At the Orphanage

Where to begin? I guess the beginning…our team of six people collected in our hotel lobby with all of our belongings. First we put several suitcases and boxes in storage at the hotel since it did not need to go to the orphanage. We will pick it up on our return trip to Hanoi. Then we piled the hotel lobby full with all of the stuff to go to the orphanage.

Then all these items and ourselves were piled into three mini van taxies to be taken to where our bus for the trip was parked (it was too large to drive down the street of the hotel). There we loaded everything into a full size tour bus. Yes, this bus was for six people, our translator, and the bus driver.

The three hour trip to the orphanage was uneventful. We saw beautiful countryside along the way. At the orphanage we unpacked the bus, found our living quarters for the week, checked on the babies and toddlers and handicapped children, and settled in for an exciting week. We laid out all of the items that we brought to give to the orphanage and to use as activities with the children and to make improvements on the property. This picture is just some of those items. (Thanks to all who made these purchases possible or who donated the actual items.)

As the school-age children began arriving home from school we were excited to get some time getting to know them.

We started working on giving the children eye exams to see who might need to have professional eye exams. We worked on the eye exams over the next few days to get all of the school-age children tested and some of the Sisters. Even Father Joseph asked to be tested…he needs to keep his glasses!

That evening the children put on an amazing program for us after dinner. It included children from toddler through middle school age. They performed many traditional dances and music up to modern (Michael Jackson).

The remainder of the days were filled with cleaning and painting 7 of the children’s rooms with the help of orphanage staff and hired Vietnamese workers,

Taking samples of water for testing,

Playing frisbee and ball,

Bubbles with the toddlers and handicapped children,

Holding lots of babies,

Making bracelets, bracelets, and more bracelets,

Making special photo books decorated with lots of stickers and photos of friends, themselves, and our team.

After our last dinner, we gathered the children for a couple of hours of special time. They decided they wanted our team to sign their photo books. So we had a night filled with “yearbook signing”, talking, holding little ones, and avoiding saying goodbye.
The next morning we packed up a much smaller amount of items and loaded up on a much smaller bus. The children all gathered (except the elementary children who had to go to school on Sunday!) and we had one last photo session and they lined up so we could go down the lines and give hugs. This was so hard! There were lots of tears flowing…Vietnamese and American! Even though communication was limited and sometimes very difficult, relationships were developed. These children will be in our hearts forever. We pray that we touched their hearts in a way that will let them remember how much they are loved.

Well, this is just a brief (I know it’s not been brief) summary of our time at the orphanage. Over the next few days we hope to give you some personal stories…there are many!
Deb