Orphanage for children with special needs

I need to make Alisia start blogging during daytime hours. Every night I get ready for bed and as I go to lay down, Alisia is sound asleep! 

So, yet again, I will tell you about today. Today we visited a very large orphanage for children with special needs. If I understand correctly they have 360 children at their center. Not all of these are residents but some attend for school services. We started out with a greeting by the leaders of the center:

Followed by the delivery of adaptive feeding utensils for their center. In addition, brittanys Hope donated gifts to many of the children at the center:

In particular, this one girl stole everyone's heart as she went around hugging everybody because she was so thankful for her new toy!

After the gifts were distributed, the OT majors and Judy Erikson stayed with the physical therapists at the center. They used that time to teach what they know and aid them in the care of the children at the center. We were not there except for the end and we got to see Judy explaining how to help a young child begin to learn to eat for himself. What a wonderful hands on experience for both workers at the center and Etown College OT students. (And the rest of us who were amazed by Judy's knowledge!)

During the time the OT students were learning, the rest of us were working our way around the center visiting different children. There were many levels of disability and Alisia decided to settle into, what I would call, one of the hardest rooms to be in. We were asked not to take pictures in this room because the children were suffering from cerebral palsy or hydrocephaly or a number of other conditions that left them with limbs askew, unable to move or care for themselves. Alisia took a particular liking to a little boy and played with him, tickling him and singing to him, for much of the time. She also played with a little girl who was seemingly less impaired than the others. She was able to learn "head, shoulders, knees and toes" and play peek-a-boo. We both had a lot of fun watching her laugh. While Alisia was bonding with a few, I was trying to see everyone. I made my way around to about 20 beds in one room and 20 in the adjoining room and sang everyone a song. Most often it was "twinkle twinkle little star". Every child made eye contact with me and most lit up with smiles when I started singing. (Not necessarily because of my voice!) They loved the interaction of singing, as well as the caressing and show of love and affection that we were able to provide in the short time we were there. 

As we left there, we all had ideas of improvements we would like to see within that center, but they really are providing excellent care with what they have to work with. I am sure as Brittany's Hope continues their support, the center will continue to improve!

We did take a break from the crib room and play with some of the other kids in the courtyard for a little bit:

But pretty soon Alisia was begging to go back to her new friends! The girl has a heart of gold!!

After the visit to the center, we skipped out on the War Museum tour and walked around a little bit. We went in a couple of tourist trap shops and bought a few little things. We came across this outdoor market where people simply set up stands on the road. Yes, that's a scooter you see riding down the road. They ride everywhere: streets, sidewalks, they even ride into shops! Yes! Right into the shop door! It's crazy!!

Here is another cool picture of how they carry their goods. You often see people in the middle of the sidewalk sitting around one of these pots and eating their meal. 

The life here is very "outside". Everything they do is outside. Interestingly enough, I was told the Vietnamese people like to have light skin because if you have dark skin it means you are poor and work in the fields. So most everybody is covered up to keep the sun off of them. 

One last picture of Alisia and I at dinner. Our awesome group surprised me with a cake for my birthday! Apparently sweets are not very common here and Bob (from Etown College but living in Vietnam for the year) said this is his first cake in months! Glad I could help you out, Bob! :)