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Eve Glazer writes...

...about her experiences while volunteering in Vietnam.

I'm a 24 year old Brighton (in England) girl, who has been working there as a care worker in a residential deaf school. Though I loved my job at home I fancied a change of scenery/culture/lifestyle so decided to try some volunteering. So now I am out here in Vietnam working for GVN for three months, and travelling for the three months after. I have not done any volunteering before (apart for one afternoon in a charity shop, but I don't reckon that counts!) but I'm loving it so far.

"a nondescript place...": 4-May-2005
Well, here I am in Vietnam. It seemed to take a really long time to get here, even longer for my brain to join me. But it has finally arrived and thankfully is not too jetlagged. The internet is a bit slow and i have been on for ages so i will do a roundup.....

Tam Ky itself is a funny town. Not too busy (which means that you can actually cross the road within 10 minutes compared to the half hour it takes in Danang, hehe!) and described in the lonely planet as "a nondescript place...". But I like it. It's big and has a relaxed atmosphere.

The people I am volunteering with are lovely. Most of them are only volunteering for a month, which is already a little sad, as me and Lauren will be here for three. There is 19y/o English guy called Will, 3 Kiwis called Christina, Ian, and Michelle, an American couple called Jill and Don and a Dutch girl called Josie, and they all seem to be pretty damn cool. We have spent quite a lot of time together, going out on picnics and swimming, cycling to the market and here to the internet cafe. It's such a different lifestyle here. It's nearly impossible to do stuff in the middle of the day cos it's so hot, about 35-40 degrees. It's gonna get hotter as well!

We get an insane amount of attention from locals, either staring or calling out 'hello hello', or 'wassyurname'. The kids start giggling when we answer. Some people even stop in their cars to watch us as we go past. But they are friendly, and just not used to seeing foreigners so that's ok. Vietnam would be a very good place to come if you like being the centre of attention!

The food is stunning. We have two cooks who cook for us every day, called Miss Hahn and Mrs Tan (yes that does get confusing). They cook the most amazing food, prawns, and crab, soups and veg and spring rolls and tonnes of other food that I have not eaten before. We always have fresh fruit for pudding, unusual ones that I haven't even heard of. So damn healthy! I end each meal totally stuffed and then am hungry again with a couple of hours (some things never change!).

Vietnamese language is proving VERY difficult to learn. I can remember the words but am hopeless at using the right tone. One important languagy thing is that you use the correct pronoun i.e. child, miss, mrs, doctor, boy, girl etc etc. I accidentally said 'hello children' (when i meant to say 'thank you!') and then 'How are you Mrs?' to one elderly gent, oooops! I've got the basics down though - 'I like/don't like....' 'prawn', 'crab' (both important ones, of course), 'my name is Eve, what is your name?' and one or two other bits. You've got letters that sound like 'oo', and 'aw', 'oaw', 'ee', 'ur', 'uu' and 'ey' all depending on the accent on the word. It's very interesting but quite baffling.

We visited the two orphanages yesterday. The kids are gorgeous and a bit hectic but they have new volunteers coming in every month so i guess things aren't very regular for them. In the baby orphanage there is a little girl who is only three months old. She was left at the hospital, and is tiny and gorgeous. There is also a little girl who has leprosy. I know nothing about leprosy but she has a disfigured head, which is always covered with blue ointment. They are understaffed so the 'mothers' who look after then are rushed. The kids are gorgeous though. It puts things in perspective when you can see them getting hours of entertainment out of a broken toy or scrap of paper. At the Home of Affection (for older children) there is a deaf girl who uses sign language. It's quite different to British Sign Language but we are muddling through. I'm really pleased to be able to use some signing and she seems like a really sweet girl.

Teaching started today. At the baby orphanage we mostly play with the children. They love attention and clamber all over you. I'm not sure how easy it will be to teach any English but I guess we'll try the basics like numbers and colours. At the high school we taught a class of 17 year olds. They were a really friendly bunch, so eager to learn. We talked about foods from around the world (a topic close to my stomach, hehe!). I described different types of sausages (it's what they wanted to know!) and then we played 'I spy' and sang some songs. It's really so far from anything I've done before, but wicked to be out here.

Tam Ky style: 10-May-2005
Well, I have started getting used to life here in Tam Ky i.e. when the locals see us, especially if we say hello (or even worse say 'Xin chao' which is hello in Vietnamese) they fall about laughing and now we just laugh with them. I don't quite understand why we are so laughable but I'm not gonna question it, it's all good. The heat too is getting a little more bearable. Basically, you just stay indoors for the main part of the day and that will stop you melting too badly. Also i have accepted that pretty much where ever I go I will be drowning in sweat, along with everyone else, so I am a little less conscious of this, though it is still not very pleasant.

One happy but sad piece of news is that we got given a tiny weeny pussy cat as a gift from one of our cooks. She was gorgeous and had massive ears. She actually looked like a cross between a cat, a bat and a kangaroo, and Loc, one of the local boys, named her Mi Mi. She cried solidly for the first night and just started getting used to being in a new house, doing kitteny stuff like chasing her tail and, leaping at nothing in particular. She was so sweet. The sad bit is that this morning someone left the front door open and by the time we all got up Mi Mi had gone.....boohoo! We searched high and low and couldn't find her anywhere. I hope that someone friendly has taken her in (and not the local barbequer!).

Anyway, I haven't yet mentioned anything about roads and traffic, a boring topic you might think, but a surprisingly challenging one. The thing is that Vietnamese roads are basically a free for all, I think that there are actually no laws out here for road users, unbelievable as it seems. You can drive in any direction you want, at any speed and amazingly it roughly seems to work. Big vehicles take priority as they can go faster, and the horn is as essential as the steering wheel. As our bicycles don't have horns I just yell 'beep beep' at people as I go past them (and I wonder why I get funny looks!).

I am slowly getting to know some of the kids in the placements. It's the names that I have problems with, they are so difficult to remember. But they are sweet and happy children and all eager to learn. We're gonna have a party for them soon, which should be fun. Gonna do singing and party games and buy some treats that they don't normally get.

I have been emailing for too long and the sweat is doing funny things to my head, gotta stop! Will hopefully have some slightly more interesting things to say soon.

