Swim To Survivie - Vietnam BLOG Post No.2

Blog 2

Chào bạn!

Day 4:
After a quick stop at the Hue Help office, dropping of a suitcase full of swimming equipment that everyone kindly donated (thank you very much again!) we headed off to to the Shelter to meet the children. We started by coaching beach skills and surf safety on land and finished off with a competitive game a football. Due to a lack of members of the England side and an injury, Richard and his knee (again!), we took an unfortunate loss to the Vietnamese team. The children couldn't wait for the afternoon session of swimming, with smiles of joy holding them back from there afternoon nap. After a quick stop at a coffee shop, as per usual, we met the energised children at the local pool. With some children more confident than others we soon got them all swimming. From their first strokes to tumble turns the children were delighted we were there to support them. We finished the day with a goodbye bus journey to the Shelter and after celebrated Fluffy's birthday with a lovely meal with the translators and all the team.

Day 5:
We woke bright and early with a long but beautiful drive to Da Nang. We stopped at the picturesque Elephant Springs for a quick refresher to prepare ourselves for the following morning of coaching.

Day 6:
Beginning the day, we met two new translators that would help us teach the local swimming club lifesaving skills for the sea and pool. After explaining to the unexpected 60 keen swimmers instead of 30 and being overwhelmed with the outdoor 50m pool we soon began our coaching! Just short of two hours we finished with all the swimmers thriving after being taught another side of swimming and the ability to save their peers from water dangers. We finished the successful day with the bravery to tackle the roads of chaos on motorbikes!

With bags packed ready for the finale of our Vietnamese trip down in Ho Chi Minh City for a few days we would love to thanks all of our helpers! Thank you to all of the translators that were saviours (also welcome to England at anytime!), Hue Help for organising schools and the Shelter to allow us to coach. And finally a huge thanks to Graham from Hue Help, who with out we would be completely lost! 

Can't wait to see you again Vietnam!

Best,
The Swim To Survive Team