Visiting Sachsenhousen Concentration Camp in Germany

Visiting this concentration camp was very moving to me since I was in prison El Salvador during the Civil War and my husband is Jewish and his uncle was in a German concentration camp, too. The minute I walked through the gate, I felt goose pimples just to think about all the suffering that the prisoners endured in this terrible camp. Can you imagine that at the end as the Soviet army approached the camp, the prisoners were forced to march to the Baltic Sea to get on the boats to be thrown in the sea. During the walk many prisoners died of exhaustion or cold. This was the first camp to be built in 1936 and used as a model for the other camps under the supervision of SS Heinrich Himmler as chief of the German Police in 1936. More than 200,000 people were in this Sachsenhousen Concentration camp between 1936 and 1945 and about half perished. First, this camp was used for political prisoners, but the Germans soon started to send prisoners defined as racially or biological inferior. What is interesting to me is how they portrayed the Jews as stereotypes shown in Nazi publications with bald heads and big noses. Yet, many Germans have a big nose and Hitler himself didn't look like the so called Arian race, Hitler had dark hair, and brown eyes. My mother in-law told me that she used to work in a clothing store and the Germans came and destroyed the store. They didn't do anything to her and let her go because she had blue grey eyes and fair skin.
Education is so important in the world to become aware of the significance of these terrible events; unfortunately, it wasn't covered in my educational experience in El Salvador. I went to a private high school and the University of El Salvador, Central America and I never was taught about the genocide of the Jews during the second World War.

So in reality Hitler used the Jews as scapegoats and used as a pretext the
biological features of the Jews to kill then. I empathize with the prisoners in this camp since they were at the mercy of the German soldiers and they had the guns to control them. I was in prison myself so I know that it is a nightmare and that we can be killed any minute since we don't have power to defend ourselves. Like in this camp prisoners suffered so much torture, humiliation, hunger, and deprivation. I know what it is to be isolated and not be part of the society.
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It is sad to me that the world and goverments didn't learn from this horrible genocide since there had been other genocides such as Darfort, Bosnia, and Rhuanda.
I remembered when I took a course in San Francisco State University that the teacher posed some questions about what can we do to prevent another genocide in the world. Most of us said that it was important to be active and vigilant of our government's actions and speak out against injustice.

Our friends who live in Schwerin, Germany were really nice and one of them told me that their parents told her that they didn't know what Germany was doing to the Jewish people. You don't see too many German flags around; I got the impression that many Germans feel ahamed of their country's past.

The Loris Malaguzzi International Centre Centro Internazionalle Loris Mallaguzzy

The highlight of my trip was to visit the Loris Mallaguzzy International Centre, which promotes the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood development that we have been implementing at my children's center in San Francisco. I had the opportunity to meet Sara Ferrari who works in the center. She gave a me a tour of the exhibition and explained to me the history of the centro and the different activities that take place here. The exhibition reflects the beautiful work that the children, the teachers, the atelierista, and the community do in the city of Reggio Emilia. The atelierista works together with the teacher to prepare activities that invites children to discover or expand on their knowledge.

The Reggio Emilia approach emphasizes the interests of the children by developing a curriculum from observing the children and reflecting and analyzing the documentation based on the observations. This approach emphasizes children's creativity.

The exhibition begins with a display tracing attitudes towards children and the different stages of educational programs for children in Italy and offered by the city of Reggio Emilia from the beginning of the nineteenth century up to the present. The exhibit puts this in historical context interspacing world events of interest with the historical progression of Italy and the city of Reggio Emilia.

I was astonished to see an exhibition of the Movement and Time Project that they are showing and that we have worked on in our children's center. I love the comments of the children and admire the community participation involved.

