4/26: Farming and orphanage

Our lesson this morning was farming. We road our bikes out of the city and through the rice fields to this farm. Above are my students on a tour of the farm.

They learned to hoe, plant and water.

My students planting Chinese cabbage seedlings

Three of my students

Then we had a cooking lesson - this is a savory pancake with shrimp, pork and bean sprouts.

The farmers prepared a delicious meal for us after the cooking lesson. This is tuna in bamboo leaf, and rice with sesame seeds

In the afternoon we went to the orphanage. Here we are outside the orphanage with the products Evergreen School bought for them: rice, milk, baby formula, yogurt, lanterns, and school supplies.

There are 64 children at the orphanage, from new born to 18 years old. 20 of the children have physical disabilities, many of them from agent orange (still affecting children from the American war).

There are four infants, including two girls that were abandoned at the orphanage's door within the past month, one of them a few days old, and this one they are estimating at about two months old. I ended up in the room for the physically disabled children and the infants. I held this girl for a long time, for if I tried to put her down, she would start to cry. S0 I never saw what the rest of my students were doing, but I heard later that they went outside to play with the other children.

Shirley, the other trip leader, with the newborn orphan

Two children

This boy loved playing with my camera

He hasn't quite mastered photography let, though it is a pretty interesting perspective.

One of my students holding one of the blind twins

Every night before dinner, we circle up for announcements, and for the students to have an opportunity to reflect and share.
Student comments on their orphanage experience:
"I spent time with a seventeen year old who couldn't speak. The workers asked him what his dream was, and he said to be a singer. So he sang a song, and though he could barely talk, he could hold a tune. "
"I was amazed how resilient these kids are. They have lost everything. The orphanage only pays about 50 cents a day for their upkeep. Their opportunities to get out of the orphanage is not as prevalent as we would hope for. Some of the children couldn't even stand up, and yet they were so happy to see us. It is incredible that they find true joy in that situation."
"One student asked me to draw a picture for him. Nearby was a shy girl. He brought her over and asked me to draw the same picture for her."
"I enjoyed being with the disabled children more than the normal ones. If you didn't have a present for the normal kids than it was as if you didn't exist. With the disabled kids all you had to do was pick them up and rub their back and they fell in love with you."
"I was sad and happy at the same time: sad that there was such suffering, but happy that I could bring some light into their lives."
"I was kind of wondering what these little kids did all day with so little, 'cuz I kind of buy my entertainment."
"I felt so guilty when I saw how their faces lit up with the smallest gift. In America we take so much for granted. When you get something, you want something else."
"It's interesting, depending how you were raised, how some people will always want more, while others are content with so little."
"I walked into the circle and sat down. Immediately a little girl crawled into my lap. I stayed with her for the next hour."

Mrs. Cong, the director of the orphanage, explained to us that this is a government sponsored orphanage, but they pay the equivalent of about 50 cents a day per person for everything the children need. Thus, the orphanage is very dependent on outside resources. When new children arrive, like the two infants this last month, the orphanage must petition the government for additional funds. In the two months it takes for the government to complete the paper work, all costs for the infants come out of the pockets of the administrators, teachers, and workers. In the 24 years she has worked here, only about 6 or 7 children have been adopted (it was explained to me later by our guide that the Vietnamese are very hesitant to adopt children). The director told us her dream: she would like to build three more classrooms for the children, build a kitchen that doesn't leak, make the grounds more beautiful with some landscaping, and install a new pump for the well so that the water is safe to drink.

After the evening session, some students offered to donate some of their Vietnamese spending money to help the children in the orphanage. So far they have raised $120. If anyone who is reading this would like to help out, either let me know how much you would like to donate, and I will get the money to the orphanage (you can send a check to my wife Christy, like we did before with Mikel in India), or use the information below to donate directly.

Quang Nam Orphans and Handicapped Children Center
108 Nguyen Truong To Street
Hoi An City
Quang Nam Province
Vietnam

Director Pham Thi Cong
Account No: 065-1-00-048645-2
Joint Stock Commercial Bank For Foreign Trade Of Vietnam
Branch in Hoi An City,
Quang Nam Province
Swift Code: BFTVVNVX065

Two conversations:
I have been eating pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) every morning for breakfast. I asked the cook to put in some more greens in my bowl. His face lit up. "You like. Me too. Very tasty. I grow these myself."

Hoian is famous for their tailors. Every year I take my group to the same tailor, who does very good work. I bring her so many customers, so always offers to make me something. As she was measuring me for a "Nehru jacket," she said to me, "This year you have bad breath." That was sort of an unusual thing to say to someone, but I have had more unusual things said to me. I repeated what I thought she said, and she replied, "No, I said this year you have brown skin." that was much better.