Tet time

So, as previously mentioned Tet is celebrated as the new lunar year. It goes for 3 days.

Tet is a very important time. As well as being the new year, it is considered a new start. The aim is to start the year how you will begin, so everyone has brand new clothes, people give lucky money out to friends or family (usually to the children, and any arguments of feuds are forgotten. On the other side, it is extremely unlucky to start the year in debt, so everyone tries to settle any accounts and start fresh.
families pray to ancestors and burn things that the ancestors might need in the afterlife (paper cutouts of houses, clothes,apparently the richer families also burn paper iphone and castles). Lots of visiting relatives, friends, neighbours.

I have found it an amazing time to visit Vietnam. Everywhere has a happy, friendly, excited feel particularly the children, who are running around hopped up on sugar and so proud of their new clothes and handful of money(like Christmas). It is also a very hopeful time as people embrace the new year and hope for the best luck in the coming year.


Tet day 0.5 (or New Years's eve)

We started the last day of the year going off t the orphanage as usual. But after lunch we instead had the afternoon off. Time to go and have a look at the Cham museum, then get ready for an afternoon Tet party at our cooks house. For a number of reasons the party was cancelled, and moved to our house instead. So we feasted (so much food!) and then went on an adventure to the flower market.

Every family has flowers or trees in their homes at Tet, I am not really sure why, but I guess it is lucky? The traditional tree is a tangerine (I am pretty sure that's what it is) that is full of fruit. But these are extremely expansive and so lots of people instead use flowers.

The flower market was a new years eve trip because apparently it is 2 whole fields, full of trees and flowers and an amazing site. However, all the prices are slashed on new years eve..... So by the time we got there not many flowers left at all! But we got to look at some of the trees and buy some cheap flowers for the volunteer house. Then as we were leaving we came across people who had just cut the tops off lots of flowers and throw them away. So we scavenged through to get some extras!


We got home and went onto the roof to watch the fireworks at midnight (which meant that all the leftover food, and extra food that suddenly appeared got taken up with us and we were expected to eat more).

Tet day 1
Off to the family village of some of the Vietnamese staff this morning. We met lots of family, walked through the rice fields, ate lots of food, played with the kids..... then went to someone elses house.... and were faced by a table full of food! Turns out, at every house you go to they will offer food and beer and "wine" (which is mostly either an extremely sweet and strong port-like wine, or spirits). If you don't eat the food, they will assume you don't like the food, or you don't like them. People are also fond of handing you more and more food, putting stuff into your bowl if you have a bowl, or just passing you a handful of nuts, or candies. So I am learning to slowly nibble at things, and always hold one thing, regardless of if I actually want to eat it or not!
One of our volunteers left about 2pm to go to the airport.... So then there was 2.....


We were taken home for a quick rest..... before dinner at the physiotherapist's house. (seeing a food based pattern yet?)

Tet Day 2
Morning Pho and coffee and saying goodbye to the other volunteer in the morning. Then off to the house of some of the vietnamese staff. For food of course. I tried to help with the cooking, not sure if I was a help or a liability as I was given the job of frying some sort of spring rolls. Some of them got... broken, but in the end I think they were ok!
We feasted, neighbours and friends dropped in, it was good.

After lunch we played a Vietnamese gambling game.... there is a piece of paper with 6 pictures (mostly animals) and 3 dice with those pictures. You put money on which ever animal you want to bet on, the dice are rolled and you win (or lose). There were 6 or 7 of us playing, with 1000 and 2000VND notes (so 5 or 10 cents) and it was hilarious fun!

I went home after this for a rest, and a walk. And was picked up by Kim (house coordinator - and my Tet social secretary) to go the the house of her friend for dinner. Who lives out of town in a little village. It was much fun, I got to pick the veges, and meet the pigs and the dogs. Eat lots of delicious foods. But, I forgot the golden rule. And just as i finished eating a piece of delicious deep fried new years rice cake, that I was too full to eat, but felt like I better try one piece seeing as it is the traditional food.... Kim announces that we will go to another friends house to eat more. O.o

I think she saw the look of horror and fear on my face.... and promised I could just eat a couple of watermelon seeds and a biscuit or two and they will be satisfied!


