Posted by: Jenn
Well, since our last post we have been quite busy. We left Hoi An after a very relaxing few days and scouted out a local bus to take us the six hours to Kon Tum. We arrived at the bus station (not once did we put down our bags) and we found a sixteen passenger van that said Kon Tum on it. Long story short, the van ride was miserable. There were 30 passengers crammed in, instead of 16. In America our row would have sat three, but in Vietnam it sat six. The best part was the passenger sitting on the left hand side of the driver. Also, the last half of the trip (a full three hours), three grown men were utilizing all of the barf bags provided. I think we can safely say this van ride was definitely worse than the smelly bathroom bus ride in Peru. The plus side was when we finally arrived in Kon Tum, the van dropped us off at the door of our hotel.
Once in Kon Tum we settled into our hotel and snagged a good nights rest. Our purpose for getting off the beaten track and coming to Kon Tum was to go help out at a few of the seven orphanages in the area housing over 600 kids. The large number of kids is due to several factors. Kon Tum is surrounded by numerous minority villages. The villagers, also called minority people, have a tough uphill battle throughout life. The government doesn't allow them the same education opportunities as a normal Vietnamese person. They also aren't eligible for career jobs; this forces them to continue working the fields as their ancestors have done for years. If the family grows too large or if one parent dies there is often not enough food for the entire family. The solution is to abandon the youngest as they are the furthest from being productive in the fields. We found out that just over half of the kids still have at least one parent still alive in the area but they just couldn't afford to keep them, and no, they don't come visit them. Anyways, we made our way to Vinh Son 1, the orphanage right smack dab in the middle of town that houses 230 kids (ranging in age from newborn to 18 years), and met with a man that we had been in contact with by email. We showed up Monday morning at around 8:30 and by 9 he had us in a class room teaching about 25 nine and ten year olds English. We had no idea how much they knew, or what we were doing but we did it.
Well, since our last post we have been quite busy. We left Hoi An after a very relaxing few days and scouted out a local bus to take us the six hours to Kon Tum. We arrived at the bus station (not once did we put down our bags) and we found a sixteen passenger van that said Kon Tum on it. Long story short, the van ride was miserable. There were 30 passengers crammed in, instead of 16. In America our row would have sat three, but in Vietnam it sat six. The best part was the passenger sitting on the left hand side of the driver. Also, the last half of the trip (a full three hours), three grown men were utilizing all of the barf bags provided. I think we can safely say this van ride was definitely worse than the smelly bathroom bus ride in Peru. The plus side was when we finally arrived in Kon Tum, the van dropped us off at the door of our hotel.
Once in Kon Tum we settled into our hotel and snagged a good nights rest. Our purpose for getting off the beaten track and coming to Kon Tum was to go help out at a few of the seven orphanages in the area housing over 600 kids. The large number of kids is due to several factors. Kon Tum is surrounded by numerous minority villages. The villagers, also called minority people, have a tough uphill battle throughout life. The government doesn't allow them the same education opportunities as a normal Vietnamese person. They also aren't eligible for career jobs; this forces them to continue working the fields as their ancestors have done for years. If the family grows too large or if one parent dies there is often not enough food for the entire family. The solution is to abandon the youngest as they are the furthest from being productive in the fields. We found out that just over half of the kids still have at least one parent still alive in the area but they just couldn't afford to keep them, and no, they don't come visit them. Anyways, we made our way to Vinh Son 1, the orphanage right smack dab in the middle of town that houses 230 kids (ranging in age from newborn to 18 years), and met with a man that we had been in contact with by email. We showed up Monday morning at around 8:30 and by 9 he had us in a class room teaching about 25 nine and ten year olds English. We had no idea how much they knew, or what we were doing but we did it.
We found it quite difficult because we don't speak their language so we couldn't tell them what something was. So a lot of the time we would just read from a book and they would repeat while we worked on their pronunciation. Thanks instead of tanks, with instead of wis, fishing instead of fissing - their little mouths had so much trouble moving like ours - it was really cute. After a few days of reading a repeating, Jonathan decided to bring out the artist in himself and draw a city on the chalkboard. This was good because it was easier for us to show them what words were, like car, bus, road, bank, train, lake, dog or cow (we thought we drew a dog, but they said cow).