I was also very impressed with the light room designed to provoke the children's imagination to encourage them to explore. This room was created by an architect hired by the city with the cooperation of the atelerista, the teacher and the community. The atelerista is a specialist, usually an artist of some kind, who works together with the teacher, the children and the community. This a Meta Project that the atelierista is working on with children ages one to 19 years old. Here children have the opportunity to explore and discover light. The ateliarista has set up a room with many different colors of light and different shapes. The minute one walks through the tunnel the soft lights give one a calm sensation; there is vibration and sensation about the light and the soft colors that makes one feel relaxed. Next, there are four small tables with different kinds of mirrors, and there are three different colors that the children can work with and discover light in different dimensions. In this area the children can discover what happens when they put together different colors such as combining green and yellow to make a reflection of blue light. On another table there are three clear containers with water and three big lights hanging from the ceiling which reflect into the water creating white bins of light. The dark room has phosphorecent soft lights, purple and white, and mirrors. At the end of the exhibitions there are strips of colored paper to draw on the desk; there were bright colors with sparkles and other materials that reflect light for the children to construct different kinds of things. Unfortunally, taking pictures inside the center is not allow, so I have only posted a few pictures of the city and outside of the center.


I want to mention that the director of my children center, Zaida Rodriguez, who recently passed away was responsible for implementing the Reggio Emilia Appoach curriculum in our center. Zaida was dedicated to providing high quality Early Childhood Education for the children. She was always trying to find money available to provide professional development workshops for the staff at our children center to enchance the teachers knowledge. We will miss her dearly.

Florence

Florence is the best place to admire and see the best architectural master pieces that were created between 1200 and 1500 ad.There are so many old churches with beautiful decorations, scultures and paintings. The magnificent Basilica de Santa Maria (Duomo) was built in 1246 by three architectects monks. This super master piece basilica with green and white marble was finished during the Renaissance period by Leon Battista Aberti. Another masterpiece is the Basilica de Santa Crose which leads you to Via Dante De Aligheri who was the father of the Italian language. Dante also wrote la Divina Comedia. There is also the Aligheri tower and the museum which was built in the 20th century. There are many beautiful piazzas all over Florence with beautiful scultures from the Renaissance period. There are astounding works that Michael Angello did and some other painters like him during this time.
Firenze was hot and very expensive. Here the hotel cost 93 Euros. For us this was expensive so we stayed only one day.

Lemon activity at the Piazza in Monterroso

When we were in Monterroso, I saw a beautiful project that the children were having in the piazza. The children, parents and teachers were selling lemonade, lemon cake, lemon jam and lemon candies. They had in the piazza a lemon tree with the pictures that the children had drawn. It was really nice to see this project. Children were dressed in yellow and were singing a song about lemons. I asked the children if I could speak with the teacher, but the teacher wasn’t available. I wanted to know about the curriculum, but unfortunately there was only one teacher couldn’t talk to me because she was too busy setting up.I wanted to know if they are implementing the Reggio Emilia approach curriculum that we are working on in my children's center in Sand Francisco.

I love Sapri

Sapri has been a very relaxing little town for us, especially for my husband who got sick. Every morning for the past three days we have been going out of town and taken the local bus or train to visit Maratera and Scario. Maratera is a beautiful old town on the hills with narrow streets and Scario lies along the beach. Both towns are about a thousand years old according to the local people. I have enjoyed the seafood, the salads, the bread, the wine and the ice-cream Mama Mia todo muy rico. This morning we went hiking here in Sapri and then swimming in the Meditarean Sea. I wanted to stop the time and just be inside the aqua colored water. We are staying in a hotel which is facing the blue sea and in front of a nice small park.

I have met a few immigrants from Romania here in Sapri who asked me for money and told me that life here was very hard. Also in Roma, I was asked for money, I thought that Italy didn't have homeless since it is a powerful country. Of course the United States has homeless people and it is a powerful country. Another problem is graffiti I see it everywhere, and it looks so ugly on a few of the old buildings.

