Guess who slept till the
alarm went off this morning!!??!
Wahoo! Mom and I were up to get
ready for the orphanage, and Charli was heading out with Long for a city tour!
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| Mom at the bus stop |
On our way to the orphanage
Jiao’s coffee shop was open, but she wasn’t there and the woman who was working
said something about it not being opened yet, waiting for Jiao, so we said we
would come back.
We had a light load come out
with us today, Bob, Thoung & Katrina!
We also ended up with an older guy (maybe teenager) who we often see out
and about, but never inside a room! He
loved listening to music. A worker came
out at about 9:45 to tell us to get our butts moving, so we headed back inside!
I was cracking up because George the 2nd seemed to be upset (and I feel bad, he’s trying to talk to me in Vietnamese and I have no clue what he’s saying or what he wants) but I finally manage to understand he’s pissed at another kid (Sarah Blanchette, your boy) was wearing HIS FACE ON HIS T-SHIRT! George the 2nd I don’t blame you! Well, I couldn’t tell take a t-shirt off another child, but I was able to find Kap’s t-shirt (we have already decided that in the future we will make shirts with multiple pictures, so nobody feels like they “own” a t shirt) so Kap’s t-shirt went on George the 2nd and he was pleased with this.
Mom started feeding him, but
apparently my fast thinking t-shirt problem solving skills really made an
impression because George the 2nd was eating for nobody but me! We actually did pretty well, but, Mom totally
rocked it with the boy I have been feeding (and finishing last) and George the
2nd and I were second to last today.
Since it was our second to
last day (but last day in the big room as they work M-F) we wanted to give all
the workers “thank you” cards with some money in them. Long helped us translate “thanks so much for
all you do with the kids” (thanks Long!) which I printed at home and we put in
a card with the money. We had 7 cards,
for what we thought was 6 workers (there is a white board with their names on
it) but we were a little confused because when we tried to count we thought
there may be 7, and one was in a different color outfit so we thought maybe she
was training!? Anyway, long story long,
after handing out all SEVEN cards, Yen motioned that there was one more coming
out of the kitchen! EKKKK! And, the one in the kitchen is definitely one
we see every day, so it’s not like this mysterious friend appeared. Luckily, we had extra money on us, so I took
a photo book we made, put the money in there, and handed it to her. So awkward, ha! Hopefully, Yen will explain that we didn’t
mean to leave anyone out! I’m still not
sure who got a card that “wasn’t” suppose to (and it could have been a worker
from another room). Anyway, we will know
something is up if next year on the last day there are all of a sudden 25
workers! But, I think all is well that
ends well, and they seemed very happy and pleased!
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| Volunteer shot that Bob put together |
We are going to head back
tomorrow and she is going to bring her 4-year-old son to meet us,
Alexander! We are excited to meet
him! Jiao told he doesn’t like to
practice Vietnamese because “he’s from Edinburg”, so cute!
We took the bus back, and
while it wasn’t as bad as yesterday, it was still pretty bad (my feet feel the
worse when I am just standing) so I think tomorrow a cab might be in order
(although since it’s the weekend it may not be bad).
We both were able to shower,
and then Charli was back from her tour with Long, and Long was generous enough
to take us to the market to shop for the kids!
We were very successful, and got washcloths, bath towels, fun
clothes, practical clothes and sandals.
We went back to the same stall to get the towels as in years past (I’m
not sure I would have remembered which one, but Long did) and the woman said to
him “long time no see”, ha!
After a successful shopping trip we said goodbye to Long and
came back to the room to rest a bit, before heading out for pizza (I just can’t
get enough Italian). There is a really
good pizza place we have tried before, but the only reservation we could get
was for 5pm, so we headed out and had a delicious meal!
After pizza I was looking for another foot massage and had done
a little research in the area to find a place with decent reviews, so we headed
there. We decided we would do an hour
foot massage (with some back and shoulders) and they gave us these sweet pink
outfits to change in to!
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| Buying towels |
The massage was nice as they put a cucumber “thing” on your face,
which was nice and cooling but most of it felt like PT for me, very painful,
but I figure it’ll help get the blood moving and “promote heeling” (at least
that’s what they tell me). Toward the
end (after they do feet, legs, and some upper back) they had us sit up. Luckily, my guy was about 5-10 seconds behind
Charli’s and Mom’s, so I had a little warning of what I should expect. Well, I am glad I did, because all of a
sudden I heard a yelp so I looked over to see both Charli and Mom pretty much
in the air, and their massage men were nowhere to be seen. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE! I’m still not exactly sure how and what
happened, but I think the massage men kind of lay on their back, and somehow
hoist you up on their feet and knees? I
literally thought I was going to crush my little man so tried to breath a very
shallow breath so I wouldn’t! It
actually felt pretty good as it stretched out your whole back and upper body,
but I spent most of my time trying not to giggle.
That was pretty much the end of the massage, but we all had a
case of the giggles when we changed back out of the outfits thinking about what
just happened and how all of us were trying so hard not to giggle!
Since
we were really making it a “treat yo self” night, we decided that Häagen-Dazs was in order! I think we may
have spent more on the ice creams than we did on our massage, but it was so
yummy! For the last part of “treat yo self”, we decided PJs were
necessary, so we can back to get comfy for the night!
Julie may have slept better last night, but I didn’t. As the week has progressed I feel like the energizer bunny running out of energy. I love being with and playing with the kids, but am definitely not a city girl and so quickly grow weary of the noise, the smells, the traffic, the heat. I also don’t think I’m naturally ‘silly’, so I have to save up my silliness for a year and then I expend it all in a weeks time at the orphanage. We actually don’t spend a ton of hours at the orphanage (they have a long sleep/rest period during the middle of the day that makes it difficult), but the time we do spend there we give it all we have.