The little things......:13-May-2005
It is soooo cool here. I love it. I'm just getting used to my new life and I love all the little differences; the fact that you cant really rely on things being done when you are told, a bit of a random thing to say you might think, but I like the stresslessness(!) of it all; the buildings being held up by rickety wooden scaffolding; the fact that the kids are so happy and easily amused- there seems to be a closeness here that is very different to the closeness we have in England; the music they play - it's all really cheesy 80's rocks, in fact "we built this city of roooocccck and roll' has become a bit of an anthem here in Tam Ky. Even the outfits they wear, the beautiful long dress type things that all the girls wear, they're gorgeous. And the funniest thing of all is that I am now quite enjoying riding a bike (whereas I normally just fall off them - a big improvement methinks!). That is our main mode of transport here, and the bikes we have been given have a variety of funny problem e.g. no air in the tyres (that makes for a comfortable journey), a bent frame, no brakes etc etc. It's great. And the other funny thing is that there are no lights on the bikes and no street lights so we ride to the Vocational Training Centre and to The Home of Affection (older kid's orphanage) in the pitch black. And as if that is not enough we have to dodge great big piles of rocks and sand, holes in the road, and bloody great big frogs - Lauren ran over one the other day by mistake and it still managed to hop away! Some people might find these things stressful but I think they are as important to my trip as the actual teaching work. They are the things I will remember when I am back at home on roads that are smooth and pit free, where the frogs have their own triangle 'frog crossing' signs (in some parts of England at any rate!).

We took the kids to the Amusement park yesterday. It was hilarious, and the kids (and us volunteers for that matter) had a fantastic time. The Dodgems were great. I've never been on a dodgem where you end up actually needing to dodge'em in order to keep your cart in one piece. The first time we banged in to someone our seat fell off and we ended up sitting inside the mechanics bit. If you took a corner too hard you went on to two wheels. We all laughed hysterically and lost another few pounds in sweat!

Then the ball park, where we spent about half an hour. It is a smallish metal cage with a slide, and few hanging-swingy things and a whole tonne of big fat balls, enough to bury yourself in. The kids would leap head first into the balls and spray them in all directions. Again, extremely fun. Other things there were half a dozen table football tables (me and Nga (the deaf girl) played against two of the boys. She was wicked and scored all the goals, showed me up good and proper!!). There was a ferris wheel, a couple of up-and-down kids' rides, and a set of slides that stopped three foot above the ground (didn't quite get these ones!!). One the way home we all stopped and got a glass of sugar-cane drink - nu'oc somethingorother. It was a really fun evening, and so nice to see the kids all having such good time.

A day in the life of.... - 18-May-2005
.....a Tam Ky volunteer.

My friend Lucy reminded me that I haven't written much about what I actually do here, other than avoid travelling on the roads, and sweating, so I though that would be a good thing to do.

We work in 6 different placements. They're all really different so it is probably best if I go through them separately.

The Baby Orphanage: I have worked here least out of all the placements. There are about 40 kids aged between 3 months and 7 years. These sessions are usually a little chaotic as they all want your attention at exactly the same time. When I was there this morning I actually spent about 10 minutes standing still cos I had so many kids clambering on me. If I had tried to take a step I would have either fallen over the little girl clinging to my leg, or the one sitting on my feet, or dropped any of the three kiddies attached to my hips and back. They are very sweet children, look grubby but adorable and are thrilled by any form of attention. They love to be swung around and carried on your back/hip/shoulders (depending on which part of you is not yet taken by another child.) Hearing them laugh and giggle is a big perk of the job, especially those children who are shyer and more timid. We do basic English with the older children i.e. teaching them the Vietnamese and English alphabet and numbers. With the little ones we paint, or draw chalk on the ground, or read to them or play games. They are gorgeous.

Ooops, I gotta go pick up my photos now which are either ready today or in 7 days, and will cost either 1400 dong, 100,000 dong, or 252,000. Oh the joys of mis-communication! I'll continue this soon.

A day in the life #2 -19-May-2005
Well, I got the photos and there were some very nice one I'm quite pleased to say. I got a good one of the rather humungous spider that was sitting above the mirror in the bathroom waiting to terrify me. I think it met a sticky end at the hand of Mrs Hanh (she pronounces her name Misser Hanh though), our pint-sized, hilarious, fantastic cook. She's great!

Anyway, the other placements.
The Home of Affection: an orphanage for older children, aged 7-18. They are lovely kids and many of them pick up English very quickly. I was surprised to find out that many of them have living relatives who either cant afford, or aren't able for one reason or another, to look after them. We have two classes, one for children who have been learning English for longer, and one for shorter times. We teach them stuff like pronunciation of letter, numbers, vocab. e.g. the body, food, colours etc. We have just started on verbs, nouns, adjectives and pronouns, and, rather worryingly, I feel like I am learning one or two thing too (good old Brighton school system!). What they like most is to play games and be picked up/cuddled/chased and so on. They LOVE playing alphabet bingo. We give them prizes or fruit, or sweets or hotel freebies like toothbrushes and combs. They seem happy to get anything as a prize. The lessons are noisy and raucous but i really enjoy them. I really like the volunteer group I work with there.

The Vocational Training Centre: The VTC is setup for older children to learn skills that they can use to earn money in the future. The girls are taught how to sew, and the boys are taught electronics. We also teach them English, and we teach one class of staff also. It is interesting because the VTC students find it more difficult to pick up English because their grasp of Vietnamese is so much more developed. In the Vietnamese language there is no sound for 'th', or 'ch', and they don't have the letters 'f' or 'x'. But even so, they are very enthusiastic. They all like to sing and it is a really good way of memorising things, like the alphabet. It makes me laugh when I imagine trying to teach a group of English 16-18 year old boys '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive....', but the boys here love it.

The Education Centre: We have a very sweet classful of 14-16 y/olds who have be learning English for nearly 2 months. We have covered topics like male and female, family, numbers up to 100, and days and months, as well as doing basic conversation with them. We have worksheets that they all complete, some with word searches, or little quizzes, spelling practice, or blank letters that they fill in. We made them each do a "This Is Me" worksheet, with various likes and dislikes and a picture of themselves. When they have finished their work we mark it with coloured pens and put smiley faces or stars on it, which makes me feel like a real teacher.

The High School and The Music Centre have not been running since we arrived, for one reason or another, so I have nowt to say about them yet.

Anyway, I hope that is a little bit more informative than I have previously been.

Hoi An and the full moon - 26-May-2005
Every weekend so far we have been going to a town called Hoi An which is about 60km away. The town is very much set up for tourists, chockablock full of little clothes shop just gagging to make you clothes. The clothes are really cheap as well. The owners know how to suck you in too. They say stuff like 'oh, you very beautiful. You're my first customer today, good luck for me. You buy more!' (that is not a request, either!!) It's so difficult to drag yourself away. Last weekend I got a really pretty top (which I designed myself), and a pair of trousers made in about three hours, and for $15. The weekend before it was two lovely jackets. So nice but really unnecessary items when the weather is so hot!

