Last week, I taught the women various terms of the human body: head, ears, etc. Following the lesson, I taught them how to make Worry Dolls - emphasizing on the words we all just learned. Vanessa taught this (terms of the human body) last summer and made sock monkeys with the women - I'm doing Worry Dolls instead! I believe Worry Dolls originate from Guatemala. Legend has it that when you go to bed at night, you tell one "worry" to each doll - place them under your pillow - and when you wake up, the dolls will take THAT worry away. I thought the project was very appropriate and therefore, decided to execute it during the week of learning human body part terminology.

Here are images of the Worry Dolls / Hinh Nhan Lo Lang:

The middle one (pink/gray) was the best! I think recognizing her skills via posting on this blog is A MUST! Good Job!!!

Status at the shelter...

One of the women here is very fraustrated with everything - she obviously needed some fresh air. I told her I needed a hair cut, so asked if she could take me to the barber shop. She was more than happy too. While walking, I began to asked her, whats going on, etc. She vented her problems and I encouraged her to let it all out. Although I only know her for 3 weeks or so now, I understand her personality very well. I gave her my advice and told her not to mind what other people say or think, etc. After awhile, I started to put my wise [crack] jokes to use. She started to laughed again and soon we were at the shop. After my hair cut, we got some Boba and she told me she felt much better. She told me she can't find anyone here like me that she can talk to about her problems. Sure there's Cha Hung and the rest of the staff here, but I guess its less intimidating to talk to me? Well, she's definitely much better now... lets hope there's no more problems!!!

About a week or so left in Taiwan. Time flies by so quickly. Anywho, here are some random pictures of Taiwan!

KFC fries with cheese sauce and rice cracker? Very interesting!

Lots of Gashapon places!

Various fruits at the market place. This one is Sour Sop [I believe?]

I believe we just call this the star fruit?

This is what I play at night! It's call "Ka-Ro". I'm still a beginner - its a very intensive game. Sort of like a complex Tic-Tac-Toe, but you need five in a row. It's fun though~!

Last but not least, this past Sunday was Happy Valentine's Day in Taiwan, Le Tinh Nhan.

Its a bittersweet moment when people leave the shelter. You miss them but you're also happy for them because they will reunite with their family. A group of five girls and another girl all recently left this week. I am very happy for them and pray that their journey was safe and sound! Perhaps I can meet up with them next summer, should my family visit Vietnam! Here are their final words:

Translate: Thank You Father (Hung) and Elder Sisters for helping, caring, and comforting us all this past few [weeks] (or past short moment in time). Today we return to Vietnam already. We wish everyone at the shelter to have what they want (or have things their way anytime they want).

*Much apologizes if my Vietnamese terminology is not correct.



English class this morning dealt with the human body. Each person took turn drawing ONE body part: nose, two ears, etc. This is the final Masterpeice! I'm going to enlarge it and hang it in my room!



There's a new class at that shelter! Daily 7:00-10:00 PM Dance Class! I currently teach it! To start off, I taught them the infamous "Electric Slide". The women here love it!!!!!

It's been two weeks in Taiwan and I've already learned so much. Not just about the human trafficking situation; but also the culture, language, and Catholic religion. I am fortunate to have the women here show me around the city of Taipei. It indeed is a beautiful place!

Trying to understand the siutation of human trafficking here is very tricky. The women usually open up about their stories BRIEFLY here and there. The regulation here at the office states that the intern is NOT suppose to ask the women/victims anything (about thier situation)- so its a bit hard to fully understand and know everything. Everyone here has a difficult/complex situation and something to worry and think about each night; but they tend not show it on the outside. It is through late night chats over Mahjong and Sunday shopping through the city that allows me to know a little bit about each of them. In the next few weeks before depature, I hope the rest of them will open up to me!

English class is going well. So far, the women can count to one hundred, sing the English Alphabet, and communicate greetings with one another! Tomorrow will be the human body: head, hands, ears, etc. I believed Vanessa taught them this already and made sock monkeys to help them practice the new terms. However, the women here come and go - so majority did not learn this yet. We'll play "Simon Says" after learning the new terms.

I try to mix activities, games, and learning into each session - so that learning will be more interactive and entertaining. So far, this method is going well!

More later!

Hey Everyone,

All is in well in Taiwan. Yesterday was our "Hop Gia Dinh" (every Friday at 7pm) and it has been amended that I teach English everyday for 1 hour (excluding weekends). I think frequency is BEST when teaching any language. Daily exposures and practices will help them greatly in grasping the skills needed to successfully communicate in English!

We are currently preparing for a very important religious observation for this Sunday. Eight of the women here have practiced day and night for the past 2 weeks on a dance with the song "Dem Hoi Trang Ram". It's really nice!

More later ...

Below is what the women folded on the first day of class - the origami flower box with mini wishing stars. Each star contains a written wish!


