Greetings once again! March 8th is a big day in Vietnam, and other places around the world. It’s International Women’s Day! Celebrations started on Sunday night and continued through Monday night. We spent Monday morning at the orphanage cuddling and playing. We then had the afternoon off. Amber and I rode our bikes to the Co Op Mart which is the large grocery store. I needed some stationary supplies for my house project and for my lessons for the week. Got everything I needed and headed back to the house. We have visitors for the next couple of days from DaNang. They are working with some of the handicapped children here, and having meetings about several different projects. I’ve been hanging in my room cuz I don’t know anything about that stuff!!! I have big doors on one side of my room and they open up to a balcony and the wind comes through and it feels terrific. I actually don’t sweat when they are open! Still keep my wet towel necklace on though!!!

We dressed up and headed to the Home of Affection celebration for International Women’s Day. It was very nice – 2 hours long. There were two long tables across from each other. Some of us sat on one side, some on the other. The dignitaries were also sitting at the tables. Sitting on the tables were bottles of water – bottles that had been used and refilled with glasses to pour the water into cuz it’s not cool to drink it out of the bottle; plates of dried watermelon seeds; some very small green apples that you dip into a mixture of salt and chili peppers; a litchi type fruit; and a fruit that looks a lot like a pear and an onion combined – kind of pinkish white. You crack it open to seeds and a fruit that is just the same consistency as Styrofoam. I’ve found a use for all of ours that doesn’t get recycled – turn it into a fruit!!! Needless to say, I didn’t get chockers eating there!!!

There was an emcee that spoke all in Vietnamese. She called many people up to speak and they all spoke then sang a song. The ‘DJ’ was sitting in front of a keyboard with an old fashioned speaker sitting on a table next to him. He played some recorded music then he added to it on the keyboard. Oh yea, he had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth the whole time. Some of the children had a little fashion show – they are true runway material – did such a cute job. Then a couple of the children sang and did a darn good job. What did they sing about you ask???? Not a clue!!! But, some of the kids sounded better than some of the adults!! They take this singing thing soooooo serious here – tons of karaoke places and everybody sings whether they can or not. It was pretty entertaining and a little funny!!

Then we had prepared answers to questions that we knew we were going to be asked. Amber talked about what her impression was of Tam Ky. Julie talked about Australia and then the Aussies sand Waltzing Matilda. Lorraine talked about women – past, present, future; Randall talked about what he knew of Quong Nam Province and Tam Ky; and I sang a song about my country – God Bless America. The funny thing was, when we sang our songs – the DJ just started playing random notes so we would have some music. It made it hard to stay on key and I’m sure he thought he was doing a damn fine job accompanying us!!!

Throughout all this the children were exceptionally well behaved. There were adults spread amongst them and we’re all sure they were threatened within an inch of their lives if they acted up. They were all there to greet us when we arrived as usual. So cute and loving!!!
Following the program, a group of us walked about 10 minutes and saddled up to a low red plastic table with red plastic stools and had a little beer and peanuts. Warm beer poured into a glass with ice. Every 1 minute the lady came by and poured beer into your glass and made sure there was fresh ice in it. We all shared the gifts we were given after we made our presentations at the celebration. The classic was Lorraine who got a pair of pink underwear stuffed in a used cigarette package and wrapped up. I got a hair clip and a mask like the ones people wear on their motorbikes here. Julie got a hair clip. I don’t know what the rest of the folks got but the underwear in the cigarette box was the hit of the night!!!!!

Home about 10pm with lots of chatter about the day and night. Had a roomie last night – Jen from DaNang who is the manager of GVN house in DaNang and oversees all the placements along with Mr. Viet.

Tuesday took Amber and me to the Disabled Children’s Hospital to work with 3 children. A physiotherapist is here this week to assess the disabled children we work with and instruct us as to how to treat them when we are at the hospital. Lots of massage and exercise. They have very limited equipment but what we do does help – you can see change for the better over time. Before I headed into where we work, I went into another building because my curiosity took me there – and it was a building that housed patients. I would say there were at least 10 beds in each room and just a plain metal bed. Some patients had masks on and some didn’t. There were nurses and Doctors mingling about – no equipment of any kind present like heart monitors or IV stands. Would have been interesting to stay and watch but had to get to work. Will try to get pictures!!!!

Had another great meal for lunch – Mrs. Hanh’s pho and it was fantastic – a few different types of meat, shrimp, veggies and great noodles. Then comes the fruit – more and more mango and grapefruit!!!!!

Aussie words for the day: Rudgy didgh or fair dinkum – true as in a promise; rubber – eraser; redundant or retrenched – fired from a job.

I’m going to go ahead and publish this blog while I can get online! Will cover Tuesday afternoon and evening in the next blog to go along with Wednesday!!!!

What are all these picturs - Tau in her walker at the orphanage - she's our Down's baby; Son in his new chair - a happy boy; Baby Nguyen with dimples and a smile; Trock & I at Celebration; the table of food at celebration; lady singing in traditional Vietnamese oai dye (sp?); Me and God Bless America; GVN group - some from DaNang and some from Tam Ky; my new mask; Lorraine, her cigarette box and new underwear!!!!!
Love from Tam Ky!!!