Me and Nhi

We've just finished our second week so half way there now. Our good friend Betty has just left, she's 68, an Aussie grandma who swam for an hour everyday while we lazed by the pool! It’s her third time volunteering for CNCF, a great woman.

Just writing to keep you up to date with our activities this week.

Me and Soph made an impromptu visit to the hospital, (even as injury prone as we both are it wasn't for us!). Because of language barriers we had no idea where we were going on what was going on. We were given a baby each and lead into a taxi - not very health and safety conscious as we were driving through town with no seat belts or baby seats. We seemed to be fast tracked through this paediatric hospital with hundreds of kids and parents waiting. Interestingly we were each handed a record book for each child and then we found out who was a boy or a girl from the colour! Sophie had Kui who we always call Tufty and I had Kaa who was named Elmo for the day - far easier to remember! So we eventually figure out we were there for vaccinations, they had them very quickly and efficiently and we trundled back to the centre.

I went to a cultural park last Thursday with some kids from the Sunshine School. It’s a primary school set on the ground floor of the centre. It has 3 classroom and 127 kids who go everyday in 3 different batches. Most Vietnam schools are free but if the parents can't afford the uniform then the kids can't go. The difference with the Sunshine School is that the uniform is free so no-one is excluded. We took 15 kids to this theme park/zoo for the day. Some kids dressed in their finery, the majority stayed in uniforms, I was later told this was because that is their 'best' item of clothing. The park like most things in Vietnam (roads, music, fashion) was 20 years behind the time, we saw performing monkeys, elephants and even bears :( no very nice. But it was great to take the kids out and give them a proper meal and ice cream. We still haven't delegated any of the money yet and we only have a week left. I'm looking into getting a wheelchair for a little girl called Nhi (in the picture above). She's very beautiful and looks a lot like a younger Cara. Her legs don't work from the knees down, she stays at the centre in the day to get some respite from home. Her future will be shuffling around on the floor or using a makeshift skateboard when outside like we've seen some of the vendors use when they are selling on the streets. But obviously need to look into her home life and see if it’s appropriate.

Soph should hopefully be writing soon, she went to one of the CNCF province centres for blind children and no doubt she will talk about Ngoc (or Gokky as Soph likes to say) her new friend.