We arrived in Hoi An last Saturday morning, tired from a night of drinking and playing Uno - we had one round that lasted 50 mins!!! - and lounged around the pool in our hotel for a while. We had a yummy lunch out in a restaurant and in the evening we went down to watch the joint Full Moon and Buddha Day (his birthday) celebrations. They had a decorated a boat with pictures and lights and had a load of traditional singers sitting on board. The singing sounded like intricate wailing, interesting but, after an hour, a little bit shrill. On the river, further up-stream they had loads of handmade lanterns with candles in them and they all came floating passed us, which looked really beautiful. Then we heard drumming and a Chinese dragon danced passed on (on the road this time, not the river) followed by a massive procession, drummers and floats. On the floats different scenes of the Buddha - him meditating, lying down, as a baby and a young man - were being depicted by children in costumes who had to stand extremely still. One very little boy had his hand tied up in the correct position so he didn't have to hold it up. He was so sweet, probably not older than 5 or 6. It was quite amazing and beautiful. Everything was covered in fairy lights.

The evening got even better when we went to watch the FA cup final between Man U and Arsenal. It's old news now, but in case anyone doesn't know Arsenal won on penalties. It was a very gripping match and we had a table full of Man U supporters in front of us so we teased each other throughout the match. Good old Arsenal goalie, first time I've really seen him do well.

On Sunday, afternoon we borrowed bikes from the hotel and cycled out to the beach. It is a lovely ride, partly through town and then out passed the rice paddies, very picturesque. It's about 5k's each way so I think that day is now to be known as "the-day-I-have-done-the-most exercise-in-my-whole-life". We only had half an hour there. A beautiful big, white sand beach. Millions of Vietnamese locals eating dinner and relaxing. A really nice atmosphere. Not too many people hassling us. I got a foot massage by this lady called Lunar (or that is what it sounded like). Vietnamese massagers seem to like punching and slapping. This is fine when it is on your leg, but not so fine when it is your forehead being smacked, as it was last time i had a massage. One to remember for the future!

On the cycle ride back Will's bike seat kept falling off. Every five minutes we were stopping to help him put it back on. Anyway, he had just got into the rhythm of it, balancing carefully, and his chain suddenly flew off the back of his bike. It doesn't sound funny but it was. The hotel then tried to charge him for breaking the chain!

Also from Hoi An you can get to The Marble Mountains and to China Beach, but I'll talk about them more another time.

English is complicated! - 27-May-2005
I never realised before quite how complicated English is, goodness knows how I managed to learn it! We are just so used to using the different sounds of the English language that it is very easy for us. But trying to teach the sounds 'tw', 'sh', 'ch' and 'th', or trying to explain how to say the letters 'x', 'f' and 'v' is much more difficult than I first thought. It's good because it means we gotta use our brain's to try and come up with new ways of teaching.

I spent most of a lesson yesterday trying to teach a group of adults who work in the local Tourist Department how to pronounce the sound 'th'. Even the Manager of the TD came and joined the lesson! 'Th' is an unnatural shape for Vietnamese people's mouths to make as there is no sound like it in their language. I got them all to stick their tongues out which they found highly amusing, and then blow air through the gap. Some of them got it quite easily, others not so easily. I suppose it is just the same as me trying to learn Vietnamese; it's really difficult to get my head round some of the tones and sounds. For instance, one of the ladies in that group is called Huong (I think she is anyway) and to say her name you need to clench your teeth, stick your chin forward a bit and make an 'H' sound!! It doesn't feel quite right, even though it is.

One of the boys in our VTC class is called Hoi, and you have to say his name in a particular way. We could not work out why, when calling his name, everyone was laughing until Yen, our lovely translator, told us that because of the (wrong) tone we were using we were calling him 'bad smell'! Ooops, poor boy!

A very odd party - 30-May-2005
Last night we celebrated International Children's day with a party at the Baby Orphanage, and it was possibly one of the strangest experiences ever. We had been told to prepare some games, buys presents for the children and fruit and some sweets to give out. We had also been forewarned that we were going to be expected to sing 'Heal the World' by Michael Jackson, with the Vietnamese volunteers (their choice not ours!). So we happily arrive, 40 minutes late because the taxi driver forgot to pick us up (VERY annoying), only to find about 100 people, the Vietnamese volunteers and their families, a TV crew, a stage, a tonne of local's with their kids, and all the kids from the orphanage lined up waiting for us - slightly more than we had thought. We spent a short time saying hi to all the kiddies before things got underway. First there were speeches in Vietnamese, translated into English by out interpreter Yen, and various over-sized cheques were given out for things that I wasn't quite sure of. Next we were all gathered up to sing 'Heal the World'. There were about 20 of us in all, with three microphones, accompanied by a guy on a keyboard......and this is the bit that really made the whole song..... playing very loud circus music! So we couldn't hear the right key to sing in, it was impossible to keep time, and we were almost being drowned out anyway. And all this was recorded for Tam Ky TV, fame at last!

Next we were given all these bags of food, sweets and cakes mostly, that we were told to hand out to the kids. We also handed out our food and fruit that we had brought. Viet, the GVN organiser here in Vietnam told us that if we wanted to do an activity, for instance pass the parcel, or musical statues then everyone would stop and watch us, so we decided face painting was a better idea. This went down well other than some of the kids had never seen face paints before and were a bit scared.

For the next hour various groups of school kids and adults took to the stage to sing songs or do little performances. Me and the other GVN volunteers sung 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' which is one of Yen's favourites, and 'The Happy Song', which my brother taught me. We got everyone to clap along but the annoying keyboard man started playing circus music again, so that didn't last for long.

By the end of the evening the little ones were all flagging so we played with them for a short time before packing up and going home.

From what I can tell it was an evening to give out presents rather than an actual party for the babies - they got gifts but largely sat around the edge of the room for the evening. Still it was an eventful evening for them.

Home of Affection party - 31-May-2005
Party number 2: Last night we partied with the kids at the Home of affection, also for International Children's Day. This time it was much more what you would expect from a children's party. We arrived, late again (we are all getting suck in to Vietnamese-time), to find tables and chairs set up and the kids all sitting waiting for us. We started, as with the other party, by giving out bags of fruit and sweets and cakes, which the kids all started eating immediately.

Next we played 'Whack the Pi�ata'. Lauren had made a fantastic pig pi�ata, which we filled with sweets and candy. The kids took it in turns to be blindfolded and take swipes at the pig with a big stick. They absolutely loved it; I don't think they had ever seen anything like it before. They all called to each other where to hit, and screamed and laughed when their friends missed. When the pi�ata had finally had one hit too many it exploded and the sweets flew everywhere, much to the kids' joy.

We went on the play Vietnamese Simon Says, which all the Vietnamese found hilarious because we volunteers couldn't tell when they were saying 'Simon says' so were constantly getting it wrong.

We played Pin the Tail on the Con Lua (aka Donkey), Pass the Parcel which was particularly gorgeous because the little boy who won was so overjoyed, Musical Chairs and we sung some Vietnamese songs and danced.