Yesterday (on Sunday 8/5/07) was Father's Day in Taiwan. It is usually celebrated on August 8th, but since they wanted to celebrate things on a religious day, we celebrated it on the 5th (Sunday) . The official holiday is call "Ba Ba Jie". The number "8" in Taiwan is pronounced "Ba" and "Ba" means "Father" in Vietnamese. So the 8th Day of the 8th month is reserve for Father's Day. The mass was conducted at another church, so a group of 3-6 women took me on my first bus ride and a stroll on the streets of Taipei. There are so many stores here. They have A LOT of 7-Eleven, KFC, and the infamous McDonald.

Here is my first Boba Drink in Taipei. It's MUCH better over here!


Here's the inside of the church that we attended for "Ba Ba Jie"


On our way back from church, the women introduced me to stinky tofu - something only a small percentage of foriegners can tolerate. I LOVE IT!!! Although too much will make me sick! I heard about stinky tofu through those Chinese Drama I watched. It's finally great to taste it!



Finally, this is the path I take to work each day. It takes no less than 5 walking minutes to get there!

Today was on the downlow. I spent more time on the database project than I did with the women. Dinner is about to start and then I'll be free to play volleyball, mahjong, and watch our nightly drama with the women! More later!

Vanessa warned me that it'll take a month before the women here will start to open up to me. Well, Day Four of the internship caught me by surprise. A women came to me and asked if I could help her with her voice recorder. This voice recorder contains proof that her husband repeatedly beats her and yell at her very harshly. Unfortunately, when I played the mp3 for her, nothing was recorded. She began to tell me how her husband mistreated her everyday. She wanted so bad to recapture those moments inorder to show the court her situation. It really is unfortunate that she couldn't record anything. And now she won't have the chance to do so again.

* FYI: Her voice recorder lights up whenver it is on. She was afraid her husband would see it, so she wrapped paper around it and hid it in her pocket as he yelled and beats her around. I personally think she must have pressed the wrong button because she herself could not physically see that voice recorder.

Cha Hung is currently dealing with her situation right now, so we'll see what happens in the next week or so.

On a more pleasant note, three of the women here took me out to buy a Mah Jong set. It was the first time I got to walk around from where I intern. I had the chance to get to know these three much better. They are quite funny. It's histerical with them~! Anyways, I hope to use this Mah Jong set to not only teach the women the game itself but to learn numbers as well (in English of course). So far, their hands are itching to play each time!

Well, I got injured (minor scratches) today by slipping on the volleyball court. It was raining, but despite the water, we STILL PLAYED!!! As a result, SOMEBODY had to get injured right? :(

Well, dinner is over and the women here are playing again - So I will go join them!

Take Care Everyone!

Just thought I add the Art of Soybean Making. The women here make some killer Soybean Milk. I think I will miss the fresh and natural taste of soybean milk when I return here to the states!

Cac Chi o day lam Sua Dau Nanh RAT la NGON!" So MOT !!!! ;-)

Here's a quick step by step of the entire process:
-Soybean is soak in water for 4-6 hours (depending on quantity)
-The bean itself is then added to a blender with a ratio of 1 cup soybean to 3 cup water


-While one person is blending, another person squeezes what have been blender into another container.
-She then rinses out the excess into another container.


-She dumps what is left from the bag into a third container.
-As you can see, there are a lot of bowls for this soybean making process.


-This is what you get so far from all the extraction.


-Now it's time to boil the what has been extracted. They let it cook for 10 minutes!
-Sugar is added once they think the soybean milk is hot enough. As sugar is added, one has to continue to stir the soybean every now and then to make sure that solids will not build up at the top layer.


-After 10 minutes, the soybean milk is ready to drink. You can drink it hot or wait for it to cool down, add ice, and drink it cold! Although it is hot here, I prefer hot soybean milk. ;-)

Hope you all enjoy this cultural aspect of Taiwan!

Just though I'd post some pictures...

Here's my plane from LAX to TPE airport:

TPE Airport:

My room in Taipei (The room from "The Grudge"):

Day Three of Internship, It's RAINING!!!:

Day Three or so of my internship and I must say, the women and I bonded fairly quickly since the day I arrived. They have a new volleyball area and through playing these various sports (the other is badminton), I've managed to easily break the ice with them. I must add, Cha Hung is quite good at Badminton. Who would have thought?

At the shelter, the women here all refer to me as "Anh Vinh" (Big Brother Vinh), even though majority of them are older than me. In return, I address them all by "Chi" (Older Sister). So it's quite wierd how we address each other - but there's nothing anyone can do about this!

For those that don't know, as a VietACT Intern, one is require to teach various classes for the women here. I am currently in charge of doing computer classes, English classes, Arts and Crafts classes, and then a mixture of various activities inbetween. Today I was supposed to teach computer classes, but since the projector cannot be located, we did various activities along with some paper folding.

