Big few days...

umm i forget where i left off... however this week has been huge thank-you to everyone for all your support and love it means that this project has been able to be up and running this week... bathroom reno has begun and the clearing of the soccer field started yesterday... alot of blisters and cut all over hands and feet....but so many people turned up and it was great all the kids got out there and did the best they could.... few snakes alot of spiders, snails and bugs cover in dirt and sweat however we are well on our way now.....!!!! just had a day out with the kids we teach at social at night.... we took them for lunch and the movies we saw Rio in vietnamese... today was great to get them out and give them abit but now it has put more thought in my head!!! Our little nam Viet who we take on most of our weekends just got a sponser for a nice orphange that is private run and offers alot more in the way of schooling... however he said yesterday that he doesn't want to go because no family.. there is 3 other children 2 girls and a boy all aged between 8 and 14 and to break them up would be a shame.. it would be breaking a family.. they have been each others family for the time they are in social and been the strength for each other... we worked it out that it would be $40 a month for 5 years for one child... Fran (volunteer) is looking into maybe supporting one and once I am working again i know i can also support one... mark feels the same way... i know i can't save everyone of these children and i have done alot but every day i give alittle bit more of my heart and it is just heart breaking to see these children go through what they do... today i feel like i dont have much left in me but i am waiting for that little reward to get me through....
untill next time and sorry i will be more upbeat!!!! few loads of washing a beer and bed today i think..
to all back home happy easter weekend!!!!!!!!! xxxxxxx

photo's

Under the sea week

the old bath room

going to be the new grounds!!!

the old soccer grounds

Me and Mark getting our arses kicked!!

Huge Changes!!!!!

so this last week has been huge...
Mark and I have been working on some big changes!!! the red cross home we work for have only got one bath room that is just not even in living order and the soccer field we play on is broken up concrete so we have just got the ok and huge happening thanks to some amazing people back home (Maya Gurry from Fresh PR) and my amazing family some big fundraising is going on and the bathroom is underway..
also this weekend back home is easter and although it is not celebrated here we are going to the red cross and having a working bee and clearing what is going to be the new soccer ground.. so spare a thought and send some strength (physical please!!!)
if you feel as if you can help this is the web link for donations http://www.gvnfoundation.org/gvn_changemakers/international_fundraisers/vietnam/redcross/
Every little bit helps so thank-you...

I really feel that it has just been huge uplift for me to know that i can make some change like this..
This week we have some new volunteers and one of the women (Fran) is so amazing and strong and today her first day she reminded me a little bit of me..
I forgot how scary and confronting that first day is every day still is but it get better and i just felt so naive and so silly to think that i was going to come here and it be all smiles and i do a bit of hard work and learn from it yeah.. But it is so much more than that and you can't explain how each day effects you and how you just don't ever feel you are strong enough to get through it and there is so much that you have to try and over look because it is just so horrific.. But now a month into it and this huge change is happening to red cross and the children today when we told them was so so thankful one of the boys held my hand and said thank-you and i could feel how huge that thank-you was... I know now that i can make a change and that this is something that children for years and years are going to be able to used. I have with the huge help from mark, family and friends made and change in these kids living standards... which is something on the first day that i never thought i was going to do while i was here...

I have grown and learnt so much over this time and i have so many people to thank for this.... so thank-you all from the bottom of my heart and the children's.... xxxxxxxxxx
I am truly the luckiest most grateful girl to be surround by so many beautiful souls... thank-you

Outtings!!!!

oh today was amazing!!!! I am dead.... but it was great, we took the children from social with disabilities to the pool...oh they just loved it and it was so good for them although it was hard we had about 1 carer to 2 kids and some are not able to move at all.... so i feel i now need a massage... lol
But to see the kids laughing and playing was so great... Funniest thing... Mark got spewed on in the pool poor louie drunk abit to much water and it all came back up all over mark.. he is now up stairs showering and scrubbing a layer of skin off....hahaha

No class tonight but we have taken on a few extra private lesions for the Vietnamese people who have been helping us and a few family friends of the workers here... everyone is so keen to learn all they can and we are learning just as much from them..
I'm sorry only sort and sweet this time i am thinking straight to bed tonight..... !!!!!
xxxx