It was a lovely evening, the kids seemed to have a wonderful time and we all did too. It was quite sad at the end because it was the last time some of the volunteers will see the kids, so there were some tearful farewells.

When we left we went over to do Karaoke, but I'm gonna leave that for another time because it deserves a blog of its own.

Food, food, food - 6-Jun-2005
As you may have guessed this blog entry is gonna be about food. In the last couple of days we have been treated to some local Vietnamese dishes in the cafes that are scattered all around Tam Ky. Last night, Mrs Hanh and Yen swept me and Lauren away on their motorbikes to feed us My Quang, a noodle soup of the Quang Nam province. It was very tasty indeed. A spicy soup base with thick, white noodles in it, as well as prawns and peanuts. With most soup dishes you get a plate of herbs and bean sprouts, and a dish of fresh limes that you add to taste, and a variety of random condiments - chill sauce, soy sauce, pickled garlic and fresh chilli's, and fish sauce. It is insanely cheap, only about 5000 dong, which is 15p! When we finished we were taken to a bridge overlooking a river to watch the amazing sunset, all pinks and oranges, and then on to another cafe to have Sinh To'. Sinh To' is a drink made out of crushed ice, coconut pieces, condensed milk (a big favourite out here) and about 15 types of fruit chunks; avocado, rambutan (called chum chum), papaya (which is called doo doo, we found this very funny), mango, custard apples (which are delicious by the way), funny little red berries, pineapple, jack fruit, lychee, dragon fruit and others that I cant name. It is such a yummy drink, I might even start having it every day.

Tonight we got taken out for Bo, which is another type of noodle soup made out of fish stock. That too was really tasty, only I poured half a bowl of it over my hand and now have rather red knuckles.

They are really keen on noodle soups here. In Hoi An they have a specialty soup called Cao Lau which is made using water from one particular well. I swear I spend half my time here eating! It's all so tasty though.

Some more about the kids - 15-Jun-2005
I thought I'd mention some more about the kids, cos they really are so adorable. There is good news at the baby orphanage - the little girl who was supposed to have leprosy in fact hasn't. She has an oversized head which is something she was born with, and had a skin infection which has now cleared up, so she is not longer covered in blue ointment. As a result the other children have been accepting her much more and now she is so much more willing to play and laugh, which is lovely to see. Also, since the damp on the walls has been dealt with, far fewer of the children are getting coughs and colds.

I just got a load of photos back from the party we had there, and they are lovely, but some of the kids look so sad. I kind of forget sometimes what difficult backgrounds these children have come from. We go there and teach a lesson, or play games, do things that make them laugh and giggle and it is lovely to see, but it does not change the fact that they are away from whatever family they have, if they have any at all that is.

One thing that happened that really brought it home was an activity we did at the home of affection. There is a boy called Dong, who is 13 and very cheeky, always messing around and making people laugh. He had to draw a picture of 'My Best Dream.....', and in his he drew himself, with a mum and a dad, all holding hands. He titled it My Family. When i saw it I nearly started crying. It is remarkable really how well the kids are all developing considering what they have to deal with.

Thoughts on life out here - 16-Jun-2005
I stopped my message from yesterday because I couldn't quite work out what i was feeling or trying to say. I went back home and had a really interesting chat with Lauren and Josie, that kind of clarified it for me.

I feel really sad that the kids are in this situation, so so young to be left without the love of a family. The orphanages are great and the kids really look after each other, and I am pleased that us volunteers are there to offer love and attention to them, even if it is only in the short term. It must be very difficult for the children having such little stability, always meeting new volunteers and then seeing them leave just a month or two later, but I do think this is better than us not being there at all.

We were wondering, last night, what will happen to these kids in the future. How will their lives pan out? It is essential here that you can do something that will earn you money. I have seen children working on the streets in Hoi An, selling jewellery, tiger balm and postcards. They have learnt the right things to say and know how to haggle in English, which is not right, but a way of them earning money. One particularly persistent boy of 12, kept saying "But why you don't wanna buy anything? It's not fair. It's not fair", and he is totally right. It's not fair that he has to work on the streets. Some extremely rude ladies at the next table told him that he was an annoying pest, called him a cockroach. It is disgusting the lack of regard some travellers have for people here, and the situations they are in. Do they think he likes to wander around all day and night trying to sell things to people who don't really want to buy things anyway?

People here do anything they can, whether it is selling fruit outside their houses, offering haircuts, giving massages on the beach, turning their house in to a cafe or the back-breaking life of a farmer, tending to the rice paddies. Age doesn't seem to be important; if you can work then you do, as money is so hard to come by, and many people live in poverty. Even very old people work in the rice fields, offer boat trips or walk the streets with a bamboo pole balanced on their shoulder with a heavy pot of soup, or drink hanging on either end. Street cleaning is a hard job too. Dressed in thick blue work-suits, street cleaners drag around a massive cart full of rubbish that they fill manually, such tiring work!

Likewise, disabled people need to work too. It is quite common to see people with badly deformed or no legs, moving themselves around on their hands, selling English print newspapers to tourists. There are these three-wheeled carts with a steering wheel in the middle that you push back and forwards to move, that people who cant walk use. They often have ice cream boxes on the front, or something that they are selling.

The strange thing is that the children here in Tam Ky have so little, in terms of family, possessions, security - the things that make up a big part of my life, and i think of most people in first world countries lives - and yet they know how to be happy. They treasure things in a way that I don't often see at home - we took water balloons to the baby orphanage and they cradled them in their hands, rolled them gently on the ground and picked them up again. They were upset if the burst, even though that is the whole purpose of them!

This blog entry has got a little bit deep, but being out here, being faced with a world that is SO different from my own, just makes me think about these things. I think all the other volunteers agree that we are so privileged to come from where we do, have the lives we lead and have the opportunities that we do. It is a welcomed slap-in-the-face to see children treasuring littlest pieces of plastic, or broken toy, as it makes me question myself and the things that I put value in.

Anyway, I think I have said what I was trying to say, and hope I have not gone on too long.

7 weeks down, 5 to go - 21-Jun-2005
Well, I can't really believe that we have passed the half way point ALREADY! I am still enjoying it here (which is how I seem to start most of my journal entries), apart from on the occasional day that I am tired when everything gets a bit much for me. It's funny cos Tam Ky is sooo extremely different from Brighton, where there is just so much to do. To entertain ourselves here we go and see the kids at the home of affection, play cards, read books (Lauren seems to be getting through a book a day at the moment), do exercise sessions to some funky music (see, I told you things had got bad!) or watch DVD's, and if we really want a laugh then we put the subtitles on, which generally don't have anything to do with the film. We watched 'Finding Neverland' the other day, and the subtitles kept talking about donkey ears!! When we are in Hoi An we play 'How Many Rats Tonight?' on our walk home, it's great fun.

