I am now back at home having returned earlier today.
The past two weeks have flew by when I think back over the time I spent with the children at the Orphanage and the Hospital.
As such all that remains is for me to say that I hope you 'enjoyed' reading the blog and a very big Thank You to you all for giving up your time to read my blog and for all the support and encouragement you have given to me during my time in Hanoi as it really did help, especially when I was struggling your comments kept me going and remaining positive.
Wishing you all the very best.
XXX
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
There is More...
Just by chance upon speaking to the owners Luke and his wife Laina of Tamarind Cafe, a vegeterian cafe that I dined at pretty much everyday I was told about an Orphanage which is located about 80km from the city of Hanoi that they visit and help out on a regular basis as it receives no state funding and struggles to receive donations as it is out in the sticks. The Orphanage I was told houses approximately 150-200 children ranging from new born babies to teenagers up to 18 years olds with mental and physical disabilities. Over the last couple of weeks I got to know Luke and Laina very well and trusting my instincts believe them to be good trustworthy people.
It is soon Tet here in Vietnam which is the celebration of the Lunar New Year which is also a time when those financially able give to the less fortunate then them and as such Luke and Laina were due to pay a visit to the Orphanage that they had spoken with me about so I asked if I could go along to see for myself the good work that the Orphanage carried out.
We loaded the car up with boxes of biscuits, sweets, rice, cooking oil, toys, cleaning products and off we went.
When we got to the orphanage the grounds were very quiet, as it was cold and raining all the children were inside. We were shown around, introduced to the children and were able to give them the small things that we had taken for them, which were gratefully received...
I cannot stress enough what a humbling experience it was to be able to give to the chilren such small things that brought them such joy. On the one hand I had a warm positive feeling that I was able to bring a small moment of happiness to these children but on the other hand there was/is a part of me that is angry and if I am honest feels guilty for the inequalty of lifestyle between me and them, why do they have barely little to speak of and yet still be more than satisfied with what little I could take for them? It just feels wrong. More upsetting then thinking about what they dont have by way of material items is the love and care that they don't get something we are so very fortunate to be surrounded by whether it be from our parents, partners, family and friends. It is therefore understandable why the minute these children see you and receive a smile from you that they come running just wanting a little bit of your affection and time.
The little boy in the orange top that I am holding in the picture above came running at me, by-passing the trailer of treats and just wanted a hug.
The visit became even more emotionally difficult when we visited the babies and toddlers who all have disabilities. They lay in their cots talking amongst themselves and playing with the odd toy they held but as soon as we walked into the room all attention was turned to us and their little arms were reaching out just to be held and carried...
Once we had visited the children I spoke with the director of the Orphanage to find out a little more about the place and ascertain whether we would be able to help them out in some way. He told me that the washing machine had broken and given the number of children they looked after they ideally they needed two working machines particularly given the childrens disabilities their clothes are constantly soiled which meant they got through a great deal of washing. They also needed a television as this stimulates the children and when the weather is cold and they cannot play outside it keeps them entertained. Unbelieveable a television for us is the norm and yet here it is a luxury.
I left the orphanage with a mixed bag of emotions which admittedly I quickly put aside as we got into the car because I had a challenege on my hands. I needed to work out what we could get for the Orphanage with such little time left in Hanoi given my flight the next day. With Luke and Laina happy to help we stopped at the electric store and got prices for the items the Orphange needed and worked out that thanks to your generosity and kindness we we were able to buy...
...Two of these
...and one of these.
These items will be delivered to the Orphanage today and will make life that tiny bit easier for them thanks to you.
I would also like to thank Luke and Laina for helping me to be able to do some good where it is greatly needed.
It is soon Tet here in Vietnam which is the celebration of the Lunar New Year which is also a time when those financially able give to the less fortunate then them and as such Luke and Laina were due to pay a visit to the Orphanage that they had spoken with me about so I asked if I could go along to see for myself the good work that the Orphanage carried out.
We loaded the car up with boxes of biscuits, sweets, rice, cooking oil, toys, cleaning products and off we went.
When we got to the orphanage the grounds were very quiet, as it was cold and raining all the children were inside. We were shown around, introduced to the children and were able to give them the small things that we had taken for them, which were gratefully received...
I cannot stress enough what a humbling experience it was to be able to give to the chilren such small things that brought them such joy. On the one hand I had a warm positive feeling that I was able to bring a small moment of happiness to these children but on the other hand there was/is a part of me that is angry and if I am honest feels guilty for the inequalty of lifestyle between me and them, why do they have barely little to speak of and yet still be more than satisfied with what little I could take for them? It just feels wrong. More upsetting then thinking about what they dont have by way of material items is the love and care that they don't get something we are so very fortunate to be surrounded by whether it be from our parents, partners, family and friends. It is therefore understandable why the minute these children see you and receive a smile from you that they come running just wanting a little bit of your affection and time.
