Agent Orange

So we had a great party on Thursday, pin the tail on the donkey was very popular! The kids were on their best behavior in their (all matching) party clothes. It was such a special treat for them to have fruit, crisps, coke and birthday cake - something we all took for granted at our own birthdays. (The kids have one en-masse birthday celebration for all over them in the year.) We did pay the price the next day with all the kids grumpy from coming off their sugar high!

In the evening we headed to do some Karaoke, a massive thing over here. They charge you to rent a private room with a massive screen (but unfortunetly no Elton John and Kiki Dee!)

We've had a sight seeing weekend going to the War Remnants Museum, where we saw the horrific aftermath and was happened and is still happening to the people of Vietnam during the war. The main thing to hit home was 'Agent Orange' this was where the Americans literally crop dusted thousands of miles with horrific chemicals. These chemicals are still in the soil and water in some areas even 20 years later. Because of this some of our kids in the centre were born with disabilities, its still affecting the people here.

We also went to the Chu Chi tunnels where 16,000 Vietnamese lived in 200 kilometers of tunnels under the America's noses. There tunnels were so intricate and clever with traps, dead ends and some so small in size they had to crawl on their stomachs to travel around and they lived down there for 20 years!

We've had some thoughts on the generous donations we had. None of the children own anything of their own, the oldest resident Wang, aged 9 was given his own pair of trainers yesterday and went mental about them! Also all of their shoes need replacing. Because of swine flu we aren't allowed to take them out of the compound and the only outside area doesn't have any toys so we are looking into that as well.

Hope everyone's ok, take care x x