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

Pics From St. An’s Orphanage

Not a lot of time to write anything. We have hundreds of wonderful pictures from the orphanage so far. I promise we’ll make a post to explain some really great pictures later, but for now here is a short shlideshow  preview of some of the pictures we’ve gotten at St. An’s:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Monday in Hanoi

Our first busy Monday of the trip has come and gone. It is now the weeee hours of Tuesday here. We started off Monday very early. It’s too soon in the trip to have adjusted to the time change. The morning was very cool and pleasant. We used the opportunity to walk around Hoan Kiem Lake (POND, I swear it’s a POND! If I can walk all the way around it in 30 minutes, that’s no lake!) and get some early shopping for the orphanage done.

 

Along the way we met three very sweet girls who asked us if we would help them with their English lessons. They are at university studying business economics. They were really nice girls who asked basic “where are you from” “how long have you been here” etc. type of questions. One girl in particular was thrilled when we told her we were from America. She “loves America”. It kind of tugged at my heart a little to see the dream of America in her eyes, thinking that if she could just get to our land of opportunity that all her dreams would come true. If she only knew… They were genuinely nice gals and it was a sweet encounter!

Hanio is celebrating 1000 years as a city – yes 1000 years! Those of us from the US can hardly fathom one-thousand years. Hanoi was well established by centuries before our wonderful country was even discovered! All throughout the city are balloons, even more flower arrangements than usual, designs made of lights fixed to street lamps, and interesting sculptures, topiary, and art.

 

 

While walking around downtown Hanoi looking for an electronics store we passed a school. The kids were in open classrooms. One little guy spotted us and started waving at us from his desk. All the other students’ heads were down concentrating on their studies except for him. I started to take a picture but figured he was probably about to get in enough trouble as it was. There were a group of kids doing what looked like gym class in the courtyard. They were oblivious to us so we took photos of them instead. I asked Deb, “Imagine if there were some strange foreigners taking pictures of kids outside a school in the US.”  Can you imagine the outrage! 

 Walking around shopping for the orphanage while trying to navigate traffic in the old quarters wore me out! It was great in the morning but as the day progressed so did the increase in motorcycles and overall congestion. The cool in the air gave way to stifling heat and I was ready to call it quits.

We headed back to the hotel and after a five hour nap and ordering pizza for dinner, our friend Heidi came to see us. We got to see Heidi last time we were here too. It was so good to catch up with her again. She’s lived here a little over two years now and is doing quite well. We had a great time with her…a little too great. We were asked by management to quiet down because some of the other guests were complaining. She stayed until almost midnight. We didn’t realize that our hotel shut down and after climbing over motorcycles at the end of the stairwell we had to go wake up the staff and get them out of their cots so they could call Heidi a cab and let us out of the hotel. I just love Heidi and I’m hoping that all she and her family need to be able to stay in Hanoi will be provided for them. She and her husband are wonderful people and have put 100% into dedicating their lives teaching in Vietnam. Heidi is still homeschooling her kids and learning the Vietnamese language herself but I have to say I’m truly amazed how she’s eased into Vietnam and the culture.

Well, the wi-fi here is so slow that it has just taken me almost two hours to complete this post. We’ll keep you updated but until there is better reception it may be a bit before we can add better pics. Thanks for following along and please keep us in your prayers!

Melissa

 

We are here!

Following a ride to the airport from our hubbies, three airplane rides, and a taxi ride through Hanoi, our 30 hour day ended before midnight local time last night. The travel day was really uneventfuly which is the way I like it, although it was long. The best part was the time that we were both needing to try to sleep, but we were approaching Alaska and the skies were clear. So, we stayed awake to enjoy the view then fell asleep after we crossed over the international date line. The Alaska coastline was absolutely gorgeous!

Arriving in Hanoi (with all of our luggage!) we had all of our senses remembering Vietnam. The smell is just “Vietnam” as soon as you exit the plane. The noise of all the people talking loudly and all the horns honking through the streets. The sights of people out all over the streets at 11pm as busy as if it was 11am.  We are definitely in Vietnam.

We both slept about 5 hours last night after organizing our stuff. We will see midday today if that was enough. Today we will hit the streets and re-discover some of the “tastes” of Vietnam. Right now I could enjoy some yummy fresh fruit and tea…I think Melissa is wanting some pho. I might wait til later in the day for some delicious pho. We have two days of shopping for items to take to the orphanage. Pray with us that we find the items that we “want” to take to them and that He lets us know what we “need” to take to them.

So far, no facebook access. We will see if we can improve that soon.

From halfway around the world…Deb

Bags are packed and we’re ready to go!

Tomorrow we will be on our way to Vietnam. Melissa explained in her post below what we will be doing. Last year she and I visited the precious children in the St. An’s orphanage and we are going back to love on them some more – for four days this time! If you look at the July 18th, 2010 post below you will be able to check out the photos of the children we will be visiting. They are precious and we can’t wait to love on them!

Please pray for our journey!
Deb

We’re Heading Back!

