The Children of Promise House- day 3-6

This part of the trip was to be our "working" part. We, as a team, were to redo a dilapidated multipurpose room, that was loosely used currently as a library. The how's and what's were totally left up to our team. We painted, collectively paid for furniture and designed the room.

The children live at Promise House most of the year. They go home a couple times a year. There were two kids who were true orphans. These kids have no home to go to. The other kids have some semblance of a family. It may be an extended family only, or maybe a single parent. For many reasons they are unable to take care of these kids and the government steps in. Orphan Voice then takes them and they live at Promise House. The children were so sweet and friendly. They bonded immediately with the children in our group. We spend three days with them. The children played games, did art work, danced, had water fun, did hand claps and generally had a wonderful time together. The language barrier prove to be no barrier at all!

While the children played, the adults worked. I got to see an insider's view of Viet Nam when I went to a "hardware" store and then a "paint" store.

The Promise house sign on the side of the outside gate:

The inside sign

 and in Vietnamese

Their garden

The "before" pictures...

Working...

 It was about a million degrees in the shade, and no a/c to be found. As I was painting like this on the floor, one of the sweet little boys came and brought me a cup of water. I was hesitant to drink it, but knew I had too. No way would I refuse this precious gift of service. I said a silent prayer and drank it down. A little later, the same little boy, surprised me and made me jump when he took a precious ice cube and ran it down my arm! Such a sweet thing to do!

The kids played.
Handclaps are universal.

 This is their school room.

The girls of our team.

The moms, along with two promise house moms.

This is the hardware store.

 The paint store

 The tv showed their living area upstairs.

 People leave their shoes outside of the stores

Our finished product.

Day 2, church and Dragon Bridge

Across from our hotel was a K-Mart, think Circle K. We spent a lot of time there buying water. I loved looking at the different types of foods. These squid were among the delicacies available, along with chicken feet and the like.

During our afternoon break, our kids got in touch with their American lives, with a little screen time.

 The first thing we did was go to church. The church was down this alleyway and up the stairs on the right. It is located directly across the street from a government building that was guarded by heavily armed guards watching everyone's coming and going. The congregation has met with quite a bit of opposition from the church. Everything from not being able to secure a meeting space, to persecution of the native members.

Afterward we walked to a restaurant, where John had the world's largest Stromboni. Notice it is out in the open, as there is no A/C in most places

 That night, we walked down to the dragon bridge and ate dinner.

Tons of motorcycles everywhere! The traffic was amazing, it was packed!

 Every Sunday, the Dragon Bridge breathes out fire.

 and then it spews river water

Such a cool experience and glimpse of Vietnam ways of life.