From North to South Vietnam

To start our journey from North to South Vietnam we took a 12 hour night bus to Hue, (A night bus here is around 30 semi flat seats, we’d been told to avoid the back as it was the bumpiest and hottest as over the engine and to not go on the second row of beds as you’re likely to fall out – hopefully you can see by the picture what I mean) What was supposed to be 12 hours ended up being 17 as the bus only went 40 km/hour. But on the plus side we managed to get quite a lot of sleep as the back row had 5 beds in a row so no falling out.

Hue is the cultural capital and we spent a day there seeing the sights, tombs, palaces, temples and pagodas. It was destined for ruin until in 1993 it was given world heritage site status and the restoration and preservation work is still going on today, so now it’s a cultural Mecca for tourists and nationals. We took a Cyclo (a human powered tuk tuk) around the city which was one of our main highlights.

We moved onto Hoi An the next day. Hoi An is traditionally the highlight of any Vietnamese trip due to it being rich with history having escaped the destruction of the wars going on around it. It’s built on the river and has much more class and Mediterranean feel whilst still being cheap and warmingly Vietnamese. Hoi An has its own special food delicacies which we sampled on many occasions. Hoi An is very well known for its tailoring industry, shortly after arriving we were invited into a shop where we perused the latest Next catalogue/ Vogue to chose any design made with any material you could imagine. We’d discussed getting dresses made for Amy’s wedding and I found a nice design in a magazine, picked a colour, material was measured and the dress was finished 24 hours later after 3 fittings. Hopefully it will still fit after 3 months in America!

After we had spent all our money on shopping we moved onto Nha Trang, one of the main seaside resorts in Vietnam. Although we had a great time there on the beach, getting alcoholically persuaded on an intentionally innocent boat trip the town was full of “holidayers” and so its Vietnamese charm was neglected.

We travelled the 6 hours to Delat to get a bit of reprieve from the hot beach weather. Delat is situated in the mountains, we knew only about its famous wine which is for sale all over the country. Its only 40,000 Dong and at just over 1 pound as you can guess it’s not the best! As Delat is considerably cooler and has more mountainous terrain they offer all different outdoor persuits. We decided to take up canyoning and trade in our bus ticket onto Mui Ne for a 70km cycle down to the coast.

Canyoning is the way by which you travel through a canyon by any means. Mainly for us this was abseiling down waterfalls. There were rock slides, cliff jumps and all other scary activities, but on the whole the day was very fun.

Very early the next morning, still sore from our previous day activities we headed off to Mui Ne. There was only us two, Thao; our guide and our driver in the support vehicle. Our bikes were imported Giant mountain bikes from Singapore, though had very hard small saddles which were fairly unbearable towards the end of the trip. We started cycling around 9:30 and finished about 2:30 and covered 57 km in total. The best part on the bike was covering a 14km downhill section in about 20 mins – very good fun! We stopped for lunch in a minority village which was very interesting.

The day was tiring but very enjoyable, every single child we passed would run out into the road to wave at the crazy white girls pedaling manically on bikes and shout a happy ‘Xin Chao’ (hello) to us.

Thao our guide was a really nice guy and we found out was only paid about $8 for the day and our driver would’ve been even less. We did tip him; it wasn’t very much for us but for him would cover half his rent. He had moved from Nha Trang to go to Delat university and now he works in a adventure company with all his mates, sounds like a good job to me but maybe not paid enough!

I’ve always noticed that the Vietnamese always put salt and pepper on their fruit, I thought it was a matter of taste, but from talking to Thao he said that it was because the Vietnamese know that a lot of sugar is bad for their teeth and fruit has a lot of sugar in it they counteract this by putting salt on it…crazy!

Another adventure we had was our trip to the hospital one night in Delat. Sophie hurt her ear (suspected burst ear drum) from jumping off the boat in Nha Trang. We were directed to a new hospital where we hoped someone would speak English. Unfortunately no one did and also there were no doctors around. After conveying what was wrong with Sophie through the medium of Charades/Pictionary (I’ve still got the note – very funny) the nurse looked down her ear with a torch and we gathered we should come back in the morning when a doctor might be around. In the end, her ear seemed fine so we didn’t go back.

We are now in Mui Ne until 19th,, which is the surfing capital of Vietnam. We’ve managed to catch a few waves this morning whilst trying to avoid the kite surfers. I’ve been told to look on You Tube for ‘kite surfers and Mui Ne’ because in high season you can’t move for them!

We’ve now changed our plans to spend Xmas on Kho Phangan Island in Southern Thailand as our time to travel the rest of Asia seems too short. Also we have a few more days at the centre next week which will be really nice to go back and see the kids.

