A journey to Dalat – Connection, Sharing and Love
More than one thousand senior secondary students bound for higher education enjoyed a memorable time on a 3-day 2-night field trip to Dalat city, in Lam Dong province in early November 2018. Not only did they get to discover the Vietnamese highlands and experience the culture of the K’ho ethnic group, they also learned to strengthen their frienship and open their hearts to others through meaningful community activities.
Pang Tieng primary school, located at Lat village, Lac Duong District, only 12km away from Da Lat center, hosted almost 145 VAS students who had never been to Dalat before. Their wish was that they could visit the ‘flower city’ and have better meals in their boarding school. On this field trip, VAS staff and secondary students from Ba Thang Hai campus made their dreams come true by organizing a trip to Da Lat for these teens. They really had fun, enjoyed a feast, and the Gong Culture in Lang Biang town.
It’s honorable that VAS students prepared presents, scholaships, choreagraphed dances, and came up with the games for these little children by themselves. Besides providing needed supplies such as rice, sugar, milk, snacks, books & notebooks, they lead these children (87% of them are from minority ethnic groups) to a whole new wide, modern world through their own toys and books. There was no division between what students wore, where they came from - city or highland areasW what you could find there were only laughter, sharing and happiness.
The second day of the journey was a surprising experience for VAS students when they participated in challenging competitions which required teamwork skills such as picking tea leaves, planting vegetables, collecting radishes, drying tea leaves and especially taking part in a tea ceremony. The fresh green view of tea hills and beautiful fields of flowers in Cau Dat Farm truly hypnotized students and eased away all the pressure of challenging competitions. After the competitions, students all knew how to pick tender tea shoots, and through layering method, they knew how to create a new plant.
The trip ended with a yummy feast and colorful enternainment in the Da Lach Noah tourist area Noah, located on Mimosa pass. For 11th-12th graders, the Gala Dinner was also a playground to sing their hit songs out loud and “burn up” the stage with friends and teachers, to share precious moments with each other and make memories together before saying goodbye to VAS.
