Wake Up, They Are Waiting

This encounter belongs to my step aunt, and happened in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City about 10 years ago. It may be a bit long so please bear with me. My step mother comes from a family of teachers, literally all her siblings that worked were teachers at some point when they resided in Vietnam, somewhere along the 70's. My step mother herself was a principle at age 24, but this happened to her eldest sister. My step aunt owned a huge house in the 5th district.

The house had 5 floors with two bedrooms + a bathroom on each floor. Reason for the set up is because during the day, this house was a private school for children ages 3-6. I loved vacationing here because everyday I get to see the kids come to school and they are just so adorable. I enjoyed napping with the 3 year olds lol. They would pile into the room with the teachers, there were pillows for everyone, and after grabbing one they would find a spot on the ground and slept. The floor wasn't hard and people in Vietnam are actually quite used to sleeping on hard surfaces anyway. They had the best air conditioning system in that room too!

The first floor of the house was for the 3 years-olds (nap room was in between floor 1 and 2, second was my aunt's floor for her and her husband (this is where I sleep too) , then the 3rd floor was for the 4 years olds, and as you ascend the ages get higher. This was my aunt's whole life of work and she was very devoted to her teachers and students. During the day the house was lit up by noise and laughter of children, workers shouting back and forth, but at night it was terrifying just to look up the winding stairwell.

Each classroom had 2 teachers, one teaches Chinese and the other Vietnamese. Aside from the teachers, they had 2 cooks, and 2 house maids (one live-in and one not) This concept of schooling is like daycare here in western society. The cost was equivalent to here. It costs each student about $100 dollars Canadian per month to study there (average wage was about $150 Canadian dollars a month, jobs like house cleaning, waitressing, etc). Each day the students are dropped off at 7:30 a.m by parents driving on mopeds. All the teachers are waiting at the lobby to greet the parents and to take the students in by hand. Once everyone is there, the teachers will guide them all up to their classrooms in single file lines. It was the sweetest thing to wake up to, seeing these little kids holding the stairway rails and saying "hello teacher, good morning teacher and principle". The day starts of with breakfast, then Cantonese/Mandarin lessons, then nap time, then lunch, then Vietnamese lessons. Then parents come at 4 p.m to collect their babies. Though they are only 3-6 years old, these kids had homework already! Their schooling consisted learning to read and write in Chinese and Vietnamese. Though Vietnam's language is of course Vietnamese, since this was a private school, they were to learn both. Technically they learn Cantonese and Mandarin, and Vietnamese. (*note: Cantonese and Mandarin are written the same but spoken differently) This operation ran from Monday to Friday.

Many people in Vietnam wake up very early, around 5:30 a.m daily, so naps are very normal for everyone. I think people get just as annoyed if you call them at 12 p.m, like it was 12 a.m, because it's nap time! Lol... On one particular day my aunt was taking a nap herself and she felt someone nudge her arm and gently said "wake up, wake up to teach", she ignored it and kept sleeping, then it happened again, and said "wake up, you're late to teach"...now she was angry as she knew it was Saturday. So she went went half down stairs and asked her cook and maid why they were waking her up when it was a Saturday. Of course, they said they knew it was Saturday and no one was trying to wake her. A few days after that, she woke up in the middle of the night to a woman sitting at the foot of her bed. She could only see her back, and she said the woman was talking to her but she couldn't hear clearly. My aunt is a huge scaredy cat so due to her fear and just the paranormal all together, she couldn't make out what the woman was saying. She just closed her eyes, terrified and eventually drifted back to sleep. I should mention my aunt is about 65 years old here. She also said another time the woman came back with 2 kids by her side and they were all just standing at the foot of her bed watching her sleep.

This scared me as I slept in that room too. Never saw her though, phew! I did hear my name being called twice in the house but chose to think it was my imagination. Anyways, thanks for your time. My aunt and her husband has passed on now and the house has been sold. But I will always hold those beautiful memories in my heart. I have a feeling the lady spirit is now talking to my aunt in their world, and now my aunt can actually talk back, as they converse and watch over their beloved home together.