Bung Sang

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Bung Sang School of Music for the Blind, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The school lost Mr. Dau and is in a state of change.

Mr. Dau died in 2007 from complications of diabetes. We are looking into what is going on and will report when we know.

Please follow our growth and development. With an introduction, and minimal guidance by VVG staff, this page is being prepared by young people who are 100% visually impaired.

This is a public service campaign of the Vietnam Venture Group, Inc. that takes no fee or other form of remuneration for the services we perform.

We give kudos and more to donors and sponsors who so generously support the children. Please read about these generous acts and wonderful people.

This is the start of the introduction by the Vietnam Venture Group.

The Bung Sang School for the Blind is home to 50 children. This is their website. However, this introduction is provided by the Vietnam Venture Group (VVG). We are their friends, and host their website.

Most recent material:

The School is now licensed! Too late by only months to save the Computer Room, but there is now hope that the next benefactor's largess will be fully utilized. All we need is to locate that next benefactor!

New Profiles of three more students are found below. Visit with Tung who is 14, Dat who is 13, and Nhat who is 20. These delightful children are full of life and accomplishment. Click here to read their stories.

The Computer Room has now closed. Following two year's operation, the hopes of forming a fully owned Braille Center run by and for the Bung Sang kids was not to be. We are still trying to fully understand why. Using your mouse or appropriate key-board controls, click here, to read and view descriptions and photos of the former facility.

Dang Hoai Phuc writes "From My Heart," an essay on the meaning of education for the blind. Read this provocative article by clicking here.

Two boys, piano virtuosos, travel on a sponsored trip to Bangkok to explore attending a four-year degree program in classical music (and maybe a little jazz). Use your keyboard controls or your mouse to click here in order to read about their journey and see photos from their exciting, first-ever, trip abroad.

We lost Ms. Doan to leukemia. While we are all the more sad for her death we will always celebrate her life. Please read her story by scrolling down or by clicking here.

PHUC at age nine, digging in his parent's garden, found a bomb planted firmly in the ground. The explosive device was hidden, either by man to trap others, or by gravity when it fell, having been shot from a mortar or artillery cannon, and failed to explode at that time.

The bomb waited decades for Phuc to stumble upon it. Then, in 1991, the bomb performed as its makers and users intended. It exploded, taking out both of Phuc's eyes, scaring his very handsome face, destroying one finger, and puncturing his chest and his left leg.

No one intended, but no doubt many imagined, that someone like Phuc would be the innocent victim of that bomb. Eight years later, due only to his ability and the services of his school, Phuc graduated high school and now attends university courses studying languages. A skilled piano player, Phuc excels in the violin and guitar.

HUNG was born talented. At age 4 he caught measles and lost his sight. Now 23 years old, Hong's talents have been long ripening and include languages and music. Fluent in French, Chinese (Mandarin), and English, in addition to his native Vietnamese, Hong's talents for music have placed him at the concert level of achievement. The maturation of such talent leaves Hong in a quandary: he wants to study law and music, but the schools in Vietnam are not equipped to teach him. For the first time in his life Hong doesn't know what to do. Now he is developing a deep concern over his ability to earn his own way

VAN recently recorded his first CD album of folk songs. It is a smashing hit. His music talents may be bested by his computer skills. Using voice activated and verbalization programs, Van writes, studies, and produces graphic results. Van recently won a full, four year scholarship to study computer sciences in Japan, and is now living there. At 25 years old, Van lost his vision at age 3 when he contracted measles. He lived and studied at the Bung Sang School until May, when he left for his overseas studies.

These are three of the current 52 children, aged 7 to 27 who attend the Bung Sang School for the Blind in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Each child has his or her own story. It is our intention to make many of the children and their stories known to you on these pages.

This next part is by the students

SAIGON WATERPARK

Forty children from our school went to visit this entertainment park in late April 1999. Our ages range from 7 to 23 years old. This was the first time any of us had ever been to an amusement park. This was the first time many of us had ever exerted ourselves in playful physical activity.

