Diary entry
Monday
That morning I woke up very early just to make sure that I packed all my things nicely. I packed my bag and made sure that I had food and everything. With all my things packed I reached my school and saw all my friends going in their groups, I went on mine. Then we started talking about the things that we would do on the trip and the things that we need and started preparing the materials that we would bring for the trip. After that, we went in our humanities class where we had to prepare our questions for the eco lodge that we would visit in the trip for our project. I’ve done all my work properly and hope that everything will go well. After we finished preparing for the trip, we were dismissed and allowed to go out the school an hour before the usual. And the whole morning passed preparing for the trip.
We then headed back to our school and went to the train station. After some time, we finally entered the train and our room which is, in my opinion; small for four people with large baggage's to fit in. I was feeling really tired so I went to bed earlier than my train mates who were sharing horror stories.
Tuesday
We finally arrived at our hotel and checked in on our rooms on Tuesday morning. We then had to eat breakfast at a cafeteria on the 7th floor of the hotel. Cafeteria, man do I love it my morning savior providing me with great food after a very long and exhausting trip. The first thing that I noticed was the view; it was the exact opposite of what I normally see in Hanoi, mountain, trees and rice fields.
My friends and I then decided to head back to our rooms and unpack all the things that we’d need for later on when we visit the school that we were supposed to help. Upon arriving at the school, I noticed a man on his 30-50s mixing cement and repairing the school. He was really nice and told us many things about the Shin Chai and that we would be mixing cement with him this afternoon. Suddenly I heard this loud bang on a drum and all the students of the school gathered around the open space and they held a performance and danced gladly. The students were all young about 60 of them ranging from 3-7 year old.
We came back to the school later that afternoon and started to do our job. Our group was then divided in two; one is going to mix cement and digging on the other. I went on the digging group and we managed to clear about half of the boulder that we were supposed to dig and finish the remaining part tomorrow.
Wednesday
That afternoon after we finished digging, my friends and I started preparing for the hike. Since it was about 2hours away from the planned schedule, we went outside to shop and look around the place.
The hiking trail was not a decent one and my friends told me that it was part of the fun and part of the fun is the physical effort required to travel through the mountain. Along the trail we found a small store and bought water. My friends and I ate some of my snacks and were refreshed. Views were good.
On the last thirty minutes of the hike, my legs were really feeling the sudden request for endurance. I ignored them and ignored them some more. I continued to ignore them all the way to our stop. I then went outside for dinner and had a good time talking and eating with my friends.