Week 1: I smell like baby drool and wintergreen...

It's been an incredible first week in Da Nang. I feel like I've been here for a month already and have quickly fallen into the volunteering schedule. I wake up at 6:30AM every day and take a cold shower because a) there's no hot water and b) it's like 35 degrees Celsius here with no air conditioning, so I'd be sweating in the shower, thereby defeating the purpose of showering in the first place. I talk to Chris, who is usually still working like crazy, and then help Co Quyen and Co Hai (our House Mothers) in the kitchen if I can. Usually, they feel we're too incompetent for the heavy lifting, so we're asked to move chairs or get chopsticks:)

The day starts at 8:30AM with our first orphanages. We work with 6 different orphanages and each volunteer visits all 6 during the course of a week, usually going to each 2+ times. Everyone's favorite is a place called Malnourished where there are two groups: toddlers and babies. They babies are ADORABLE. Vietnamese names are hard and it doesn't help that we work with 200+ children a week, so we come up with nicknames for the babies who don't seem to mind. For example, my roommate Lindsay's favorite baby is "Baby Boy-Girl" whom she named because she was sure the baby was a boy due to an AMAZING (seriously, very startling) amount of head hair. During the past month, she still thought the baby was a boy, even though she had changed her several times. Not until someone else brought it to her attention that her "favorite baby boy" was really a girl did she take time to take a look. Sure enough, it's a girl. Thus, "Baby Boy-Girl" has seemed to stick.

My favorite baby is "Meat Pie" from the Social Support orphanage. She's rotund. She's definitely got at least a kilo on the other babies in the center. The first time I picked her up, she farted on me 3 times (so loudly that my arms shook) and then spit up all over me. How could I not fall in love? She's ridiculously cute, but doesn't need a lot of care-giving since she really does just eat, fart, spit up, poop and then sleep (sleep being her favorite activity after eating). I LOVE that baby!

At Malnourished, I prefer hanging out with the toddlers who are CRAZY! They have SO much energy and literally start screaming and jumping when we arrive (probably because we start screaming and jumping, too). My favorite baby is Tinh, who is probably 2-3 years old and has (we think) Cerebral palsy. I promise you that you have NEVER seen a smile this big and a giggle as contagious as hers!!! I promise to post a picture and some video soon, but I always forget because I just have so much fun being around her! I've been working with her therapist to help her with motor skills and comprehension. She is SO smart and truly understands everything we are saying. Only her left arm is really functional, but she is starting to get really good and picking things up with it. She can also hold her head up much better now and may even start to try feeding herself this week!!! And her eyelashes are about a mile long! Wait until I post a picture and some video; she will literally fill you with happiness and make whatever frustration in your day just disappear:)

I've ended up doing a lot of work with the disabled children at the centers. I've formed a good working relationship with Tinh's therapist who is working with all of the other centers now and I really enjoy help him with the children. The children affected by Agent Orange are so incredibly smart and loving that your heart just melts when you walk in and they all open their arms waiting for you to hug them. With the great times, there are some difficult times as well. At one of the centers, we asked the management if we could clean the outdoor playroom where they keep the disabled children. There are only 2 elderly "Mothers" to take care of 15 disabled children, some as old as 15/16. Unfortunately, the playground was covered in waste and flies where literally layering the floor and sitting on the children. Some of the children were tied to the fence because they can be aggressive to the other children, etc. The first visit was very difficult to experience. When we came back, we cleaned the entire playground and then spent the rest of the time trying to engage the children, which proved extremely difficult. This will definitely be my hardest job while here, but to see how much difference we can make is unlike anything I have ever done before.

The first week is already gone and now I've started keeping track of the time in reverse counting of how many chances I have left to spend with my kids... especially Dinh. I didn't think I wanted to work with the orphanages when I first applied and I can't tell you what a blessing it was that I was placed here. If you ever have the opportunity to do this or if you have ever even thought of trying to do something like this, please do!!!

I miss you all so much!!!

Much Love,
mindy