We have been trying to help Josie think about how she can best spend some money she raised at home - so far we have thought of outdoor play equipment, paddling pools (which apparently they don't have here?!), mattresses for the kids as they currently sleep on thin wicker mats on top of bare bed bases, material to be made into school uniforms or even just supplies of toys, games and books that we could leave at the orphanages. It is proving to be quite difficult though, which is strange as you would not think it would be difficult to spend money here, as such a lot is needed. One thing is that if we buy stuff for the orphanages then it is generally under the care of the manager or supervisor, and not available to the kids all the time. So the alternative is to give stuff straight to the kids but you can't really do that so easily with the really little ones.

It is both heart warming, and heartbreaking to see how the children are. At the baby orphanage yesterday the kids had their afternoon showers and all came out soaking wet and naked. The older children help the little ones get dressed, which is very sweet to see but also highlights again the lack of adults. There are not enough staff to care for all of the kids. I have heard that there are a lot of conditions if you want to work as a carer in an orphanage. One major thing is that you cannot have your own children, and as having a family is a big thing here it means there are few people left to work.

One thing I keep meaning to mention is that GVN are trying to fundraise money for a new bathroom at the baby orphanage. It is desperately needed as there is only one very small room, which has a couple of squat toilets and a water trough for showering, for about 50 children to use. Also the water trough is causing damp on the adjoining wall and as a result the health of the children is really suffering. If anyone feels they could spare any money to put towards this, or even wants to find out more, then go to www.volunteer.org.nz and find the community fund section. All the info should be there.

Weekend in Hue - 28-Jun-2005
This weekend we had our first little taste of real travel in Vietnam - a weekend in Hue, the former capital of the country. The train journey there, and back, are experiences that I don't think I will forget for a long time. On Friday we caught the "local" overnight sleeper (yeah right!) train which took 6 hours and cost a tiny 23,000 dong. To put it in perspective, a train ride from my local station at home to Brighton station, which takes about 4 minutes in total, would cost roughly 55,000 dong. When the train arrived at Tam Ky there was a mad scramble to get a place on one of the hard wooden benches, most of which had sleeping Vietnamese sprawled on them anyway. We thought we were very lucky to find a whole double bench free right at the end of the carriage, but discovered within five minutes that it was free because the noise of the screeching tracks was particularly deafening there. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that at one point the noise was so ridiculously loud that I actually got scared - what is happening to the world when a train can scare you? It was quite an unbelievable noise though, a bit like a ghost train, but a million times louder, with some mechanical clunks thrown in as well, and made for a very restful nights sleep! I put my music on full blast and could even hear it on the quiet sections of track. The mechanical clunks even went in time to the music at some points. We did eventually get a bench to ourselves each, which was a luxury that not everyone had. The rest of the journey was spent hunched up, propping ourselves in various positions to try and get comfy, sticking our feet through windows or into the aisle. I nearly got knee-capped on several occasions! Using the slippery, metal squattie toilet on the train also proved to be a fun way to pass the time!

Anyway, we arrived in Hue at six the following morning, all groggy and just a little bit moody, only to find the hotel we were gonna stay in cost $22, not $12 which is what we thought. So we walked to the next nearest/cheapest, which ended up being about 3 or 4km's away, but worth it, only $3 and really friendly staff. The rest of the day was spent sleeping, eating, eating, walking, eating some more, having dinner and then sleeping again, a good way to spend a Saturday I think. On Sunday Lauren, Josie and I took a motorbike tour to various pagodas and royal tombs around the city - all very beautiful, lovely gardens, old ruins, lots of nice photos. The best bit for me was being driven around on back of the motorbike. It's so fun, a really nice way to see the local country side and an excellent way of cooling down. Later in the afternoon we met back up with Julia and Liza, who had been on a tour to the DMZ, the demilitarized zone, to see stuff to do with the war, and went out drinking with the guys from their tour. It was a really fun, if not slightly exhausting day.

We ate at a cafe owned by a deaf guy called Mr Lac. He seemed to have developed his own form of sign language and I think I just confused him by using the signs that i know. We ended up with several dishes that we didn't mean to order, a good way of trying new food i guess! They sell a dish called Banh Khoai, or Happy Cake, but it was not happy in the way we thought it might be. It was happy because was an omlettey pancake thing with meat and veg inside, which is a whole new way of being happy if you ask me! This morning we caught the "express" (yeah right, again!) train, which ended up taking an hour longer than the overnight train. For some reason we kept stopping. I think we spent about two hour at a stand still. The scenery we were passing through was gorgeous though, lots of mountains, and beautiful coast line. When the train stopped all the adults and kids would appear down on the tracks, the children collecting empty bottles, and the adults selling dried starfish (i couldn't work out whether you were meant to eat the or use them as ornaments!), bags of multicoloured drink, and dried squid, one of which i brought. The lady heated it on a little pot of coals and it curled up. It was rather unusual! It tasted like an extremely fishy piece of chewy dried leather, though to be honest i haven't tried dried leather before!

All in all it was a lovely weekend, but it is nice to be back in Tam Ky too. This week Liza, Julia and Josie are leaving, which is really sad, and will be the end of another mini-era, and the start of our last month, weird! But I'm looking forward to meeting the new volunteers, and one of them has even promised to bring some chocolate out for me, so i really have little to complain about, yay!

the Tam Ky blues - 1-Jul-2005
So, the months is up and the volunteers have gone AGAIN, sob sob, weep weep. It feels very odd tonight as it is just little old me and Lauren in the house which is normally filled with people and things to do. I have discovered a really fun game which has occupied many, many happy hours, which we have named Feather-Up. It is a feather attached to a plastic spring which you hit or kick or head butt to each other, hence Feather-Up, a very complexly chosen name! Though it may not sound like a lot of fun, it regularly has us in hysterics, and generally dripping with sweat (sweat seems to be a favourite topic of mine, weird!). Julia had a particularly graceful way of prancing about whilst playing, something like a cross between a ballerina and gazelle i think. She also had an inability to hit it any less that three times in a row. I couldn't play in the same game as her as i was generally doubled over with laughter. Liza had all the enthusiasm, but a little less hand-eye coordination, though on the times she hit it, she hit it fantastically (go Liza!)! Lauren and I managed a hand-head-foot-foot-hand combo the other day, big news in the Feather-Up world!

Anyway, enough of this feather talk....

We went to the Home of Affection for a goodbye art session (goodbye for the other volunteers that is), and I realised, not for the first time, how much I love the kids there. They're a really special group and it gives me great pleasure and a feeling that I'm very lucky to spend time with them. They LOVED doing art. They were so happy and content and well behaved whilst drawing and painting, and always gave away whatever master piece they had just created, which is funny cos you might think they wanted to hang on to whatever they can get. But no, we all left with numerous paintings and drawings.

