questions and answers
07.03.2008
17 °C
this is some questions my parents asked me, thought you guys might want to read it to..........
Are most of the houses quite colourful like that? the colourful area is just the outside play area, the sleeping rooms are all pretty gloomy with mouldy peeling paint, but also with the tiled floor.
Yes, quite a different world out there. Instead of the overweight children here in NZ you have the opposite there! Yes some of these children are so skinny, you can see the veins in there hands and there ribs, It can be hard to tell what age they are as many are stunted growth wise ie; many of the 6/7 yr olds are the same height as Lucy but much skinner and lighter.
You seem to have jumped into the work as soon as you got there!
yep we got here in Tam Ky on Saturday and visited the orphanage that evening, This weeks been a bit unorganised as the translator just resigned after 3 yrs and we have a new one who's quite young and doesn't quite know how the Tam Ky volunteering program works. So a we haven't been doing too much teaching yet.
Is the Children's home quite close to the baby orphanage?Have you worked there too?
The baby orphanage is a 10 min taxi ride away, we go there everyday, the kids here are the worst off, and GVN and past volunteers pretty much donate/pay for this orphanage to run (for some reason it gets very little government funding)
The Home of Affection is a 5 min bike ride from the volunteer house and we go there 3 afternoons and one evening a week.
Social support is another orphanage and the newest one. It gets funding from the government,so the children have blankets and toys etc. Many of the children aren't necessarily orphans here but taken from "Hill tribes" (we suspect maybe against the family's will sometimes). From this orphanage lots of the children get adopted which is good for the government they get lots of $$ from this. From what we have been able to find out, people from the US adopt a child which costs them $20,000 US. Little to none of that money goes to the orphanage from what we can tell.
How is Lucy liking this all? Is she able to communicate with the children?
Lucy was a bit of an attraction to the children, many of them just stood and stared and followed her around the first couple of days. She has been a bit unsure but is settling in now. Many of the children in the Baby orphanage don't play together at all, (they just fend for themselves) so Lucy wasn't so sure how to act/play when her toys always got stolen etc.
But at the Home of affection, you can tell that the children are a bit better off and more well adjusted, Lucy has taught many of the girls to play ring a ring a rosy and gives them big cuddles etc. Yay this is great and makes me feel heaps better because there was a few days she was saying she wanted to go home and play at Gloria and Olivia's places. :-)
The temperature certainly is a lot cooler than expected. At least you don't have to cope with heat (yet). The temperates here has been about 17/18 degrees the whole time , and always overcast or drizzling, Funny we're kind of hoping it'll start heating up soon. (there's a beach within biking distance, be nice to go have a swim after we finish work at the orphanages)
How is the hygiene in the homes? the orphanages are doing the best they can , they have washing machines, and a water filters ( all donations from volunteers i think). But often the bottles are shared between babies, and the older kids sleep all cuddled up (which is really cute and great that they get human contact but bugs/sicknesses spread from kiddy to kiddy really easy). But we often go there and find that the babies/ toddlers are saturated and there's pee all over the ground. They didn't have nappy covers till i gave them a bunch (good thing is they actually seem to be using them). Often the mothers are a bit reluctant to try new things.
Are they run down or in quite good repair?
Peoples homes are quite funny and scary) to see, they are really embracing "western" culture, so often the outside of the house is crappy but then when you look inside there is a "big" TV , lounge suite etc and there are Internet cafes everywhere, It was only recently that the government allowed western music, and it looks like the Vietnamese have embraced it completely. You can often hear karaoke of Britney or bad soppy "80s songs and the like. Although most music here is all copied/pirated music that you can buy from many shops. Sony would have a field day here. hehehe.
How cheap are things? Some Things are really cheap, we have been buying fruit for the children at the baby orphanage and its been costing us about $3 for 30+ kids, I've been drinking 5000 dong (about NZ 40c) coffees at the cafe next door (true they are just super Strong filtered grounds served with sweetened condensed milk) and 5000dong is the westerner price (the locals get things heap cheaper then we do).
And is there much choice in food, clothing etc.?
we haven't been to the market yet in Tam Ky but apparently this is the place for everything, only problem is you get absolutely swamped by the locals (Tam Ky doesn''t get many foreigners). I have been sussing out what clothes i want to get made because tailors are really cheap here. We plan to go to Hoi An soon for the weekend (this is a really touristy town, with a bit more to see that Tam ky) but only about 45min away or $5NZ by Bus.
Posted by starbellys 02:25 Comments (1)
