LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Vietnam train experience

About this recording

Creator
Kristin Post
Provider
Greensboro News-Record
Date created
February 1, 2001
Duration
3:11
Location
en route to DaNang, Vietnam
File
MP3
License
This recording copyright ©2001. Terms of use

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  • A child's day: Vietnam: In this lesson plan, students listen to audio recordings from Vietnam and discuss what life may be like for the children heard in the recordings. Students discuss topics including school, cross-cultural similarities, and child labor.

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Though I usually took the bus to travel over longer distances in Vietnam, I had hoped to save time during one part of my trip by taking the train. The larger windows, the roomier seating and the speed usually make the train a better ride. This did not prove to be the case, as you can read in my journal entry.

Just like the bus, the train stops frequently. Also like the bus, when it stops, people come running up to sell you food and necessities through the windows. They walk beside the length of the train, calling out what they’re selling. If you want something, you wave your hand. They stop, you ask how much, they pass the food up, and you pass the money down.

The first part of this recording is the ambience of the salespeople outside my train window. After about a minute, I start to narrate my observations of a young girl who is sorting trash, probably so she can recycle some of it for money. Toward the end, underneath my commentary, if you listen carefully you can hear the train “whistle” (which is more of an electronic buzz), and you can hear the train begin to move.

From my journal:

I’m still in my train seat with 20 minutes remaining. And what a seat it is. Hard bench with some red leather pretending to be a cushion- and a woven plastic bench a la a 70’s beach chair. Of course, as usual, the first seat I was led to was not correct. So I got settled once and had to repeat the routine.

Luckily, seat #2 had no companion- so I was able to sleep on a numb hip for a while. My eventual male companion didn’t smoke- which was a miraculous bonus. The woman with the vomits in front of me was not so miraculous, but I have a cute drawing that I did with her daughter.

The lights never went out- which I tried to correct by wearing my handkerchief over my face. At 3am, I was awake and stayed that way for the remaining 14 hours. Unfortunately, I was anticipating a 1pm completion time- so mentally and physically, I was frustrated by 7pm when I arrived in DaNang.

This was a 22 hour trip- exactly what I had been trying to avoid. The only other miniscule bonus was 3 free meals. I only felt safe eating the rice (although I did eat almost everything).

Transcript

Food and souvenir salesmen outside of a train window on my way to DaNang Vietnam.

The little girl wearing purple takes a step and then moves the bag and takes another step and moves the heavy bag which is about the size of which comes up to her mid-chest.

She’s the perfect age for Girl Scouts. She’s wearing a straw hat and lavender shorts and a matching shirt. I saw her earlier selling eggs, but now she’s heaved the trash bag from the train just beside the tracks and she’s going through the waste.

She’ll throw the larger plastic trays and plastic water bottles to one side and the smaller plastic trays and the food to the other side. She stops every once in a while to scratch her leg or just to look off into the distance or to move her stash of things closer to her.

Anything she saves she tosses carelessly behind her. Anything she gets rid of she tosses to her right, which is in a little ditch. It’s recycling and poor waste disposal and child labor all in the same scene. I wonder how much money she makes from this work of hers. And how many people in her family she is able to feed. And uh, that’s just one of the many scenes that go on outside the train window. Here in Vietnam.