“From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.” ~ Arthur Ashe

Vietnam January 2014

The things I am feeling can't be described with words, words won't do my emotions justice.
I'll try my hardest to give you an idea though:

All the way from earth to the moon and back, take this trip a thousand times and you will get a rough estimate of how much I love these kids.
Count every grain of sand on every beach, all the stars in the universe... And that should give you an idea as to 'roughly' how much I love these kids...

I feel my heart beat even in my toes. Even before the plane touched down I was squirmy...my children were so close! Returning here feels like coming home. This sense of peace and ease and how all the unnatural seem natural and comfortable to me, surprises even me.
Sleeping with at least ten different types of bugs? Rock hard mattresses? Squeezing 23 people into a 12 seater bus? Khong sao! No problem!

Getting to the orphanage again was nothing short of amazing. The older children were all at school which worked out perfectly as I was able to spend more time with the younger ones..... six months since I have seen them and even though growth is slow due to poor diet, my babies had grown!

Long, a sad, constantly crying baby was running out towards me yelling my name.... smiling! Goodness me the change!

I was greeted with many smiles and hugs and kisses... by children and carers alike. Even the new carers knew who I was which was lovely.
Little Long, just under two now, took me by the hand and kept saying “Sen” and was leading me to the disabled room. Amazing how even he understood, Sen was my special little princess and how I would want to see her first..... getting into the room, my tummy was doing back flips.....

She was lying in her cot, repeatedly banging her foot against the metal rails of her cot.
She was huge! Appropriately dressed in a Macca’s outfit (where the hell did they get that from?!), I lifted her out of her cot and she was heavy.... she squirmed a bit, I cried a bit (ok, alot!) and cuddles ensued. I had a following of about 10 children all watching me... some were laughing at my tears, something they would do frequently everytime I cried!

She looked healthy and well taken care of. I must say, all the children looked happy, healthy and comfortable. I commended the carers and the Director on how well of a job they were doing....
I caught up with a few carers, surprising myself at how much Vietnamese I had retained and was able to comprehend. I was already getting playfully told off for only going to be here for such a short time. Better than nothing!

By this time, the older children were coming back from school..... I went and stood at the entrance of the orphanage, so as they walked up the dusty road, they would see me waving...... they began to trickle in.... huge smiles and “ANNA!” was heard..... when Ngan reached me, she got her cuddle and then went and ran back out the gate and began yelling to all of them ‘hurry up! Anna is here! Anna is back!” and then it was a chorus again of children running down the road, arms outstretched, calling my name, making sure I saw each of them. Can was riding his bicycle and he got so excited, he actually crashed it!

Lan Chi was one of the last to come and she realised it was me from way back and was running, yelling my name with such emotion, she had me crying before she got to me... and when she crashed into my arms, I saw that she was so overwhelmed, she was crying..... we held each other for a few moments and once composed, she let go, smiled at me and gave me another huge hug. When I left, Lan Chi gave me a card asking me to please never ever forget her. She said that she will remember me always as she loves me and I will forever be in her heart. Melt.

Once everyone was back and I had seen them all, I felt... alive. Butterflies had been replaced with pure sheer joy. If I was a bubble I would have burst.

I could not think of anything that has ever given me this feeling of pure euphoria. And my joy lay in the 84 little faces right in front of me. When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving you, a joy. I feel that with these kiddies.


When you feel someone else’s pain and joy as powerfully as if it were your own, then you know you really loved them.... I feel like this with these children. Reading back on some of my blog entries, I realised how much I was here for them. Especially for the year I was here, I think that year cemented our relationship. They have come to know me and trust me. We each felt each others pain, wiped each others tears away, I went in to fight for them with school principals, I made them own up to their mistakes when they stole, they understood limits and barriers when it came to sharing toys.... yet, they also understood I was fair, that I treated all children the same and that I loved them all unconditionally (regardless of favourites. If I couldn’t take out all of them, I wouldn't take any one.)

Even the carers observed that the children listen to me. They laughed that they don’t do that for many other people! When I brought the toys and I had 34 boys all fighting to play with the box of lego I brought..... they knew they had to share and that it had to stay in the room and not for it to disappear. I was so proud of them for sharing, packing it all up and even pulling out their drawers from their bunk beds to check for pieces underneath to return to me.

I understand their sorrow. I see the pain in their eyes and I share that through my tears. They see joy in my eyes and they share that through their smiles.

I once read that a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love; something to do and something to hope for.

My children encapsulate all these things. It is no wonder they make me so happy. I am lucky I don’t just have someONE to love, I have over 100 little souls; they give me something to do, to strive for and hope for, for them. And for me.

