a day at the orphanage .... and the trip there and back

Well, after a night of no sleeping (think it was something in the food, because neithere of us slept much) ... up we rose to find that we are both still glowing like a firefly ... and jumped into the shower, had a quick breakfast (which is not so quick these days, because we stay so long they keep bring out the food) ... and down stairs we go to await Madam An's brother Mr Baaaaaa who is our hired chauffeur for the day. Mr Baaa (he no fish no more, according to Madam An) is married, so BM stays single. Linda arrives and then the hotel staff present us with a bottle of water and a packet of coconut bickies each to get us through the long journey. Off we go ... again down and around, over and under .... other road uses, rice, which is drying on the road ... then come to a road that looks like it's been transported from a war torn country ... pot holes, gravel.... in any other country the road would be closed .... but not here .. through we go ... bump bump bump .... then we come to a railway crossing.

Aparently the gate has broken on our side of the road ... so ...... out come the villagers ... 1/2 a dozen or so ... lift it up and carry it across the road to allow us to cross the crossing.... a little bit further down the road, there are about 6 men pulling down a two story building wall ... with a hook and bit of rope ... no hard hats, shoes, no OH&S at all ... apparently over 25% of adult men either die or are disabled by workplace accidents .... not a good record hey!!

Up to the orphanage village we go ... getting a tad nervous ... we turn into the driveway ... and there are ............ HUNDREDS of faces all standing and smiling and waving to us. Good grief... we had been told that there were only 43 children at the orphanage ..... the real red carpet treatment ... we looks at each other and say ... "what the" .... finally get out of the car .... by that stage they are all looking at us .... feeling special ??? NO WAY ... totally inadequate .... but then we had to wait 1/2 hour for the interpreter to turn up (solly solly me late) ... still not knowing what is going on but by this stage are being swarmed by adults, children, house mothers ... all crying sin-chow ... thats vietnamese for hello ... we grin like idiots back again. THEN we find out that it's not us they were throwing the red carpet out for, but were waiting for another charity group to arrive with car packages for the children of the orphanage and the village locals.

So, we have to wait for them before we can commence classes .... they took our tables, and our rooms to prepare for the big wigs.... so we had to wait ... You do that a lot over here.... Linda commented over and over today that it's very lucky that we are flexible ...

Other charity arrive and present 30 new bikes, calculators and a new outfit of clothing for each child and food, which was promptly pigged down. But at least we were offered some (yep, I stole from them and ate their lollies - Cheryl brought hers home) .... then finally we are given our children .... BM is thinking they are all about 6 - 11 years old, but some were actually 19 years old. Tears were threatening a few times, the smiles, the faces, the shy ones, the ones in grubby mis-matched clothing, and those who were so well dressed for the day and the child-leaders who came up and introduced themselves in fautering english. Broken down play ground .... small concrete rooms 4 beds/room - no mattress .... one table, one cupboard and a shower curtain in a corner for changing clothes.

So Cheryl and I separate with two different groups of children, and try and teach them conversational english ... starting with body parts ... hello, my name is ..... ; numbers, colours, but the attention span is only about 15 mins. But we do our best .... then have a break, then back to work, then play games ... pick up sticks ... (all disappeared within 3 minutes, but got some back) ... barrel of monkeys .... balloons with texta face drawings .... simple things that brought joy to them all .... They lost their shyness fairly quickly ... and one young boy tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to his paper for me to see his drawings ... then took his pencil and wrote F L O V E ... think it was love ... and pointed to me .... We played hokey pokey .... vietnamese version ... put your rye egg in, your rye egg out, eft arrr in, eft arrr out .... (that's arms and legs to us aussies) .... that's what it's all about ........

We're supposed to be helping to build a sand pit .... ??? oh dear .... that's another story ... gone from wood .. to brick and mortar ... dunno where we get sand from, but apparently there's plenty of builders sand ....

Invited to stay for lunch .... we be hungry by now... the house mothers and the cook ... do up a lavish feast for us .... and made us sit down and eat, while they ate outside the kitchen, would not join us at the table (but the dog did) ... eventually they did ... and we had a great old time teaching them that hand and finger game ... church steeple, people ....

The big boss came and asked us if the staff could all bring their children next week, as the children had all enjoyed themselves with us so much.... but NO, it would change the dynamics too much .... we asked the children if they would like us back again..... YES YES YES .... feel a little inadequate, but aparently they gained as much from the day as we did.

Sunday night now ... we're both exhausted ... back to work again in the morning .... There is so much to do here ... but it's so hard ... there's no starting point and definitely no end in sight with the children and their needs .... Thank goodness Cheryl and I are here together ... Would be too difficult to do this alone .... with no-one to talk to at the end of the day ... and someone to have a good laugh with ... and that's what's needed ... BIG TIME ... laughter ... to get us through ....

Onwards and upwards .... we've been here two weeks now .. sometimes it feelings like six months and at other times just a couple of days ........ Think every Aussie whinger needs a stint over here as a reality check to how good life is in Oz ....

That's it ... all caught up now ... we're having a ball .... but need sleep now ... upload a couple of piccies from today and then it's lights out for both of us ...

Hug Hug ... from both of us to everyone!!