The little boy in the orange top that I am holding in the picture above came running at me, by-passing the trailer of treats and just wanted a hug.
The visit became even more emotionally difficult when we visited the babies and toddlers who all have disabilities. They lay in their cots talking amongst themselves and playing with the odd toy they held but as soon as we walked into the room all attention was turned to us and their little arms were reaching out just to be held and carried...
Once we had visited the children I spoke with the director of the Orphanage to find out a little more about the place and ascertain whether we would be able to help them out in some way. He told me that the washing machine had broken and given the number of children they looked after they ideally they needed two working machines particularly given the childrens disabilities their clothes are constantly soiled which meant they got through a great deal of washing. They also needed a television as this stimulates the children and when the weather is cold and they cannot play outside it keeps them entertained. Unbelieveable a television for us is the norm and yet here it is a luxury.
I left the orphanage with a mixed bag of emotions which admittedly I quickly put aside as we got into the car because I had a challenege on my hands. I needed to work out what we could get for the Orphanage with such little time left in Hanoi given my flight the next day. With Luke and Laina happy to help we stopped at the electric store and got prices for the items the Orphange needed and worked out that thanks to your generosity and kindness we we were able to buy...
...Two of these
...and one of these.
These items will be delivered to the Orphanage today and will make life that tiny bit easier for them thanks to you.
I would also like to thank Luke and Laina for helping me to be able to do some good where it is greatly needed.
Thanks to YOU
Family, friends, colleagues and Moneysupermarket.com thanks to your kindness and generosity we had an abundance of happy faces at the Bo De Pagoda, here are just a few...
I don't think there is anything more that I can add to let you know that the small things we were able to buy for the children have brought them some happiness, I hope this will give you something to smile and be happy about too.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Mission Accomplished and..
...I am pooped!
Having spent a week and a half at the Bo De Pagoda I have been putting a great deal of thought into how the very generous donations you have entrusted me with to be spent on the children should be spent. The task has not has not been easy because the Pagoda receives many donations by way of clothes, sweets and treats for the children by visitors. That is not to say however, that the children have everything they need, because that is far from the case.
What the children lack is fresh fruit and much milk, so I have been taking in fresh fruit for them to eat/drink at snack times. The other thing I noticed was that they do not have much by way of variety in games to keep them entertained and I have seen no sports / outdoor games equipment at all, this is really sad especially given how much time they are made to spend outside.
So the mission began. This afternoon after spending the morning at the Pagoda Matthew (fellow volunteer from Fance)and I armed with: a carefully considered shopping list, money, a dictionary and much enthusiasm commenced our shopping trip on foot.
The first item on the list was a basket ball net together with a basket ball (great as a team activity and fun too) and after much bartering was easy enough to buy. The shop next door had skate-boards and Matthew and I both agreed although an impromptu purchase the kids would love it and it would certainly keep them moving so we bought one! Next stop was to buy some balloons, strange purchase you might be thinking but the children love them, you have to remember that they have very little and what they do have is very basic, but they get much enjoyment from the simple things, you might be strugglig to believe this but until yesterday when I saw how happy a child was after a volunteer had repaired a balloon for him with sellotape I would also have struggled to see why balloons were on my shopping list. The fun that the children were having playing with the balloon made it all the more worthwhile eventually finding them at a stationary stall.
Next on the list were water paints; we walked and walked and asked so many people but we could not find the paints anywhere, we even stopped at an artist's studio where we asked an artist mid work if he knew of anywhere where we could buy some paints for children, however, something got a little lost in translation here because he thought we wanted to become art students! Having been to the indoor and outdoor markets, traipsed through the crazy streets of the Old Quarter weaving and around the traffic, wandered around a supermarket, a rather plush department store and around the block for what felt like several times just by chance we stumbled across a little sweet shop within the courtyard of a fenced off large building, to my joy this little sweet shop also had a set of paint pots amongst its varied small toy collection. I was chuffed to bits and relieved not to have been defeated, the owner looked at us puzzled, on reflection I can understand this given Matthew and I were shouting 'hooray' and 'yeah' over and over!
Carrying our bags of shopping on the way back it was clear that we are very excited about going to the Pagoda tomorrow and seeing the faces of the children light up as they get to paint, skate and play basket ball!
