Fun and games ... Wednesday, 7th of October

We went to the PEACE ORPHANAGE in the morning, for over 2 hours. Fun and games with the kids. They all love our stickers. The kids have grown compared to last year. We also met HOAN. She is studying English and IT at uni. (picture on right)


Lot of things have changed, new nurses, new children, etc.
DIEP, Uli’s little girl is well, but the bed Uli bought for her last year was not there. We were told something was not right so they had to give it back to change a few things.

We spoke to the head nurse NHI, she is very nice and speaks good English. We told her that we bought the bed 1 year ago and it should be fixed by now, she will look into it (let's hope). Our boy with keyboard (we still have to find out where they keep it) is now on floor 2, learning English which is fantastic, have to find out about the music lessons.

MINH, a boy with no arms does not live at the orphanage any more. He is still in HCMC - he is old enough to learn some skills which help him later to earn some money. He is in a place for disadvantaged people, where they look after him.
The little boy who loves his photo taken (THANH), is still there and as bubbly as always. We asked to have a meeting with the head of the rehabilitation department (doctor NGUYEN, TAN) to find out what can be done for his face (mouth area).

In the afternoon we met Bob and his daughter MINH THI, went for a long walk and the girls had some ice cream, Bob and Matt had a ginger drink with lots of undefinable stuff in it - but it was GOOOOD !!!

Later on meeting with HAE, Bob and HIEN to discuss the housing situation in the Mekong Delta. For us to have a house built (replaced) on the land that people already own will cost us AUS$ 1,000.00. In the beginning we wanted to built 3 houses. A list of 25 people was presented .... but we can only do so much. However we but ended up with 4 building 4 houses. That means we have to have 60,000,000 VN DONG to pay for the houses. That means we have to hit the ATM’s hard. Only 15,000,000 can be withdrawn per day.

Our intention is to support children with their education. Education is a vital tool to break the poverty cycle.