Hello blog followers! Deb and I (Melissa) are headed back to Vietnam. Our flight leaves tomorrow, October 7th, at 7:00 a.m. We’ll be traveling with Project Being There www.projectbeingthere.org to visit St. An’s orphanage. While there we also plan on going to the mountains of Dalat, visiting Hoi An & Danang (where my baby girl is from!) and Ho Chi Minh City. We’re scheduled to return October 23rd.

Please be praying for us and thanks for following along!

 

Saigon Online and Other Stuff

Today is our last day in Vietnam. We leave for the airport at 4 am. It’ll take us about 30 hours or so to get back home. The strange part is leaving on Friday morning our time and arriving late Friday night US time, but traveling over 24 hours.

Deb and I have enjoyed walking the city streets as much as anything. I just can’t describe the sounds, the smells, the traffic, the “madam” being yelled over and over beckoning us to buy something. We’ve found the wiring system (or lack there of) hilarious. The frayed wires hanging low, bunched in bundles, there’s no organization at all. It would drive our husbands batty with the way their minds work! We’ve seen some funny kids on the streets too. One little boy playing with D batteries, his little sister (who we’ve seen a couple of times once with just a shirt over her naked body) eating yogurt with her hands, another baby being given a bath in a box on the side of the road. And it seems that every woman of child-baring ability is pregnant here.

Hang, Her Brothers, and the Orphanage

Wednesday morning we met up with another young friend of mine, Hang. I met Hang when I met Ni on my first trip to Vietnam. They both have been friends for a long time. Hang, however, got a student visa four years ago and now lives in the US. I’ve been able to see her a few times in the States and it was nice to get to see her in Vietnam again. Hang comes back to Vietnam each summer to see her family. Hang called and asked if I’d like to go to the orphanage that she is working in for the summer. She and three of her four brothers met us at our hotel and we all drove out to the orphanage. Ni came too a bit later. She lives near the orphanage and met us there.

First of all I just have to say that Hang’s brothers are adorable! The ones we met were ages 16, 13, and 11. They were so well-behaved at the orphanage and later when we all went out. The one in the orange shirt (you’ll see him in the pics) had THE BIGGEST GRIN EVER. I kept catching him staring at me and when I’d look he just smile so big. He has the most cheerful eyes and such a sweet demeanor.

The orphanage we visited is called Dieu Giac Orphanage and is in District 2. There are 128 children there. All of them are non-adoptable. It is a Buddhist run orphanage and gets no government assistance. There were only a few babies there, mostly the kids were about age 6 or 7 to teenagers. They all obviously love Hang. And, she was so good with them. She was completely natural with them. She told them stories, held them, and played with them. They couldn’t get enough of her. There were some other volunteers there too, but none of the kids paid much attention to them like they did to Hang. She’s obviously very special to them.

There pre-teen girls were all over us. Literally. They loved touching either by holding a hand, sitting on laps, leaning on arms, it didn’t matter. They were precious.

The boys…they were wild!!!!! There is no real guidance or supervision going on there. They were having a sword fight in the boys’ room and it was crazy. They were on top of the bunk beds hopping from bunk to bunk with sticks in their hands screaming and yelling and hitting each other. It was mayhem! But, they were having as much fun as boys could have.

Visiting the orphanage was an unexpected treat and I’m proud of Hang for how she’s taken on the role of mentor to the children. She teaches some of them English, plays with the kids, and assists the nannies (many of who live in the orphanage as a place of refuge from abusive relationships) in making lunches for the children.

Fun with Ni and Her Little Girl

The last few days in Saigon have been fun. Tuesday evening we met up with my friend, Ni (pronounced like knee), and her little girl nick-named Me. I met Ni a few years ago on my first visit to Vietnam. We’ve stayed in touch over the years. She’s grown up to become a lovely young woman and an excellent mother. She and her husband work hard and their little one is so adorable. I’m very proud of her! We went shopping and got some items for Me. Me wanted a very specific book with apples and strawberries in it. We searched and finally found one that she was satisfied with. She was so funny. She would NOT smile for us or even look at us unless we took out a camera. Once the camera was out she turned on the charm and smiled as big as she could. We went and got some ice cream and Me loved it. She loved it so much that she made her mother take the leftover home. Ni reported that even though it all melted by the time they were home, Me finished it off.

Update

So how did we hunker down for the typhoon? Well, after getting up off the mattresses we’d moved onto the floor of our hotel room we decided to go downstairs while there was still electricity to ride the elevator down 9 floors. Once on the main floor we ordered some tea and listened to Christmas music being played over the sound system. Isn’t that what everyone does?

It seems from what we’ve been able to tell from the radar that the hard part of the storm has moved a little south and we’ll miss the really nasty stuff. We’ve had extreme winds (that apparently are blowing in cockroaches) and rain but it seems to either be slacking off a bit or it’s the calm before the big stuff. I believe it’s slacking off.

We’ve kind of measured the severity of the storm by the Asian Reaction. Since they’ve all continued to go in and out dressed in their party dresses and highheels, we’ve assumed it’s not as bad as it looks/sounds/feels (the wind will knock you down).

It’s nuts but we’re making it.

Keep praying for good road to Hai Phong tomorrow and a safe flight out!