I only woke up once last night and said “Ahh where am I?” and was up around 8am! My plan was first to get breakfast, as the hotel offered a little breakfast included. However, it was down the street a bit at their sister hotel. But it was actually decent. I had some pineapple and some rice (a very Vietnamese breakfast) and decided that was a good enough start for the day. I then went to the bank as I need to exchange my money. I had done a lot of research on where/how to exchange money and the bank is probably the worst rate, BUT the safest and at this point I don’t feel like dealing with counterfeit money, so the bank is was! The woman looked at me and said, “You look familiar, you been here before?” I tried to explain I was here last year and she says, “Yes I remember you, I sat right there” which is true, she did sit there! Anyway it was great and so nice to be “home”..even the bank lady remembers me!! I then made the hike to the Coop for groceries. At this point the city was HOT and loud, just the way I remember it! The walk was ALSO as long as I remember it and the Coop was just as crowded as I remembered! I found everything I needed except jelly! I know I found it there last year, so I have a couple of other options to look before I pass it on to the “mom these are the things I forgot” list! I really hate the Coop as it is SO crowded and I can never remember how to say “excuse me” so not only am I hot and sticky, I’m rude! Oh well! The walk back was again, long, and I gave myself a few minutes to cool down and rehydrate. I forgot that last time I was here I had already spent 5 weeks adjusting to the time zone, so I am actually really tired. My plan for the next 2 or so days is to take a slow and spend only a few hours at the orphanage and make sure I keep cool and hydrated! The LAST thing I want is to be sick HERE! After a quick rest stop I went out to get a sim card. I am meeting Long tomorrow at the bus station so I figured I really needed to have a phone and while I do have an international cell phone, it’s nice to have one that is cheaper for calls in Vietnam. I probably got ripped off, but heat and humidity do awful things to my haggling skills. I was exhausted, so I splurged and went to an “American” coffee place to get an ice coffee!! I also stopped by my fruit stand (my Jessica Simpson man was not there!) to pick up..DRAGON fruit!!! YES!!! I still have the free breeze at home and when Blake was shopping for air freshener I made him get dragon fruit! Now I can eat it! WAHOOOOOO! After that I came back for one “last rest” and food break before I headed out to the orphanage! Oh how could I forgot..about 20 steps from the hotel they have a PIZZA HUT! At first I was like YES comfort food, but actually I am kind of bummed. I feel like pretty soon the strip will be covered in chain restaurants.
I made the walk to the bus station and actually didn’t have to wait long for the number 3 bus. Last year when I was here, it was 3,000 dong for the ride, so at first I got that much out. Then I figured maybe it went up and I didn’t want to look like a fool, so I decided to get 4,000 out, which she took and handed me my ticket. I debated whether or not she ripped me off (I get so cynical here) until I looked at the ticket which said 4,000 dong! So there you have it! I was banking on the fact that the fence with red paint would still be there (my cue to stand up) and luckily, nobody has been painting so it was! I also wasn’t sure if I should press the button, but the bus wasn’t too full and I knew the guy could see me so he stopped!
I was so nervous walking to the orphanage. By biggest fear was that Thoung would want nothing to do with me or something like that. Over the past year I have had dreams that he hates me and that he speaks English fluently (weird) so I figured somewhere in the middle would be good!
When I got to the orphanage everyone was sleeping (which I figured because I was early) so now I had to start looking through the rooms to find him. The way its set up is there is one big “play room” where the kids who are not bed ridden come during the day to play, eat and have somewhat of occupational therapy (they do exercises and things like that) but, for sleeping (and apparently on the weekends) the kids spend their time in their assigned rooms. After some peaking around, I found him, sound asleep!! The kids share cribs (if you can even call them that!) and the boy he was with was very touchy and grabby. Thoung slowly woke up, but I could tell he had no idea what was going on. I figured I would give him time to wake up, go find Cho Con (my mom’s boy!) and come back! After no luck, I came back into the room and pulled out pictures I had printed of myself and Thoung from last year. Words cannot describe how his face lit up when he saw them. He pointed at the picture and then pointed at me and had this HUGE smile. It made the VERY long plane ride MORE than worth it! We went through the pictures together and he was smiling. At one point I got to a picture of Cho Con and I asked where he was (I swear Thoung understands English) and he pointed next door, so I figured he was around somewhere. One of the boys Khaly fed last year was in one of the pictures and it was so funny because as we got to his picture Thoung looked at me and pointed in the hallway, because this kid was walking by!
