Monday - Crisis Adverted, we found our kids!

After breakfast we decided to take a cab to the orphanage, since we had a lot of supplies (and t-shirts) with us.  

All packed up and ready to go!

A few years ago we made t-shirts with pictures of us and the kids (and workers) on them and they were a HUGE hit (with both the kids and workers). 

As you know, we hadn’t seen any of the older kids at the orphanage, specifically our two favorites, Bob and Thoung.  Luckily we had pictures books we had made so we asked Dorothy about them, who asked Yen about them, but since we can’t communicate with Yen, she seemed to say to me “have Long call me and I can explain”.  So I asked Long to ask her and they finally connected yesterday.  Yen said she didn’t know the exact address, but that someone could take us there!!  Fantastic!  Although very vague.  We tried to get a better sense of, was it walking distance?  Taxi?  If taxi, hours away?  If you have been reading my blog since the beginning (first of all kudos to you!) but also you may remember that the first or second time Mom came we met Nicholas, a doctor from California who is half Vietnamese and comes back to volunteer.  After barely meeting the man and him telling us about this second orphanage that older kids go to, we got in a car with him and went to this second orphanage.  Luckily, it didn’t turn into Taken 3 (Taken 4? I don’t even know which number it’s on now) because it probably wasn’t smart of us to follow some stranger, BUT he did take us to a second orphanage where there were older kids and they were learning a trade (I think I remember they were making incense) in the hopes they could make some money and have some type of life.  VERY long story short (and full circle) we thought that maybe this was the same place we had been years ago.

People always ask us what happens to the kids as they get older and we always say we have been told they go to another “older kid” orphanage, but we really didn’t know if this was true.

We were so interested to see how the morning would play out.  We thought that we should stay at orphanage 1 and play with Dorothy and Kap there (they would be so sad if we showed up and then left).  Then, we could make our way to orphanage 2.  But, we didn’t really know who was bringing us, the best time to do it, etc.

So (I know the suspense is killing you!) we show up at orphanage one.  Kap is pumped to see us (George too), and pumped for some of our toys!  

Yen says some Vietnamese things to me (I am not sure why she thought maybe finally I would understand what she’s saying?) and it’s obvious I had no clue what she was saying, but was trying to say yes (yes to either, ok we will go now to orphanage 2 or we will go later, whatever is better).

Then, this angel of a man appeared (Tuan) who works at Intel and apparently taught himself English (literally speaks “mo’ better” than me.  

Our angel!

We literally just looked up and he was there and we asked if he could help us communicate with Yen!  We decided (with his help) that we would leave to go to orphanage 2 right now.  Not only was he able to set this plan in motion, but he was also able to tell Kap and George where we were going (apparently George, who can speak in Vietnamese but very slowly) asked where we were going!  So that made us feel less sad about leaving them.

Yen was able to call a cab and off we went with some man (I know, I know this is really becoming a bad habit).  I honestly don’t know who this guy was, but he has been at the orphanage since we arrived.  I don’t think he is a worker, as he isn’t in the “worker uniform” and there are only female workers, but alas, we trust Yen!

The second orphanage was about 10-15 minutes away by taxi.  They had to stop at one point to ask for directions, but we were happy to see the sign we were in the right place (and Mom and I vaguely remember being there before).  The man who brought us explained to the “security guard” (it seems each orphanage has one although they seem similar to mall cops – nothing against mall cops) what we were doing there.  Then he looked at me, so I gave him cab money to head back to orphanage 1.  Also, as this was happening we were getting hugs from a worker that we have known from orphanage 1 in years past, so it was nice to see a friendly face!  We weren’t really sure if the man who brought us was going to wait for us (which would be weird) but we also didn’t have a plan to get home (spoiler alert: we survived and made it home!) but we were thinking we would give him money for a cab ride back to orphanage 1.  So, I was happy that seemed like a good plan to him!

LUCKILY, after all this work to get there, Bob and Thoung were some of the first kids we saw, as everyone was finishing up their morning meal.  We got huge smiles and hugs which really made the whole trip worth it!  We also recognized some other faces of older kids we knew.  

 
Bob and Thoung were excited for some t-shirts with their faces and also to play with some toys.  An older woman worker started speaking some English and mom and I can’t remember if we met her at the other orphanage.  She definitely wasn’t one of the workers in the main room, but might have been in another room.  It was amazing that she spoke some English because the other worker we knew spoke none.  There were two babies at this orphanage, which somehow landed up with Erin and I!  

