Sunflower bags and Ha Tinh Orphanage

As I spoke about yesterday, today was the day we hand delivered the Sunflower bags to the poor children of the region. These bags included clothes, blankets, wash clothes, towels, scarfs, hats, gloves and toiletry items. We took some older children (including Hoang) from the orphanage so we could model and teach them about giving back to the community. They all pitched in to help deliver the bags. 

At one point during the ceremony, a woman came up to me (I was sitting in the back row) and started speaking in English. I learned she was the English teacher there and had been speaking English for about 5 years. 

Once we started talking, about 30 girls crowded around to listen. The teacher told me they only see Americans on TV or the Internet. Well, they must have thought we were celebrities because they grabbed us and pulled us over for pictures. Eventually the boys came over too and began posing for pictures. Alisia and I must have posed for over 100 pictures with these teenagers! I don't think I've taken that many pictures since my wedding day! Here is one of many!

Ok, one more. This girl is in her graduation garments:

After the sunflower bag delivery, we ate lunch and went back to the hotel for a little bit. In Vietnam everyone naps in the afternoon so there was no point in going to the orphanage before 3:00 because everyone would be asleep and we would disrupt their schedule! And I don't just mean the young kids...EVERYONE naps!

In the afternoon we returned to the orphanage and played with frisbees and soccer balls, painted cards, made bracelets, rollerbladed with their new skates and jumped rope. 

As the day wore on and it got slightly cooler (95 instead of 105 or so!), we gathered in front of their recreational area and held a ceremony to "hand over" the soccer field. Again, they mentioned Alisia and Hannah. The important government official  from Ha Tinh was in attendance and posed for at least 15 pictures with Alisia! 

Alisia was included in the ribbon cutting ceremony and the field was turned over to the orphanage.

You will notice that the field is a sandy field with no nets on the goal. It would be very expensive for upkeep of a grass field so the soccer field is a cleared out section of land that the kids are able to play on. There are no nets because people might steal them and use them as hammocks (or so we are told) but the kids didn't seem to mind chasing the balls if they went outside of the field.  

Hoang by all the new gear:

We distributed gifts to all the children at Ha Tinh, including many bikes. (Thanks again to those who generously donated a bike!)

All the children we have seen on this trip are overjoyed as they ride their bikes away after we distribute them! (Obviously, I was partial to my son, Hoang, in all my pictures!!)

Hoang loved all his gifts. I went a little overboard because I forgot I had given him gifts at Christmas time and I brought additional gifts for the trip. So he was spoiled a little bit!

I also met Mai, the sponsor child from our Church group, CCW. She couldn't stop crying because she was overcome with joy at the gifts. What a sweetheart!

Of course we ended the night by sharing our dancing. The girls at Ha Tinh wore gorgeous dresses to perform. They obviously worked hard on their dances and they were beautiful. 

Unfortunately, it got to be too dark to play a soccer game together. We did kick the ball around for awhile but it wasn't a full blown soccer game. 

We left that night with the promise that we would stop by in the morning before we left town. It made leaving tonight a little easier.