Cimqueterre Mama Mia Molto Bello

After a long train journey,we arrived in La Spezia, Italy, a small city on the Italian Meditarenean coast about 90 miles east of Genoa. La Spezia has a beautiful location tucked between coastal mountains and the sea. It lies close to a rugged coastal area called Cinque Terre, a UNESCO protected area in which there are five old villages perched along the cliffs overlooking the sea. We took the train to the beginning of the trail that connects the villages the first village Monterroso al Mare, Vernaza, Corniglia, Manarola and finally, Riomaggiore(there is no road)and we hiked the 6 miles along the coastal mountains. The minute I got off the train, I wanted to star walking and see the beautiful gardens on the hills. It is a wonderful area combining wilderness with some farms with gardens and fruit trees (oranges, lemons, grapes,figs etc.) The weather was hot and there were many people from different countries that we passed along the trail. We stopped at Cornilia and we bought the most delicious frozen yougurt and we try the strawberry ice cream. After hiking from Cornilia about 4 kilometers and looking down at the beautiful beach. I wanted to go swimming so bad. At one point, we followed a path down to the rocky shore, and I had a nice swim (Allan didn't go because he was sick). The water was cristal clear and warm, this was the best part of my hike. I won't forget this beautiful place that I enjoyed so much. In the evening we shared a dinner at a restaurant near our hotel that included different kinds of seafood, especially clams, a mixed salad and clams and tomato sauce linguine for 20 Euros (about $28). It was a terrific dinner and high quality food.

After two days in La Spezia, we took the train down to Salerno, in the south past Rome and Naples. Salerno has a stunning seaside location at the foot of a high mountain ridge (the Amalfi coast). From the stazione in the early evening, we walked along the beach promendade for a few kilometers to our hotel. Unfortunately, there is a lot of garbage along the beach. Unfortunately the graffiti is terrible, I didn't think I was going to see so much graffiti almost everywhere in this small village. We passed many bars and pizzerias, the main businesses in this part of town. We had a great view of the sea and the mountainous coastline from our hotel room. Here we rested a day while my husband gets better from his cold.

Visiting an elementary school in Germany

We were invited to observe the fifth graders in a bilingual classroom in Dresden, Germany. It is amazing to see the respect that the students showed for the teacher as well for the guests. The teacher let the students know that she was going to bring two English speakers to her class. The location of the school is beautiful, but the building is old. I was shocked to see that the school doesn’t have computers for the students and the classroom lacks a good slide projector. When we entered the classroom, they greeted us in English and the teacher told the students that as long as they have questions to ask they weren’t going to study the text book. The questions began and the students asked many questions about the culture in the United States. They were interested in knowing about our favorite sport, music, food, and what we thought about president Obama. I was impressed by the level of their English understanding as well as their communication skills.

Back in Thailand

After traveling for two day by boat we got to the border town about 6:30 p.m. I was dead tired. We spent the night at the border in Laos in a city call Ban Huai Sai in a simple hotel, but with an outstanding view with coconut trees, mangoes, and some other kind of fruits. The view was spectacular with the Mekong River and on the other side was Thailand and I could see a big temple. In the morning I wanted to sleep late, but we had to cross the border into Thailand. Luckily there weren’t that many people crossing just us, but it was raining. I couldn’t sleep because we needed to get to Chiang Rai since our goal was to spend the night to continue the next day to Pai. All the way along the highway we could see the beautiful forest and green mountains everywhere. We also saw some people working in the hills and some small villages. The next morning we had some yogurt and coffee in the hotel room since most restaurants open late and we like to save some money. After three hours and half we got to Chiang Dao where we spent the night; it was really hot and humid. In the afternoon we hiked to a temple which was a half a mile from our cabin. Chiang Dao is surrounded by beautiful green mountains and in particular there is one that looks similar to the half dome in Yosemite. I love the colorful flowers everywhere especially the orchids, buckenvillas and some other kinds of wild flowers. This is the perfect place to relax, walk and meditate, of course there are many in Thailand, but this is my favorite one. It rained at night and there were so many bugs and to make matters worse the electricity went off, but it was o.k. The problem is that it was unbearable hot and humid, but that is the way it goes when we travel. We never know what to expect, so we have to be ready for anything that comes.
Now we are in Pai, a small, pleasant town in a mountain valley quite crowded with foreigners, especially for this time of the year. The food is really great in the local restaurants; there are four kinds of curry: white, green, yellow, and red. These curries are excellent and we can order them with vegetables, tofu, chicken, seafood, beef, pork, frogs, and some lizards if you like. Anyways, we are enjoying our stay here, but I think I am ready to move on and continue discovering more about the culture in