This worker also wanted to show us around a bit, so brought us across the dirt road to an area that appears to be under construction, but part of it is completed and is very peaceful as it’s on the river.  I honestly have no idea how to describe it (and I didn’t have my phone to take pictures) but then she just left so Erin and I were sitting at this table with two babies!  Oh, what a life!  We decided to head back to find Mom, who was luckily still there with everyone (and all electronics).  Since these kids are older they really get the games, so it’s fun to watch them really challenge their minds with memory type games. 

Both of our babies fell asleep so we tried to ask the woman where to put them and we followed her to another building (it’s sort of like a compound).  This room was long and there were two older woman in the room resting.  

She said one of them was 85 and blind, and the other appears to be disabled, but she really didn’t say much about her.  In the back were hammocks so we put the babies in there.  My baby was wrapped up like a taco - the top of the hammock was clothes pined shut – it looked so cozy!!!

We went back to hang out with our kiddos, and then the worker we knew (who doesn’t speak English) motioned that they needed to go to sleep (typical for the other orphanage so seemed ok).  

Erin is a ROCKSTAR!  Literally she is amazing!  She is so so SO good with the kids, kind, caring, thoughtful - I am so proud to call her my sister!

Now we had to figure out how to get out of there.  It was clear from our drive in we were not near a main road where there would be taxis just driving by.  I thought the worker might understand the word “taxi” as she saw us come in a taxi, so tried to covey something to the effect of “can you call a taxi for us?”  but that wasn’t getting us anywhere, so my next thought was to try and find the lady who did speak some English.  I went back to the room with the two babies and she was in the hammock feeding one of them.  It took me a few tries (I really should learn how to say taxi in Vietnamese) but she seemed to understand what we needed!  I am still not exactly sure what she did, because she showed me a name and a phone number on her phone, then wrote it down, and then called someone.  I wondered if it was Yen?  Anyway, that seemed to work because she said to wait 5 minutes and a taxi would come.  It was more like 15, but thank the Lord for Vinasun (taxi company) that pulled up!  We were all starving and we knew the kids at the first orphanage would be napping as well, so we decided it made sense to come back to the hotel to eat and then we could go back to orphanage one later (wishful thinking, jokes on us).  

Orphanage 2 is about 10-15 minutes north or orphanage 1, so it was probably 45 minutes back to the hotel (traffic was not bad, wahoo!)  My stomach really never feels great here, so I always crave easy carbs (pizza, pasta).  Ok ok the kids are all a sham I just come to eat Italian for a week!!! 

We decided we would stop at 4Ps to cool down and relax!  I ordered a ginger ale, and it was make your own!  How cool!  

Make your own ginger-ale

I didn’t really know how to get the portions right so it was more like a ginger soda, but it made my stomach feel good!

We came back to the hotel to shower, rest (blog for Julie) with intentions (maybe before eating) to go back out to orphanage one, as we really didn’t spend much time with the kids.  However, almost as exhausting as spending time with the kids is getting to/from the orphanage.  Erin has graciously told us we don’t need to feel guilty or defend our actions to anyone because she said it’s one thing to read about it but another thing to actually do it, BUT I sometimes even feel guilty myself if we aren’t with the kids when we technically could be.  However, we have not been able to find a comfortable place to stay out near the orphanage, which is about 45 minutes away from where we stay.  We have seen a few hostels (rooms above the owners apartment) but there is really no English, and obviously we could survive, but there is something nice and comfortable about coming back to a place where we feel comfortable, have some English/Western things, etc.  Anyway, blah blah blah enough explaining that we didn’t make it back to orphanage 1 in the afternoon as we all needed some cool down/rest time.

Erin was in charge of finding us a dinner location!  Over the years we have heard that District 2 is where a lot of expats live, but we haven’t made it over there (it’s maybe 20 minutes by taxi) so we decided we wanted to check it out!

Erin found us a really hipster area that was still opening up, but it was kind of like an outside mall with 3 levels of food and shopping.  Unfortunately, it appears that on Monday nights a lot of things are closed in the residential area, but it was fun to walk around! 

We decided to leave the little mall area and explore more of district 2, which we renamed “Vietnam lite” as it feels much more relaxed and quieter (Erin could even cross the road by herself!)  We ended up at a…take a guess…Italian place!  However, this place Erin picked and had reviews that said it had the best pizza in Vietnam, so naturally we had to check it out.  I’ll also throw her under the bus and say that Erin said she really felt at “home” at this restaurant and loved the linen napkins!!

Oh Vietnam!

We had a really yummy dinner (I think their pizza rivals 4Ps) and then walked a bit more before get a cab back to our hotel.  We have double “orphanagi” tomorrow, so need a good night sleep for our last full day!