| Day 11 by Don | Day 1-2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, Back Home | |
| Today is a hard day. It is our last day at the orphanage and we will have to say goodbye to some very wonderful children. It is a very hard day. | ||
| We start the day heading out to the orphanage expecting to paint as much as we can before we are finished. We arrive and there really isn’t much to paint, so we just relax in the court yard with the children and staff. It is a windy morning and looks like a storm will greet us with a grand performance. |  | |
| The children sit with us and play games like rock paper scissors and thumb wrestling. They teach me how to say ‘you are one year old’ and ‘you are a hundred years old’. As kids walk by we point at them and joke that he or she is just one year old and the kids giggle. Terry plays horse and gives some of them a ride around the courtyard. I give them motor cycle rides on my knee. Some of the kids give Linda a piggy back ride. Robyn plays with the kids, as Deanna talks with the staff. We just sit with the kids for about 2-1/2 hours talking and learning each others language. Each of us is getting 2-3 kids that are constantly attached to us. I have Doe (there is an ‘up’ mark over the ‘o’ in his name), Houng, and Mihn that never stray too far away. Cham moves between all of us. Nguyen Thi Hang is attached to Linda. Robyn plays teeter tawter with several kids. Some of the kids have adopted Linda’s camera and runs around taking so many pictures that we joke that we will have 30fps video from all the stills he snaps. The wind blows the tarp, which protects the kids from the sun, from their grommets and flies around the court yard. Terry and I help the ‘father’ put it back together and attach it back to the second floor balcony. For the 1st time, they invite us to lunch of pho soup with some type of fish which none of us can figure out what it is. Doe is the lone child that sits with us. Cham and one other girl enjoy cleaning up the table after us. After lunch, they offer us a bed to take a nap on, but we say our goodbyes. They say goodbye with a mass exodus out to the road so that we can catch the taxi to Marble Mountain. |   | |
| We head out to Marble Mountain for a couple hours. Terry wants to buy some souvenirs. Deanna and Robyn buy some bracelets and knickknacks. I buy some small statues for co-workers. Linda buys a ring. As usual, it’s a blast to negotiate with the store owners. They seem to enjoy it as much as we do, sometimes smacking us, sometimes giving us a poor-me-I’m-starving-help-me look, then giggle as we play them with the same look. It’s always fun here. |  | |
| Having hiked the steep stairs up Marble Mountain twice now, Deanna and Robyn decide to go back and relax at the hotel. The three of us head back up the mountain to our first official paying visit since we have gone up after hours in the dark both times before. In January, Rick and I had hiked up a hole in one cave to the top of the mountain. I look for the cave with the hole but cannot find the place where we had squeezed up before. After some time, I find the trail from the top of the mountain where we had exited from the trail hole. We find the cave opening and after waiting for several people to come up the hole, we head down into the cave. It is a mass train of people coming up so we have to wait for some time to get down. |  | |
| It is a humid day, so by this time I am drenched and feel like there is a sprinkler under my shirt. I love the weather here and will miss it when we leave. | ||
| We go into several other caves, and one that had many hidden caves. We had missed these smaller passages to larger caves before when we first went in, and luckily two older women who sell incense, guided Linda and I (Terry lost us and was searching for us) to these other caves with Buddha’s and natural features such as the wind tunnel. Many times as we climb the rocks, they try to warn us not to do it, be we do. | ||
| We head back to the hotel within walking distance along the beach. | ||
| Linda and I sit and talk for about an hour about everything, her father, Vietnam, and of coarse races. We talk about our friends who won’t come here and how they are missing so very much. Deanna reads her book sitting under the thatched umbrella on the beach. Terry sits on our balcony watching the beach. Robyn watches TV. We all relax and do nothing probably for the first time in two weeks. I | ||
| We head back for the last time to the orphanage to give our last class. The ‘mother’ has headed up to Hanoi to go camping with some of the kids so the class is a complete ruckus. There is little control to be had. Doe sits with me and is a model student and I give him the solutions to the problems so he can yell them out when asked. Terry sits with Mihn. Linda acts out several ways of moving such as running, skipping, and walking as a way of teaching the kids the names. I suggest that she teach them cart wheel which she refuses |  | |
| We had started the class early tonight so that they could watch their favorite show. As soon as the class is over, Doe grabs my hand and pulls me up to their common bedroom. Already the father is in there with about 10 boys watching their show. About 5-6 of them are on one of the bunk bed together, while the rest of them are on the floor. Since the kids are not allowed to wear their shoes in the room, I take mine off and place them next to me. Doe grabs them and takes them outside without asking and returns. |  | |
| Their room is a long narrow room with bunks lining each side of the room. Two ceiling fans, freshly painted, cool the room down. The walls are painted the normal green which probably 99% of the rooms are painted in Vietnam. There are two doors, and two windows with dark heavy wooden shutters. The floor is tiled and the room is very neat and clean. Everything is old, used and simple. I think there are two light bulbs that light the room. There are nails under the top bunk which the kids hang their hats. The bunks are slats covered by bamboo mats. There are old cabinets which the children keep their belongings in. Hundreds of children have probably used these cabinets over the many years, they are old. On top of these cabinets is an old 19” TV which they watch the corniest show you have ever seen…they love it! Even the ‘father’ sitting on the bunk is enjoying it, and tries to explain it to me. |  | |
| I sit there, and then lay on the bunk with the kids. As I sit there, Doe comes up and lays down with me and so does Mihn. Lia, the child who would not listen to anyone yesterday in class, even comes up and sits quietly next to me. Lia grabs my arm and wraps it around him. Doe’s hand is holding mine. Mihn has his arm around my neck. Someone is fiddling with my eyebrows as we lay and watch this corny low budget monkey movie on TV. They don’t need our new toys, or new bunks, or all of our fancy gadgets. They just need friendship. Life is so simple here. They just want to spend some time with us. That is all they want. I don’t want the monkey movie to end in this simple low lit room… |  | |
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| After the movie, we sit briefly with the kids outside, but as we haven’t eaten since lunch and it is now probably 8PM, we need to head out and get dinner. It is the hardest day of our two weeks. Linda gave Hang her ring she bought today. Hang tries to find a digit that it would fit on. After trying her toes, she places it on her thumb. Hang runs upstairs and gets her teddy bear and gives it to Linda. It is hard to say goodbye. All of the kids and the ‘father’ walk us out to the road and say good bye. The ‘father’ says ‘Mr. Don, I hope to see you next year’ and shakes my hand. He is an awesome person. Some of the kids reverse their role and climb in the taxi and wave goodbye to us and giggle. Cham wants many hugs. Doe says goodbye. Robyn wants to take Doe home with us. The taxi driver seems a bit overwhelmed by all the kids. It is the hardest day. |  | |
| We head out to the restaurant that Linda, Robyn and Deanna had gone to previously. We eat shrimp, clams, beef, and some Russian meat. I doubt that 100 words are spoken. It is the hardest day. | ||
| After we get back to the hotel, Linda and I would walk on the beach talking about the day’s events, the last couple hours, and a very special girl to Linda named Houng. | ||
| We all say good night and turn in. | ||
| Later as I could not sleep, I would get back up and walk by the beach one last time. The moon has risen over the China Sea at our back door to our bungalow at this late hour. It reflects on the smooth water and seems to light up the sky. The stars are out. My friend the wind is blowing ever so lightly. Fishermen are still working the squid with their bright head lights. The waves are lightly rolling up onto the sand. It is a beautiful night to have walked on the beach. This…is paradise. | ||
| Day 1-2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, Back Home |