Leaving Increidible Laos

We left Luang Probang in a small boat; the ride was two days. I enjoyed very much this ride because it was slow and relaxing. It was interested to see on both sides of the river the beautiful jungle and often times many hill tribe people working on the land. Some other children were selling fresh fish and some others were selling snails. I saw many fishermen fishing along the river with nets and sticks. When we stopped a few times some villagers were selling small barbeque fish. They also had a dead squirrel and half of a barbequed armadillo for sale. We could see on both sides of the river the terrible deforestation which has been done both by foreign companies and by the local people who use slash and burn style farming. Sometimes both sides were practically naked due to the deforestation that the hill tribes do in order to plant their crops. It is so sad to see so much devastation; we could see miles of forest cut down. I was really sad because I couldn’t go swimming since I could see garbage and sewer water going into the river at times.
I was in Luang Probang three years ago, but I didn’t have the opportunity to travel like this time. I didn’t know that this city is a holy city. I do understand now why since there is a temple every other block in the city and they seem to compete which one has the biggest Buddha in the city. The temples are beautiful decorated with many statues of Buddhas, and there so many young people and future monks studying there. I wonder if that is the reason why Laotians seem so relaxed and most of them don’t worry about the poor situation in their country. Laotians are very polite and they want to help us all the time. When we entered Thailand, I could see a big difference between these two countries. Of course Thailand has some serious problems too, but not to the extent that Laos does. I remember seeing children and entire families in very poor conditions. What I like about the Buddhist religion is that they are pacifists although they do participate in political action at times. I remember reading in a book how some monks killed themselves by self-immolation during the Vietnam War to protest the injustice of the U.S. backed Diem South Vietnamese regime in the early 60s.

Laos/Luang Nam Tha Province

After riding for three and a half hours from Jing Hong, we got to the border of Laos. Crossing the border is easy if you have a photo and a valid passport. After crossing the border, we continued another hour and a half to the town of Luang Nam Tha, which is known for its trekking, kayaking and rafting. Laos is so different from China and Vietnam. I didn’t see people rushing all over. For example, in Luang Nam Tha, people were more relaxed and they seemed to enjoy their daily life. Luang Nam Tha hardly has traffic, and people don’t seen stressed out and working so hard like in Vietnam and China.
The next day we went for a walk in the afternoon to a water fall near Luang Nam Tha. We passed through many small villages. It was interested to see how minority groups live in their wooden and thatched houses on stilts, and I was shocked to see how they lived with no running water, and no sewer system. They are poor, but they seem to be coping with their situation. I liked to see the women bathing in the river without a bra, and some families were working in the mud picking up some kind of shells, perhaps snails. I thought it was interesting to see most people coming back from work carrying loads of wood, and some baskets with different kinds of vegetables. I could see a whole family even with small children coming back from work looking tired. I was amazed to see that women wear their black traditional outfits with some jewelry, but what impressed me the most was to see the families together bathing in the small river which was coming from the water fall. These families seem to be enjoying themselves after a day of hard work. They were laughing and jumping into the small creek.
I am very sad about the deforestation that we have seen in Laos, I am concerned about the debastation of mother earth. I am scared that if the forestation doesn’t stop the consecuences are going to be horrible. I remembered in my country where I grew in small town full of trees and a beautiful river in the outskirt of San Salvador. I enjoyed the river which is now gone.
Before I came here, I didn’t know much about the history of Laos. For example, I didn’t know about the secret war in the 1960s in which the U.S. dropped over two million tons of bombs on Laos trying to halt the flow of soldiers and arms on the Ho Chi Minh trail and to prevent the Communist Pathet Lao from taking over. Up to one third of the population became refugees. And even today, many people, especially children are being killed or maimed from the remains of the bombing.