Tam Ky

Today we took a trip out to Tam Ky the placement that Mark and I were ment to go to..
It was an Amazing place and the facilities were great.. The Children had beds and clean clothes, Play areas, Also plenty of food.. The children looked healthy and happy.. which is just so good to see that the government CAN have this kind of facility and the children can be healthy..
My question now is however... Why not Da Nang ??
Tam Ky doesn't care or house for many children with disabilities so is this why..??
I know that much of the thing the children have are donations that are from volunteers and fundraisers however it is hard to see that one place all these beautiful children can have nothing and the next have everything.. But nothing i can do.. One of the volunteers that is working here now has a huge heart and donated money for a new bath room at the Red cross home.. so i guess over time i hope that Da Nang will be getting the same treatment that Tam Ky is receiving.. All i can do is hope...
The Placement coordinators are great... such great lively people and such big hearts.. I am really happy to see some love and care going to children.. It is a great feeling... Small steps i see are happening..

On another note... yesterday... another great day I worked at Red cross house teaching my basic English class... They are so great I have about 10 in my class some times more sometimes less.. (Mum had donated books and pencils to them) There are a few at this house that are dumb and so my class is teaches me as much as I teach them yesterday we did body parts and we made our own faces putting eye, ears, noses , mouth in right places.. We had a great time and ass we did this I was getting show the sign language for my Eyes, ears, nose, mouth... Everyday I get so much out of what I am doing..
Also after they play soccer normally i sit this one out...!!! it is played on broken concrete ground with no shoes!! however I got roped into it... Teacher Teacher Please play... lol I thought it would be a fun game and they might take it easy on me!!! haha no I got slaughtered!!! and have now been limping around all day... However they loved beating "teacher" and although they were laughing at me it was good to see them so happy...

Normally on a Thursday night I teach English at social to the Children that live there that are able, instead because they have had exam we thought we would take them out.. we went to a arcade they loved it games and ice-cream they had so much fun I have never seem them so happy it was great!!! by the end of the day I was so ready for bed however...

I think I say this in every blog I have written however say it again..... I know that the childrens situation or living conditions can't change in the 5 weeks I will be working here, but the smiles and hugs and all the love I am getting from these kids have lifted my heart so much that I try not to see what I see, so I hope with all the love that Mark and I have be giving these kids that maybe it will also lifts their heart just as much...

Thanks again for all the support.. hope all is well back home and have a great weekend..
xxxx

Most Rewarding day!!!

so had a great day with the kids today!!!!! went up to the Mountains to work with the kids in physio..
long day however there are alot of kids that we helped.. There are about 15 kids all with some form of disability and we are unsure of what most of them are... The little girl i was working with last week.. came running (as best she could) straight up to me and hugged me and wouldn't let go... to know that i have given these children love is enough!!!.
we also went to social again today i have been going every day.. this is the place i first talked about.. And i believe the more we are there the more the carers or war widows that live there can see that is the way the children should be treated..
I have been working with this beautiful young man who looks like he is about 1... Because he was left in the cold for some time he was curled up and now his muscles are so tight and he is unable to walk.. we have been doing physio and working with him most days.. so today was the most rewarding we went for a walk (however i held most of his body weight and he had splints on) it was only about 200mtrs but he was so happy.. i cant wait to head back tomorrow and do this all over again.. my goal before i leave he will be able to walk with very little support...
We also have started teaching a lot more English to the Children and Mark and I have been doing a yoga/physio class for the older ones.. they love it.. and we all have a bit of a dance at the end.. so many laughs.. i hope that we can pass on all this to the new volunteers who will continue to pass it on...
thank-you all once again for everyones support..
i hope you all had a great day.. much love xxxxx

only a week??!!

This week has gone so fast... feels like a life time ago i was having a beer with Mark in Thailand...
we were meant to go to Tam Ky this week however they have 7 volunteers working there at the moment and Mark and I feel we have made connection with the kids here already...
 Also much more work to be done here..
I was able to go out and buy food, blankets, milk, brushes, teaching tools and so much more thanks to the support from everyone back home... I have had the hardest time coming to terms with the fact that i almost have to turn a blind eye to the way the kids get treated here.. I now Just take any extra time and give it all to the kids in hope that while i am there working with them it will show the people that this is how it should be... i have also decide that i might stay here and work abit longer... I feel this is where i need to be this is what i need to be doing...
my little thing that got me through the day today.... My Hello goodbye came running up to me today as soon as i got out of the van so happy to see me... I'm grateful i can see the good side of it....
Thank-you all for support once agian..
have a great day!!! xx