ReplyDeleteEvery couple of years we have changed the location we stay at … trying to get closer to the orphanage to minimize the travel time, but I think all of a sudden the jet lag and culture change hits and your body says “Say what??”. From where we are now the bus ride itself is about 25 minutes; to and from the bus stop is about a 5 minute walk and then depending on luck (or lack of luck) you may wait up to 10 minutes for the bus at the bus stop. So, best case scenario it is a 35 minute commute; not so good; 45-50 minutes.
ReplyDeleteIt is also the luck of the draw whether you get:
ReplyDelete• a bus with air conditioning;
• a seat (actually one advantage to being mature in years is the bus ‘’monitors/ticket takers’ do usher me to a seat if one becomes available);
• a bus driver who is ‘horn happy’ (there is constant horn honking going on over here.) I try to figure out the bus driver’s horn blowing of choice. Do they honk their horn when they think they are going to hit someone (this would be constant) or when they think someone is going to hit them or because they haven’t blow it in 3.5 seconds? I haven’t been able to figure it out.
And you can tell the rookie drivers (this would be me if I ever dared to drive in Saigon). They slam on their brakes every 2.875 seconds. You see everyone on the bus whiplash forward and back. Today we head off to orphanage and there are like 3 people on our #3 bus. Where did everyone go? (Oh, they were waiting for bus ride home – standing room only - ugh). And why does it seem like the standing room only busses are the ones with no A/C??
ReplyDeleteAnyway, good day at the orphanage -- other than the dog poop that was greeting us in our typical play area. There are a few stray dogs this year. Jules was having no part of poop duty, so I took one for the team. (She’s been really good about making sure I get a good seat at feeding time, the least I could do was pick up the dog poop so we could all play.) ☺
As she mentioned we stopped at our new favorite coffee shop (that also serves food). I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The lightest, sweetest, loveliest banana crepe I’ve ever had. (actually the only banana crepe I’ve ever had, but it was delicious). And the Bolognese was fabulous as well. I’ve asked Jhow if she will come to America and live with me. ☺ It is nice to have new friends here. I think she appreciates us as well since she only recently opened her store and doesn’t have a strong clientele yet. Tomorrow we get to meet her son. Looking forward to that.
ReplyDeleteOn this trip I have had two of the biggest, longest belly laughs –perhaps of my life. The first was the other night when I was talking to Rus. We talk ‘my night’, ‘his morning’, so he’ll ask about the day. Honestly the days at the orphanage kind of run together and so when we talk at 10pm it takes me a bit to remember exactly which kids we had outside; who I fed that day etc. etc. So, I started by saying it was a pretty usual day … and then it started coming back to me. We had multiple kids; Julie had “Pixie” as we have named her who insists on being carried; we have the backpack full of our electronics; puzzles; light up rings; books etc;, then we have Dorothy in the stroller and multiple other kids who either need to or prefer to walk holding hands. And you have to remember that some of the kids (due to their deformities) can only hold hands on one side or the other. On this particular day I remember feeling a bit like a pretzel because I couldn’t organize the kids in the right fashion. There were too many that needed to be held on the same side, so I was doubling up. Julie had pixie and I think the backpack and maybe one other kid. Bottom line, it left Thuong to manage the stroller with Dorothy in it. This might be okay if, A) Thuong was stronger (honestly a strong wind could blow him over); B) the pavers at the orphanage were somewhat level and stable; and/or C) the stroller had recently had a wheel adjustment. However, none of those were working in our favor and Thuong continued to drive Dorothy into walls. This really wasn’t too much of a problem as Dorothy is pretty even tempered and one of us would simply get them back on course. However, when I was remembering the day and retelling it to Rus that night, and I suddenly remembered how this all played out I got laughing so hard I was crying. What we must have looked like as the 20 or so Vietnamese people were heading into the pagoda as poor Dorothy tipped over and Julie and I had arms going every which way with kids hanging on them I can only imagine. Since no one was permanently scarred, no harm done and I will always giggle as I remember this particular moment.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteBlogger Deb said...
DeleteYou have me laughing out loud now😂. You and Julie write so well I feel like I am there with you!
January 12, 2016 at 8:37 PM
The 2nd biggest belly laugh took place as Charli, Julie and I shared our recollection of our foot/shoulder/leg/head massage. OH MY! The thing about these massages in Vietnam (or Thailand) is you never quite know what is coming next. As Julie mentioned, she was at a bit of an advantage as she (or rather her masseuse) was on a 2-3 second time delay. So, when they started smacking charli and I (is this to get the blood flowing??) she could hear and therefore prepare for it. HOWEVER, the moment forever etched in my mind will be when he asked me to sit up (we had been in a semi-laying back position), and he went behind me. I simply and nonchalantly assumed this would be part of the ‘shoulder massage’ since he was now behind me (obviously he couldn’t be doing my legs or feet anymore) Nope, I was wrong … no shoulder massage. All of a sudden I am being whipped up and over something or someone and heading backwards. I did let out a yelp as I had no idea what was going on. Next thing I know I am suspended or being held up by I don’t know what or who (nor do I want to know) and I am rocking back and forth and side to side. Honestly it felt pretty good, but holding in the giggles that were fighting to get out of me took all my effort. I was too scared to open my eyes and try and figure out what was going on. (come to find out Julie and Charli were peeking all the time). I don’t know how long it will take for me to remember that scenario and NOT burst into giggles. ☺
ReplyDeleteHahahahahahahaha
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