Xishuangbanna/The Water-Splashing Festival

We got to Jing Hong the last day of the Water-Festival which is celebrated in mid April. It was fun to see trucks and pick trucks with so many youth on the street pouring water on everybody that they saw. Unfortunately, we had our baggage and we didn’t want our clothes and computer to get wet. It didn’t matter people started to give us a shower, it was a hot day and it felt good. The Dai people believe that the water cleans away the dirt, the pain, and the demons of the year bringing happiness for the new year.
We are still in China in Jing Hong which is in the south of Yunnan. It is a lovely place to be with palm trees along the streets; it feels relaxing, but still crowded to my standards. I was dreaming of resting and enjoying a quiet place; so far I haven’t found it here. I am still thinking of Tiger Leaping Gorge where I hiked 13 miles enjoying three days of peace and quiet. Anyways, here from our hotel I have been watching the street market at night where one can buy jewelry and all kinds of jade ornaments. The market is an interesting place to find antique art craft and wooden carving ornaments.
Yesterday, we took the local bus to go hiking along the Mekong River; we got off the bus and we could see a lot of garbage around the city. As we walked towards the river we continue seeing so much garbage everywhere, I was really sad and depressed. I could see some of the channels transporting dirty water and garbage going straight to the river. The river is so beautiful with palm trees along, yet with so much garbage along the banks and some piles of garbage stacked on the rocks. It reminds me of my hometown where I grew up near San Salvador, El Salvador. The river where I used to go swimming or get water to drink doesn’t exist anymore. It is a shame, we humans are destroying our beautiful planet. I know that China already has implemented the policy of one child per family, but she still need to educate the population about the importance of keeping the river clean.

The end of the World/ Trail of Tiger Leaping Gorge

On our way to Tiger Leaping Gorge from the bus we could see the spectacular views of these high mountains which were astounding. I was looking forward to our hike, but I was worried that I wasn't going to make it. Tiger Leaping Gorge is a place that you must see to believe. We left our hotel at 7:15 am in the morning and we got in the mini bus with other tourists to Qiaotou which is the starting point of the hike. We got to Qiaotou at 9:45 am, we had a cup a coffee at Jane's Guest House. We started our hike from Jane's Guest House; the view is amazingly beautiful with the river below and some rice paddies along the trail. After hiking for two hours we started to see the beginning of the gorge which is the deepest in the world according to many books, about 13,000 feet or more. Wow, what a spectacular sight to see; it is so impressive. I feel that this is paradise if it exists. The mountains are incredibly high. Every step that I took there was another magnificent, breathtaking view. The hike was very strenuous and difficult, but the beautiful jade color river and the giant boulders and water falls made me want to continue. There was a point that I thought I was going to faint luckily, I didn't. My whole body ached and I felt sore, but it is worth it I was walking like a turtle when I started to climb the twenty eight bends after two hours from the beginning. Finally, we got to the Halfway Guest House after 6 hours; this was a great place to spend the night and rest. At this point we were half way from Jane's to Tina's, guest house. The views from our room were fantastic, I could see the higher mountains with snow on top while sitting on the balcony with the view of the mountains in front and the river down below. This is the best hike I ever have done.

Yunnan/Kunming

Yunnan Province (China)
Capital Kunmihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifng, population 1 million
I was impressed to see so many tall buildings in Kunming, it is incredible how many tall buildings it has. We could get lost so easy if we didn’t pay attention where we were since we can't read Chinese Characters, but we could guide ourselves with a little map that our hotel provided us with. I remember twenty three years ago when we lived in China the transportation was so bad, but now buses are efficient. The buses are clean, and some have double decks. Most people seem well dressed and happy. We can see that China has progressed economically and provides excellent transportation for its citizens. I remember we wanted to go someplace when we were living in Chengdu, but it was so difficult to go because the busses were super crowded.

Kunming is one of the largest cities of Yunnan province, it is an amazing city with so many nice parks and different places to visit. Even though we were a few days here, we could see many pagodas around the city. When we were at the park, we saw ten different ethnic groups dancing and playing different music. They were wearing beautiful traditional dresses, it was nice atmosphere to see. China is home to more than half of all ethnic minority groups (56%), Yunnan is nearly 50% non-Han most populous are the Naxi (Lijian) and the Bai (Dali).

Now, we are in Dali, and when we walked, I could see the Bai ethnic groups wearing their beautiful hats which are colorful and match their dresses.

A Hell of a trip from Hanoi to Kunmin

Friday we left Hanoi and took a taxi to go to the train station. The train station was packed with so many tourists asking questions about Sapa and Bac Ha which are beautiful places in Vietnam, but we were going to the border to go to China. We got on the train and the train left exactly at 8:50 pm. We were tired since we went to get the Chinese visa and buy the train tickets to leave immediately.

