Hello to everyone back home ... well it's Saturday night here now, and I can't believe that I've been here for 8 weeks. This week has just been a week of working hard; the long hours here sure take their toll on you by the end of the week.
Tuesday evening Miss Nadine asked where I was going for dinner ... and suggested a restaurant (cafe) that I had never heard of, let alone been to before ... so off to Cafe 43 we went ... and when we arrived the little lady who runs the show was running across the cement and was about to throw something over the back fence, or maybe against the wall, when she spied Nadine and cried "here" .. and threw this tiny little kitten into her hand .. Nadine (the softy that she is) went to mush and asked Madam Cafe who it belonged to. "You" cried Madam Cafe .... and that was it ... so began a week of bottle feeding this tiny little thing .... Survived the week on human childrens formula.... lucky that Stella (from Argentina) brought back a baby animal feeding bottle kit last time she came back to Vietnam, so we had a proper little bottle. Three hourly feeds for the first night ... then in to work all day, to be fed everytime it wakes up .... It's been to the vet who declared that it is healthy .... was unnamed until yesterday ... nothing seemed to suit ... then we looked into its big blue eyes .... so ... Frank ??? .... no ... Sinatra it is ... It gets around town with Nadine in a little back pack / shoulder bag ... and of course wees everytime it's travelling between venues! BM is surrogate Mumma ... it looks cute now ... not the scrawney pathetic runt that it looked like on Tuesday ... thriving under our care .... bet it has worms big time though ... grrr
Besides my english lessons at work (boy, the girls have trouble pronoucing "sheet") ... and i'll leave it at that .... we've been working on setting up a pilot programme in the next district to Hoi An ... now Hoi An is not the most affluent little town, but Duy Xuyen (pron: you swin .. go figure) is poor, poor, poor .... and its a big area ... goes from the coast up to the mountains .... and there are so many children up there who are born disabled ... non verbals, and slight movement etc ... they have never seen doctors ... can't afford them ... so many with multiple problems .... it's another case of where do you start .... and you can't help them all .... but who is the person who should choose which child / family should receive assistance ... and who misses out .... there are no hospitals, not many schools, literacy levels are very very low, most families are farming families ... they don't ask for help, because they do not know that help is available. So sad. Anyway, we are setting this up, and going to run a project ... hope that ALL the government agencies / people's committees / and welfare dept's support this . There are so many hoops to jump through before you start ... but all the staff are so enthusiastic about it ... they just want to get out there and help. Enough about that ...
Am now eating with the natives during lunch .... they go out any buy me what ever they are buying for themselves .... it's a real challenge to eat sometimes ... and i should be losing weight by now ... but not ... and wonder it it has anything to do with the number of cans of coke i drink for energy (and I hate coke) ... or the number of mars bars that i sneak out and buy from the shop next door .... now the family who has this shop love me! .... the shop section is on the ground floor ... and it goes a few metres back .... and then their home starts ... the lounge / eating / kitchen all together .... and its separated by the fridge ... where all my goodies are kept ... You keep everything in a fridge here ... cause the ants get into everything if you dont ... The only thing they don't get into is ginger (which i've taken a great liking too - except it gives you wind like nothing else in the world ... maybe i just eat too much of it!!) ...
better go ... line up behind me for the computer .... love to all back home .....
GET WELL PHIL ...... THEY TOLD ME YOU WERE IN HOSPITAL .... HOPE THAT ALL IS WELL AND YOU ARE HOME REAL SOON .... IF IT'S YOUR TICKER AGAIN .... GET IT FIXED!! HUG HUG BM
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