As the fun times and lack of class from the weekend wore off, we were back to the old grind of Vietnamese Culture Class and Vietnamese Language Class. We progressed our scarce knowledge of the Vietnamese language and expanded our knowledge of the Vietnamese culture (which actually turned out to be quite vast in the end). We were pretty pressed for time though because we had to go to the Ben Thanh Market and we had arranged a meeting with VinaCapital, an investment group and charity foundation for the ethnic minorities in Vietnam.
Our first stop after class was to the Ben Thanh Market. We were all enamored by the chaos of the market. From the moment we walked in, we were bombarded with salespeople grabbing our arms, and trying to sell us things. I had never bartered before and oh my god was it fun. I went to buy a t-shirt and the salesman told me it was 250,000 Dong. After arguing with him for about ten minutes, I was able to get it down to 50,000. The "walk away" really does work. After about an hour of similar purchases and exchanges with salespeople we had to leave to go get ready for our trip to VinaCapital. Many of us decided that we would definitely return to the market on a later date.
The visit to VinaCapital was extremely interesting. We first heard from the leader of the VinaCapital Foundation that works to improve the quality of life of ethnic minorities in Vietnam. The guy was from South Carolina which was a refreshing change as far as the language barrier goes. He explained to us that he has visited all but four provinces in Vietnam researching the people and helping them improve their quality of life. He has worked with the government and the healthcare system to receive discounts on different surgeries for children that don't have access to healthcare, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to afford it.
He also works with girls, trying to get them into and through college. He told us that he has gotten hundreds of girls who wouldn't have even considered college before to not only get into college but also graduate medical or pharmacy school or some other professional school. This is unbelievable to me, that these girls come from societies and subcultures that have little to no emphasis on education to the point where, in his words, "These girls had never heard the word 'doctor' before I got to them, and now they will be one"
The most impressive part of this foundation is that much unlike most charity organizations, 100% of the overhead costs are covered by the VinaCapital Group meaning that all the money donated to the Foundation goes straight to the people they work with. None of it goes to salaries, travel costs, etc. which is very admirable.
For dinner on Monday night, the Vietnamese students took us to a restaurant that served a dish called ban xeo, which is basically a Vietnamese omelette made with an egg and rice pancake filled with bean sprouts, vegetables and various seafood or meats. We also got one with a bunch of exotic mushrooms in it which was delicious. When we first sat down, the faculty member from UEF that had been our guide the whole trip ordered us all iced tea and told us some history about Vietnamese iced tea. After that little lecture several pitchers of what looked like iced tea were placed on the table. I promptly poured some of the contents of the pitcher over a glass of ice that was placed in front of me earlier. I took a sip and it was in fact NOT iced tea. It was fish sauce meant for the pancakes...I was understandably laughed at by everyone, especially the Vietnamese students.
After dinner we went to a karaoke house which was ridiculous. We had our own soundproof room that was decorated very glamorously and sort of in the style of Louis XIV's palace of Versailles. This was very fun and everyone got very into it.
After karaoke a few of us went to a night club for a little bit that turned out to be a bit lackluster since it was a Monday night. After not too long we left and went back to the hotel to sleep.
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