To start the class off, we went around the room to introduce each other. This will allow me to know the names of everyone here better and will allow them to know the names of each other as well (we recently have five new people here). The rule was that they have to introduce themself in English by saying...

"My Name is ... Vinh", etc.

Then and I asked if anyone can recite the names of all the women here. One person did and I gave her some American snack! Everyone clapped!!!

After the introduction, we headed downstairs to do some outdoor activities. The activities included some stuff I taught my officers when I was President for our VSA (SDSU - Vietnamese Student Association). It encourages the women to work together, communicate with each other, and realize that things are possible if they all help and support one another. Following the activities, I taught the women how to fold a flower box. Then I taught them how to fold little stars to put in their newly made flower box. I presume the women here all have hardship, wishes, and hopes - so with each star, I told them to write down there wishes and hopefully it will come true. We joked around a lot, laughed throughout the session - they all said today's lesson was very fun and very engaging. I'd like to note that throughout the class session, I would do my best to teach them English whenever appropriate, such as: stars, thank you, one, two, etc. The women here are quick learner and are very eager to learn new things! I'm sure we'll have more fun classes in the future.

After class, I now have a new name, Thay Vinh (Teacher Vinh). It really is too much right?

Right now (around 1PM) we just ate lunch and the women are resting/relaxing. At 3pm they will attend another class (conducted by another staff), follow by dinner (at 6pm), and then our traditional game of volleyball at night.

The days are slipping by very quickly so I'm doing my best to cherish the moments I have here at that shelter. I've adjusted to the sleeping cycle here (no more jet lag) but occasionally wake up at 3am for no apparent reason.

Life is good here in Taipei! I look forward to tomorrow!

P.S. It's hot and thundering everywhere!

P.S.S. And Vi (Vanessa) - the staff and women here at the shelter said "Hi"! They told me your Vietnamese was very soft and cute! Haha! Come back and visit them! ;-)

I've been wanting to post this entry a long time ago, but my laptop and internet connection had problems. Here's an entry that I wanted to post since Day One of my Internship!

Ni Hau Ma from Taipei!

Obviously if you are reading this entry, it can only mean one thing - I made it safe and sound to Taipei. It was a long 13 hour flight until I finally got to TPE airport at around 11pm and settled down at the apartment around midnight. My room is very cozy and comfy. It has the traditional Japanese sliding door that reminds me very much of the room from “The Grudge”. It's equipped with a water fan (I would die without this) and the place I sleep is right next to the window, hopefully to capture in the humid breeze at night time. Its 84 degree and humid, but it's actually not as bad as I had imagined. My summer trip to Vietnam many years ago was much worse. So the condition here is manageable. I'm slowly getting adjusted to the sleep cycle over here. I believed I only slept 4 hours last night with 3-5 sudden interruptions. I'm typing this during the evening over here, which is about 1-2am in the U.S. – so I'm VERY sleepy right now.

It's currently Day One of my internship and my very first assignment was to visit a Male Detention Center / MDC (another shelter approximately 15 minutes or so away from the place I’m currently interning). The MDC is where our Vietnamese brothers (ages ranged from the early twenties to the forties) are held captive due to illegal immigration, job bribery, and many other reasons. It was so surreal to be inches away from them because I usually hear stories like these through the newspapers and from the internet. As Cha Hung and a Case Worker (Chi Mai) interviewed the men individually, I cannot help, but sympathize with their situation and wished that there was something I can do.

I mainly stood by Cha Hung's side and listened to the stories. As soon as Cha Hung left for something, I had a chance to talk to the men. Nobody knew that I was Vietnamese (they thought I was Taiwanese) and they were shocked when I started asking them questions in Vietnamese. They were fairly young men(my age in their early twenties) and that's what probably broke the ice between us. I really felt like I was either speaking to one of my cousins or uncles from Vietnam.

One of the things I've learned is that the men stay at the center all day long and are only allowed outside twice a week. One guy personally requested that the next time I return (Cha Hung visit this place every Wednesday), that I bring them some Vietnamese reading material because they are very bored here. I wish I knew about this prior to leaving the U.S., because there are tons of Vietnamese reading materials down in east side San Diego and even some that I have laying around in my house. Now that I'm in Taiwan, I don't even know where to start looking for them. If YOU have any Vietnamese magazines, newspapers, books – anything that you think they will enjoy in order to kill time, please send them directly to Cha Hung's office and I will personally hand it to them at my next visit.

Well, I just had lunch with the staff and victims here at the shelter. This is my first meal with them so it's very awkward at first. I'm sure with time I'll be able to get to know each and everyone of them. I'd like to add that I'm having trouble remembering everyone's name, so I try to question and converse without using their name. It's quite mind-boggling!
Well, just thought I do an update on this blog while I wait for my evening meeting with Cha Hung.