Chip's Favorite Campers

Little Nhu sad to say goodbye :( She gave Katie and I probably 3 different bracelets and drawings. She was such a sweetheart.

These are the afternoon red team boys "warming up" for competition day!! They helped me get one step closer to my 400 push ups per week...hahaha. I miss them so much! They never failed to make me smile. I am so proud of them and incredibly happy that I got to spend so much time with them.

Check it outttt. They took competition day very seriously :) xoxo

Saying Goodbye

Here are some photo's from the awards ceremony and saying goodbye :(

Try telling me that this isnt the saddest thing...

Morning and afternoon teams together. All of us looking very sad, upset :( Not sure who even suggested takinga picture at this point.

Faves :) Rose, Katie and I. I love and miss them dearly!

Tai getting 2nd place on the Life Skills Exams!

Saying goodbye to everyone was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do! I already miss all of the other coaches and the environment a lot but saying goodbye to the campers definitely won the heart wrenching award. Katie and I made a special photo paper page for each of our red team members. It was a picture of Katie and I from the Gulf and Thailand and then we wrote each of their names w/a sweet note. I think they all really liked it!

The Sunday morning awards ceremony was really special. All of the teams and coaches were recognized and special awards were given out to those students who placed 1-3 on their Life Skills or Academic Tests. Van from morning red team got first in both categories!! And Tai got 2nd out of all of the afternoon kids on the LIfe Skills exam. I loved cheering for all of them and seeing the kids get so excited for each other. I video taped the morning and afternoon red teams finding out that they placed first :) It was so cool!! They all got trophies and special certificates.

After the ceremony was over all of us headed to our respective color rooms to say goodbye. It was the saddest moment that I have experienced in a long time. Every team member that stood up, said any sort of goodbye to Katie and I made me fall apart! I killed me to see them so upset, but also filled my heart with joy to see how much we meant to them. Katie and I received tons of notes, presents, bracelets, drawings etc. Many of them continually told us how much they loved us and they kept saying "Forget me not." Of course I never could. I truly couldn't hold it together!! Lets just say the floodgates were fully open. Every single camper was crying. They were literally tugging at our shirts, hugging us, begging us not to go.

As we left school I gave Tai a special notebook that I had bought in Can Tho. In it I pasted a few photos of us from camp plus a long, heartfelt note that one of the Vietnamese coaches translated for me. I told Tai that I feel so blessed to have been able to meet him. I loved the constant smile on his face and his ability to be a leader and influential presence at all times. I hope he gets to fulfill his dreams and succeed to his full potential. I will never forget him and I will always love him dearly! I told him that if he ever needed me that I would always be there! He had Zow tell me that I will be a person that he remembers for the rest of his life :( It was very sad to say the least.

After leaving camp, the kids FOLLOWED us back to the research center to say goodbye again. Talk about twisting the knife!? But, I think most of my tears were out by then and I was able to give away a lot of my belongings. My pillow, bed sheets, books, magazines, headbands, random other things that I didn't really need. All of the kids kept saying "see you again" and while this isnt really realistic--it made me feel alot better.

My time in Vietnam represents a journey that I can truly never explain to anyone that was not there. I traveled here not knowing what to expect and I can easily say that my experience went above and beyond any possible expectation. Dealing with the death of my grandpa was obviously a really sad thing for me. However, I find it really special that the American and Vietnamese coaches and all of the campers were able to make me feel happier than ever and enjoy the rest of my time in Vietnam. I will never forget the love and support that I felt from all of those people! Even those that said nothing to me about his death, made me feel like they were there for me, I felt like I was in it with other people.

Will add some great photos soon!!!

Love, Jennings

Red Team=Dream Team

Competition Days were a huge success for the Red Teams!! Our morning and afternoon groups both won!! It was sooo exciting. I loved getting to see the kids compete in all of the other sports that I normally don't get to see them play because I am usually coaching tennis. I also loved seeing them get really competitive and pumped up for their team and all of the competitions. The Friday competition consisted of Tennis and Volleyball final competitions and the Academic and Life Skills exams. Saturday consisted of soccer and basketball plus jeopardy. I was the official timer for the game of jeopardy. The kids got soooo into it, it was great!