Having spent a week and a half at the Bo De Pagoda I have been putting a great deal of thought into how the very generous donations you have entrusted me with to be spent on the children should be spent. The task has not has not been easy because the Pagoda receives many donations by way of clothes, sweets and treats for the children by visitors. That is not to say however, that the children have everything they need, because that is far from the case.
What the children lack is fresh fruit and much milk, so I have been taking in fresh fruit for them to eat/drink at snack times. The other thing I noticed was that they do not have much by way of variety in games to keep them entertained and I have seen no sports / outdoor games equipment at all, this is really sad especially given how much time they are made to spend outside.
So the mission began. This afternoon after spending the morning at the Pagoda Matthew (fellow volunteer from Fance)and I armed with: a carefully considered shopping list, money, a dictionary and much enthusiasm commenced our shopping trip on foot.
The first item on the list was a basket ball net together with a basket ball (great as a team activity and fun too) and after much bartering was easy enough to buy. The shop next door had skate-boards and Matthew and I both agreed although an impromptu purchase the kids would love it and it would certainly keep them moving so we bought one! Next stop was to buy some balloons, strange purchase you might be thinking but the children love them, you have to remember that they have very little and what they do have is very basic, but they get much enjoyment from the simple things, you might be strugglig to believe this but until yesterday when I saw how happy a child was after a volunteer had repaired a balloon for him with sellotape I would also have struggled to see why balloons were on my shopping list. The fun that the children were having playing with the balloon made it all the more worthwhile eventually finding them at a stationary stall.
Next on the list were water paints; we walked and walked and asked so many people but we could not find the paints anywhere, we even stopped at an artist's studio where we asked an artist mid work if he knew of anywhere where we could buy some paints for children, however, something got a little lost in translation here because he thought we wanted to become art students! Having been to the indoor and outdoor markets, traipsed through the crazy streets of the Old Quarter weaving and around the traffic, wandered around a supermarket, a rather plush department store and around the block for what felt like several times just by chance we stumbled across a little sweet shop within the courtyard of a fenced off large building, to my joy this little sweet shop also had a set of paint pots amongst its varied small toy collection. I was chuffed to bits and relieved not to have been defeated, the owner looked at us puzzled, on reflection I can understand this given Matthew and I were shouting 'hooray' and 'yeah' over and over!
Carrying our bags of shopping on the way back it was clear that we are very excited about going to the Pagoda tomorrow and seeing the faces of the children light up as they get to paint, skate and play basket ball!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Ships Ahoy...Ok Not Quite
Life at the Vietnam Children's Hospital on the floors where I am spending my time can get very tedious for the children who are long term patients their, this is because there is very little by way of entertainment for them; there are no televisions, dvd players or electronic games, in fact what they have can easily be noted as follows: books, crayons, photo-copied pictures to colour in and some make shift games. I am sure you will agree that this is not much and is likely to have very little or no effect in taking the children's minds off their pain and suffering.
My aim when I am at the hospital is to try to keep the children entertained and have some fun with them to take their minds off the fact that they are stuck in hospital this is by carryig out arts and crafts activities and playing games with them etc.
Today at the hospital Huan (in the picture below) who has been a patient for over a month now (so you can imagine how bored he may be getting), asked me to make a paper boat to which my response was a very enthusiastic nod with a big smiley face, because having made lots of paper boats and Emu's with my brother as a kid I thought to myself yes this is is going to impress him and he is gonna love it! You will note however, that Huan is not looking very impressed...
Why you might wonder, well this is how my 'boat' turned out...
...a piece of paper folded several times. All I can say is I tried and I tried but I just couldn't remeber how to do it, yes I was mortified but it got worse when Huan called his little friend over to show him my disaster of a boat who you will see was as equally unimpressed - oh dear!
I can confirm that I felt like a bit of a 'silly billy' to say the least given the enthusiasm and confidence I had shown when I was first asked to make it. I had to redeem myself before the afternoon was over! So what did I do? I moved on rather swiftly back to the activity I had started with which was making animal face masks such as cats, rabbits and elephants. I can say without doubt and you will agree from the picture that this was a success and saved the day.
In the end not only did we learn how to make face masks, but we also learnt the different names for the animals in English and Vietnamese.
To summarise my afternoon at the hospital, I would say we had a good laugh at my lack of boat making skills, we learnt how to make masks, we had a Vietnamese and English speaking lesson but most importantly I hope the children forgot about where they were for a just few minutes during that time because that is what it is all about.
My aim when I am at the hospital is to try to keep the children entertained and have some fun with them to take their minds off the fact that they are stuck in hospital this is by carryig out arts and crafts activities and playing games with them etc.