We shared our sleeping compartment with a younger couple. She was from Brasil and he was Swedish. We talked for an hour about our travel experiences and then we said good night. The train started to move and was going quite fast; each of us got in our tiny little bed. The three of them seemed to be sleeping, and I was looking through the window, but of course it was dark and couldn’t see anything. Once in a while I could see some dim lights and some houses. I felt like I didn’t have enough air, and the train was bumping along. I really wanted to sleep, but I was dead tired. I felt dizzy and wanted to leave the train, but the train was moving really fast. I got a terrible headache and I felt like throwing up. I tried to meditate, but it was difficult since the train was moving fast and making a lot of noise. I felt really miserable. Just when I falling asleep, an attendent knocked on the door and said, “here we are; get your possessions.” I felt drowsy and did not want to leave, but we had to. It was a little bit chilly and foggy. We had a very good breakfast at the border before leaving Vietnam. We walked two kilometers to the border with our backpacks. We went through customs,crossed the river into China, and went through customs again on the Chinese side.

Allan started to practice his Chinese and asked for the bus to Yunnan that was easy. Then we bought the tickets and it was about 9:15 am. We got on the bus at 10:50 am. After two hours the bus broke down with some kind of problem, but we didn’t mind since the ride was beautiful. We could see high mountains, rivers and small villages of twenty or fifty old adobe houses. I love to see the rice paddies on the mountainsides and the farmers working or selling their products along the highway. While the bus was being fixed, we ate in a small restaurant. First, they brought us a dish of bacon which we didn’t order, so we went into the kitchen and pointed out what we wanted (eggplant, tomatoes, scallions and garlic)which the cook soon fried up in his wok. We had a delicious lunch in that little place.

Finally, the bus was fixed and we started the journey again, but broke down several more times along the way. What it was going to be 10 hours ended up being 13 hours. We got to Kunming at midnight, we were cold, tired and hungry. We got a Taxi and here we are in Kunmin.

Thoughts about Vietnam

I have been thinking about Vietnam and I have concluded that it is so different than other countries that I had visited around the world including the underdeveloped countries. It differs in the position of women in society. I see a great number of women attending high school and higher education in urban cities and in the country side.

Vietnamese women seem to be proud and sure about themselves in the cities. I noticed that they are big contributors to the economy. I see countryside women working from sunrise to sunset in order to support their families. I have seen in the museums from south to north the participation of women during the Vietnam war how much they contributed for the triumph. Yet yesterday when we went on a tour, the guide told us a little bit about the women in this country. I didn't like to hear about the treatment of many women in Vietnam society. The guide said that there are prostitutes for married men because they get bored with the same wife. He also told us that arranged marriages are still customary, especially in the countryside where parents choose the spouse for their children.

Hue

Hue
Now, we are in Hue which is an incredible old and historical city. Hue has been on of the cultural, historical and educational centers with many royal tombs, a citadel, ancient pagodas and gardens. It was a hell of a place to be during the Vietnam war since the city was near the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ)and was the site of the largest battle of the Tet Offensive of 1968. It is amazing to see the number of tanks, bombs and granades that have been dispersed all over Vietnam in different museums.

We went for a walk yesterday to the Citadel, where the emperor used to live two hundred years ago. It is surrounded by large walls and guard towers with a moat protecting the inner area. There are beautiful gardens which surround the big palace. I am sure thousands of people were forced to help build the citadel. I know that throughout history all over the world kings, queens, leaders all over the world have obligated or and enslaved their people to build these huge palaces, castles, and special houses well protected, but I am glad that the United States presidents have been sharing the White House to live in without forcing the people to work and live there as slaves (although surely slave labor was used to build it). I am not crazy about visiting these emperors citadel or temples because they represent the suffering of the people.

Around the Citadel we saw some of the tanks that the Americans used against the Vietcong; it is sad to see such terrible machines that cause so much pain and destruction in this small city. I peeked inside of one of the tanks, I could see still a wire from an old telephone, an old rusted screen and some other gages that the soldiers used during the war. There were six tanks and other anti-aircraft. I was emotional and I thought about the thousands of soldiers from both sides who died here. It was a heavy scene to see because I can imagine the suffering of the American soldiers in this land which is far away from their home.

