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Monday, September 7, 2015

HNUE prays for you



This weekend we joined Libby's advisor and about 25 art students and faculty from the Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE) in the fishing village of Diêm Ðiền and then a local beach on the South China Sea. The students and faculty built a sand sculpture in tribute to Aylan Kurdi, the 3 year-old Syrian boy who drowned and his body washed up on shore. The picture of his body sent shockwaves around the world and highlighted the plight of refugees fleeing the Middle East and Africa. Thanks to Ngo van Sac for inviting us to be a part of this very memorable weekend. 

For more information about Aylan and the other refugees, read here:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/world/europe/syria-boy-drowning.html?referrer=&_r=0

The beach where we traveled was a public beach, although each section of the beach appeared to be controlled by someone, and a fee paid to use that section of the beach, the chairs, the shade, etc.  There were also beach security that came over and checked out what we were doing, and were so taken by what was happening that they had their picture taken.

At the very end, after all of the pictures were taken, the sand sculpture was taken down.  Sac and the other faculty were worried that people would not understand what the art piece was or what it meant.  Very few people on the beach in that part of Vietnam had access to the internet, so many people did not hear about the boy or the immigrant crisis in Europe right now.

Some pictures from the construction:






















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