A Bazaar to remember

This year was my fourth Charity Bazaar experience! Every time I have been impressed by the number of people the Bazaar attracts. Being the Main Coordinator this year, this surely was a bazaar to remember for me. Back in August, I started we started with a small team looking for sponsors and preparing the first country table meeting. Almost four months later, all was ready for the 20th edition of the HIWC Charity Bazaar!

The setting up of the tents started on Friday. It was great to see UNIS getting filled up with tents and to see our plan on paper becoming reality. On Saturday afternoon, most tents were set-up and counrytable teams and some commercial and charity table teams showed up to start the decoration of their tents. 

Knowing how much time invested our team in making this bazaar a success, I was overwhelmed by the work the country tables teams had put in decorating their stalls. All deserve to mentioned, but this would be impossible with 34 countries participating. So let me me just name a few: Denmark, the winner of the country table competion this year with their beautiful wooden X-mas decorations, the Philippines with their two "living" statues and their drummer, France which brought a taste of Paris to Hanoi, Russia with it colours, costumes and hospitality, the Scandinavian countries bringing a winter holiday feeling to the bazaar and the Netherlands with the ladies in beautiful traditional costumes. 

But they were by no means the only notable country tables: from the opportunity to have your photo taken with William and Kate at the British table to the henna painting, various displays of national dress and the Russian “live beer” it was more than just about the food (which was also great, by the way).

And Christmas was certainly starting early: Santa was over-heating at the American table, and food and gifts for the festive season were readily available.

In the morning, I was still extremely busy making sure everything was okay (number of volunteers at the gate, toilets cleaned regularly, all electricity working, security volunteers patrolling the venue, etc. etc.), but in the afternoon I managed to sit down for while to taste some of the delicious food and to enjoy the performances at the stage where, throughout the day, there was a non-stop parade of musical and dance acts, both from the countries and from some of Hanoi’s favourite bands. 

Besides the stage and the stalls there was plenty else to keep children happy: the exercise sessions being run by the soon-to-open Little Gym looked really popular and, at the Operation Smile stall, one young girl was thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to throw wet sponges at a brave volunteer.

On past the thriving commercial tables, offering some great discounts, the charity table area had a great atmosphere, with stall holders really engaging with passing visitors: particularly the energetic Dance4Life kids, who burst into regular dance routines to raise funds for HIV/ AIDS.

The Blue Dragon table was also attracting visitors with its innovative competition to see how many boxes entrants could pile on a motorbike, and the cheerful sunflowers at Making Dreams Come True brought a smile my face.

And finally to the Silent Auction: the team had done such a great job, not only at procuring so many gifts from sponsors but also in setting up the hall. It seemed to be a roaring success – perhaps in part thanks to it being the only place on the site to cool down!

There was really so much going and I would have loved to have more time to enjoy it, but even though I was too busy to do so, I still had a great day. 

With more than 7000 visisors and 1850 motorbikes parked, it looks like we have broken all records. I look forward to find out how much was raised to put to such good use in 2012.