Day 6 in Vietnam

This is Day 6 of our trip and Day 2 of our Residential Project. Today it was Zhanliang's turn to buy the necessary materials for the project. From our experience, we needed more cement and more paint for the walls. The walls were quite badly painted previously and the existing layers could add a new coat. Hence, we had to do a preliminary round of clearing the flaking paintwork before a new layer could be added.

We then took motorbikes from our homestay in Sapa to San Sả Hồ primary school. When we got there, lessons were already in progress. We also got to witness a rountine morning exercise conducted. We continued to work on repainting the classrooms and the exterior of the school building.
Some of us helped our magnigficently versatile guide Mr Tráng prepare lunch for the teachers, caretaker of the school and the students. When it was time for school dismissal, we gave out biscuits and cookies to the children.

We had lunch with the school staff before we resumed work. We managed to complete most of the paint and cement patchwork intended. We will continue after our 3 day 2 night hike.
The day for us at San Sả Hồ ends again at around 430pm and we are back at our Sapa homestay by 5pm. Dinner was at a local food stall that whipped up a banquet of Vietnamese dishes for our hungry stomachs. We had our favourite springrolls (nêm), stir-fried vegetables and meat dishes, but it seemed the tofu was a clear winner. Since we arrived in Sapa, it has been foggy and wet. Today the weather looked promising with rays of sunshine. At times we thought we could see Mount Fansipan (3143m).
After dinner we are briefed about our trekking activity for the next 3 days. We had to take stock of all the donations we brought from Singapore and plan which and what to bring to where. With many many boxes and bags and so many items spread out, it was tough deciding which we should carry with us on our bagpacks, and which could be delievered. Finally we decided that the stationery should go to the remote village school in Xéo Trung Hồ, while the exercise books and chalks could go to Bản Hồ and Sử Pán village schools. The rest of the storybooks will be left for San Sả Hồ primary and secondary schools. After all the preparations, we had an early night in anticipation for the first day of the trek tomorrow.