After some reminiscing I pulled out the Rubik cube (at this point I knew he remembered, but just to make sure) and we played with that for a bit. It was hard because if they were in the play room I could pull him aside to spoil him, but in this room all the kids were together. Anyway the woman worker in the room was trying to talk to me and at one point I swear she was saying Thoung was my child but that was definitely hard not being able to tell her what was going on.
It was time for them to eat, so I decide to visit the other rooms and actually met a guy who’s from California! He was probably in his 40’s and left Vietnam when he was 4. It was GREAT talking to him (he’s fluent in Vietnamese) because I learned so much about the orphanage. He has been going there for 14 years and he said when they first built it himself (and many other wealthier Vietnamese) gave the monk money to build the orphanage, but instead the monk spent the money on the Pagoda (which is in front of the orphanage, from the street you would have no clue there was an orphanage behind). He kept saying, “I don’t mean to be rude but I was PISSED” and he said many others were too, because the money wasn’t used for what they thought it would be used for. The government couldn’t do anything about it since it was private money. So he said he doesn’t like the head monk because there are a lot of politics involved. He said the monk gives the kids “basic” care and keeps them off the streets, but that’s about it. Most of the kids are literally left at the gate (some tied to a bench, one kid sat out all night and was bitten by bugs..it sounds awful) by teenage mothers who don’t know what else to do. They also find a lot of children in the trash. It’s disgusting. The women who work at the orphanage work 24/7 for under $50 a month, but when I asked about it, he said they do it because they’ve either been orphans themselves, or they really care about the kids. He said most of them have children of their own (not usually disabled) but they can have their kids with them at work. He said because of this the women take good care of the kids since their own kids are in the group. He also confirmed the fact that they are unadoptable because the monk says so. He works in pharmaceuticals and said he was able to bring a child to Boston to have surgery done and found a family to adopt, but the monk wouldn’t let the child stay because the monk wanted the recognition of getting the child help and them bringing him back. Again, it’s just one side to the story, but it sounds like the monk doesn’t want a better life for these kids. I also talked to this guy about ways to donate/help. He said don’t donate to the pagoda because the money rarely trickles down to the orphanage. At first he mentioned that he comes every 2-3 months (he retired now, sold his pharmaceuticals company) and said he would give me his email, but then decided he really thinks the best way is saving my money to come back. He said the kids crave attention and touch so BEING here is really best. He also said I could find out what each room needs and buy that while I am here, so I know where my money is going. He was great about saying when he comes he buys things here so he knows EXACTLY what it is being used for. Basically, each women worker is in charge of a room, so I could ask the room what they need. He also said I could leave money with the women, which I questioned, but he said again because their kids are in the room they’re really good about using that money as they should!
After that great talk, I went back because Thoung had finished lunch and “stole” him so we could go for a walk (again I wish you could have seen his face when I asked if he wanted to take a walk!) We went outside so I could give him his camera, which he LOVED! Last year he would love taking my digital camera to take pictures and when I bought him a plastic one I could tell he was disappointed that it didn’t have an LCD screen. So this year I got a plastic one WITH an LCD screen to bring with him and he was so excited! We sat outside for a while and took a walk, but then it was getting later and I wanted to back by dark, so I brought him back inside.
He is always sad when he has to go back inside and when I leave he kind of throws a little tantrum..I don’t think anyone really ever takes these kids outside! It was hard to leave him like that but I kept saying, I’ll be back tomorrow!
I took the bus to another grocery store to pick up a few more things and then home sweet home! I was SO tired (mentally and physically) but knew I was also hungry so made myself go back out to grab dinner. EVERY restaurant in the backpacker’s district has the SAME food, really. On their menu they have an American page, a Mexican Page, an Italian page, an Indian page, a Vietnamese pages, etc etc. After a bowl of spaghetti (I’m taking it slow with my stomach) I was back at the hotel for a WELL needed shower. Now, it is time for sleep since I am very very very tired!
Hugs and kisses from a happy Julie and Thoung!
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