We went on six hour tour where we had the opportunity to visit the Ho Chi Min Trail, Khe San combat zone, the tunnels of Vinh Moc, and an Ethnic minority village and the Ben Hai river (the former dividing line between the North and the South).
The most impressive site to visit has been the tunnels which I have been so scared to go into because I am claustrofobic, I would go in only to save my life. The tunnels are very impressive and many tourist go inside to experience what the VC went trhough. When the tourists come out of the tunnels, they are sweating and without breath. They get a taste of the horrible conditions that the VC went trhough to save their lives. Here the tunnels were strong, but in other places the tunnels were weak and the Vc rebels died sofocated.

Visit to Child Care Center

I went to visit another child care center and I was amazed to see what a beautiful garden the center had. As usual, I was very impressed to see how spotless the center was. I had the opportunity to be there just when the children were going to lie down for a nap. Each child had his own pillow and a light blanket; they lie down without any problem there were 32 children and one teacher. I also was surprised that the care providers let me go in without any appointment and they were so friendly and wanted to talk to me. The curriculum that they implement is mainly teacher directed activities and the children follow directions. I visited the center in the morning and in the afternoon, and I had the opportunity to see when the parents came to pick the children up. It was interesting to see that at 4:30 pm the children were dismissed and most of the parents came into the center to get their children. Most parents stay and play in the playground with their children at least for 10 or 15 minutes. I thought that it was nice that the parents stay in the center and share some time with their children. I didn't see the parents signing out the children which was strange for me since in the United States we have to make sure that the parents sign in and out their children. I got the impression that the Vietnamese parents are not worried about safety issues or anybody taking their children.

Vietnamese Women

I love to see the participation of Vietnamese women in the work force; it is amazing to see younger and older women working in many different kinds of job. We have been in Hoi An (Central Coast) three days and I have been observing a lady who opens her little stand by the hotel at 6:30 am and leaves at 8:00 or 9:00 pm. She always has a big smile and she always tries to communicate with us, and offer us some of the French bread, brie cheese and other things that she is selling. I like to see the the woman at the restaurant who is smiling most of the time and inviting us to eat dinner or breakfast. This lady opens the restaurant at 6:00 am and closes at 10:00 pm. Then I love to see the women on the street carrying in their baskets vegetables, fish, meat, and other merchandise. Some women work at the river with tourists paddling the canoes and they seem to be happy. I see almost everyday women working in the rice paddies and taking care of their plants. Daily, I see women carrying their infants, toddlers and older children on their motorcycles.

Women are the economic moving force, yet some men do not treat them well. I am heartbroken to read in the Vietnamese English News paper accounts of women being abused by their husbands physically. Luckily,a law against domestic violence was adopted by the national assembly in 2007. and in Ha Noi in 2007, the United Nations Population Fund with help from Swiss Agency opened a women's shelter which at the beginning had only 43 women and 32 children, but now has about 400 women who are being helped. The shelter includes medical checkups, psychological counseling, vocational training support, job creation and part-time education. Domestic violence affects women from all different economic status. "The shelter is often accused of encouraging women to run away from their families", says Le Thi Thuy, director of the center. She responds to this by reminding people that the shelter is a last resort for emergencies where a victim's life, health, or dignity are in danger. According to the director, some women come directly from the hospital after being hurt by their spouses, and some women can not even walk when they seek refuge in the shelter, says a case manager. At least some women in Ha Noi are able to get some help at the center when they need it. If you would like to read the article here is the information. htt://vietnamnews.vietnamnews.vnanet.vn
Vietnam News: The National English Language Daily
Friday March 6, 2009 (page 4)

It was a pleasure to be here for International Women's Day,(March 8); in most places that I went women tried to communicate that it was a special day. There were many people selling flowers on the streets and you could feel the excitement. I saw quite a few men buying flowers for women in their family probably or girlfriends and boyfriends. This morning we met a German girl who spent some time with a family for Women's day. She told us that they had many different dishes and they were playing games to celebrate women's day.It seems that many people celebrate International Women's day here.

I know that we women have to work hard to change our status in the world especially in underdeveloped countries. It is horrible the abuse that happens in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America and some other parts of the world.