Ngan

Lovely little Ngân is doing amazingly! For those who don't recall she is a 9 yeast old with cerebral palsy that we see at our drop in clinic.
If you want to see her original post it is in January
Just before I went away to Cambodia Sandie and i put our heads together to find a walker that Ngân would be able to use independently. A local handgun was able to come up with this. Ngân loved it immediately. Last week I asked to see her at home so that I could check up on how she is going in the walker. Mostly wanting to make sure that nothing is going wrong or possibly causing issues. The walker is a bit bulky to bring into the clinic!

 Ngân is going great guns in her walker. Great guns being as well as can be expected, considering her crouch gait, and with extreme joy and enthusiasm! She is tending to sit on the seat and peddle with her legs rather than standing, but with no achilles tendons building the strength to stand with straight knees is near impossible - yet alone on one leg to step! We did try a few different set ups to see if we could get her supporting her own weight more, but nothing really worked. We discussed focusing more on standing upright.


The absolutely best thing about the walker, the bit that made me so happy and where I feel the biggest benefit is........
In the afternoons, when it is cool, Ngân goes walking in the street with all the other neighborhood children! How freaking amazing is that. In the past she would have been lying inn her lounge room, maybe out on the porch. But walking around the streets with the other kids. Beautiful.

I think sometimes dad helps out, but I was told that if he is busy the other kids with help out, if she gets stuck on something (it's a bulky frame) or if a car comes and they need to move quick. Mum was worried that she is spending too much time and asked me if there is a maximum amount of walking time she should be doing... apparently it is often hours every day!
I just honestly can't get over the quality of life boost for this girl!


Of course, the hospitality involved in this home visit was overwhelmingly beautiful. As soon as we arrived mum delivered tea and I could hear her saying bun beo and "an" which i recognized as a type of food and eat.
I insisted that I had indeed eaten lunch, and didn't need any bun beo. The eat topic didn't get dropped...... I could hear the conversation going on behind my back. Some understanding seemed to be reached, i assumed that we would be presented some biscuits or fruit..... something snacky that we could nibble on. Refusing food is a bit rude, so I figured I could handle nibbling. Nothing appeared and to be honest I completely forgot about the eating issue....... until we tried to leave. At this pointy mum looked shocked, and betrayed. She said something that i assume basically translated to "but, but, but, bun beo?"
More negotiations happened...... I assume Mr Phuc was explaining that we have other people to visit. Then everyone looked at me and grinned.
Apparently it was decided that i would return for dinner! That Vietnamese hospitality!!!


So after visiting a couple other families we headed back to Ngân's place. More negotiations occurred..... I believe at this point out was Mr Phuc having to explain why exactly huge wasn't starting for dinner!
Ngân was pretty gosh darn excited to have her dinner guest! As a bonus for me i got to see how well she is able to feed herself. Even using chop sticks most of the time!
Bun beo turns out to be the Hue specialty dish. It was delicious, but not exactly a dish for western tastes...... as far  as I can establish (understanding that mum has the best English there.... and it is minimal!) Bun beo is wet rice paper, covered in a paste made of fish sauce and I'm not really sure what else, which is then liberally sprinkled with powdered shrimp and then you pour fish sauce, or fish sauce mixed with chili on it. So, I really liked it. But man, it's a lot off shrimp/fish sauce!
I did start slowing down on the bun beo rather quickly..... at which point I was getting teased by Ngân for eating too slowly! But it's ok, I have enough Vietnamese to tease Ngan back for being a piggy later when she ate her dragon fruit with no hands.

All in all a great evening of family time :-)