Vietnam - Volunteering, Backpacking, adventure, Fully Supported!

One of my lifelong aims was to visit Vietnam and now I am retired I found the perfect opportunity
through the Oggy Oggy Team. I thought it was just for young people, but how wrong I was! The team talked me through all I needed to know and I felt very reassured as I so wanted to do some
volunteering and be part of a useful project. The idea of working in a soup kitchen really
appealed to me and you don't need masses of qualifications for it! The team organised everything for me and when I arrived I was met at the airport and made to feel very welcome
and all my fears and anxieties just disappeared. From then on I had such a wonderful time and the first week where you are introduced to the culture, local customs, history and sightseeing was
so helpful and helps to ease you into a new and exciting way of life.
The food kitchen was great fun, very manic, but you feel that you are doing something really
worthwhile and the cuisine was very interesting. In the accommodation I hadn't shared a dorm
since school days but it was such a lively mix of different nationalities - it just opens up a whole new world. I can't recommend this enough.

Where to start with Vietnam. Amazing country, and even more amazing people.
The college where I was volunteering was walking distance from the accommodation, so not difficult to get to every day. The students were so keen to learn English from a 'proper English Lady'. First time I've been called that for a little while. For the first couple of days, I helped the teacher with reading and conversation, then as I gained a bit of confidence, he encouraged me to design my own interactive exercise, which was great and had all the students laughing. When class was over, they all wanted to stay afterwards and practice their English. The accommodation was reasonably basic, but I met lots of other volunteers from other countries who were doing all sorts of different activities. It was great to swop stories at the end of the day. Just a pity there's no beer allowed in the dorm, but we found a couple of lively bars ( recommended by the hostel staff) where there was plenty of action going on.
Great value for somebody like me on a teeny budget. Would definitely do a longer programme next time and travel out of the city.