I have found my bliss with these children. Just thinking of their laughter, gives me courage. For me it is not about the having, but of being. Nothing to do with possession, but with enjoying. It is a warm glow of the heart at peace with itself. I always return to this when I return here to my children.

PV arrival was also nothing short of amazing. I didn’t really have a high expectation of them remembering me but again, I underestimated my disabled children and they did remember me. Ba, came running out, threw herself on me repeating my name and sobbing. The others, Truc, Cuong, Loc, Lanh, Thao.... all had the biggest grins when I approached them. The physically disabled reached out to me and squeezed my hand. Again, these kids trumped me. Hands down.

PV now have 56 residents..... when I left six months ago there were around 24.... the carers here, super women with what they have to deal with, were smiling and happy to see me. 3 carers to care for 56 residents who in reality, need 1:1 care!!!!!

Donations fund two carers there, which brings us to 5 carers in total. Ridiculous. The Directors submissions for funding for more carers have all been rejected. But I am sure you will agree with their logic that they need 11 people to work in the office on their butts all day – and I’m not just talking about their a$es.... literally smoking cigarettes all day!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                      

Time here flies and I guess I've found here what Csikszentmihalyi calls 'flow'.

I blink and two hours has passed: I'm sitting on cold tiles on the floor in the girls dorm. You can barely distinguish me from the kids in the thick crowd of little bodies.

I've brought colouring in and painting and crystal growing and making mask kits.... There is a soft buzz in the room, as the girls engage in these activities.

I have also brought a bag of make up, lipsticks and nail polish.
And then the room erupts in giggles as my girls transform themselves into 'Dep gai' : beautiful girls....

Armed with red stained lips, they plant kisses on my cheeks, inspecting the outline and giggling behind their hand. Sound of pure joy and bliss for them and for me watching them.

The boys are just as engaged with painting, Vietnamese monopoly, cards and the box of Lego. As an educator I observe the children: last time they played with this Lego was six months ago. How do they understand and compute at building structures? You can see nature at play: the ones with the brain who 'get it' and make intricate patterns and designs. The smile on their faces as they approach me and show me what they have built is so proud, filled with such a sense of achievement. Watching them brings tears to my eyes.

As New Years was approaching, many children were returning home for the week. This meant that I had to say goodbye over four days this trip which stretched it out and made it that much harder.

The boys, majority on average about ten now, are ever so cool and so won't give me cuddles anymore unless I corner them. High fives or a hair ruffle are about as close as I get now! Thank goodness my toddlers and younger boys still latch onto me so I can get my fix!

Girls, in true female form are nurturing and loving and giving.... And these girls are no exception...lots of cuddles and helping me by taking my bags and controlling the toddlers tantrums.

The older girls are getting at the pubescent stage where they have lots of questions. And the question for me was about lesbians. Took me aback a little as I never expected them to know that word but my girls all between 12-16years old are growing up.

They asked me many questions about my life back in Sydney and whether I was happy; they asked many questions about my separation with my ex partner and were trying to make sense of it.... They all still remember him as he visited a few times and I could see that they still adored him but loyalty to me was paramount so they all offered to beat him up for making me cry....

As each one left I received cards and stuffed toys and roses made from paper and jars full of paper stars and cranes they made....
My cards were very sentimental and of course made me cry as we read them... And then ten pairs of hands were all on my face wiping my tears saying 'no cry'....

Then they asked me to sit down as they wanted to dance for me.... They have never done this before as they were always so shy!
It was truly touching and beautiful- the intensity of the moment was dissipated unbeknownst to my toddlers who jumped in the middle and tried to imitate the girls dance moves... Laughter through the tears....

And then when I had to leave... We were all trying to be brave and every one was holding back tears.... Last few trips I was reciting to them 'it's not a goodbye just a see you later'.... And this departure was no different.

I came unstuck when sensitive Thanh, oldest girl there and one I share a special bond and connection with said to me 'I will miss you, I love you'.

And then my tears ran a river down my cheeks. As I looked up, all the girls were then crying, my undoing proving their undoing. Damn it damn it damn it was all I could think....

The air was thick and suffocating me, my lungs were stifled and I felt like my heart had stopped, suspended in my cheat just surrounded by pain.
Four years and it has not gotten any easier.
I went back and hugged each one of them but the sounds of sobs escalated and I knew that I had to just turn and walk out: don't linger, rip it off,quick like a band aid.

Is it over yet?
Can I open my eyes? Is this as hard as it gets?
Is this what it feels like to really cry?