Tet day 3
Breakfast at a beautiful cafe. think big gardens, with ponds, flowers, trees and tables scattered through. Then, off to Kim's auntie's house for lunch. We were early, so went for a walk to a near by pagoda (so quiet, and calm and relaxing!). I met the woman who looks after the pagoda, who gave me a little good luck charm.

Then back for lunch in which many people regularly told Kim to feed me more. Then next door for drinks and nibblies.
Home for a nap, then back to dinner!

Tet is a crazy time, full of food, and fun and sitting in peoples houses explaining that I from Op (Australia) I am hai muoi bon (24), no, I am not married. This is the list of questions every new person I meet will ask!

A taste of freedom

This afternoon we went to the DaNang baby orphanage.
This is a much nicer place! They have a maximum of 10 kids at any time and 2-3 carers.

We were discussing trying to take the kids out for a walk, maybe leaving the 3 babies at home with one carer. And then the 3 volunteers, 3 care and share staff and one volunteer to take the other 6. however today we were short staffed. and so the carers said just into the front yard.

It was probably for the best. The kids were terrified to go out of the room they live in.



It was kind of surreal to be looking at this line of 5 kids all standing at the door looking out, too scared to even take a step onto the concrete. This photo was a little later, but these 4 still were too scared to come out until we picked them up one at a time and carried them around. Usually they sleep, eat, play in that room behind them. the doors are usually open but there is a kind gate stopping them coming out into the courtyard. So they have seen the courtyard before, it isn't totally foreign.

once we carried them around and showed them the view.... they got pretty excited




--> This little girl is one of the shyest. She takes a long time to warm up to new volunteers, she is also very quiet and passive, wont make a fuss when any other kids steal her toys. And always looks so serious! I think this is the first time I have seen her smile. she enjoyed walking around for a little bit.... then went back inside and played in the peace and quiet while the other kids ran around outside. Then she came back and stared at people going past! <--
--> This little boy is one of the oldest kids. He is a bit rough sometimes, stealing toys and the like. But outside, he just ran around laughing. He loved having the space! He is also one of the more outspoken kids. when they were all lined up at the gate watching two guys playing soccer in the road he was yelling out "well done" whenever they kick it!
This boy was also the first kid to agree to be carried outside. While i was walking around showing him everything he just stared, with massive eyes and softly said "wooooowwwww"


--> watching the street for anything interesting. The first car that went past the kids all got scared and ran away.







Unfortunately at the moment it isn't really child friendly out here. In one corner is a tap, big wet slimy patch of concrete and a large bucket of water covered by a raincoat and pane of glass!
on the other side are a whole lot of "washing lines" that are wooden frames with nails and screws sticking out of them to hang the clothes from.
We are planning to fence in the corners so that the washing line things can be moved to behind the fence easily, and the kids can't get to the tap. Then hopefully we can get a little foam mat to soften the concrete and put up some climbing frames or a ball pit. I was hoping to buy one of those really little and basic climbing gyms. They cost $100-200 at toys r us, people seem to keep them in the sun for years without too much damage. But to buy them here was going to cost more like 5-600! crazy! So - anyone from Australia who is planning to come over (volunteers, students? anyone) I am sure those things don't weigh much at all. If someone can bring one over as luggage I will happily pay for it (they come flat packed in cardboard boxes I believe) and the excess baggage costs!!!

Otherwise we will find something here! Just having the space to run around in and a couple of balls to kick will be exciting enough for the moment! I am very excited to come back after Tet and work on getting this space safe, so they can come out more often! We are also talking about painting on of the blank walls, hopefully some with a mural, and some with blackboard paint so they can draw with chalk.



--> He had to ask what this was. He didn't know it was a leaf, or if came from a tree, He is 3 years old. I am not sure he has ever really seen a tree before. The only time they go outside of the house is to go to the doctors apparently.

City of bridges

So, apparently DaNang is the city of bridges. I am told it has 7 in total. I can usually see 4 at once, so I will have to make an effort to go find the other 3.