Today at the hospital Huan (in the picture below) who has been a patient for over a month now (so you can imagine how bored he may be getting), asked me to make a paper boat to which my response was a very enthusiastic nod with a big smiley face, because having made lots of paper boats and Emu's with my brother as a kid I thought to myself yes this is is going to impress him and he is gonna love it! You will note however, that Huan is not looking very impressed...
Why you might wonder, well this is how my 'boat' turned out...
...a piece of paper folded several times. All I can say is I tried and I tried but I just couldn't remeber how to do it, yes I was mortified but it got worse when Huan called his little friend over to show him my disaster of a boat who you will see was as equally unimpressed - oh dear!
I can confirm that I felt like a bit of a 'silly billy' to say the least given the enthusiasm and confidence I had shown when I was first asked to make it. I had to redeem myself before the afternoon was over! So what did I do? I moved on rather swiftly back to the activity I had started with which was making animal face masks such as cats, rabbits and elephants. I can say without doubt and you will agree from the picture that this was a success and saved the day.
In the end not only did we learn how to make face masks, but we also learnt the different names for the animals in English and Vietnamese.
To summarise my afternoon at the hospital, I would say we had a good laugh at my lack of boat making skills, we learnt how to make masks, we had a Vietnamese and English speaking lesson but most importantly I hope the children forgot about where they were for a just few minutes during that time because that is what it is all about.
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Michelin Clan
Please meet some of the members of the Michelin Clan at the Bo De Pagoda...
As you can see I also become a fully fledged member of the Clan and it was without any hesitation ...
Why without hesitation you might ask(?) putting aside the remotely humorous element to this blog the reason why is because it is very cold here given the winter season. I admit the temperature is not as low as it is in the UK and there is no ice around or snow to be seen, however, what I will remind you of is that in the UK our homes, places of work, study, restaurants, cafes etc all have indoor heating and in some places even outdoor heating! Here in Hanoi and at the Pogoda having heating is not the norm nor is it the case therefore being dressed as though you are going to be spending your day outside in low temperatures is something that one must get accustomed to very quickly, can you imagine that? If not I assure you it is not nice or a comfortable way to spend your day or night, yet it is the way of life for these children as are the consequences of living this way.
You will see in the picture above the cheeks of the little boy I am holding are covered in rashes, this is due to the cold temperature that he is living in furthermore what you canot see is that the rash on his face has become so severe that parts of it have become septic and seeping, yet he is a little boy that plays and smiles without complaint or grumble let alone to cry. We have much more then we think or acknowledge to be thankful for.
As you can see I also become a fully fledged member of the Clan and it was without any hesitation ...
Why without hesitation you might ask(?) putting aside the remotely humorous element to this blog the reason why is because it is very cold here given the winter season. I admit the temperature is not as low as it is in the UK and there is no ice around or snow to be seen, however, what I will remind you of is that in the UK our homes, places of work, study, restaurants, cafes etc all have indoor heating and in some places even outdoor heating! Here in Hanoi and at the Pogoda having heating is not the norm nor is it the case therefore being dressed as though you are going to be spending your day outside in low temperatures is something that one must get accustomed to very quickly, can you imagine that? If not I assure you it is not nice or a comfortable way to spend your day or night, yet it is the way of life for these children as are the consequences of living this way.
You will see in the picture above the cheeks of the little boy I am holding are covered in rashes, this is due to the cold temperature that he is living in furthermore what you canot see is that the rash on his face has become so severe that parts of it have become septic and seeping, yet he is a little boy that plays and smiles without complaint or grumble let alone to cry. We have much more then we think or acknowledge to be thankful for.
Love and Affection
I actually don't think I need to say anymore, the title together with the photograph speaks volumes, but I do want to add more because I want you to fully appreciate the the love and affection that the little boy sharing his drink (Chung) has for all the other children. I apologise to Chung in advance because I don't think I can emphasise enough the warmth and care this little boy has and gives everybody around him.
Chung an orphan is autistic, he has nobody except the nanny at the Pagoda allocated to look after him. Other then what Chung wears and holds at any given time he has nothing and these are therefore his only possessions and yet today when Chung was given a carton of drink and a packet of biscuits his first reaction was not to go and hide or sit in a quiet corner away from everybody to eat and drink these things himself instead he chose to surround himself around the other little toddlers and babies and made sure that he shared what he had. To say that it was the most heart warming and generous action I have seen for a long, long time would be an understatement.
Witnessing something like this just puts everything into perspective and reminds me more then ever that the materials things are not what we need and material things are not what provides happiness, it is the kindness of our hearts that makes all of the difference in the world and most importantly to peoples lives whther they are our loved ones, friends or simply strangers.
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