Hanoi here I come...

With only two, yes two sleeps until my annual leave begins and I fly out I thought it was now OK for me to share my news and excitement with you (if you haven’t heard it already). The title is a bit of a give away; Yes I am off to Hanoi, Vietnam!

Never having been to the Far East nervous is one way to describe how I am feeling. I should clarify though that I'm not going to Vietnam in pursuit of checking out the famous setting of ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ or chasing/racing cars cue Top Gear or even hanging around Harlong Bay in the hope of bumping into Bond, James Bond cue ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ (though that would be rather good)!

I am off to Hanoi, Vietnam for a very different purpose that is to do some volunteer work at the Vietnam Children’s Hospital, Vietnam's National Hospital of Paediatrics. The hospital consists of 22 departments with the number of patients under treatment reaching up to 1000-1200 with the ages ranging from infancy to nearly 17 years old. The majority of the children are sadly afflicted with difficult to cure ailments that require treatment by specialists. Most of the children are from low-income families with parents working in agriculture and some are orphans. You will therefore appreciate that life can be lonely for these children particularly at visiting times when there are no visitors to visit them and so this is where I come in. I will be at the hospital to care, feed, wash, play, entertain, and generally have as much fun as possible with the children to do utmost best to distract them from their illness and any sadness they may be feeling.

I will also be volunteering at Vietnam Orphanage at Bo De Pagoda. Bo De Pagoda is a place of Buddhist worship. The female monks who live in the pagoda aim to help people and act in a peaceful and respectful way toward others and as such Bo De Pagoda houses approximately 50 children (mostly orphans). There are also children who attend the kindergarten who have disabilities (Down syndrome, deaf, mute, and limb deformities). Here my role will be similar in that I will be caring by way of feeding, washing, playing, carrying out activities both fun and educational with the children.

I am not going to pretend this is going to be easy because it is going to be tough and already now as I type my emotions run high and I hear a little voice in my head telling me to toughen up.

So folks wish me luck I think I am going to need it!
x

PS A big thank you to those of you who have so very kindly donated money to be spent on the children, I assure you that I will be putting it to the very best of use, namely putting smiles on the childrens faces!