After the first teaching session Monday morning we gave ourselves a tour of the orphanage. My heart broke when we walked up to the nursery. There were four babies, all laying awake, in four metal, rusting cribs. They were all way to young to hold a bottle, yet there was a bottle in each of their cribs propped up by a blanket holding the bottle in or around their mouth. If the bottle had come out of the mouth it was just spilling next to the baby's face. They also all four had diapers on that were so big they came up to their chests and hung down to their knees. They would have been better off without diapers because their runny poo was going everywhere anyways. After seeing that, I decided that my mad English teaching skills were going to go unused because I wanted to show the babies some love.
So for the past ten days, we have gotten up and walked down to the orphanage. Jonathan teaches from 9 to 11 while I go to the nursery and feed, rock, hold, bathe or change the diapers of the babies.
So for the past ten days, we have gotten up and walked down to the orphanage. Jonathan teaches from 9 to 11 while I go to the nursery and feed, rock, hold, bathe or change the diapers of the babies.
The orphanage would feed us lunch at noon as a way of saying thanks and then we would head back to our hotel until about 2 PM at which time we would walk back to the orphanage and both teach an older group of kids English until around 4 PM.
We had also brought some school supplies with us to give out to the kids but after spending some time at Vinh Son 1 we noticed that because this orphanage is in the middle of town, they get whatever they need from tourists or the town. Multiple truck loads of food, clothes and supplies were brought to the kids in the ten days were there.
We had also brought some school supplies with us to give out to the kids but after spending some time at Vinh Son 1 we noticed that because this orphanage is in the middle of town, they get whatever they need from tourists or the town. Multiple truck loads of food, clothes and supplies were brought to the kids in the ten days were there.
However, two things I decided they did need were baby wipes (the current system involves hanging the baby over the kitchen sink and splashing water up until nothing is visible on their tushy) and newborn diapers. So we bought out the local supermarket and stocked the nursery.
Saturday, which was New Years, we celebrated with the kids. After dinner they put on a show for us and five other volunteers that help out every year. It was really cute and we had a great time ringing in the New Year with them.
Our time at Vinh Son 1 was great and we really enjoyed working and playing with the kids. I was really worried that I would get attached to one and have to bring him/her home. I definitely would love to bring some home with me and I did feel like I got close to a few of them. However, because of recent laws made by the Vietnamese government, Americans are not allowed to adopt from Vietnam. Jonathan thinks we can find some way around the law...I thought he was going to cry when we had to tell Lei bye.
During our off time at Vinh Son 1 we decided to visit some of the other orphanages further out of town and inconvenient to get to. We dropped our school supplies off at Vinh Son 6, a very small orphanage furthest away from town. There were not any kids there when we stopped by because they were at school but the nuns in charge were very grateful for what we took.
We also visited Vinh Son 3, 4, and 5. While at Vinh Son 3 we were told that sometimes at night the bikes that the kids use to get to school are stolen. The lady in charge informed us that to prevent this from happening some boys sleep outside to watch over the bikes. Whattttt?! Jonathan and I looked at each other and knew that we could help fix this. We hopped onto our rented motorbike and rode to the market in search of a chain and some locks. We bought three locks and two 20-foot lengths of chain and rode back to Vinh Son 3 to show the kids how to lock the bikes up.
Two days later we rode back out to Vinh Son 3 curious to see if they were implementing the system and sure enough the bikes were all lined up and the little boy in charge was getting ready to chain them together. Success!
Spending time with the kids, loving on them and showing them that we care, if even for a small amount time, was very rewarding and we are so glad that we stopped in Kon Tum.
Lastly, as if teaching English to a bunch of 9 year olds every day wasn't enough, we had two very ambitious 15 year old Vietnamese girls stop us on the street one afternoon and ask us if we could help them with their English. We worked with them for two nights and couldn't believe how dedicated they were.
Spending time with the kids, loving on them and showing them that we care, if even for a small amount time, was very rewarding and we are so glad that we stopped in Kon Tum.
Lastly, as if teaching English to a bunch of 9 year olds every day wasn't enough, we had two very ambitious 15 year old Vietnamese girls stop us on the street one afternoon and ask us if we could help them with their English. We worked with them for two nights and couldn't believe how dedicated they were.