Finishing at the centre and onto Central Vietnam

Well now we have finished work at the centre, a month has flown by but our connections there are by no means over…

The last couple of days in the centre have probably been the most rewarding. I was working closely with Swin the Physio; there are two kids with M.E down one side of their body and their main need is to be able to walk unaided. This means independence and ultimately a higher chance of a job after leaving the centre. These two characters are (little) Hoang and Chi (both their pictures are left from when they were hand painting), both around 3 years old and very cute. Chi can walk around holding someone’s hand and just really lacked the confidence to do it by herself. But with a little bit of guidance and a few distraction techniques we got her to walk by her self on Thursday and after that she was going it alone, a very proud moment!

Unfortunately this achievement was marred by the news that Swin gave us; all government paid workers are made to retire at 55 whether they are able to work or not. The centre has half its staff paid for by the government (healthcare, carers, kitchen staff) and the other half are paid for by voluntary donations (administration, sponsorship team, directors etc). So Swin very soon will be told to leave her job, she makes around $80/month – yes a fully qualified Physio who has been working there for over 20 years only on around 11 pounds/month! Though there are other problems, she unofficially adopted a girl, now a teenager from the centre who lives with her and she believes that she will be taken away from her as she will have no stable income. At the moment us volunteers are trying to find a solution for this, as to whether her income can be paid for by CNCF or by fundraising and paid to her directly so she can carry on her work as a volunteer. As you can see by the achievements she makes daily like those with Hoang and Chi, she is a vital part of the organisation.

We had a few creative days with the kids, we made a big a footprint mural, which took me back to my Ottley Street Nursery days. Pick up child, put paint on foot, stamp foot, run to sink to wash and repeat… Very good fun if a little messy, me and Sophie made a display with the footprints and photos from the day to go up in the centre so they can never escape our ugly mugs!

Another creative day we had was to make masks for Halloween; honestly I’ve never seen so much glitter thrown around and I’ve been to Nottinghill Carnival! It was in hair, ingested and left stuck all over the floor which means the lino now has that expensive glittery marble look! But again it was all good fun, the masks were for our final day Halloween party, which unfortunately got rained off. (The picture left is of Vy, she's aged around 5 and has Cerebral palsy.)

Halloween night itself didn’t go without a few shenanigans; the expat community here (mainly Americans) went crazy over the day with us Blue Petering it up with a white sheet to make a ghost and a mummy outfit. A few lashings white facepaint, a heavy bout of food poisoning for me, a 630am stumble home for Sophie meant it was a memorable night had by all! (the picture left is of all the other volunteers from the centre, me, Sophie, Jamie, Caoimhe and Sarah)

Back to centre life…. I requested a leaving interview with Helena to discuss our thoughts and feelings on the centre. The main point of the volunteers is not only to aid the carers but to also bring a fresh perspective on the centre with a few western ideas thrown in to the mix. One of my concerns was a need for a dentist, we had the joy of cleaning everyone’s teeth everyday, some like experience and use it as an excuse to eat as much strawberry flavoured toothpaste as possible, others absolutely despise it. I named a few of the kids who had awful teeth and we asked whether they saw a dentist. Helene’s response was that it wasn’t a priority and the kids that we had mentioned were ones from out in the provinces where there is no education about teeth care, so they probably hadn’t brushed their teeth until they arrived at CNCF. She mentioned that at the moment the government has campaigns on to advertise this necessity out in these areas. Sophie’s idea was to have a dentist come in twice a year to blitz everyone’s teeth, so if anyone knows a dentist with some spare time, a travel kit and a big heart send them to Vietnam!

We decided to fly north and work our way back south over a couple of weeks and then spend a few days back at the centre delivery the items we promised. One is a bike for Hoang (pronounced Wang, I think I’ve spoken about him before and his new white trainers). There are no larger bikes for the older kids at the centre and there isn’t one without stabilisers so we are going to get one of them for him and hopefully teach him to ride it before we disappear again.

There was some good news just as we left, the ban on going out of the centre has been lifted, very annoying just as we leave! The government have now placed the responsibility on establishments to control swine flu and CNCF has decided it is unnecessary to keep the kids quarantined in (and no face masks!) The kids are being taken to a water park on Friday and hopefully when we are back we can take a few swimming as that was our main wish when we started.

We spoke to Helena about Nhi’s wheelchair, one will have to be imported in from a more developed country so it will be higher quality as in Vietnam they are a bit dodgy. I’ve begun researching this, we can get a specialised children’s chair for a couple of 100 pounds but there’s quite a bit of red tape to get through, it all has to be approved by the head doctor of the facility, but my plan is to get it shipped in before mid December so we can pop back and see it in action before we head to Australia.

Also more news on Sophie’s little) friend (/Izzy replacement); Ngoc, from that meeting we found out she is one of 10 siblings and her mother couldn’t cope which is why she is in the centre. We are hopefully going to get her family signed up to the sponsorship program where they get an amount every month towards schooling and we should hopefully be able to help her. All this little girl wants to do is to go home and be with her family and hopefully we can help her achieve this. It’s around $15/month to support her and Sophie already has plans to send her to uni, she’s only 2! (She has already researched it’s around $1000/year in HCM, so Dr Gokky here we come!)