You can see how much fun we had, even those few of us who got dizzy. Our sighted sponsor became the most dizzy. He said we were spared the view from the heights, and his fear of being flipped out of the open deck on some rides! Click on each photo to see us more clearly. Below each photo is a description.

This is our group of 40 as we pose under the White Water Ride. Our excitement was building to a high. Even the little ones listen carefully as we receive instructions. No one missed a thing. Here we are, hands on shoulders, all walking in line, all dressed to swim The sound of our stamping feet as we walked over wooden bridges brought smiles to our guide. Here we started by a ride down the slow, Lazy River, trying to sit on huge inner tubes.

Here are two guys falling down the great White Water Slide, and about to be dunked. The broad smile on Chao's face (the lad in front seat) tells you how much fun he thinks the Slide-ride is! Ready for lunch, here are Phuc & Phat trying to put their arms around a large friend. We ate a normal lunch, but were so hungry, we ate more. This is Hoa, resting & thinking. Here is Phuc who is dreaming, no doubt about the day that was a blast.

VVG's introduction continues:

In helping the children to tell their stories, we will be gentle, for so are the children. Please be warned: some of the stories will allow you to cry as you visit with the children of Bung Sang School, but they do NOT want your pity.

We, both the children and those who now meet them, learn from each other, want you to accept them as friends, albeit with a few special needs.

The children teach we, who are not physically or visually challenged, to not underestimate them or their abilities. Those who are blessed with vision help these children explore what to them are the wonders of the sighted world often kept from them. However, once experienced, the visional people learn that these events are not difficult for our friends to know and understand.

The children do not blame anyone for their visual impairment. They do not seek and will not accept pity from anyone. They are each determined to not merely survive but to thrive as fully independent and productive citizens.

All of the children of the Bung Sang School, Phuc, Hong, Van, and their schoolmates, look forward to your friendship, your moral support, and your understanding of their needs. In the event you are able to offer some of the assistance they need, they promise to not let you down.

The children are in constant motion, almost churning, but always going forward. They are inexorably moving towards the realization of the dreams we all share: those of individual achievement and personal success.

Some children arrived as orphaned infants as young as 3 years old. The others come from impoverished families who cannot afford to pay even the modest costs of Vietnamese medical and educational services.

The Bung Sang School is completely free to each child. It exists entirely upon the gifts that it receives. The school and its facilities are among the most modest imaginable, which makes the achievement of its students all the more remarkable. It is our goal to improve the basic services for the children, and then help them grow to the full extent of their abilities.

This next part is by the students:

Our school is led by Dao Khanh Truong, whose own story follows those of his students. Thirty boys and 18 girls spend 7 days a week in our four-room house. It is 120 meters down a small alley in the teaming center of District 10, formerly part of the Cholon (the Chinese) district of Saigon.

Our entire school building measures 10 feet by 30 feet. It consists of a ground floor entry that serves as music class room, business office, food inventory, food preparation, and sleeping room for 10 of the schools 30 overnight borders. A smaller room is used as the storage room for many classical Vietnamese string instruments, our one telephone, our one PC that does not work, and Mr. Dao's bed.

The third room on the ground floor is our kitchen. It seems to always have a huge kettle or two boiling, filling our small house with heavenly humid scents of garlic, ginger, basil, cilantro, chicken, pork, or fish. Behind the kitchen is our single, toilet and shower room.

Click on the images that follow below to see enlargements of our school and our living environment. Descriptions of each photo are beneath it.

This is the alley that leads to our school. This shows the outside of our school. It is a very simple building. The entry room is used as the office and meeting room. Pictured are Binh, Song, Hung, Phuc and our teacher, Mr. Dao. In this room Mr. Dao also carefully guides our music lessons. Shown at the piano is Hung, and Mr. Dao is standing. We also eat our meals in this room. Shown is Sunday lunch being served. At night, 10 boys sleep in this room.

