RSIS Big Build Vietnam: Teamwork and leadership skills
Posted: 15 December 2017
Students have been uniting as a team on the project work site and divvy up tasks such as digging and moving resources such as rocks and sand. Students have been taking it in turns to lead the whole team, developing valuable leadership skills. Slowly but surely, their work is paying off and the dam is starting to take shape.
The finished dam will help improve the local farming infrastructure and will help to store water in the dry season and drain water during monsoon season.
Student blog update: 13th December – A Poem
Written by Owen, Chris, Adam, Izy and Viv
Today was a great day
For everyone
Once the day had begun
There was lots of work to be done
We met the group
And off we walked
“What a glorious place”
We beautifully thought
Carrying rocks
And shoveling sand
With our high quality gloves
None cut their hand
Man, I miss music
Maybe we’ll create a band
It was really dirty
I got mud on my sock
Owen, Chris and Ben
Moved a really big rock
We enjoyed playing
At the school
Man, those kids were
Quite cool
We wrapped up the day
With a friendly game of cards then a shower
It was really cold
Man I felt empowered
We grafted a good shift today I reckon
But golly gosh it was hard bruh
Visiting the local school
The team had the opportunity to visit the local village school. Students put together fun activities and games for the children at the school:
Student blog update: 15th December – highlights from the team
Today’s update was written as a large group and the students have summarized some of their favourite aspects of project life so far:
The most fun thing from being at the worksite is:
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Carrying the stretchers with Josie and falling into the mud (Klara)
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Walking through the muddy rice fields and having a fun time whilst working (Josie)
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Caroline Cooper falling down twice in the mud (Freddy)
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The Bucket Crew (Vicki)
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Secretly enjoying the 1D songs on the Rock Line (Kate)
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The way the locals laughed at us whenever we tried to say thank-you in Vietnamese (Clifford)
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The company of others (Eeshan)
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On the first day, people stopping and looking at me in amazement (touching me) (Philip)
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When mixing cement, one of the locals was really excited (Philip)
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Singing the entire 12 Days of Christmas whilst carrying rocks up the large hill (Molly)
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Seeing the pure panic on the rice fields when we knew we were falling in (Sophie Dennis)
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People trying to teach me their languages (Sophie Dennis)
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Banter and songs while working that made it fun (Grace)
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Everyone secretly loving the sand moving and watching others slip in (Caitlin)
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Seeing the progress of the dam looking like a dam and the rock piles and sand piles getting smaller (Alli)
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Chains – both sand and rocks – telling riddles and jokes and singing (Natasha)
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Working with Vedansch and reaching our goal – we managed to conquer our challenge (20 stretches of gravel!) (Natasha)
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Working in the rice paddies with Natasha and Olivia and it made the time go by a lot quicker. Getting sweaty and dirty. (Nina)
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Being able to work as a team and see the progress and know that we are helping the community (Saskia)
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Words of encouragement from people passing by, lots of great conversations and piles getting smaller (Olivia)
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Carrying stretchers – always have someone to talk to, lots of topics to talk about, time went by really quick (Nik)
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Carrying rocks, singing socks (Vedansh)
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Rock chain singing made time go fast. Sand chains – running and trying not to fall in (Gemma)
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Getting pushed in the rice fields and watching everyone else fall in (Abby)
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After getting pushed in, getting told off by Caroline, watching her fall in (Oscar)
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2nd day cement mixing with Phil, motivating each other to work hard, making noises and laughing with locals (Arsh)
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When I had the local people laughing at me (Lisa)
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Friendships – Sand Squad with Adam, and the Cement Squad with the locals and having fun with those (Asa)
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Working altogether and going together and betting on who will fall in next, and the Sand Chain with Klara and Alli stressing about how quickly the buckets were coming back. (Keren)
The best thing about being in an International Group is:
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Learning what people eat for dinner at home (Oscar)
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Listening to all the different languages and the way that people speak English (Abby)
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Hearing / talking about all the different stereotypes that people think about our countries and being able to set them straight (Gemma)
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Seeing how people talk and what are the things they do for fun and getting to know their hobbies (Vedansh)
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Getting to know the way of living in different parts of the world, learning new slang, getting to know some new people (Nik)
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Comparing life styles and picking up on different slangs (ie jumper instead of sweater), learning German from Nik and Klara (Olivia)
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Listening to different accents and learning about individual cultures, what they celebrate (occasions, etc) (Saskia)
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Learning things about other people that you couldn’t find in a textbook, and slipping into an Australian accent (Nina)
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Everyone is so different, coming from your own country we can see how different people do different things (as simple as saying hello) (Natasha)
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Learning everyday words for things in different languages (Allie)
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Love the languages, accents, how similar we are despite all the differences (Caroline)
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Don’t hear the accents as much now, learning that some German and European schools serve beer? (Caitlin)
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Find out how different everything is from England (Dylan)
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Getting everything wrong about different countries (Dylan)
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We all come from different places and backgrounds, but can all sit down, enjoy a meal, laugh, and enjoy Natasha’s amazing singing (Grace)
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From all over the world but we are meeting people that constantly remind us of others – everyone is different but we get along with people no matter what (Sophie Dennis)
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Sorted now for future holidays – lots of friends in different countries (Molly)
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When with international people, there are different perspectives for different ways that we see things, it helps me grow, now I can see the things from someone from China, Germany, South Africa, English. (Philip)
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Getting to know different people’s perspecivies, funny stories, etc (Eeshan)
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Despite different backgrounds, we have more in common than different (Clifford)
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Enjoyed getting to know faces and personalities from the faces on the computer (Kate)
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People who give up their time to help other people (Vicki)
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Rich environment of people and the spirit that everyone brings and willingness to help others and all the effort that is put in (Freddy)
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How everyone from different countries are the same as us but individual, and how we all have the same common goals to help others (Josie)
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People taking on other countries mannerisms (Klara)
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Getting to know different cultures and traditions is really interesting (ie Australian songs) and improving English skills (Klara)
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People asking me why I speak German (Keren)
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Seeing all the same things from a different view (different culture and background) (Asa)
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Knowing the history about different countries and knowing different ways to say hello (Lisa)
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Getting to meet and know people from different parts of the world – a rich environment for learning. Everyone here from different countries and has a different view or perspective towards like and provides a good environment for our mentality. (Arsh)
written by Klara, Josie, Freddy, Vicki, Kate, Clifford, Eeshan, Philips, Molly, Sophie Dennis, Grace, Dylan, Caitlin, Carline, Allie, Natasha, Nina, Saskia, Olivia, Nik, Vedansh, Gemma, Abby, Oscar, Arsh, Lisa, Asa, Keren.