First: the bridge I cross pretty much every day. I think this one is called the Han Bridge. Which a pretty uninspiring name, considering it is the Han river.

It is hard to really display how cool this bridge is in photos, because it is a constantly changing light show, with different colours and patterns of lights running up and down the bridge. I am also led to believe that this bridge swivels in some way and opens up so that boats can go through. But I think that only happens in the middle of the night.




The second bridge I will mention tonight is called the dragon bridge.



Not only is is shaped like a giant golden dragon (it's gold during the day)..... it has colour changing lights the cycle through lots of colours, and change one little segment at a time, from the head all the way down to the tail.

Which seems pretty cool for a bridge. I mean, you have already designed an awesome bridge, but for DaNang... it was not enough.

So the dragon breathes fire



It also sprays water out of it's mouth..... but I had put my camera away before that started.
So yep, ok DaNang, you have a giant dragon shaped bridge, with multi-coloured lights that breathes fire and water on special occasions. No still not enough, the bridge does it's fire breathing show on Saturday and Sunday nights every week, as well as special occasions and perhaps also Thursday nights (we had conflicting stories about the bridge light time). So 2 (or 3) times a week the traffic stops for about 15-20 minutes while the dragon does his thing.

Alright, I am suitably impressed by the insane bridge!

I will endeavour to photograph that other 2 bridges nearby.... and try to find 3 more! As a hint, one is called the rainbow bridge, one the sail bridge :)

Tet.... take 3

Tet (New lunar year) falls over the 31st January, 1st and 2nd February this year. Yet somehow we have already been involved in 3 different Tet celebrations!

The first was last weekend at the volunteer house.
We set up a table loaded with food, rice, some sort of mung bean based custard, chicken, fish, pork, green tea and rice wine.
Lit incense and prayed to the ancestors, then waited for about 15 minutes (with occasionally topping up of the rice wine and tea.)
This is to give time for the ghosts and ancestors to eat and drink.


We also burnt paper symbols of clothes and food and all the things our ancestors need in their afterlife.

Then we sat down to feast! (I should point out, this was at about 10am..... after a 7.30 breakfast. I didn't really to feast!)
There was also plenty of opportunity to mot, hai, ba, YO - drink!

Then, Last Thursday was our last day at the Hoa Mai Clinic (a school for Autism, and we use the ground floor as a physio clinic for kids with disabilities who live with their parents). We ended early and next second, there is a row of low tables on the ground and food gets piled on!

So we shared another celebration with them. Then while trying to leave kept being given more and more of the leftover sweets or dried fruit. I ended up with a hand full of dried coconut sitting on a paper towel that I had to nurse the whole way home!

On Friday we go to the family house of our night watchman's father (and house coordinator's grandfather!) for Tet. I am really looking forward to it! apparently it is in a small village about 20km out of town.

Also, now that Tet is closer I get occasional glances of someone driving around with a large tangerine tree in pot on the back of their motobike. And regular glances at people with one or two large flower pots. The tree is meant to be lucky, but is also very expansive.... so lots of people opt for flowers instead!

Teaching English

Tonight was our last English lesson with the kids from the home of affection before they go home for Tet to visit their families.
We also found out it was the birthday of one of the young boys.

So, we have a half length lesson, took 2 cakes along and also a bag of sports equipment, puzzles and English kids books we had decided to donate to them after discovering that while they did have lots of books..... their toys were 2 tennis balls and that's all!
Last time we took some puzzles just for the night, the kids loved them so much that even the teenagers were happy doing puzzles designed for 3 year olds!

We gave the kids 4 badminton rackets (not the crap plastic ones that had been used once before and immediately broke!) a soccer ball, lots of books, skipping ropes and puzzles. These gifts came with a discussion about looking after them and not leaving them out in the rain! They were so excited to get new games and their own soccer ball.





The lure of cake and candles meant most of the toy exploring was delayed.



Somehow the cake turned into a food fight. Which was hilarious fun! and awesome to watch the kids just loving running around and chasing us, chasing each other.