The Girl Who Played with Kids

My week has been filled with kids, of course, and following the adventures of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. While I miss being in school in many respects, I love having time to read for pleasure. I'm finally catching up on the Steig Larsson series, and I can't put the second one down. I made headway on Wednesday evening when I just chilled and read at a cafe in District 1 with a yummy avocado smoothie.

Thien Phuoc
Sickness was rampant throughout the orphanage this week. Last week the physical therapist was sick, then Traci was hit over the weekend, and each day there was at least two kids with a cough, fever, runny nose, or all of the above. We've stocked our fridge with orange juice, and I'm trying to stay healthy despite my constant close interactions with the kids. Just when I thought I had made it through the week unaffected, my throat got a little sore and my nose started on a light jog last night. Hopefully Traci's mom, who just arrived here last night, will have some Vietnamese home remedies to help me ward off this impending cold.

As I've developed stronger relationships with the kids, I've been able to understand them better as well. I had a difficult time communicating with them at first because I didn't speak the language and many of them can barely speak. However, they are no less expressive than those who use words to convey their emotions, wants, and needs.

Last Wednesday, Lauren, one of the Australian women that visits every week, broughtt a basketball hoop. It's always fun doing something different than the usual routine, and the kids are always looking for an excuse to get their leg braces off early.

The Three Musketeers
Nguyen (Win) just came back to the orphanage at the end of last week. Apparently, he had taken a bad fall the day that I arrived in Viet Nam. There was talk of him breaking or fracturing his C2 vertebrate, but I'm still not sure if that was the case. Regardless, he is significantly more limited than before the fall: he can't walk or move his left arm on his own, he doesn't have much strength in his neck and thus has a hard time keeping his head straight, he has difficulty getting sound out when he tries to speak, and he has a hard time swallowing his porridge when being fed.

Tai is such a cutie. Traci tells him how handsome he is now that he's lost his two front teeth, and I can't help but smile every time I look at him. His PT consists of standing, strapped into one of the standing boards, and having his limbs stretched and moved by the physical therapist on a mat as well. He speaks minimally, too, but he's the jokester of the crew.

Thun can't do much on his own either, and to me, it sounds like he's always just moaning and groaning. Traci can decipher his sounds, though, and will tell me what he's trying to say. He's probably the laziest of all the kids in the PT room. He does his pulley movements a few times and then will slump down and choose to just sit against the wall instead.


All three boys are seven, I believe, and they are incredible to each other. When I help bring the kids in the nap room, Tai will point to the cots in which he, Nguyen, and Thun belong and gets upset if they're not placed next to one another with him in the middle. Furthermore, they need to be next to each other during lunch time as well. Even though they can't do much with their arms and hands, they show each other affection with gentle, albeit fairly uncontrolled, touches. What warms my heart the most is when one of them get a treat of some sort and they insist on sharing it with the others, including the last bite.

Benh Vien Gia Dinh
Although I adore the kids that I color pictures with at the hospital, I end up spending a lot of the time talking to other Vietnamese volunteers who want to practice their English. They teach me a few Vietnamese words, too, so I can actually talk to the kids. Often I find myself using sign language instead of normal gestures, which can actually be more confusing sometimes. I also will translate what I want to say in Hebrew and Spanish, if it's a simple statement, until I realize those those languages are of no use here.

I noticed that one of my favorite boys wasn't in the play room last week, but as I was leaving, I saw that he was on a mat in the hallway, getting an IV. I spoke with his grandma with the few phrases of Vietnamese I know, and like many people I talk to, she wondered with a bewildered look why I decided to come here. It wasn't long before the boy motioned for me to get my camera back out and conduct another photo shoot. Although he was more subdued than the week before, his smile was just as sweet.

In Other News...
I moved into Bob's old room because he went back home to Phoenix last week. Although it's up another flight of stairs, it has a bathroom connected to it, which makes life easier. I was excited to finally put my pictures up as well.