As I said before we have now flown to northern Vietnam, to see a bit more of the countryside and hopefully some spectacular landscapes. There is a big north/south divide, mainly due to one half originally being republican and the other communist. The southerners we met in Ho Chi Minh said that northerners were stingy with money, it was always cold and rainy and they all work in mines (I made that last bit up but it does seem to resemble home a bit!) If Sophie decides the South is better and I like the North it will be like we have never left!

Well hope everyone is well and thanks again for all the contributions we’ve received. We saw a lot of the medical supplies taken to the hospital the other day, most of our stationary and pretty hair clips etc were bundled up in preparation to be taken to the boys and girls shelters, so they’ve all found good homes, thanks again for that.

We started our adventure with 68kg between us, now unloaded with our CNCF donations we’ve had a bit of a blitz for our journey north and only checked in 10kg between us on our Vietnam Airlines flight. Dads are always right; you only need a t-shirt, pair of shorts and your swimmers and you’re away!

(I wrote the above a few days ago from Hanoi, since then we have been to the beautiful hills of Sapa and the coast of Halong Bay - pictures below)

We are now in Hue, after a monstorous 17 hour bus journey from Hanoi, it was only supposed to be 12 hours but its always good to add an extra 5 hours due to traffic in Vietnam. It was a sleeping bus so had beds so we did actually get quite a lot of sleep (picture right). But no rest for the wicked we have gin and tonic buckets calling and a 7:30am 6 hour bus ride to Hoi An.

Hope that’s long enough for you Dad! Up the Clarets (10th in the table get in!)

xx

New Photos

Hey, I hope this works. Sophie's uploaded some photos just should just be able to click on the link;

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114938&id=503754742&l=4bda43e88b

Thats some from the centre, and this one is from our time in Bangkok, hope you can see them!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115379&id=503754742&l=967301fdfc

Will write soon x x x

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.

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

Met Christina Today!

Well we met the woman herself today (and Sophie got thrown up on, but that's another story!) Christina Noble was in the centre today doing some filming for a feature length documentary. She's a very charismatic (and very Irish) lady. First thing she said to us was, "what do you hope to bring here...? You're gonna love the babies right? You know love is the most powerful weapon you've got, use it wisely..." Stuff of dreams my friends, the stuff of dreams! Love to everyone and you can now leave comments so feel free to do so xx

A week into the big adventure...

897 views, thanks everyone for supporting the blog!

So its just over a week into the big adventure, we reached our destination of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) yesterday with an early flight from Bangkok. No upgrade this time but a helfy 7956 Baht fee for our extra bags ( I'll let you work that one out!) Serves us right for booking with a budget airline - thanks AirAsia! But aside from that we are now both millionaires: its 20,000 Vietnamese Dong (VD) to the pound!

We've had our first morning in the centreand I sat and wrote this at a very luxurious pool chilling in our lunch hour (11 - 2, beat that Paddy!) for the whole sum of 20,000 VD each!

We are now decked out in our CNCF t-shirts (Sophie is all about the uniform) and our facemasks; the government have stipulated our need to wear them because of swine flu. Which isn't too comfy in the 30 degree heat but the kids can always tell when we are smiling. Also mine was pulled off by a baby 30 secs into helping out in the creche!

We were first introduced to the babies; there were around 30, playing in a pen, others lined up in seats, some in their cots. They are brought in from the 300 some projects in the country becuase they need extra healthcare or are malnutritioned. Some are orphaned and will go back to the orphanges, few are picked up every weekend to go home.

Our roles basically are to play, cuddle and assist with the role of the full time vietnamese employed carers. We help feed, change (reuseable) nappies, brush teeth and put to sleep. There are a few characters emerging early on but we are under strict instructions not to become attached to just one child as when its time for us to leave it brings further disruption to their already hard lives.

We have been shown the middle floor where the children aged 2 - 4 stay. They have a lot of toys, the facilities are very clean and modern. It seems amazing that this was all created by one womean over 20 years ago (hope you've all had chance to read the books...)

Our volunteer co-ordinator Helene was astounded by the bags we brought. We are both glad that they made it to their final home in one piece. Each individual item is registered then delegated to the 300 projects to who need them most. We took out the essential party gear; baloons, bubbles, streamers etc as it is Sophie's and another volunteers birthday on Thursday! We are having a birthday party with the 3rd floor children; the kindergardeners, with games, food, the works - very excited and also it will be such a treat for the kids. It will be maybe the only oppertunity to take photos of the centre as that is prohibited unless its a special occasion. THis is ebcuase there are so many visitors it wouldn't be fair on the children.

That's what we've got to look forward to as well as the 3 hour lunch breaks by the pool! Hopefully I should be able to post photos up soon.

Thanks again everyone, we sill can't belive we are here!

Please visit http://www.cncf.org/ if you want to donate to the charity and also for Sarah's birthday she is donating all her birthday money to buying a bounce for the centre for the babies (to help strengthen their legs) her website is; http://www.justgiving.co.uk/buyabounce/