The car ride back was torture.... I worked myself up so much I was dry retching and the tension went straight to my head which felt like it was getting pounded by a meat cleaver.

And in the words of Paulo Cohelo, I shall leave it here: Real love is composed of ecstasy and agony...

Lantern we lit and flew together on my last night with the words "Anna loves you all" written on it.

“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” ― Anne Frank

The sky threatens rain and our bus full of boys pull up to the rollerblading (patin) rink. 

Rink would be a large exaggeration. The place consists of a small square metre of concrete, thankfully with a roof as the sky seems likely to make good on its threat. There is a small course of ramps in one corner and a small booth renting skates in the other. A couple teenagers hang out in the rink talking. Some more are engaged in a heated foosball game. With a busload of kids in tow, we make our way to the booth. The girl inside and the teenagers alike look on apprehensively at the large mass of small boys milling around the entrance.

It soon becomes clear that the lady has no boots the kids’ size. Unfazed ,the carer and Nhung (our Vietnamese translator) start fitting the kids with dangerously over sized boots. Before we know it there are tens of kids falling over their own feet all across the "rink". 

Having never rollerskated in their lives plus the grossly oversized skates was not a good combination. To my utter surprise, the kids were loving it. Eyes wide and teeth showing, the kids stumbled across the rink with enthusiasm. You would have thought it was Disneyland for all the excitement in the air. Eager to get out and help the kids, I quickly found a pair of skates that fit and dived into the chaos. 

Admittedly, there was not much I could do. Whilst I had picked it up reasonably well from experience in ice skating, the kids were having no such luck. It was hard to know where to start. I would help one kid up and hold him steady along for a bit. Then see another kid on the floor go to help him, and five seconds later the first kid had fallen on his face. Between Anna and I, hundreds of falls were averted. Whilst hundreds more continued unprevented behind our backs.

As the highschool students got out for the day, the rink began to fill up. Whilst some sped through in an inconsiderate manner, more, to my amazement, joined Anna and me in helping the kids. Here was the magic of Vietnam and its people. The unadulterated kindness intrinsic in their very nature.

Towards the end of our time, Anna pointed out a couple of the kids who had become confident on their skates. The speed with which amazed me, and reassured me that even with all the falls, the outing was worth the effort.

We stopped for dinner on the way back at a noodle place where the boys consumed three times their number of bowls and a can of coke apiece.

The day out with the girls of BO was infinitely different to our day with the boys. Proof of this point was first established with a simple question: where would you like to go? The answer: the co-op mart. We would have literally taken them anywhere within a 20km radius and the girls wanted to go to the mall. Not that there is the slightest thing wrong with that. What seemed like a boring errand to me must have seemed like the epitome of adventure to the girls. After all the time they spent in the orphanage, with school being the only other environment they experienced on a day to day basis, it was only natural that they would want to see the co-op.

Once inside I led a group of girls up the escalator and into the bookstore. I'm no stranger to bookstores myself, however the degree of intensity the girls beheld the shelves of books with was extraordinary. The older girls helped the younger ones find books before picking out their own. The silence that fell at this point was another important example of how incapable the boys would be of acting in such a way. After making sure the girls were settled in nicely I went in search of a book to pass the time. The fruits of my search: the Vietnamese hunger games, the complete Vietnamese series of game of thrones, and a year 9 maths textbook that I could understand just enough of to know it was way too advanced for me to understand.

Anna soon joined us and we all headed downstairs to the arcade. We checked the younger girls into a miniature lollipops play land type play area complete with a ballpit, jumping castle, swings and karaoke. 

We then continued on to the arcade.

Tokens for the games were 2000VND, around A$0.10, each. We bought each girl ten tokens and let them go off to play their games. The younger girls were obsessed with this one game that I could not for the life of me work out. There were three cups that lifted up and down and they would press a button and sometimes 3 tokens would appear in the slot in the bottom.

The older girls spent their time on the foosball tables. 

Soon enough, pleading faces and outstretched arms surrounded me. With such cheap tokens it was impossible to say no to their pleading faces. I caved easily. 

When all tokens were spent and the younger kids were finished playing in their area, we headed back to the minivan and out for ban xeo, crispy pancakes.

Notable things about the dinner: a girl vomited after the swings in the play area plus the bumpy car ride. The girls were fascinated by old faded pictures of women on the wall of the restaurant. Anna sung ‘one direction’ to my extreme displeasure, yet to extreme pleasure of the teenage girls..

On the bus back to the orphanage, the younger kids started dancing to radio music. Contentment filled me as I watched the happiness of childhood plastered over the faces of all the girls. It was a great day.