After all of the competitions were over on Saturday, despite the fact that the awards ceremony was on Sunday, there was an extensive and tearful goodbye. I never knew saying goodbye would be this hard. Three weeks has gone by so fast and I have grown to love these children more than I ever expected.

Saturday night many of the campers stopped by the research center to hang out with us, give us presents, say goodbye again etc. It was really sweet and SO fun to see them. This night was our last night with the Vietnamese college coaches so we had a fun dinner and little goodbye party. They gave us REALLY sweet presents and we played some fun games with them. Looking back now, it didn't hit me how much I would not only miss the Vietnamese Coaches but I would miss the group of close knit coaches very much.

I will blog more on the awards ceremony, BRUTALLLLL goodbye and fun weekend in Ho Chi Minh city later.

xoxo Jennings

David Jennings

My beautiful Mom and her dad, David Jennings. I remember vividly when my brother told my grandpa to try on these glasses and the first thing he said was, "HOLY SHIT!"

-Grandpa is in the plaid pants. I am sitting in cousin Kate's lap in the front row with a big white bow in my hair. Mom is to the right in an ugly floral dress with Kelly in her arms :)

My grandpa, David Jennings, died yesterday at age 89. After a long camp session and a day of throwing up, it wasn't exactly the news I wanted to hear upon calling my family in Montana. But, as each minute passes I remind myself that even though its ok to be sad and upset, there are too many wonderful things that my grandfather did and was a part of in his 89 years of life.

11 children, 21 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren--wow! Thank you so much for all that you have done for me, my mother and all of your family. I feel honored to be named Jennings after your family name. Grandpa, I miss you already. I'll miss feeding Tinkerbell banana's with you, hearing you order your fries CRISPY and playing hundreds of games of gin with you. I'll carry all of our memories with me forever. Sending my love to Margaret.

Always, Jennings

Our friend, Spot

The picture doesn't even do it justice.

Just some more Red Team talent haha.

Hello! Last day of class was good! There was another monsoon but it was pretty short. I was pretty sad to have my last moments teaching/coaching but I pulled through :) Afternoon red team thought it was really funny that I got teary as I finished teaching their last tennis class. I think Tai felt bad for me though...hahaha. He encouraged me to join in on a game of knock out. Which normally I would never do, because I'm not good at basketball. But I played!! Anna documented me getting someone out by video taping on her camera. It was a big moment!! For our last leadership class Katie and I brought Oreo's and lollipops to our team. They loved it! Especially the Oreo's. A few of the red team boys had some funny motions/song to go with eating the oreo's and licking the frosting--not sure what it was?? But we informed them that in America there is wayyy more frosting in the middle.

I think getting up to run, standing all day and not eating good food has finally caught up to me...I am feeling very run down/headache/drowsy. And I got really sick for the first time :( Off to bed!

xoxo Jenn

Tomorrow is the last day of teaching/coaching!?

Photo: Mom...Now that all of your children are off at college/boarding school I have found the perfect thing to occupy all of your time. Adopting Tai and making him fluent in English!! Please please please, Mom. You will love him, promise :)

Photo: All of the American girl coaches!

Photo: The kids love playing with camera's. Some of them even like to take awkward solo shots like this one!

WHAT!?! Time flew by. Oh my goodness. I am writing late on Wednesday night and I have NO idea where the past three weeks have gone. I literally feel like it was yesterday that I was just arriving here.

Tomorrow is the last day of official camp session. Friday and Saturday are competition days and final exam days. And Sunday is an award ceremony/goodbyes and then we leave after the award ceremony for Ho Chi Minh City until Monday when I head back to the US. (But actually heading to a day of roaming around S. Korea)

Tonight after camp we went to a market about 30 minutes away. I had a list of ingredients to complete my no-bake cookie recipe. (Chocolate/Peanut Butter Special K Bars) We wanted to bake this for a party/final dinner on Saturday night. I even went into the canteen with "baking pan" written in Vietnamese on a piece of paper to ask the women if they had one--which they did. ANYWAYS, at the market they had no Special K or anything like it, no brown sugar, no corn syrup and no good tasting chocolate. So, that was a no go. Instead we got a ton of Oreo's and we are going to deep fry them. Personally, I think that sounds disgusting. But the Vietnamese LOVE fried food and they fry their banana's here at the canteen, so there has to be a way for us to fry the Oreo's for them. Should be interesting.