At one point I found Linh, the youngest child there, who is seven I think, standing and carefully washing out the water bowls, rinsing them time and time again to ensure they were properly clean. It really struck me, when I saw this, that she is like a little adult. Normally, 7 year old kids would not be expected to be as thorough as this, or possibly even to do it at all. This is just one example that I have seen of the kids taking on roles that most children in first world countries would not be expected to do. There are exceptions of course, but i am talking generally. For instance, the way Dong looks out for Truc, who is only nine, has some learning difficulties and often gets picked on, is like an older brother. It is as if Dong has become his guardian, looking out for him, making sure no one hurts him, giving him attention and praise, it is very touching to see. If Dong ever gets any sweets he always shares them with Truc. It is the same seeing the older children at the baby orphanage helping the younger ones get dressed, or feeding them, taking on more responsibility than they really should have at that age.

I also got to meet Nga's (the deaf girl) mother, who I did not even realise was alive. I had just got some picture of Nga printed to give to her and they were both so thrilled, it was lovely to see.

I will really miss being here when I leave, but I don't need to think about that yet, I have a whole month left. And a whole new bunch of volunteers to meet of course, which I'm really looking forward to.

Month number 3 - 7-Jul-2005
So the new volunteers are a damn cool bunch. All girls again, though this time six of us instead of five, so the work load is a little less - I have two days this week with only one lesson, compared to three lessons a day for most of last month! ............oooooooh, big news. I've just been told, about two seconds ago, that London is gonna host the 2012 Olympics. How exciting!!! I'll be 31 by then..... maybe not quite so exciting actually. Anyway, where was I?........ We are a mix of English (Jane, Lou, Lauren and I) and Americans (Rose and Paige) this month, and I can feel the influence of having fellow country-girls rubbing off on me. For instance, we have started drinking much more tea, which is terribly British, yar yar, and bordering on stereotypical but true all the same. I can't think of any other examples off the top of my head but there have been some.

So far, we have taken them to see the Phu Ninh Lake, which has become a bit of a first-weekend-of-the-month ritual round here. The lake is as beautiful as ever. We got dropped off on a little island in the middle of the lake which has some rather interesting statues on it - a Chinese dragon, a couple of giraffes, some bucking horses and most bizarrely, a monkey pleasuring himself!! (I'm not just being lewd for the sake of it, I have photo proof!!!) So that was a nice day...

We have also watched two shockingly bad DVD's, the type that make you question how you could have possibly just wasted two hours of your life on something so brain-numbingly dull. ('Duplex' and 'After Sunset' by the way, don't do it to yourselves!)

The lessons have been fun though. At the Home of Affection we have been reviewing things that they have learnt over the last year or so to see what they still remember which has involved playing a whole lot of games. I love playing games and the kids seem to respond really well to learning in that way too. We ended a rather hectic session on tuesday with a massive water fight - water bombs, buckets filled from the well (I've never used a well before, v. old school), cups.....all sorts were used. No one was left dry, and we cycled home, much to the amusement of passers-by, looking like drowned rats.

The babies at the Baby Orphanage are all snuffly at the moment. I don't know if this is because the medicine they were on before has run out, or what. ALOT of them have skin problems of one sort or another, either dry patches, or some sort or rash and Tu, the little girl who had a fungal disease on her head when we first arrived here, is getting it back again. I wish i knew why it was happening -is it bad nutrition, or lack of hygiene, or simply just that they need more baby lotion? It would be nice to be able to do something about it. Aside from their health, the little ones are as happy and boisterous as ever, and a pleasure to be around.

The London Bombing - 8-Jul-2005
I was unbelievably shocked and scared to find out, last night, that London has been bombed. How terrifying. I felt very shaky after reading about it. It was quite difficult to understand what had exactly happened - different reports said different things, which made it quite confusing: 7 bombs, four bombs, two buses hit, four underground stations, 10 people died, 30 people died.... it was difficult to work out how serious it was. I was also feeling worried about the friends and family I have that live in London, but I managed to talk to most of them last night and they are all ok, which is a big relief. But all those poor people who have died or been badly injured, or who saw shocking sights whilst being freed - what a dreadful thing to have to deal with. And the awful news for all those families and friends of people who died who said goodbye to them without knowing it was going to be the last time they'd see them. Such a routine thing, going to work, getting the bus or the tube. It is a sharp reminder of how vulnerable we are as a country, and also as individuals. And not only to terrorism, but also the daily tragedies that happen to people all over the world everyday. My brother Sam made a point which i thought was very interesting. He said that though what happened in London is shocking, we are actually just experiencing some of what many other countries go through everyday, where there are wars happening, or people dying from malnutrition, drought, or illness, especially when there could be something done to alleviate the suffering. We don't come up against destruction like this on a daily basis but many people do. It made me think about being here actually. There are so many people in Vietnam who are extremely poor, who don't even have enough money to buy food, let alone medicine if they or their family are sick. How awful that money gets in the ways of someone living or dying. It is very much reality for people out here, and for people in lots of places around the world.

What happened in London is shocking and scary but no more or less awful than disasters that happened in other parts of the world, whether they are man-made (i include lack of food, water and medicine in this category), or natural. It makes me feel a strong connection with England that I don't often feel, and gives me a little more insight into how it must be for people who deals with all the time.

An Amazing Weekend - 12-Jul-2005
WHAT A WEEKEND, OHMIGOD! Me and the other GVN volunteers were all very kindly invited by the Quang Nam Tourism Department, where we teach English, to Cham Island for the opening of the Summer Feeling Festivals. We didn't really know what was in store for us when we set off to meet them at 5 o' clock on Friday. They had arranged a minibus for us, which was just a little bit too mini to fit us all in, but fit we did, and they jetted us off to Da Nang to a different festival, the Da Nang Culture and Tourism Festival. To be honest, I was a little dubious about it at first, as the last "party" we were invited to, celebrating links between Vietnam and Russia, ended up with us sitting listening to two hours of Vietnamese with Russian translation, and vice-versa, that obviously sailed straight over our heads! Anyway, this festival was nothing like that, I'm glad to say. We got fed in a posh hotel restaurant first of all, and then taken to a place where a massive stage had been set up. It was very pretty, decorated as a rainbow with bamboo hats all over the place. There was a section full of seats which were cordoned off, and to my surprise we got lead through there and sat down. There were thousands of people all around us, so it felt a mixture of VIP and cheeky to have got some seats. The show consisted of live singing - groups of six or seven women and men, who stood at the back of the stage belting out one song after another, which I loved - and dancing. There must have been a couple of hundred performers in all, with stunning, beautiful, floaty, multi-coloured costumes. Each song told a different story which were largely based around the sea. It was really spectacular, I'm so glad I got to see it. There were also two hot air balloons, and a successful attempt to raise the largest flag Vietnam, so it'll be in the next Guinness Book of World Records apparently.

