We were speeding down the river towards the floating village.  The wind felt cool on my face but it didn’t smell very good.  The water looked like my mom’s coffee drink she used to get from Starbucks.  I saw lots of people in the river bathing and washing their laundry but I didn’t really think the water could clean much of anything. When we reached the lake and the floating village first came into sight all you could see was little blotches, but as you got closer you could start to make out individual huts. Most huts were on boats, but as we got further in some were on little floating docks. The houses on the docks were much bigger than the rest. They had satellite dishes which were powered, like all electric things in their homes, by car batteries. Many houses were painted turquoise.   On the way to the river we had stopped to pick up supplies like pencils, chalk, and paper. These were for the school we were visiting.  At last we got to our destination. We walked across a stick bridge to two big buildings. Kids were coming out of one which turned out to be the cafeteria (they had just finished lunch). They were very loud, even louder than the kids at Lilja.  They were happy and smiling.  We went into a large room in the building everyone else was in. On one side there was a big black board and on the other there were many benches (which the kids were sitting on) with tables across from them. It was hot and sweaty. There were four big windows but there was no glass, or any material, in them. We gave the supplies to the teacher and said hello to the kids. They all stood by their table/desks and, as one, greeted us in Vietnamese. There were 42 kids between the ages of 6 and 13. They were all in white shirts and navy blue bottoms. All their eyes were fixed on us. I felt shy, out of place, and self-conscious.

 Mom and Dad started talking to the teacher, so Carter and I sat with the kids. The boys immediately started talking to Carter in Vietnamese, but the girls were a little bit more shy. I watched my brother show the disappearing finger trick to the boys until a girl came over to me. “How old?” she asked I held up all my fingers “Ten. You?” She held up all her fingers. I showed her my pencil trick. Then all the kids gathered around Carter and me and we showed them our tricks we learned in Jordan. We stayed with the class for a little longer, but then it was time to go. We thanked the teacher and as one the class said goodbye. As I re-crossed the stick bridge I thought about how lucky I was to be able to go to a really good school, and to live on solid ground.