Week 4 has come and gone….unlike the rain

November 27th, 2008 by Denis Brouzes

Well, our fourth and final week here in Vietnam is just about over and it is almost time to start our long flight back home. The week went by very fast again, probably because we are busy and try to do more for the kids as we know it is our last week. One month is not long and as you get involved with the various projects you realize that 1 month is not enough. I experienced the same in India and thought that 2 months was not enough!

At AOV, on first floor there is one sad young lad named Boan (pronounced BowAn) whom I’ve been playing with for the last month. He likes to sing and dance to various children song we play on the CD player, Row, row your boat, Humpty Dumpty, Head and Toes…, Shake it all about, and other songs he loves. The teacher supervising the disabled kids said that I was the first volunteer that has spent time with him and he really loves me. He calls me anh (Sir)! He can now count to ten if you understand his English, can put blocks with holes in the middle on pegs and count along. He sings the song that we play and can do some of the movements but that’s being generous. All and all, he enjoys the games we play and loves to sing and dance. This kid is bigger than me and strong like an ox. On Thursday evening, the Director of the centre invited the volunteers for a simple dinner. She gave us a little speech and thanked us genuinely for the help we had provided over the passed 3; I was riding in the tails of Ann and Mark a wonderful couple who had been there for 3 months. They are from New Zealand and are heading back home after 3 full months of volunteering and trying to improve the operations at the centre.

On the second floor are all the 18 babies that I’ve been commenting about. One little guy, that I have been caring for more than others because the Mother are always putting him in my arms or ask me to pick him up, recognizes my voice and cracks the biggest smiles when I talk to him before picking him up in his crib. On Tuesday, I was on the first floor and after 1 hour of singing I had to take a break so went up stairs to see what was happening. I dropped by the room where my buddy is and started talking to him. He was all smiles. I rubbed him a bit and left to return to the boys on the first. Well, surprised he didn’t cry; he is just a happy baby. Short story on him: he was abandoned overnight in front of the orphanage and when the staff found him, he was covered with ants and had several bits, mosquitoes and ants.

At Social, we had a few celebrations: we made banana milk shakes on Tuesday for treats. The older school boys went to see a movie; they had never seen an escalator never mind going to a real theater. To get to the 2^nd floor at the movie theater you have to go up by escalator and that was a fascinating discovery. And, they truly enjoyed James Bond!

With the disabled kids, I worked all week again with one of the (noname) throwing an exercise ball around, sitting on it to develop balance and playing with shape of block and colors. Well this little guy is learning…he even spoke again and Mr Phup heard him this time and understood what he said. He told Mr Phup that he like playing ball with me! There you go, he made my day and my trip was worth the cost. This little guy probably 13-14 or maybe 15-16 who knows, they look so young. Anyways, he came to this Social centre in July, abandoned and living on the streets. He had not spoken since his arrival at the centre. I’m not sure how we are going to hand off this kid to the next volunteers but he needs on going help to ensure that he can survive in this place. Mr Phup will ensure that the next set of volunteer work with him as well. I got my voltage transformer installed and one of the administrators of the place wanted me to connect the battery connector, which normally goes to the charger controller that is fried, directly to the voltage transformer. I tried to explain through an interpreter that we needed another device between the two which was broken and had to be replaced. He just did not understand, did not want to understand and I think may try to get it wired directly when we are no longer there. These guys are scary with there attitude. I’ll try to get a charger control mod.on ebay but I feel like I am just wasting a couple of $20.

Louise continues to work with her little girl, Truc. She laughs and really enjoys the exercises Louise does with her and going for walks….in her wheelchair! Louise has been working with a young Vietnamese lady (Chau) who wants to help as a volunteer. She will continue to care for Truc once Louise leaves and will work with new volunteer to provide care for this little girl. Two young volunteers (f) from NZ joined us on Thursday for one day at the centres before heading to Hoi An for the weekend. They can meet the Social club and have a head start on Monday when they take over our jobs. They will be good with the kids, know about the Truc and my “noname” guy. Mr Phup will also ensure that these kids continue to get help as much as the volunteers can.

I haven’t talked about this much but it still rains every day and we haven’t seen the sun for the whole month except for one day when we went to Marble Mountain and China Beach 2 weekends ago; the weather was warm, the sun was out for a while and it also rained but did not stop out outing. On Friday 28/11, the morning was cool but the sun was peeking through clouds. Looked like it was going to be a nice day finally but it did rain at about 16:00…now it coming down good.

So this is it, next report will be our final and should be pleasantly sitting at a computer desk instead of a low rise plastic table, which breaks my back! I should have had a reasonable breakfast of whole wheat bread toasted and smothered with Planter’s peanut butter and good filtered coffee. This is what I missed the most, believe it or not! And, I will stay any from tofu for a few weeks to get the taste and smell out of me. One month of tofu every day is too much for me!!!