Row Row Row your boat

I first met the Thuy Phu fishing village children while volunteering with my family in Hue, Vietnam this year. While we lived in Vietnam for three months, we taught those children English, as well as playing games or doing exciting experiments.

Thuy Phu fishing village is a very poor community in Vietnam, with around 50 inhabitants: 20 of those being children.The occupants of Thuy Phu village live on small wooden boats, with barely any possessions or opportunities. It was so strange to imagine my life living on one of these boats: washing my clothes in the river, making toys out of scraps, trying to do my homework on the rickety, wooden boat floor. That's why, in May this year when my family and I volunteered with them, I was so surprised to see how welcoming and friendly these kids were! We had paint fights, where I was ambushed by small children with paint pots, and did science experiments, where there was a literal 'ooh' of excitement. One time I brought out my mums phone and took pictures and selfies. The kids kept pushing and trying to get in the photo, some even running up to me and posing! The language barrier wasn't much of an issue, although one of the younger girls kept getting frustrated when I had no clue what she was saying. But I did try and teach them some English words. Some of the girls learnt how to say 'High-Five' and 'Fist bump', and would hold their hands out to me for one.

Hearts for Hue, a charity organization in Vietnam, is trying to fundraise around NZ$2000 for the Thuy Phu village. This money would provide scholarships, stationary and other learning based items for the poverty-stricken children.

In order to help fundraise, I'm going to row 150km on a rowing machine, over a time period of a month (November). I've worked out that that this means I will be rowing 5km each day! After getting involved in crossfit, I really enjoyed working out on the rowing machine. I'm really looking forward to seeing how I progress fitness-wise on the rower, and comparing my results from my first row to my last one. I'm hoping that friends and family will support me in this very difficult challenge by making a donation through my page.

A big thank you to Crossfit Manukau for joining this challenge and extending it to teams virtually racing 250 km around Great Barrier Island. Your support and fundraising is really amazing.

I would absolutely love to support the Thuy Phu kids with their education. It would mean the world to me, and the kids, if we raised the NZ$2000 needed, as I know from experience that these kids truly are amazing and deserve these opportunities.