The past few days of camp have been great. The monsoon's have continued. I have been receiving alot of little gifts from campers. For example, necklaces, hair clips, drawings, essays, photo's, collages, candy etc. These gifts have been so greatly appreciated but they have also made me really sad. I am so worried that I will really lose touch with all of these young children forever. It concerns me that I don't think any of them have any addresses, and I know they don't have email addresses. I wish that there was a way to keep in touch, but I'm afraid there isn't. Someone reminded though that I'm much happier now knowing that I got to meet them rather than not meeting them at all.

In Morality Class, which is taught by Anna, Rose, Zow and Hue one of the lessons this week was on what you are thankful for...When afternoon red team had morality class they expressed to their teachers how thankful they were for their coaches. As I was walking into our usual end of the day Leadership class with all of red team, I was greeted by their six smiling faces as they each handed me a piece of paper. The paper had my name written on one side and a sentence and picture on the other. My eyes welled up as Zow translated for me what each piece of paper said. The notes ranged from things like, "You are a great tennis and english teacher" to "Thank you so much for giving up your summer to come teach us, you and Katie have taught me everything." They were so incredibly sweet. I am quite positive I am going to have a major breakdown when I say goodbye to all of the kids, particularly afternoon red team.

Today in our Leadership Class the focus was on Higher Education. We talked mainly about how to overcome the obstacles that lie between us and our future college educations. We tried to emphasize that even though going to college is a long way away, that the students need to make little goals along the way that will help get them there. One of the boys in our class, Loc, told us that every summer he sells lottery tickets to save money for college. He makes 500 dong for every lottery ticket he sells. (20,000 dong is equal to 1 American dollar) I almost lost it. He is our golden boy--he is the one that won knock out in last week's basketball competition! I almost cried again when Andy gave Tan a beautiful wooden chess set to bring home to his family.

Tonight we started making cute gifts for our students and for the Vietnamese coaches. I'm exhausted now and headed to bed! Hopefully I don't cry tomorrow!!! AHHH.

Love, Jennings

PS, My favorite treat here are these little cookies called Panda's. They are SO good. I'm going to bring lots home to share :)

PPS, we have a GIANT spider weaving away on our bathroom ceiling. It is horrifying. The only thing keeping us from killing it is that it is actually eating a ton of bugs/trapping them in its web. Also, I am in the presence of some of THOSEEEE people that consider killing bugs/spiders to be cruel. Bugs/Spiders are not animals, they are overpopulated and they need to die. Each time I brush my teeth I stare at the spider and its web to make sure it doesn't drop down on me. I will upload a photo once I get a really good one.

MONSOON

There was a monsoon today. Literally, it rained ALL day long. It was raining so hard that the kids couldn't hear us teaching in the classroom. Kind of absurd.

My phrase of the day is "con con dien dien!!!" aka you are crazy!! I think crazy is a little more of an insult here than it is in the US, but its still really funny when the kids say it. They always try to get us to say funny things. For example, a little boy kept making me call myself a "beautiful boy" today....He thought it was sooo funny.

I am currently googling tons of no-bake cookie recipes that don't contain anything semi-American, for example, oatmeal. Saturday is the camp ceremony and I want to make something. (There is no oven at the research center) I would have to convince one of the Vietnamese coaches to take me on their moto to the Co-Op market about a half hour away though. But I know that everyone else here would want to come, so maybe we could convince the bus driver to take us? I also want the Vietnamese coaches to really like whatever we make. Last week we made them guacamole and I'm not sure it was a hit...they kept saying "how interesting..."

Interesting tidbit: dont ever take any pills from anywhere in Nam. Ever. Nuffy is throwing up and she pretty much broke her wrist slipping on the tile that is EVERYWHERE in Nam. And when we went to the Vietnamese "hospital" for her, they gave her some meds...We Googled the meds later to be sure that she should take them--turns out they were pills for dogs. Great! She is a happy camper though, so she is getting better quickly. Keep your fingers crossed that I stay ailment freeeeee :)

I'm getting antsy for American food, American freedom and some love from family and friends! But, I am also DREADING saying goodbye to the kids from camp. I cant believe I leave in one week, ahhhhh!! I'm exhausted per usual, but I'll write more soon!

