Guard at the orphanage making a basket out of sugar cane. Truc with his craft at HOA. Vicki with Buddha and his ice cream cone!! We both wore alot of it!
Happy Wednesday night from Tam Ky – it’s actually Independence Day here – so happy that too!
I think I left off on Monday. Tuesday was the big celebration day for the New Year. I went to the Disabled Hospital in the morning and did my baby massage on 6 children. Put 2 of them to sleep!! When you can’t communicate you might as well sleep! They are just too cute – most have cerebral palsy – so therapy mostly involved their joints and working on strengthening their necks. Some of them are getting pretty good at lifting up and turning their head. It’s gratifying to see the changes made in just a month.
Following the Disabled Hospital we headed out to the orphanage. Mrs. Hanh made lunch for the children which she does once a month. It was a wonderful south – fish balls cut up, quail eggs, chicken, pasta, and a wonderful broth. I got to feed a couple of the toddlers, including my little man, Tuan (Buddha)! Was quite an experience – feeding two children, one spoon and one big bowl of soup. I just about burned their poor little mouths cuz it was hot!! They weren’t too hungry anyway because someone had been by the orphanage just before we got there and dropped off ice cream cones so the children were pretty much covered in ice cream when we arrived – was tooooo cute!! They loved their lunch and we all enjoyed being on the feeding and helping end of doing lunch for the children. They too love Mrs. Hanh’s cooking. Picture of Buddha with his ice cream!
Home for the afternoon. Tuesday is my day for a free afternoon so I stayed behind and took a little snooze. When I awoke, Mrs. Hanh was out on the front sidewalk barbequing meat for dinner that night. It was very thinly sliced pork which had been marinating since the day before. You will see a picture of the BBQ and you won’t be surprised to know that she BBQ’d from 2 to 5 pm. This is the one night a month when she cooks a feast for the children at the Home of Affection – 33 kids, plus a few adults, and we volunteers. There was a lot of pork. I helped her BBQ a little – as did Grandma. The meat was served with noodles, greens, and a wonderful sauce. The children scarfed it up as did all of us! It was FABULOUS!!
Now, prior to the dinner there was a minor accident. I was participating in a game with some of the children and landed on the ground. I pulled that muscle from the center of my right butt cheek down my leg a little (the hammy) and majorly stretched out the back of my knee and calf muscle on my left leg. Now I have a knee brace on my left leg and it helps a lot – puts pressure on my calf muscle.
To the fireworks. We were planning on biking down to the park for the occasion. After seeing hundreds and hundreds of motorbikes on the road heading to the park, and me being unable to ride a bike at the moment, we quickly re-thought that decision!! Come to find out the view from in front of the house was perfect – noise from the fireworks was even heard here. The chairs came outside and we joined many people to watch about 20 minutes of pretty darn good fireworks. There was no break between the fireworks and they were just like what we have at home.
3 volunteers from DaNang came to Tam Ky to spend the night, so I moved to another room downstairs for sleeping last night – as long as there are 2 or 3 fans in a room, I’ll sleep in it.
Arose this a.m. to banana pancakes again – love when visitors come cuz we always get banana pancakes – and MANGO!!!!! Off to the orphanage. The children got extra care due to the 3 extra volunteers this morning. My little Tuan was glad to see me and I think I’ve created a monster – he doesn’t like to be put down much and fell asleep in my arms. Actually I don’t think it’s my charm and personality – I think it’s the cold damp towel around my neck. He always cuddles right into that!!
We had a fabulous lunch of veggie rolls, rolled in rice paper with greens and again, a wonderful sesame peanut sauce. Everyone else had ice cream and chocolate for dessert – I had MANGO!!!! I hope you all like the new orange tint to my skin when I get home – might have to change my wardrobe to match my new skin tone!! I hope there’s a support group to help me through my mango withdrawals.
Had a nice nap today after taking a pain pill for my leg – there’s another support group I’ll need! Now, off to the beach. We went to the tourist beach at Tam Tanh and it was beautiful. There were ladies wanting us to sit in their chairs or sit on their tarps on the beach because you pay about $.10 US to use their spot. We chose chairs with a tarp umbrella right in front of the ocean. We were firstly directed to a parking spot – that was another $.50 US.
There were some ladies going up and down the beach offering their food – dried fish, warmed up over a portable bbq and served with a tortilla like shell. The dried fish is dried by hanging it from the cloths line. A flat dried squid didn’t look to appetizing and I passed on that. We ordered crab, clams and squid which were all cooked. The squid is a little rubbery but very good as it’s wrapped in rice paper with sauce and greens. The crabs here are itty bitty – you almost feel like you’re eating some poor little crab baby. The clams looked wonderful – very large. They are not served with garlic butter – just a dried mixture of salt and pepper. I have not seen butter since I’ve been here. We did not go into the water but it was delightful on the beach. Again, people really noticed us and smiled and wanted us to take their pictures. One couple brought their baby up to me and put her hand out so that I would touch her and talk to her. Back home we go to the beach in the morning and home in the late afternoon or early evening – here, the beach was filling up a lot when we were leaving – around 5:30 pm. That’s when everyone gets into the water. However, some of the younger folks were in the water earlier in the day. Total coast for clams, squid, crabs, pop, beer - $8.00 US!!