VVG's introduction concludes:

VVG's GOAL is to raise awareness, materials, and funds to help support the efforts of the school to meet the medical, social and vocational needs of these remarkable children in several ways:

Community Outreach - taking the students on local tours, as much to acquaint the sighted community to their independence, as to bring the students fully into today's world.

Medical Outreach - bringing ophthalmologic examinations and possible restorative surgery where it is possible. Many have never been examined.

Library Resources- seeking suppliers of audio and Braille material to provide a full range of subjects for teaching music, math, sciences and literature, in both English and Vietnamese.

Computer Sciences - bringing hardware and software to the students, and giving them the opportunity to build this, their own Web Pages.

Financial Support - seeking funds to assist the school both to continue and to improve on its good works.

The New World Hotel Saigon and the Saigon WaterPark were recent hosts to our group.

We are making contact with leading ophthalmologic surgeons in Vietnam and in the States, seeking the ability to carry our out goal.

We are investigating and seeking needed software to covert our company PCs to accommodate the needs of the blind.

We hope to attract the donation of modern Braille notepads, printers and PCs, as well as to build a library of audio tapes and Braille books for the school. Some of you reading this page may have already received our letters of solicitation.

If you could not tell from the pictures, there is a crying need for a new school house. It is not merely crowded, but twenty lads now sleep on the ply-wood floor of the loft room, while ten boys sleep on the floor of the entrance room. One toilet and shower serves all students and staff.

If you are able to help by donating software, hardware, audio, or Braille materials for the study of music and other subjects that children of all ages can enjoy, please write to us

The photographs of the children and their environment on this website will help you to get to know the children. We hope you will enjoy reading this page as much as we enjoy helping them to prepare it.

If you are able to make a financial contribution to the Bung Sang School, please write to the President of VVG, Peter N. Sheridan, and discuss it with him at: write to us

This next part is by the students:

Mr. Dao and his staff are themselves blind. They teach us how to live independent lives by caring for ourselves in every way. From Braille to personal hygiene, we are also taught to navigate the busy streets of Saigon without aides, other than our own finely tuned senses of direction, hearing, and touch.

Each of us, even the smallest, attends school with normally sighted children. We either walk to and from the Bung Sang School and the regular classes, or we take motorbike taxis. There are no Braille books, other than those we make ourselves. We pay close attention in class and take notes on hand-held plastic punch boards. After classes, we depend on children with vision to read our lessons and homework exercises to us, and we transcribe the them into Braille.

We also attend lessons in music. Most of us are accomplished on the piano, guitar, and/or classical Vietnamese string instruments like the dinh bau. Many of us also study foreign languages. English, French, Chinese and Japanese are the most popular in our school.

Just below are more photos of our school. Please click on the images to see enlargements. Descriptions of each photo are beneath it.

This is Mr. Dao's room which also serves as the storage room for many of our string instruments. Sighted people have a problem climbing these stairs. This photo shows how narrow and steep they are. Here is our kitchen. Sighted staff are seen eating. Behind them is our single toilet and bath. Here, vegetables are washed. All of our food is donated and carefully prepared, sometimes by visiting cooks.

Up a 45% slope, we climb 15 steps to the loft above. A 6 by 10 foot section to the left and rear is used as the girls' changing and chat room. The remaining area, 21 by 10 feet, is our loft room that serves as social room, study area, visiting space for girls & boys, and sleeping quarters for 20 boys. There is also locker storage room for all 30 boys.

We spend many hours each day practicing both music and foreign languages, in addition to our normal lessons. This course of study is time consuming and difficult. Most of this work is done sitting on stools in the alley outside, or upstairs in our large loft room.

We are often found in the upstairs room playing guitar or keyboard, listening to individual cassette recordings of our classes, reading Braille, talking or just listening. At night, it's a rather tight fit but lots of fun.

Here are more photos of our school. Click on each to see an enlargement. Below each photo is a written description.