Love to everyone!

PS, I also got a little bummed when I found out that I have a 14 hour layover in South Korea and then a 7 hour layover in Los Angeles.

Gulf of Thailand

Just got back from the Gulf!! I had a great time and it was soo cool!! These rock structures coming out of the water were amazing, they were all along the coast, it was crazy. We had rainy/overcast weather most of the time but it was still a really good trip. See below!

-We took that boat on the left out to an island for a cookout on Saturday. On the way back from the island I probably had my closest encounter to The Perfect Storm that I will ever experience. It was the hugest monsoon and it kind of came out of nowhere--which is why we didnt plan to leave the island sooner. One minute we were dangling our feet off the boat and the next minute we were gathering all of our belongings and taking shelter under the roof part of the boat! I thought the storm was awesome, I loved it. The Vietnamese coaches were crying and throwing up, so I guess they didn't like it that much.

-Meal cooked for us on the island!

I am exhausted from the trip but I'll write more and post more later!!

Competition Day, OH CHOY OY!

OY CHOY OY aka Oh My Goodness! It my new favorite Vietnamese expression. Thats obviously not how you spell it, but it is really fun to say and the Vietnamese kids think its sooooo funny when we say it.

GREAT JOB UVA Swimmers at Nationals!!! I loved keeping up with the meet. OY CHOY OY, Scotty you swam sooo fast I'm so proud of youuu, you rock!!!!

Here are some pics from Competition Day.

-Princess of the red team, Nhu. (with an accent thingy on the U) She is the sweetest thing in the world. But she is also very sassy!!! She puts up a fight with the boys and always stands up for herself in leadership class when expressing her opinions. She gave me a photo of her and her little brother. She also gave me some sequin hair pins, they are cute haha. (All Vietnamese people love sequins/diamonds.)

Photo: Matt this photo is for youuuuu :) The kids in Vietnam LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE soccer. This boy, Khang, wears different Arsenal gear every single day. He is wearing a Flying Emirates jersey under his red shirt. They sing the World Cup song Wavin' Flag every single day, its so funny. They sing the English words and don't even know what they mean. One boy from Camp 3 (7th grade) who always lingers around the school refuses to be called anything BUT Ronaldo.

Competition Day on Friday was a lot of fun! It is a little more relaxing to run the tennis competitions and proctor tests as opposed to teaching and coaching. BUT, I do spend alot more time and energy on getting the kids excited and cheering for them!

Morning and afternoon red teams did really well! The highlight of the day was probably an afternoon boy on red team, Lop, winning the camp championship game of knock out. (game for basketball) Wow...I dont' think I've seen anyone smile that big in my entire life. It was so cute. I am growing so close with all of the kids, I do not know how I'm going to say goodbyeeee :(

Also, I forgot to write about the home visit to a campers home. I ended up going with a few other people to Tan's house. (High school helper/coach for Red Team who has a sister on Yellow team) Going to his house was incredibly eye opening. I've known the entire time that I've been at camp that I've been working with extremely poor and underprivileged children, but not until I actually saw Tan's house did I realize the extent of their living conditions. Tan's house was more along the lines of a bamboo shack. It was one main room with two "beds" with mosquito nets over them. The beds were raised wooden planks with straw mats on them and mosquito nets over them. (Keep in mind their are 5 children and two adults living in this home.) Then there was a stove in the back of the main room, and a sectionalized area separated by a big tarp and some other sort of drape. I would say their home was about the size of a classroom, maybe smaller, and much lower ceilings. It was all made by hand out of bamboo and other wood. One outlet with one light hanging over the main area and I'm assuming something else that allows the rock stove top to function. The big blue tarp separating the main room from the back/closet room was covered with probably 30 awards. The awards were all academic awards from their children. They are all so smart! Then their were medals and certificates from Coach for College that their children have collected/won over the past few summers. There was even an article from their local newspaper hanging up about their seventh grade son being a chess champion! I guess he is the best in their province! Andy challenged him to a game, and when the boy went to go get his chess set, he brought out a cookie tin with a piece of cloth that was drawn on to be a chess board and then a bunch of plastic pieces were in the tin. We are currently in the process of buying him a nice chess set.

