Like tickles and lemons...
No matter how many toys and bubbles and stickers we take with us to the orphanages, do you know what the kids love the most?
Tickles.
Its fun, it's free and it's one on one contact for the kid as long as it goes on. It’s bonding and it's play and it's silly. And it's so so easy. I had one little girl follow me today trying to provoke me to tickle her some more after I'd gone on to do something else. She’s only lived at the orphanage a few weeks now and the only real contact she's gotten lately from us has been when we've been picking out her nits...so the tickles were a real treat for her!
And lemons
Tonight, I have a bit of a sore throat, so I decided to go across the road to the little fruit and veg stall to buy some lemons. But they didn't have any. The lady pointed over to the other side of the junction to another stall but she didn't have any either, she pointed me up the road away from the house.
As I was walking along a motorbike passed and then I heard someone calling my name. It was Chau, a girl who works as a translator for us in another city.She's here in Tam Ky visiting friends for a few days. She told me the market was probably closed but maybe I could borrow a lemon from our neighbouring coffee shop?
So I headed back to the house only to see Chau pull up her motorbike down the street a little in front of me. Her friend hopped off the back and had run into a grocer's shop I hadn't seen. Chau explained what was happening and how her friend would get them for me for a good price, double prices are rampant here!
So now I'm sitting here drinking my hot lemon and wondering how long I could be walking around Cavan or Dublin before I'd meet someone who, [a], would bother stopping or pulling over or [b], who would actually go out of their way to help me find a lemon!
It’s the simple things that make life good!
Thursday 18 December 2008
Wednesday 17 December 2008
scars
don't always mean the wound is healed...
Today, we were at the hospital for disabled children with our visiting physiotherapist, Roz who is here for two months. All the parents knew she was coming so we had a big crowd already.
And then another visitor, a very very old looking lady.
She asked me how old I was, and I told her I was 24, [in Vietnamese] look at me go, understanding this old lady with a mouth full of betel leaf!
I asked her how old she was, ooh, she's 84 years old. Wow.
And then she started talking too fast for me to understand.
I looked to Mr. Tuan, our translator for help. He looked at the lady and then looked at me and said "your father..."
My father what?!
The old lady started rubbing her arm - my father sprayed Agent Orange and Napalm on this country....
The war is over, but never forgotten. It only ended 33 years ago.
If this was her instant reaction, who else thinks like this?
All the children call us "My" - every white person is automatically seen as American.
What do they think of us? They don't know anything of the war, they just know the 'Americans' come to play with them and give them food and teach them. When they learn about the war what will they think? Will it change how they feel about us and our work? Or will it affect how they feel about the war?
Only yesterday we went to a provincial conference celebrating international investments and foreign organisations. There were representatives from almost every NGO based in our province, there were expats and volunteers, there were Vietnamese colleagues of all these people. All of them victims of the war in some respect.
But still, no one forgets.
So anyway, I told her, no no no, I'm Irish, no no no no no!
As she was leaving she passed me by again;
Betel Leaf Lady: 'Where are you from?'
Me: Ireland.
BLL: 'Where are you from?' [expression says, "oh, the dumb American can't understand me!"]
Me: I-R-E-L-A-N-D
Me: ok ok, England, you know England?
BLL: 'Of course I do. Your nose is ugly.' [pointing to my piercing]
Nice!
Today, we were at the hospital for disabled children with our visiting physiotherapist, Roz who is here for two months. All the parents knew she was coming so we had a big crowd already.
And then another visitor, a very very old looking lady.
She asked me how old I was, and I told her I was 24, [in Vietnamese] look at me go, understanding this old lady with a mouth full of betel leaf!
I asked her how old she was, ooh, she's 84 years old. Wow.
And then she started talking too fast for me to understand.
I looked to Mr. Tuan, our translator for help. He looked at the lady and then looked at me and said "your father..."
My father what?!
The old lady started rubbing her arm - my father sprayed Agent Orange and Napalm on this country....
The war is over, but never forgotten. It only ended 33 years ago.
If this was her instant reaction, who else thinks like this?
All the children call us "My" - every white person is automatically seen as American.
What do they think of us? They don't know anything of the war, they just know the 'Americans' come to play with them and give them food and teach them. When they learn about the war what will they think? Will it change how they feel about us and our work? Or will it affect how they feel about the war?
Only yesterday we went to a provincial conference celebrating international investments and foreign organisations. There were representatives from almost every NGO based in our province, there were expats and volunteers, there were Vietnamese colleagues of all these people. All of them victims of the war in some respect.
But still, no one forgets.
So anyway, I told her, no no no, I'm Irish, no no no no no!
As she was leaving she passed me by again;
Betel Leaf Lady: 'Where are you from?'
Me: Ireland.
BLL: 'Where are you from?' [expression says, "oh, the dumb American can't understand me!"]
Me: I-R-E-L-A-N-D
Me: ok ok, England, you know England?
BLL: 'Of course I do. Your nose is ugly.' [pointing to my piercing]
Nice!
Sunday 14 December 2008
Thursday 4 December 2008
Happy Advent Season
(that's what this time of year used to be called back in the good old days)
I know this video is Jesus oriented and all that jazz, even if you're someone who doesn't believe, you can still identify with the hassle and the craziness this time of year brings to us all.
And it's a pretty funky video anyway.
So................................................................
Now you've watched the video, well, where are you gonna spend that cash..............?
You could do Oxfam - which rocks - or maybe, just maybe, how about these guys?
One euro a day is all it costs to buy these guys milk or fruit. But altogether, in the town I'm working in now we spend US$500 (approx eu420) per month on food and education for these children.
It costs about $35 roughly per month to sponsor some random child that you won't really get the full story on, but I've got almost 100 beautiful children in need on some good nutritious food and education that I'd be more than happy to bore you to death about!
If you're interested, please contact me here or via email: ead.oreilly@gmail.com and I'll get you set up!
I know this video is Jesus oriented and all that jazz, even if you're someone who doesn't believe, you can still identify with the hassle and the craziness this time of year brings to us all.
And it's a pretty funky video anyway.
So................................................................
Now you've watched the video, well, where are you gonna spend that cash..............?
You could do Oxfam - which rocks - or maybe, just maybe, how about these guys?
One euro a day is all it costs to buy these guys milk or fruit. But altogether, in the town I'm working in now we spend US$500 (approx eu420) per month on food and education for these children.
How about sponsoring one?
It costs about $35 roughly per month to sponsor some random child that you won't really get the full story on, but I've got almost 100 beautiful children in need on some good nutritious food and education that I'd be more than happy to bore you to death about!
If you're interested, please contact me here or via email: ead.oreilly@gmail.com and I'll get you set up!
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