This is the loft, the main upstairs room. On a typical afternoon, 20 or more students are found studying. Here, about 15 of the 20 people present can be seen. Here is another view of the same room. We are happy to be close with each other, except on sunny afternoons when it becomes very hot and a bit stinky. This is the girls changing room at the head of the ladder. It also is where we meet privately for girl talk.

One wall of the large, loft room is filled floor to ceiling with 30 built-in cubbyholes, each 1 foot cubed in size, individually locked and holding all our boys' personal belongings. The day-time heat can be intense in this room. The bare metal roof is less than 6 feet overhead. The outside walls are also bare metal, with painted plywood on the inside. The floor is also wood, and not very cool. However, we are lucky to have a few fans to move the air around.

Our Braille library, such as it is, is prepared entirely by the students. We do not have an audio tape library. We have many individual cassette players that we use to record our classes.

We have one computer at the school. It is a IBM XT that was new in 1988. It has been upgraded and is now outfitted with a Braille keyboard and a locally developed Vietnamese program for vocal key and text reading. However, it is now broken and we are told it does not warranted being fixed.

Now that we met our new friends at VVG, they now allow us to use their Pentium IIIs on the weekends. But it is a real challenge as they do not yet have software to make it fully usable by us. Instead, the VVG staff sit next to us and read the text on the screen! We hope to have proper software soon.

This is Phuc's Story. OK, stop laughing. My name is pronounced "fook." To the right of this text is my photo. Click on it to see an enlargement. Perhaps you will laugh again, but I know I am a very handsome guy. Many people tell me that, and I believe them. Look closely. Can you see the green color of my skin? It is worse on the fingers of my right hand. This strange color is the remnants of gunpowder from the explosion. The small black spots are not dirt or acne blemishes. They are bits of lead and steel that remain imbedded in my face and neck. I am 18 years old. 1999

People I love and respect told me the accident was my own fault. I was nine years old when the bomb went off. Could I have known better? Should I have been more careful? Was I the cause of the explosion, the damage to my body, and the near ruination of my family's meager financial standing? These are questions I always ask myself.

As a joke, laughing on the outside but feeling pain deeply on the inside, I often tell people that I am a naughty boy. Some times I am. I worry about my studies, my life, and my future. Often I have dreams that I can see. Sometimes I cry. Many who never had sight cannot know the loss that I suffer, or the fear that is still deep inside me.

Recently, a new friend told me for the first time that I was a complete innocent. Those words are so comforting. Wanting to believe them, I cannot yet feel he is correct. He asks how could I possibly have imagined the danger or harm, and how could I be responsible for my family's poverty in a nation of poor people?

It is difficult to change the feelings that come from words spoken by family, teachers, and friends from my home village. These feelings of guilt, low expectations, and low self-esteem have grown strong over the past 8 years. I rarely enjoy visits home.

I am relatively lucky. The explosion did not harm me more, or kill me. Almost one year after the accident, I went to my first school for the blind, but had to transfer here when my family ran out of money.

Now that I have lived at the school for more than five years, I am relatively independent. Having finished high school where I mastered both English and French, now I am a full time student at Teachers University and continue my music, literature, history, and math lessons. I also am now studying Japanese. I love my studies.

Having studied English for thirteen months (as of April 1999), it surprised my family and teachers that I was then nearly fluent English speaker. I have a great love of studding foreign languages and am now fluent in French and doing well in Japanese. However, music is my first love. The piano was my introduction to music four years ago. Told that I excel in the piano, my true love is the violin, but my passion is the classical guitar.

Now that I am eighteen, I know I have a long way to go. School is very important and difficult for me. Math is particularly hard, as the teacher is always writing on the board and of course I cannot follow him. I also know that if I had not suffered the accident and found this school I might never have gone so far in my education. None of my village classmates ever went to high school while I have graduated.

I love my studies more than anything. Thinking of them all the time, I want to continue my music studies at university level. However, we have no books in Braille for sheet music, biographies or histories of famous musicians, or books on the theories of music composition or scoring.