That ends Independence Day in Tam Ky – it’s the 35 year of independence for this little town and it was fun to watch. Some very interesting, well lit up, floats went down the street last night on the way to the park. They are sponsored by different businesses and organizations in the area. They are built with wood around a car then driven down the road.
Back to reality tomorrow and working a whole day! Will try to muster up enough energy to submit another blog after that!!
Following the Disabled Hospital we headed out to the orphanage. Mrs. Hanh made lunch for the children which she does once a month. It was a wonderful south – fish balls cut up, quail eggs, chicken, pasta, and a wonderful broth. I got to feed a couple of the toddlers, including my little man, Tuan (Buddha)! Was quite an experience – feeding two children, one spoon and one big bowl of soup. I just about burned their poor little mouths cuz it was hot!! They weren’t too hungry anyway because someone had been by the orphanage just before we got there and dropped off ice cream cones so the children were pretty much covered in ice cream when we arrived – was tooooo cute!! They loved their lunch and we all enjoyed being on the feeding and helping end of doing lunch for the children. They too love Mrs. Hanh’s cooking. Picture of Buddha with his ice cream!
Home for the afternoon. Tuesday is my day for a free afternoon so I stayed behind and took a little snooze. When I awoke, Mrs. Hanh was out on the front sidewalk barbequing meat for dinner that night. It was very thinly sliced pork which had been marinating since the day before. You will see a picture of the BBQ and you won’t be surprised to know that she BBQ’d from 2 to 5 pm. This is the one night a month when she cooks a feast for the children at the Home of Affection – 33 kids, plus a few adults, and we volunteers. There was a lot of pork. I helped her BBQ a little – as did Grandma. The meat was served with noodles, greens, and a wonderful sauce. The children scarfed it up as did all of us! It was FABULOUS!!
Now, prior to the dinner there was a minor accident. I was participating in a game with some of the children and landed on the ground. I pulled that muscle from the center of my right butt cheek down my leg a little (the hammy) and majorly stretched out the back of my knee and calf muscle on my left leg. Now I have a knee brace on my left leg and it helps a lot – puts pressure on my calf muscle.
To the fireworks. We were planning on biking down to the park for the occasion. After seeing hundreds and hundreds of motorbikes on the road heading to the park, and me being unable to ride a bike at the moment, we quickly re-thought that decision!! Come to find out the view from in front of the house was perfect – noise from the fireworks was even heard here. The chairs came outside and we joined many people to watch about 20 minutes of pretty darn good fireworks. There was no break between the fireworks and they were just like what we have at home.
3 volunteers from DaNang came to Tam Ky to spend the night, so I moved to another room downstairs for sleeping last night – as long as there are 2 or 3 fans in a room, I’ll sleep in it.
Arose this a.m. to banana pancakes again – love when visitors come cuz we always get banana pancakes – and MANGO!!!!! Off to the orphanage. The children got extra care due to the 3 extra volunteers this morning. My little Tuan was glad to see me and I think I’ve created a monster – he doesn’t like to be put down much and fell asleep in my arms. Actually I don’t think it’s my charm and personality – I think it’s the cold damp towel around my neck. He always cuddles right into that!!
We had a fabulous lunch of veggie rolls, rolled in rice paper with greens and again, a wonderful sesame peanut sauce. Everyone else had ice cream and chocolate for dessert – I had MANGO!!!! I hope you all like the new orange tint to my skin when I get home – might have to change my wardrobe to match my new skin tone!! I hope there’s a support group to help me through my mango withdrawals.
Had a nice nap today after taking a pain pill for my leg – there’s another support group I’ll need! Now, off to the beach. We went to the tourist beach at Tam Tanh and it was beautiful. There were ladies wanting us to sit in their chairs or sit on their tarps on the beach because you pay about $.10 US to use their spot. We chose chairs with a tarp umbrella right in front of the ocean. We were firstly directed to a parking spot – that was another $.50 US.
There were some ladies going up and down the beach offering their food – dried fish, warmed up over a portable bbq and served with a tortilla like shell. The dried fish is dried by hanging it from the cloths line. A flat dried squid didn’t look to appetizing and I passed on that. We ordered crab, clams and squid which were all cooked. The squid is a little rubbery but very good as it’s wrapped in rice paper with sauce and greens. The crabs here are itty bitty – you almost feel like you’re eating some poor little crab baby. The clams looked wonderful – very large. They are not served with garlic butter – just a dried mixture of salt and pepper. I have not seen butter since I’ve been here. We did not go into the water but it was delightful on the beach. Again, people really noticed us and smiled and wanted us to take their pictures. One couple brought their baby up to me and put her hand out so that I would touch her and talk to her. Back home we go to the beach in the morning and home in the late afternoon or early evening – here, the beach was filling up a lot when we were leaving – around 5:30 pm. That’s when everyone gets into the water. However, some of the younger folks were in the water earlier in the day. Total coast for clams, squid, crabs, pop, beer - $8.00 US!!
That ends Independence Day in Tam Ky – it’s the 35 year of independence for this little town and it was fun to watch. Some very interesting, well lit up, floats went down the street last night on the way to the park. They are sponsored by different businesses and organizations in the area. They are built with wood around a car then driven down the road.
Back to reality tomorrow and working a whole day! Will try to muster up enough energy to submit another blog after that!!
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