As I was scanning over the awards hanging in their home, I felt so happy thinking about the pride they found in their achievements. But, my heart sank as I came across a photo. At the end of one of the rows of awards there was a photo that I had given Tan of me with my siblings. I took a moment to realize the craziness in the fact that there was now a picture of my siblings and I at a UVA football game, all dressed up, looking so happy, at a home in Vietnam where the family members truly have nothing but each other. Tan had chosen that photo specifically from an album that I let him look through. I was so happy that he valued it and it made me feel like he will remember me. For the next week or so that I am here, I want to do everything I can to spend time with Tan and help him with English, sports, whatever he needs. I really want to give him something, some sort of gift but I'm not sure what would be good or appropriate. I got him a journal when I was in Can Tho and I'm going to write him something on the inside but I sort of want to give him something else. I'm open to all suggestions!!!!

xxx

Red Team Love

Each team had to make a poster and afternoon red team made this one and morning red team made this one below....In case you can't see it (Mom) they drew an American Flag and a Vietnamese Flag and then wrote "Together" below it and had everyone on our team sign it.

-Afternoon Red Team

-Morning Red Team

"GO CRUSH" was chosen by our morning team captain, Van, as sort of a slogan. It is a play off of the American soda "Orange Crush." He explained that "Red Crush" is our slogan because we are cool like soda and we are going to CRUSH all of the other teams. (This was all explained in Vietnamese, to be honest I have NO clue how he knew what crush meant.) Oh and Tai is our afternoon team captain :) Also, if you couldn't tell, some of the Vietnamese kids are beginning to steer away from the constant peace signs and are beginning to do "thumbs up"...thank goodness.

Second Week of Camp is flying by!

Hi everyone!

First off, GOOD LUCK UVA SWIMMERS AT NATIONALSSSSS!!! Swim fast tonight Peter, Scotty, Matt and Lauren!!!!

Sorry I haven't written more this week. I've been so tired/busy! Second week of camp is going great though. Monday morning we got the best news ever. After all of the academic, life skills and sports competition points were put together from last weeks competition, the Red Team is in first place for morning AND afternoon teams!!!!! Ahhh, the kids were SOOO excited, it was so fun to see how happy they were when we told them. Tomorrow is our second competition day so I hope they can stay in the lead :)

In tennis this week we have been working on ACCURACY (much harder than you think), volley's and serves. The kids are loving their first experiences with the game Kings Court. They get sooo excited when they "claim" the throne from whoever is the reigning king of the court.

In English we spent time learning the alphabet! It was so fun teaching it to the kids. They seemed really excited to be learning it--especially since it's more of a song rather than memorization of terms. They dominate the letters ABCD...the rest is a different story. But we're working on it :) Some of the class material has gotten really difficult though, teaching object pronouns, subject pronouns and linking verbs. Christie and I have been trying really hard to find fun ways to teach these things. We've also taught them the days of the week, probably 25 prepositions, and the names of all of the sports we play at camp plus the location. (Ex. basketball court, tennis court, soccer field etc)

Tonight after camp (Thursday) we will split up in groups to go see some of the campers houses and talk with their families. I am really looking forward to this! Each color team has a high school helper who is with us throughout the day and I'm not sure if I've mentioned him before but ours is a boy named Tan. He is one of 5 children and he did Coach for College last year but now he is too old. (Each camp session is different ages 6th grade, 7th, 8th, 9th) Tan is incredibly helpful and also really sweet. He goes above and beyond his expectations and even though it is difficult to communicate with him since he is not very confident speaking English, I love being around him. ANYWAYS, Andy told me that Tan's parents offered to have some of the American coaches go to his house to visit with them, so I really really hope that I can be one of them!

Tomorrow night after camp we head to the Gulf of Thailand for the weekend!! I am really looking forward to it. I can't wait to see another cool place and go to the beach! I have gotten pale since I've been here :( :( :( It's sunny for like 20 minutes at a time with clouds in between or monsoon's basically haha. I'm going to try to upload some photos now or possibly a video of the alphabet!

Love, Jenn