Our friends told us that a few people in America and some other nations are now sending material in Braille to our school. It is hard for me to understand that some people have so much that they don't need it. It is even more difficult to believe that they will send it to us just to help me and my friends who they don't even know.

Sometimes I cry because I feel so sad for what I lost and from fear for what lies ahead for me. Now, when I think of the kindness of complete strangers who are not even Vietnamese. That too makes me what to cry, but this time from happiness. Thank you, everyone, thank you.

To the right of this box is a photo me (I am on the extreme left of the photo) with some of my friends at the New World Hotel in Saigon. Hong is on the right. Before this visit, none of us had ever been to a large building. It is difficult even now to imagine that we are on the second floor, walking through a jungle of plantings, finding our way to the swimming pool.

This next photo on the right is a favorite. It shows my friend, Son (the other handsome guy wearing a blue shirt) and me when we are having tea, talking to our sighted friends who read our lessons to us. We are sitting in the alley outside our school.

Note from VVG:

As reported in Viet Nam News on 23 August 1999, "Dang Hoai Phuc and Tran Thi Minh Tuyet will study English at the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities this semester after passing university entrance exams held last month. The students will attend the same classes as other students but will use Braille books. Exams will be written in Braille or taken orally."

Congratulations to these accomplished students from the Bung Sang School. Phuc has already told you his story just above. Tuyet will soon be telling you her story, below. We very proud of them both.

The student's stories now continue:

This is Hung's Story. In the photo on the right, I am the guy in the white shirt, standing to the right of my big friend. Not a saint by any means, sometimes I tire of people complementing me. However, I am told I must be more gracious and accept praise when it is due. Sometimes, like when a taxi driver tries to cheat me into paying more than a regular fare, I act aggressive, but that is rare. Rarely do I ever act as meek as I sometimes feel. Click on my photo and see an enlargement of what I look like. Handsome, yes? 1999

Told that many blind people in America and Europe wear dark classes, I refuse. Sunglasses give me headaches. Blind since birth, I can yet perceive light through my eyes. Not able to make out forms or shapes, but if I can't feel the sun, I am uncomfortable. I love the warm feeling of the sun's rays as they strike my clouded eyes.

Once I was asked if I would wear dark glasses at night. Why, I replied? They would not make me feel more comfortable. People with vision who have a problem looking at me, at my eyes, and accepting me as I am, are not people who I care to please. Wearing dark glasses would only make them feel more comfortable, not me.

Music lessons for me began when I was three. My language lessons began with my native Vietnamese and have not yet stopped. Now fluent in Chinese and English, I am also taking up French. Always carrying some lessons with me, you can often see me with my hand in my bag or book, looking for questions to ask, or reading away as sighted people think I am only paying attention to them.

It is my dream to earn a university degree in both music and law. However, we do not have any Braille material for such study in Vietnam. The amount of material I must read for law seems daunting at best in printed form. Perhaps I will just have to commit that material to memory. It will be a bit more challenging to do the same with music.

It came as a complete surprise to know that there are blind lawyers. Now that I know a blind lawyer is helping our school by donating materials to us, I want more than ever to get on with my computer studies and start corresponding with the world. Just being able to imagine that I might study law is exciting.

But I am a realist. The likelihood that I can become a lawyer in Vietnam is not great. However, as it now looks like we will be getting music, books and the ability to get even more from the Internet, I am still be excited to be able to continue my study of music.

On the morning of 20 February 2001, Ms Doan died from complications of leukemia. Her physical and spiritual beauty will live forever in the minds of all who ever met her. While we are all very sad at loosing Ms. Doan, we must celebrate the joy of her life, and our ability to have been touched by her charm, wit, and grace. The following story written in early 1999 remains on our page in tribute to our good friend. [vvg]

This is Doan's story. The first photo to the right (top) -- click on it to see an enlargement -- shows me (on the right side), walking with Phuong, one my schoolmates. We are visiting the New World Hotel. At 19 years of age and in the 11th grade, I enjoy the study of my lessons that include music, literature, and of course, English. Told I am beautiful, I try to act gentle. 1999

But to tell the truth, I also love to have fun. The rides we enjoyed at the Saigon WaterPark formed the most exciting day of my life. The second photo (right bottom) shows me at WaterPark with my friend, Phuc. I want to start an athletic program for girls and boys of my school. If I had my way, I would play as many sports as possible.