Next we were taken to, and put up in, a super-posh hotel in Hoi An, which was $60 a night!!!!!! I don't think I've ever even stepped into a hotel that costs that much! I would say it was a lovely hotel, but the following morning they accused us of stealing the hotel slippers, when we had not even been given any in the first place. They tried to make the tourism department pay for them. It was very embarrassing as the TD had been so kind to organise for us to stay there, and the hotel made it seems that we had stolen when we hadn't done anything of the sort. A very rude hotel I think, I'd be quite happy to recommend it as a place for people not to stay!

Anyway, that was soon forgotten and we jumped on the boat over to Cham Island. It is the first time for ages that I have been on a tropical island, and it was absolutely lovely; white sand, unbelievably clear sea, beautiful forest covered mountains, and extreme heat. We spent most of the day on the beach, sunbathing, swimming and relaxing. In the afternoon we got taken snorkelling, which was wicked, all fish and floaty things. We managed to get Yen-with-life-jacket into the water, which was cool as she can't swim and was quite nervous, but had a great time in the end. I accidentally cut my foot on a bit of jaggedy reef, but unfortunately have not had any coral growing out of it yet. Can but live in the hope of corally feet!

In a little beachside restaurant, we ate dinner with the manager of the TD, who made us draw even more attention to ourselves than normal, by doing very loud 'cheers', or mot, hai, ba, YO! (as they say here) every time we took a sip of drink. We were the only Westerners on the island, I think, so people certainly knew of our presence! When we were finished eating we got led the front row of seats, a.k.a. VIP section, in front of a stage and waited for the show to start. Unfortunately, we got demoted after 20 minutes to the second row, when all the big bosses and managers came along but I was quite glad to be honest. The show itself was great again; obviously something they had put a lot of time and energy into. More beautiful costumes, singing, and dances about the sea. There was a couple of near-miss thing that happened in a row, which could have been disastrous but luckily weren't: first, the bonfire in front of the stage, which was lit by a flaming torch on a zip wire, nearly set a load of journalists on fire; then, that same zip wire, still on fire, landed in a tree, which promptly caught alight, directly above a camera man; and to top it all, a plastic bottle full of paraffin, which has accidentally been left next to the bonfire (!!), started melting and steaming! Luckily, it was moved before it exploded. All those things and no one was hurt, pretty good going! By this time, all the performers were dancing around the fire and we got dragged in to join them. It seemed to be a dance that everyone knew, which involved running round in a circle, twirling a partner, rubbing shoulders, and patting your neighbours bottom! It was A LOT of fun! Lauren, Jane, Rose, Paige and Lou all got interviewed for the Da Nang news, and we all got photos taken of us. I think I might be in a local Newspaper called Tuoi Tre, which is quite cool. That night we slept on the beach which was a little chilly but lovely because the stars were amazing and the sound of the sea was relaxing.

The next morning we woke at 5am, along with the sunrise. We ate brekky at 6.30am (why would anyone choose to eat at this time of the morning??) and went for a swim. Then things got really good. There was a load of guys doing different water sports on the beach, which we were offered for free, as we were guests of the TD. So we all got to do Parasailing. Again, OHMIGOD! It was unbelievable. I got strapped in to a rather fetching harness, and waited while they got the rope to the right length, then suddenly, whoosh, the boat speeds off and you're being bounced through the water and eventually up into the air. My first attempt failed as the rope got tangled with an anchor, which went spinning through the water below me, so I got in the air briefly and then landed with rather a hard splash back in the water. I cut my leg as I was getting back in the boat, though the "real" reason for the cut was me battling with a 60 foot shark, which I defeated, of course, only suffering a slight cut. I prefer that story! Anyway, the next parasailing attempt was a success and for the following five minutes I flew above the bay, absolutely stunned by how beautiful everything was from that view-point. I saw an eel skipping over the water, and got a lovely bird's eye view of the corals. It was just amazing; I am a very lucky girl indeed. The other girls all got a turn parasailing too, and Jane and I also got pulled along behind a speedboat in a little dinghy. We clung on for dear life, screaming our lungs out, whilst they purposefully bounced us as much as they could, laughing all the way. We were a little late for the ferry back to Hoi An, so the water sports guys gave us a lift to the harbour in their speedboat, arriving fashionably late (or not) and in true style! It was an AMAZING weekend, one that I would not have possibly imagined having, had if it had not been for the kindness of the Quang Nam Tourism Department. So a big thank you to them.

Tam Ky roundup - 29-Jul-2005
My goodness, what a long time it's been since I've written in here! So, what have I been doing since the 12th July?? Well, we've had a big success at the home of affection. After we gave the kids a test to see what they know, we split them into ability groups, so now we have a group of the really little ones, the 7 and 8 year olds, a group of middle level kids and a group of kids who find it a little easier to learn. And it's working so well. Each class has now only got 5 or 6 students in it which is much more manageable, and means we only need one teacher per class. This, in turn, means that there are normally a couple of us free to do some one to one teaching. I have been working with Nga on sign language quite a lot, which is thoroughly interesting but quite a challenge. She is very bright and learns things quickly but it is difficult for her to remember the written words, and which signs link to them. I've never taught sign language before, especially not a sign language I don't even know myself, but we are both muddling through and having a good time with it. She told me yesterday that she wants to be a hairdresser, and work in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, flying between the two cities. She has the spirit and ability to go a long way, and I will keep my fingers tightly crossed that she is given the opportunities to move forward.

There are also two new kiddies at the home of affection, a brother and sister who are 11 and 8 years old. Their father has just died and their mother is very sick, so can't look after them any more. It was so sad the first couple of days they were here. They were so shell-shocked by everything that had happened; they hardly talked or played with the other kids at all. Now, though, after a week or so, they are both coming on really well. The little girl, Thuong, has made good friends with Linh, another of the little girls, and they run around together playing and shrieking with laughter. Thuan, the brother is coming out of his shell too, and getting more confident after a bit of one to one attention. The other boys who live there can be a little bit rough at times, but on the whole are looking out for him and trying to include him as much as possible, and it is paying off. It is really touching to see the way these kids look after each other.

