We
were on the bus and headed to the orphanage without any problems. Long was wearing the t-shirt we gave him last
year (with pictures on it) and it looked so good!
We
made our way to the spot, and gave Thoung a sound machine AK had given us (for
the kids) for Christmas. Needless to say
was a HUGE hit!!! We played with the
camera, iPhones and did some puzzles before it was time to go back inside for
brunch (they eat around 10 and 3 every day).
 |
| Mom helping with meal time! |
Mealtime is really when a lot of help is needed, because most of the kids cannot feed themselves. So, we are usually given a child to feed.
My guy today (I don’t
think I have seen him before) was great!
We were a bit slow (I think the last to finish) but no crying, no
throwing food in my face or kicking me, so overall, a success! While I was doing this, Bob used my phone to
take some pictures, so fingers crossed he got some good ones!
After
mealtime the workers clean and Long was able to ask what “supplies” we could
buy. Past year we have gotten diapers,
clothing, hygiene products, etc. Yen was able to give him a list of medicine
that they need, so we left the orphanage and took the bus back to our normal
stop because there was a pharmacy across the street.
A big difference in the pharmacies here is
that you can get things like amoxicillin without a prescription. So, Long helped us go through the list and
get everything on it – two big bags worth!
Wullie was also incredibly generous and gave us money to help buy
medicine.
A big difference in the pharmacies here is
that you can get things like amoxicillin without a prescription. So, Long helped us go through the list and
get everything on it – two big bags worth!
Wullie was also incredibly generous and gave us money to help buy
medicine.
We
then went back to the hotel as Wullie was going to spend the afternoon site
seeing and mom and I were looking forward to some lunch, showers, and resting!
 |
| Wullie & Katrina |
We
decided to head to the backpackers district with Wullie for dinner. It’s a bit overwhelming, so many tourists,
motorbikes, people trying to sell you things, etc. but its fun to experience
and as Wullie hadn’t been in a few years.
We spent some time walking around before settling on a restaurant (they
are really all the same, and offer everything from Mexican, to Vietnamese, to
Italian, to Indian).
 |
| Long & Katrina |
I have tried to blog in years past and to be honest it becomes exhausting. Julie is good about doing it, but I’ll just add some additional thoughts when I can. I think you can only add so many characters per comment, so this will have to come in installments… and it will show up as “Julie’s mom” commenting. ☺
ReplyDeleteSometimes Julie and I wonder how we spend all our time when we are not at the orphanage, but we need to tell you we have ‘work’ to do every night to prepare for the next day. The kids love our electronics, so we bring both of our iphones; an old iPod; an old iPad; an iPod shuffle; an old digital camera (I think that is it) and I think we have 3 speakers for a couple of the electronics. Each night we ‘clean’ each of them (from drool and who knows what else) and then we have to recharge all of them. We have a ‘process’ so we know what is done, what needs to be done, where they go once charged etc. etc. You may think this is all fun and games over here, but we take our ‘playing with the kids’ seriously. I told Jules that in another 5 years or so we should have this down pat!!
ReplyDeleteSo, this ‘cut the rope’ app is a huge success with the kids. The only problem is they are beating levels and so at night we need to do whatever it takes to get new levels available to them. For instance, I just spent $4.00 on upgrades so they don’t keep playing the same levels. ☺ Then we have a piano type app that --- as balls drop you hit them --- and each ball plays a tune. Well, we only had ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ and it was getting old, so I just listened/watched about 6 short videos so I could get some new ‘free’ songs for the kids tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow we will be going to the bank to exchange some more USD and as Julie mentioned they are “VERY” particular about what USD they will accept. There cannot be a wrinkle, a tear, a bend – they look them over front and back – and they reallllly did not like the damp ones I presented last year. I want to thank Erin Bailey for suggesting I keep the $$ in a Ziploc bag – perfect. No dirty looks from tellers and bank managers this year!!
Loving my shoutout here! So glad they accepted your crisp clean $$bills!
Delete-love you guys! -EW
It is sad the same kids are at the orphanage year after year, but that is just how it is. So, given that, it is fun for us to see how they change over time. I posted on facebook pictures of Thuong in 2012 … and to see him now it is amazing. As Julie mentioned, we were like proud parents when we learned that Kap and Dorothy were attending some sort of ‘schooling’ at the orphanage. It was so cute to see Kap coming back from ‘school’ into the room with his red Thomas the Train backpack. One of the older boys there welcomed into the room, took off his leg brace and put away his backpack. It is also very interesting to see who gets along with whom, how they help each other etc. While I was feeding my ‘girl’ today (we just met her so we haven’t given her our American name), I gave Kap my phone to play with . After I was done feeding ‘girl’, I found Kap playing the animal sounds app for George II who can’t really hold anything. George II was laying on the mat and Kap was playing the sounds for him. Then Kap went to a ‘cut the rope’ app and was taking George II fingers and having him cut the rope. It was very sweet. (Since we don’t know many of their Vietnamese names we give them American names. There is a boy we named George and then there is a boy who is a smaller version of George. Julie got them confused one time and so now we call the ‘smaller George’, George II.)
ReplyDeleteJulie mentioned how Bob, Thuong, and Wullie were hanging out. I joined them and ‘Bob’ kept pointing to me and then to the floor. I couldn’t figure out what he wanted but thought he wanted me to lay down on the floor. They keep it pretty clean so I thought what the heck I’d try it and see if that’s what he wanted. As soon as I went down, Bob began to laugh hysterically. (all this time I have thought I had to ‘fall’ to make them laugh and now I learn I just need to be on the floor …. Why this would make him laugh? No idea.) Going with this theme, I rolled on my side, closed my eyes and pretended I was going to sleep. He would then hit me with a box of cookies that another volunteer had dropped off. I would pretend to be startled awake by jumping around and he would laugh and laugh. After playing this ‘game’ 3-4 times the next time I opened my eyes Bob would point at Wullie. Cracked us up. He was trying to convince me that he wasn’t hitting me with the cookies but that it was Wullie. First time meeting him and Bob was throwing Wilie under the bus. So fun to see his sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteAs we were getting ready to leave for the day Long told Bob we’d be back tomorrow and Bob said he was glad because he liked us. Sigh! (It is always a gift when Long chats with the kids because we learn something new about them!)
ReplyDeleteAt 6:30 we headed to the backpackers district just to people watch and grab something to eat. While most of Saigon is crazy busy, the backpackers district is crazy busy on steroids. Walking is truly a hazardous activity. Sidewalks are not necessarily well maintained; people are walking everywhere; there are restaurant owners; massage shop owners; salon owners; all trying to ‘hail’ you into their shop. You are also carefully holding on to any personal belongings for fear of pick pocketers or purse snatchers (they almost got me on that one my first year here). And then there are the motorbikes which go every which way. It’s exhausting. However, we found a relatively quiet place to sit and eat and had fun conversation with Wullie (love his sense of humor as together we gang up on the ‘blonde’ in our trio – sorry Julie). All in all – another great day!