Saturday 24 January 2009

Ben Charlton's update of his UniBreak placement in Saigon

The coming of TET in Saigon



Hope all is well. This coming week is Tet which is the Vietnamese NEWYEARs. It lasts all week and most stalls shut for the duration. Already there has been a huge influx of both tourists & locals although i'm told they all disapear after monday to take the rest of the week off. It's also "FLOWERing" season which has also seen the local park converted to a markeshift flower market (i would garden if i could produce flowers like they do)

Last week as i said, we were heading to the mekong (which is a fantastic river system packed full of floating markets and Vietnamese Tradition - something that has almost disappeared within Ho Chi Minh C). Unfortunately Sarah got a tad sick and we were forced to postpone until after Tet. With Sarah sick, Julia and I hit up Ben Tanh (the markets) much to my disgust as lately all we have been doing is shopping and i'm sick to death of the ridiculous amounts and smells of mass produce, i.e. fake polos & fake rabans...etc! Our new saying is, "No rabans, No massage, No Boom Boom!!!"

This week wasnt much different to the last at the orphanage although with every new day comes something new. We have the daily routine pretty well sorted which has allowed us to attempt some exercises with the kids in hope to improve motor skills and with some of them their english. There is one kid who today we found out understands english but as he cant talk hasnt been able to let us know. Weve now organised a communication board for him which will hopefully help him communicate with us, the nurses and other volunteers.

We ventured to the zoo both yesterday and today. I fed an elephant and walked an orangatang (held its hand) down a path on his way to the health clinic. The kids enjoyed it thorougly especially when one of the other volunteers whilst patting a lion almost had his hand chomped off. Things are obviously pretty layed back to say the least.

With Tet arriving so quickly we are celebrating Australia Day a day early so we can fit in more drinking, a visit to CUCHI tunnels and more drinking (something we have yet to do - dont worry mum (:P))... ahhh freedom.

anywhooo, in the famous words of Napolean - "it's a liger; sought of like a cross between a tiger and a lion with supernatural features"


p.s. (because i like forgetting to put things in) - me and the orangatang had a moment walking down that path.

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