*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 03* 22.12.2010

7h30 - Time to wake up, once again a cold shower to start the day.  For breakfast, it's Vietnamese baguettes and Milo today.  I decide to give the Milo a shot instead of the Nescafe today to change things up a bit.  After breakfast, we are off to work clearing weeds to make way for planting rice.  On our way to the garden, we walk through the same wall where we had to move the safe through yesterday.  Since yesterday afternoon though, for some reason unknown to all of us, the staff decided that the space to walk through was just a little bit too big, so they decided to make it HALF the size!!!  The area that they want us to clear has HUGE weeds, 5 feet high in some places.  It's crazy, buried in the ground is at least 3 feet deep of garbage.  Plastic bags, food wrappers, batteries are all here.  We can't see how this soil can be used to plant food.  We ask what they will do to the garbage and weeds before planting the rice.  Our Vietnamese coordinators explain to us that the staff who attend to the garden will wait a few days for the weeds to dry out and then burn it all!!!  Only in Vietnam... It starts to rain, so we stop early and have an early break before lunch.  Philippe, Jin and I go to the internet cafe to check our emails then head back to the orphanage for lunch. Today it includes, nems (Vietnamese spring rolls), tofu, bean sprouts, and of course rice. 

After lunch we go to work with the kids in the physical rehabilitation room to help the ones with muscle problems exercise.  I work for a while with many on an elliptical type machine to get them moving their legs.  There are small kids on some floor mats with older ladies moving their arms, one child maybe no more than one and a half years old is on top of a pilates ball.  The lady is bouncing his torso repeatedly on the ball.  I watch this as I keep company a boy about 5 who has his legs pinned down with heavy bean bags, and his back is propped up against a cylindrical bag to help him straighten his back out.  Philippe comes in from another room where he tells me that he was working with a little boy who's feet were gray in colour.  A clear sign of atrophy (no blood circulation), I wonder in my mind if some of these children will ever walk...

We have our break at 16h00 and have a two hour break before dinner is served.  During the break, it is my turn to help out with the children eat their meals who cannot feed themselves.  I am shown to a boy who looks very sickly.  He is sitting in a wheelchair and has flies all over his face.  He can't talk, is barely able to move and his legs barely fill his pants.  His dinner is some short noodles, with some pieces of chicken.  Every spoonful he clenches at the spoon, his teeth jagged and completely deformed.  He lets me know that he is ready for his next spoonful by opening his mouth like a baby bird.  He doesn't chew, simply swallowing each spoonful whole.  He can't use his tongue to get the noodles that didn't make it in his mouth, so every few spoonfuls, I use the spoon to scrape the extras back in his mouth.  Sometimes he coughs, and with each cough it sounds like he's choking.  Of course he's not, but it takes some time to get used to this all the same.  It's saddening to see this, its almost as if he's not even aware or conscious.  He shows no emotions nor does he respond to anything.  I try to smile at him but I get nothing back.  I brush away the flies several times from his face, only for them to land again somewhere else.  When he is finished, I start to help another older lady in a wheelchair, apparently though I'm too slow with her and one of the staff members takes over for me.  As my job is done for the day, I'm left free to wander around elsewhere.

I walk towards the badminton courts and sit down with the girl who was affected by Agent Orange.  Dr. Lee, a Director at the orphanage comes up to me while he waits for his turn on the badminton court.  He tells me he has been at the orphanage for ten years, but lives in Ha Noi.  Every Friday, he goes back for the weekend.

Later on, Philippe, Jin, and I head to the corner store across the street.  Jin wants to go as she's craving a Coke.  Seeing the chance to try the cream sandwich, I go along.  Hungry and with a bit of a sweet tooth, I indulge and get a Coke, cream sandwich, some Cheetos, and some coconut butter cookies.  All this cost me 23,000 Dong, about $1.15.  We come back and play soccer and do some crab walk races with a few of the kids.

Dinner at 18h00, again we have rice, tofu, potatoes, eggs and oranges.  Over dinner, we discuss the plan for the "International Day" event next week.  All of the volunteers will cook something throughout the day from their home country to share with the rest of the volunteers.  As I brought pancake mix and maple syrup from back home, I choose to make breakfast for everyone. We all agree that International Day will be next Thursday (Dec. 30), the second to last day of our workcamp.

Back at the room before bedtime, we spend a couple of hours playing a few different games.  We start off playing a Korean game where the group sits in a circle, and going around the circle counterclockwise, you have to show a number using your fingers on just one hand (1 to 5 only) but say a different number.  The person on your right has to say the number you have shown with your hand, but show a different number with their hand to the person to their right, and so on until someone screws up.  When you screw up, you have to go in the middle of the circle and everyone gets their chance to give you a few slaps on the back!!

We also play the game where you get to write the name of a famous person on a piece of paper and place it on the persons forehead who sits to your right.  We go around the circle taking turns asking yes or no questions about the person, trying to figure out who our 'character' is. 

With the conclusion of the 'character' game, we all head off to bed around 22h00.