The following weekend, we decided to stay in Tam Ky. We had been invited by some friends of ours who live here, four African footballers, to go and see Quang Nam football team play at the local stadium. We arrived late (in true Vietnamese style) and sat down on one of the big stone steps that make up the stadium. What we hadn't considered was that 1) the steps had been cooked all day in the blazing sunshine and were so hot that, well, lets just they they left their mark!, and 2) we were sitting with our faces in the sunshine and I'd forgotten my hat. So I tied napkins to my head and increased my reputation as a weird-weird westerners, as opposed to a normal-weird westerner (i think all westerners out here in Tam Ky are consider to be a bit weird). It was a great game, even though Quang Nam lost 2:1. There was a band, which consisted of loads of drummers and a guy on a synthesizer. He was hilarious. He played a selection of music which included the sound of bullets flying, and circus music for when someone was injured, which in itself happened 8 or 9 times! The score board was a proper old school manually changed one, none of this computerised stuff. It was a really great match and I'm really glad I went to see it.

The next day we cycled out to the beach, 13km's either way (new official-day-of-most-exercise-for-me). It was a lovely ride actually, through paddy fields and over rivers. We were escorted half the way by two drunk guys on a motorbike who insisted on leading us all the way there, even when I had said A LOT of times in Vietnamese 'I know where the beach is', and many times in English something along those same lines! One of them was so pissed he was gradually leaning more and more to the side and eventually fell of the bike altogether, which was quite funny. He wasn't hurt, the motorbike wasn't moving when he fell. At the beach we had an audience of 22; a variety of kids, unbelievably old and painfully bent women, and men who stared, threw sand and peanuts and practiced their English on us, whilst laughing hysterically. Before we left we were serenaded by a group of extremely drunk guys, how romantic!

I will leave it there for now, cos I do have more to say but I gotta go get sorted for a party we're having tonight at the home of affection. It's gonna be a goodun!

Left my heart in Tam Ky - 5-Aug-2005
Well, I have now been out of Tam Ky for almost a week, each day intending to write my last couple of blog entries and not getting round to it. So, here it is, a little round up of the last couple of days in Tam Ky:

We organised a party for the kids at the home of affection, which we had on Friday night. We were thinking about what gifts we would get them and decided on a bag full of stuff, useful thing like books and such. Paige and Lauren went down to the market and chose some material, and we took them to Mrs Hanh's taylor to be made in to little school bags (found out later school bags have to brought in a specific place, so they'll just have to be used as run-around bags). They were fantastic, she did such a good job and it was so insanely cheap too, about 600,000 dong, or 18 pounds, for 26 bags! We got introduced to a local guy who owns a book shop, who kindly agreed to sell us stuff for wholesale prices, so we brought them all notebooks, pencil cases with pens, pencils, a rubber, ruler and correction fluid inside, little miniature white boards and markers, and packets of crayons for the little kiddies, with felt tip pens for the older kids. We also brought hair clips, water guns, key rings, little electric keyboards and guitars (though the mothers who work at the orphanage may not thank us for those!). It was a really lovely evening. We started with a relay race, which involved the kids running with a balloon between their legs, blowing up a balloon whilst eating a dry biscuit, going through a hoop, and eating an apple off a piece of string with out using their hands. They all had a wicked time, and really got into it, helping each other and cheering their team mates on. Jane had also made a pass the parcel, which Truc won. He is the youngest boy there and he was soooooo excited about winning, he ran around in circles screaming. Kien won Musical Statues, for his amazing Michael Jackson-esque dance moves and his sheer stillness when the music stopped. The highlight of the evening was another one of Laurens fantastic Pi�ata's, this time a multicoloured fish, which all the kids took great pleasure in pummelling to oblivion. After that there were just general shenanigans; chasing the kids, slinging them over your shoulders, spinning them round in circles, a water fight, of course. It was the last time that Jane and Paige would see the kids, as they both left the next morning, but me and Lauren had another day or so, so weren't too upset at that point.

On Saturday I spent the day gathering up my mess which had managed to get scattered to every corner of the house. OH MY GOD! I NEVER realised that i had accumulated soooooo much stuff. I blame Hoi An, to tell the truth, so many nice clothes just begging to be brought. I shocked myself by actually fitting everything in (I did have to buy just one more itty-bitty suitcase, which my winter coats and extremely-heavy-statue-gift is now in, waiting for my mum to take home after her visit out here). I also went down to the market and brought more gifts for the kids and also Mrs Hanh, Mrs Thanh and Yen, things just from me and Lauren. We got the girls pretty little glass bracelets (a side story..... i got given one of these bracelets as a gift and I swear, it is more an item of torture that a pretty accessory! To get it on took my hand being covered in vegetable oil, then Mrs Hanh and Yen with their full weight on it to force it over my poor hand, which was left bruised for the next week!!! Anyway, it's on now, and it certainly ain't gonna come off again!), and the boys necklaces with metal eagles, and skull, and other boyish things on them. For Mrs Hanh we got a make-up kit (cos she always loves borrowing ours) and a bottle of perfume; Mrs Thanh got a different bottle of perfume and a lipstick to replace her run out use-my-finger-nail-to-get-any one; and Yen we brought a pair of shoes, cos she said she wanted something functional. For Mr Horn, Mrs Hanh's husband and the GVN taxi driver, I made a shimmery gold medallion with the number 1 on it, cos he really is number one!

I had a sad farewell at the home of affection on Sunday. We spent most of the time making cards, and little info sheets with our addresses and emails on them. I got some lovely pictures from the kids, and we gave them all their little presents. They liked them, but the boys all wanted the bracelets too. I also had some photo's, of the volunteers from the last three months, blown up to A4 size so we stuck them around the classroom, which made it looked really nice. The kids really liked them, and were talking about all the past volunteers. It took a VERY long time to leave, and was extremely difficult. Lots of hugs, 'I'll miss you's, and 'goodbye's. The kids walked us to the gate, and then followed us along the path as we left. Those kids! They're really special to me, and to all the volunteers who work in Tam Ky. I hate the thought that I won't see them again, and am already half hatching a plan in my head to maybe go back next year. We'll see. Either way, I'll never forget them. They have been a real inspiration to me.

Our goodbyes to Mrs Hanh, Mrs Thanh, Loc (Mrs T's son) and Yen were just as bad. They're just like a surrogate family when you're out in Tam Ky. I can safely say to anyone thinking of volunteering in Tam Ky, go for it. You'll have a fantastic time, and will be so glad you've done it. Mrs Hanh's cooking is delicious and endless (don't expect to go home thinner that you left!), Yen's time and energy she puts in to the kids and the volunteers is amazing (and she has a fantastic sense of humour too), and all of them go out of their way to help you, look after you and make sure that you are happy and healthy. I am very happy that Tam Ky was my home for three months, and will miss everything and everyone very much. Ok, enough gushing.

Feature Fundraiser: Climb to Everest Base Camp

This feature fundraiser is planned for October 2006, when volunteers will have the opportunity to raise money for the Nepali Children's Fund. As a participant of this fundraising trek to The Base Camp of Mount Everest you will have the opportunity to visit ancient temples and palaces in Kathmandu. more >>