*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 04* 23.12.2010

I think we are getting used to the hard beds, sleep was pretty decent last night.  We wake up, and for breakfast Kien has cooked some "spaghetti" for breakfast.  Vietnamese spaghetti is: Instant noodles, and tomato sauce with some pork. We still also have the regular Vietnamese baguettes and jam/peanut butter too. 

After breakfast, we go to the garden and work in another area clearing weeds and moving bricks.  Not very glamorous work but this cleared area will be more land for the orphanage to grow some medicinal plants and herbs. 

We break at 11h30, and go to have lunch.  After lunch, I take a walk around the orphanage with some butterscotch candies to give out to the kids.  The boy who likes playing with string finds me and we play on the seesaw and the carousel for a while before he tries to teach me the string game.  After horribly botching it up, I leave him with the other volunteers. 

After our lunch break, we go to work with the kids in the classrooms again.  I work again with the autistic kids helping them draw and making some lego buildings.  I get carried away making a doubledecker bridge for the kids out of lego.  It's wide and high enough that a lego truck can drive down it.  After a good 20 minutes, its complete!! Even the teacher likes it and asks that I put it on the bookcase after.  One of the kids starts playing with the truck on the bridges and success!! He loves it, but alas all my hard work goes away as his destructive side kicks in and he starts ramming the truck into the beams.  Fearing total destruction, I commandeer the truck from him and do some spot repairs.  Once it's all fixed, I divert his attention with some other lego so I can safely put my bridge away.  There are some deaf girls in the other class who are camera happy, they want us to take photos of them so they can see what they look like in them!  I notice on the courtyard, the mother from yesterday is there with her son who could not move any muscles from the physical therapy room.  She is happy to see me, but today he is actually walking (With help from his mother and a walker)!!  I also see the lady with the baby who she was bouncing on the pilates ball.  I take some photos with them, and shortly after we are done for the day. 

With some more free time before dinner we play with the kids again.  I meet the Agent Orange girl by the badminton courts again and watch with her the staff play for a while.  I see many of the deaf kids by the soccer fields again and they want me to take photos of them again.  One of the girls asks me my name by writing the question on her hand, just by drawing the letters with her fingers.  She has a book with all the volunteers names, ages, and countries!!

After dinner, I go to take a shower, my most dreaded activity here.  The water is freezing and I try hard not to step off my sandals to not touch the floor.  The "bathroom" is horrid and I would not want to think what the floor is like...  ughhhh

Tonight's group activity is singing.  We are given some sheets of English and Vietnamese Christmas songs to practice.  As the resident native English speaker, I am asked to 'verify' the correctness of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Jingle Bells".  It's really like a camp atmosphere here: no technology, just the bare basics and no real luxuries.  Funny how life continues to go on without all of these "essentials"...