The students who are first leaning how to operate the new equipment share it with the rest of us. As they learn a new task, we talk about it and try it out. This is only the beginning. For now, all we really do is push buttons and listen to the hard to understand computer voice speak.

But, when we have learned how to work the Braille n Speak and Blazer Embosser, I want to take part in helping the company make a program that speaks Vietnamese. That way more kids in my country can have access to this new technology.

This is Chau. His photo is on the right side. He turned 17 on April 26, 1999. One of several boys from Tay Ninh Province, he is the 2nd of 5 children. Blind from birth, he never went to any school before coming here. This is his second year with us. He is now in the second grade. He recently started to study music and wants to learn English. 1999 Photo Coming

My name is Son. My two photos on the right capture my two most common moods: contemplative and happy. I am 19 years old. An only child, my mother lives alone in Binh Duong Province. I caught measles and became blind at the age of 3. For the past 15 years I have been staying at this school. 1999

Like my schoolmates, I love the study of music and English. Several of my friends and I just started studying French. They tell me that my English is getting a French accent. I love playing classical guitar most of all.

A few weeks ago we started to receive gifts from new friends in America. Now we are told Braille materials are being sent by individual Americans, and possibly libraries from America, and other nations also. It is unbelievable for me that we may really be able to read major books in English.

I am also working with my friends to learn the new Blazie Braille writer and Blazer Embosser. It is getting easy to imagine that soon I will be able to have full use of computers, even to have our own at the school.

The thought of being able to search the Internet, find material in Braille, and actually get it printed out at our own school seems too much for me to fully understand just now, but it is exciting.

My Name is Binh. My age is 20. My photo is on the right of this box. I was two when I caught measles and became blind. As one of the largest boys in the school, I look strong, and I am. But I don't play sports. Sometimes we play soccer with an old soda or beer can in the alley. Only recently have I learned that blind people play sports. 1999

It is my hope someday to play a real game of football. Running up and down the grass field, getting tired from physical exercise, laughing with other kids on the field. That is a nice dream that I often have.

I love the piano and my lessons in English. People think I should be an engineer because I am so curious about everything. I take apart and explore all that I can. Most of the time I can put things back together. I did not dare to ever think of my real dream, however. My parents, friends and even my teachers told me that I could not ever be an engineer because I am blind.

Just imagine my surprise to learn in early May 1999 that there are blind engineers. Now I am taking charge of the School's new electronic devices, trying to master them so that I can help the other kids learn. The first task is to learn the Blazie Braille 'n Speak, and then the Blazer Embosser. That is a wonderful new challenge.

The engineers at Blazie Engineering must be outstanding people.   And they are blind! Perhaps that is not a big deal to you, but my heat just races at that thought, and the realization that I may too one day be an engineer.

Hai's Story. His photo is on the right. At 26, Hai is one of the oldest boys in the school. With us for the past 6 years, he too is a victim of a bomb that waited just for him.    Then only 4 years old, it took out his two eyes and his right hand.   Most of Hai's life was spent in a small village in Long An Province. His only job before joining us was selling lottery tickets. Now he studies math, history, literature and music. 1999

Cuong's Story   is being developed. He is 20 and studies basket weaving. His photo is on the right. 1999

This is Nhat. His two photos on the right were taken when he was 17 and miss identified under another name! Oops. To make up for this, we've added a new photo of him to the left that shows this handsome young man at 20 years old. Nhat comes from Tay Ninh Province. The 3rd of 4 children, he caught measles at age 3 and lost most of his vision. While he says he can still see colors, he has not ever seen an eye doctor to receive any testing. Three of the four children were blinded by measles! 2002

