her to runaway and help her to find a better job

• I would ask my parents to bring Binh to stay or ask them to find Binh’s family

• If I was Binh’s friend I would advise her to run away, or I would take her to the orphanage, or employ her to work in my house as hired help, but I would treat her well
• I would ask Binh to come to my house to play

What would you say to the world to change how children are treated?

· People in the community need to come together and contribute to help the poor people

· You need the children for the future of the country

· Don’t exploit children, help them if you see them in bad situations

· Share the social responsibility of disadvantaged children

· Don’t exploit or abuse children

· Contribute money to help kids to runaway from their employers

We also explored how the kids like to be treated and if they felt they were understood by adults.

It was very interesting to hear the kids express how they would like to be treated and how they can make other adults understand them better. They really put thought into how they could resolve misunderstandings in their lives.

How to make your teachers understand you?

· We could write a letter to our teachers to explain some situations

· We could ask the teachers permission when we are not able to come to school

· Explain to the teachers, our reason for bad hand writing is that we have an abnormal feature in our hand – we are left handed

How to make your parents understand you better?

· Show parents our wants by talking directly to them or use our actions to demonstrate the truth

· Run away from home until parents calm down, then try to explain to them

How to make the neighbors understand you better?

· Ask neighbors for evidence to demonstrate that they misunderstand

· To tell the whole story from the beginning to end to help neighbors understand in the right way

· Talk in a nice way to the neighbors, advise them not to interfere in our business

· Argue with the neighbors when they judge us wrongly

What do you want people to understand about you?

· I want people to know I am an honest person

· I want people to know that I am a gentle person

· I want people to know I am honest

· People should know that I never do bad things and that I am honest

· I want people to know that I don’t have addictions or bad habits

· I am genuine, honest and I do the right thing

· I am a kind person and also strict in my ways

· I want people to understand I am honest

· I want people to know I am honest and have a heart of gold

· I am knowledgeable, honest, never tell a lie and I don’t drink beer or wine

· I wish my mother would believe what I say. My father does but my mother doesn’t

· I am kind and always ready to help others

If you are ever looking for something to do with your free time, see what you can do with a stick and a sarong..... I just love their imaginations!!!

We have dreams!

The voices and art of the kids...

• I want to be a mechanic and I think it is realistic for me
• If I want to be a singer I would have to train a lot
• I want to be an artist, so I sometimes practice at home

• I definitely want to be a singer, so I have to practice all the time, always be happy in front of people and also confident on stage
• Being a doctor is my dream, I think it is possible for me, I am always trying my best in my studies for my future
• I want to be a teacher, and I know I need to try my best in my studies now

• I want to be a motorbike mechanic. I am already practicing to fix motorbikes and bicycles, an older friend is helping/ teaching me.
• In order to work in construction I need to observe people working in this field now, to learn the skills

• I really want to be a professional football player. I am not sure if it is possible, because to achieve it I need to sign up for special football camps and I don’t have the money to pay the registration or travel expenses.
• I want to be a Chef, I believe it is possible for me to achieve. In my home I cook frequently to learn and practice.

It has been another incredible week, I have observed such sensitivity and care towards each other in sculpting activities, creativity and imagination in improvisation games, and profound awareness of the factors which affect their lives.

The kids are now really thinking about their lives and their dreams for their futures, how attainable they are and what steps they would need to take to achieve them.We combined Art with drama this week in mapping their lives of where they are now and what they want their life to look like in 10 years time. The children created wonderful theatrical paths to travel from the present to the future, acting out real obstacles and challenges but still reaching their goal through strength of the human spirit and never giving up.

Looking at their futures

In our reflection together, some kids didn't think their dreams were possible due to their economic situation. One little angel, has always wanted to be an air hostess, but recently she realised that it will never be possible due to her family's situation, she held back her tears as she told us this. She would be an incredible air hostess, she has a smile as big as the sun! In reality, it may not be possible, but who knows what opportunities will arise in pursuing it. We continue to encourage the kids to dream, believe in themselves, make the most of the opportunities they have now, and continue studying to give themselves more options in the future and break the cycle of poverty. There will always be people who are worse off or better off than us, but we are all human and we all deserve to have our basic needs met and the opportunity to pursue our dreams.

Discussion about Needs and Wants

When we moved onto identifying our basic needs in comparison to our wants, I witnessed the most incredible display of compassion in Phuong Dien village. Each group of kids were given a basic need, and explored the long term effects on their life if that need was never met. Some of the performances brought tears to all of our eyes. The children really accessed their experiences and took them to another level. Their compassion and understanding of these issues was beyond their years. The performances they created were so impressive!!! We were all so proud of them. They connected with their own raw emotion and brought it to their performances, WOW!!! In our discussions after the performances, they all commented that even though they themselves were very poor, there are still some people who are in worse situations than they are, and they consider themselves lucky. These children are amazing!

• I used my real emotion when performing. I think I am luckier than other people, because other people are still in worse situations than my family. Even though, I feel like my family's conditions are very poor.
  
• I was happy to perform. These topics feel very familiar to our lives so it is not difficult to perform. Now our lives are a little bit better than the lives in our performance, but still there are some very poor families facing these difficulties in their life.
• It was difficult to perform because our situation was very dramatic and I had to prepare my tears. For me I acted with my real heart.
• If you are not healthy, you will die.
• I am pleased with our performance. I acted with real emotion. I can see that our lives are still better than the circumstances they performed
• I was pleased with our performance. I played two roles, The mother who loved her children, and the shop owner who despised the family. I felt sympathy for the neighbor who helped my family in the performance even though they were also poor and didn’t have much they could share but still they helped within their means. Even though I played the mean shop owner, I didn’t agree with the way we were treated, and as the mother I felt real love for my children.
• Our performance was about the worst situation a family could be in without any accommodation. I see our lives are better. I played the role of the daughter who was a very poor child with no education or hope
• I became very emotional about the mother’s love in our performance. Because in difficulties the mother always sacrifices herself for her children.