Day 63
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Good Morning Vietnam! We're here! This morning I am going on a trip to visit a school for deaf children and a disabled children's orphanage. Getting off the boat was an ordeal because there are lots of parents visiting here, and we were trying to get off as they were boarding.
There was a welcoming crew on the dock as we walked down the gangway. Several Vietnamese women dressed in traditional clothing were standing holding a sign that said, “Semester at Sea Welcome to Vietnam!” I like when they do things like that.
I climbed on the bus and we were on our way. The traffic was pretty bad because it was Monday morning rush hour. Everyone was on their motorcycle. The diplomats said that there are 810 million people in Vietnam and there are 800 million motorcycles.
Crossing the street to the school was also a challenge. You have to cross slowly and deliberately. The cars and motorcycles don't stop for you, they flow around you, “like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood.” I will be happy to get back to a place where pedestrians have the right of way and people don't drive on the sidewalk.
First thing when we got to the school, they explained what they did and why. Next we went upstairs where the children were waiting and they did some dancing for us. The little ones did a dance and signed the words, then the older kids did some hip hop and breakdancing. They kept with the beat remarkably well considering they couldn't hear. After that we got to interact with the kids. We brought toys and crayons to play with. I sat down with a boy named Tú and Martha sat next to me with a little girl.
They asked our names, ages and emails. We drew pictures for each other. Martha drew a picture of a penguin to show that that was her favorite animal. They got really excited when she did that, and I think they thought she ate it. I drew a bicycle for Tú. After a while we got to bring out our cameras and take pictures with them. Martha put her sunglasses on the girl. All the kids thought it was hilarious.
Soon, sadly, it was time to go. We climbed on the bus and drove to the orphanage. Once there, the director took us on a tour of the place. There were different rooms for different ages. Some rooms were classrooms. They taught the children how to sew and harvest tea. We waved to the children in the first few rooms who seemed to have mental retardation. They were super excited to see us. Then we walked to the rooms where the disabled kids were.
There was a nursery where babies with malformed or missing limbs lay. They weren't sure what caused the problems, but they think it is due to Agent Orange and Napalm. One baby had a huge head. It was twice the size of her body. Another boy was all twisted so that he had to lay on his stomach all the time. He was stuck in a similar position to Emily Rose in the new movie.
We climbed up a staircase to where the older children born with the same problems were. In the first room were children aged 16-20, but they looked like they were 7-12. All of them had scrawny legs and arms, so that they couldn't stand. They also had mental retardation. Only one child could respond to us talking to him; the others would respond to touch. The director of the orphanage told us most of the children had been abandoned there shortly after their birth.
We proceeded through several different rooms where children of varying ages lived with the same problem. Each room looked the same: cribs lined up in rows. The last room was where the toddlers were living. We held them and played with them for the last few minutes of our visit. It was hard to know what to do with yourself. I felt awkward for a lot of the tour. Sometimes I would rub a child's head or back and they would smile, but sometimes they wouldn't respond at all. Plus we were all dealing with feelings of helplessness. There was not much we could do to help these poor kids.
I was sad to have to leave them. Who knows how often they get that much attention. There are only so many people working in the orphanage, and they are constantly busy. I hope someday I'll have the resources to help those kids.
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