Tung at 14 is a virtuoso on the piano. His seemingly very small hands yet nimbly move over the keys and yet also span almost an octave. He also plays the flute and the recorder. Tung's family live in Ho Chi Minh City where he has two older sisters. Residing and studying at the school for more than three years, he is already a well known fixture. In grade 8, he's no slouch in regular school, either. 2002

Meet Dat, only 13 and in his 5th year with the school. Born in Tra Vinh section of Can Tho City where his family still lives with his older sister, Dat plays the electric organ with penasch. He also plays the accustic guitar. His favorite subjects at school are history and lunch. 2002

This is Trung. At 16 he is relatively new to the school and is its one sighted student. Trung's dad was a graduate until he married and then made a good living for his family playing cabaret music. Unfortunately this gentle man died too young leaving his widow and two sighted children without an adequate means of support. Trung stays at the school when his mom's work keeps her out late at night selling cigarettes and gasoline. 2002

Hoang's story is being developed. His photo is on the right. At 27, he joined our school in February 1999 and is the oldest student. Hoang's home is in Can Tho City. Now he is studying massage and wants to learn music. 1999

More stories of our students are being developed. Please come back and visit with us again, soon.

Because we are so handsome and popular, to satisfy the growing number of fans who want to write to us, below this box is one more look at the best-looking three guys in the school. We are Hung, Phuc, & Son who wrote most of this first part. Sorry, only Phuc and Son are currently shown.

Top of Page

CORRESPONDENCE

Letters to the children of the Bung Sang School can be sent to them c/o V V G

Inquiries for sponsorship of activities of the Bung Sang School should be sent by e-mail to V V G

or snail-mail to:

V V G
311 Soi 10 Moo 11
Nonghan, SanSai, Chiangmai, Thailand 50290

This is a public service campaign of the Vietnam Venture Group, Inc. that takes no fee or other form of remuneration for the services we perform. If you are interested in reading about VVG, please consider our:


This is our group of 40 as we pose under the White Water Ride. Our excitement was building to a high.	Even the little ones listen carefully as we receive instructions. No one missed a thing.	Here we are, hands on shoulders, all walking in line, all dressed to swim	The sound of our stamping feet as we walked over wooden bridges brought smiles to our guide.	Here we started by a ride down the slow, Lazy River, trying to sit on huge inner tubes.


Here are two guys falling down the great White Water Slide, and about to be dunked.	The broad smile on Chao's face (the lad in front seat) tells you how much fun he thinks the Slide-ride is!	Ready for lunch, here are Phuc & Phat trying to put their arms around a large friend.	We ate a normal lunch, but were so hungry, we ate more. This is Hoa, resting & thinking.	Here is Phuc who is dreaming, no doubt about the day that was a blast.


This is the alley that leads to our school.	This shows the outside of our school. It is a very simple building.	The entry room is used as the office and meeting room. Pictured are Binh, Song, Hung, Phuc and our teacher, Mr. Dao.	In this room Mr. Dao also carefully guides our music lessons. Shown at the piano is Hung, and Mr. Dao is standing.	We also eat our meals in this room. Shown is Sunday lunch being served. At night, 10 boys sleep in this room.


This is Mr. Dao's room which also serves as the storage room for many of our string instruments.	Sighted people have a problem climbing these stairs. This photo shows how narrow and steep they are.	Here is our kitchen. Sighted staff are seen eating. Behind them is our single toilet and bath.	Here, vegetables are washed. All of our food is donated and carefully prepared, sometimes by visiting cooks.


This is the loft, the main upstairs room. On a typical afternoon, 20 or more students are found studying. Here, about 15 of the 20 people present can be seen.	Here is another view of the same room. We are happy to be close with each other, except on sunny afternoons when it becomes very hot and a bit stinky.	This is the girls changing room at the head of the ladder. It also is where we meet privately for girl talk.