Kindergarden- hilltribe in Vietnam

Along the way from Hanoi to Sapa, we saw many beautiful places and met some awesome people, but one of the best days was when we pulled over to take pictures of the gorgeous scenery (seen in the picture above) and we heard singing. Our guide told us coming from a kindergarden near by.

That building, that you see in the picture, is the kindergarden. We asked if it was ok for us to go and see the school. We figured we could peak in through the "window." The kindergarden teacher saw us approaching and gestured that it was alright for us to come in. She even moved some of the kids over and made seats for us.

Of course once we came in we distracted the students and they kept turning around to look at us. All of the children are from various hilltribes that are nearby to the school. They are all minorities in Vietnam, living off in small villages in the north. I believe they were speaking a Thai dialect, but I could be wrong. We got to see the children sing some songs. That was awesome. Check out the video.

For many of the kids, if not all- it was the first time they had seen people like my friends and I. I'm not sure they know what to think or what was going on, but they were really friendly.

The teacher continued teaching and talking to the students. They they had to repeat and recite something, probably whatever the day's lesson was about.
You can check that out in this video.

Isn't she cute?

On the front wall of the class you can see a picture of Ho Chi Ming (Vietnam's most famous and beloved general. You can visit his embalmed body in Hanoi City). The small balck (or green) board had number 1,2,3,4, &5 and shapes. Maybe that's what the class has been working on.

After the children sang for us, our guide suggested that we sing for the kids. The teacher gestured that we should come up to the front. So we did an imprompt-to performance of "Head, Sholders, Knees, and Toes." We tried to get the kids involved, but they were just in aww and perferred staring at us. A few kids joined in.

As you can see, it's the teacher and the four of us doing it. The class stood up but almost no one joined in. I have another shot were you can see one or two of the kids doing it. I don't blame them, I have no idea how I would have reacted if I was one of those kids. It's probably equal to having class and some aliens from outer space joining your class. Definantly weird.

After we left the kindergarden, we saw some older kids playing outside. You can't see it in this pic, but about 30 seconds after I took this, a bunch of the kindergarden kids came out from around the corner on the right. They followed us to our 4x4 and kept waving, staring, and smiling at us. They were defianantly interested in us, but they just didn't know what to say or do. Some of the kids gave us hugs. It was really sweet. Definantly one of the most memorable parts of my trip.