What helps me to volunteer

1. Supportive husband and family
2. Cleaner, so my house doesn't end up a dump.
3. Reliable son to feed the animals
4. Flexible workplace
5. Plenty of help to put together the stuff I take

This time around I'm really in debt to Trung at my husband's workplace. This kind and gently spoken man from the South of Vietnam translated the assessment for physiotherapists that I wrote, and then refused to accept payment for it. It has been a great success here with the people I work with, and my work has been much easier all because of his help. THANKS!

The last two working days have been a little frustrating. We have spent a lot of time in seemingly endless (but of course necessary) meetings when I'm itching to get back out and get to know the kids of the POD and their parents. Yesterday was spent completely on talking Phuong through what she may need to teach our carer. We believe we have found her (the carer), and she is 80% sure she will commit, but of course has some concerns about looking after 3 kids with a disability (when she knows how hard it is to look after her own child). We have talked through with our friends how to support the carer to be eased into her role, with training over two weeks planned, including long home visits to their homes (and visits for the children to CHIA prior to the POD starting).
Phuong wasn't well yesterday, so didn't achieve perhaps as much as we thought we might, however still a successful day. Excited by the thought that next week we MUST get back out there and finish assessing the kids. FUN!
In a low moment yesterday, I sat on the floor, and placed around me everything I'd prepared for CHIA, both at home and while here. From the entire process of going into an area, how to identify kids for the POD, how to assess them and find out information from their parents, how to set goals, activities for movement, positioning, play, hands (That part was my friend Lisa, thanks Lisa!), therapy ideas and charts, activities for play, information for parents to support their child's developmental progress- and of course this doesn't yet include all the amazing work Benita has contributed for communication, activities, signing, lesson plans etc. Really, I felt much better after this and I feel I have achieved already everything I thought I wanted to do while here. It is a phenomenal output over a very short time, and now I appreciate much more that of course our friends are overwhelmed and snowed under by pages and books and reams of information. Sorry, sorry sorry! I hope they will have some down time to digest everything when we leave, before the POD starts. The plan is to then support as much as possible via email, and with frequent videoing of sessions etc.
It seems that around the time the POD starts, an OT volunteer may be available. Hope so, and hope this is not too overwhelming! Would be great to have that OT input.
Walked on Friday morning, and while I didn't get lost, I can't say i exactly knew where I was all the time either. Slept really poorly, and came to breakfast in a foul mood- only scrambled eggs and bacon could fix it.
During this week we have walked past a new spa getting ready to open. It looks lovely, and every day we are greeted by Tony, the owner, who remembers our names (good start in business!).  He suggested we visit his other spa La Venda and we commented to ourselves how posh to have a french name. Idiots! LAVENDER as in the plant!
We went down this morning as promised to the new Lavender, hoping to be the VERY FIRST customers ever (if you have ever been accosted in the markets by a stallholder telling you that you are their first customer for the day/week/month, you will know why it tickles me to think we would be the ACTUAL first). Unfortuantely, one other lady beat us there, so had to be content with just the first customers ever for those girls. Tried a leg and foot massage, followed by a deluxe pedicure. Oh dear lord! It was blissful and the staff were very attentive. We will definitely be back before we leave to try something else. Hope this business succeeds for these lovely people, but competition seems really tough in this tourist area.
Didn't walk or run this morning, but up super early and just read. After our spa treatment, we grabbed a car up to Da Nang and went to Bread of Life to meet some Vietnamese friends of mine. Bread of Life (at 4 Dong Da, Hai Chau) is run by Kathleen and Tom, an Amercian couple who employ mostly deaf staff, and give them accomodation, and a trade and help them learn signing. The sweet little woman on reception remembers me, and so does Katheleen, but then again, I did go there a fair amount for my coffee when it was in its old premises a few year ago. It's a fantastic establishment, with great food (a good 'Western" selection if that's what you want) and very high standards. We had the Da Nang pizza which I highly recommend. The coffee is also great. Had a long chat with my friends, who are physiotherapists I met on previous trips. Promised to visit the orphanage with one of them to help them work out the many disabled children there. Will be tight squeezing it in, but I'd really like to do it to help out. Never say no to more 'hands on' work, which is what I love to do.
After this we went out to Marble Mountain and it was a nightmare! Benita had a sore knee and so the 130 something steps were out, and the new lift wasn't working today. It was HOT, and the persistence of the stallholders was unbelievable. We were chased in and out of shops and I swear I'm going to have nightmares about pink pigs. I idly picked one up, thinking of Adam who is born in the year of the pig. When I questioned the lady, the price was $52. Usually I'm a pretty polite haggler, but this was just so absurd I couldn't be bothered even starting to get a better price. But from then on, everywhere I went, another pink pig would be thrust in my face by someone else. I thought of a cheap ring, which we tend to collect and again, the price was ridiculous. It's just too too hot to haggle!!! Leave me alone, and take your pink pigs with you. Left with a ring for $5 and grabbed our car an hour early just to get some peace and quiet. On the way back to Hoi An we saw a fire on a block of land, and just after we went past there was a massive explosion. Our driver just stopped in the middle of the road, as did everyone. Turns out it was an exploding petrol tank. Not a wise thing to set fire to I'd have thought.
Chilled out, read and swum for rest of day. Went into the old town to Xuan to try on some of the things we have had made. Argued with a shopkeeper across the road who is making me a pair of shoes. During the week, when I picked them up, there was a white line through the maroon leather and I said I wouldn't take them. She worked at them with what seemed to be turps, then the colour bled from the embroidery. I said I would check on them today to decide if they were fixed. When I looked this afternoon, where she has rubbed them has rubbed the colour right out of the leather. She tried to tell me this was normal (oh please!). Problem is, most people have to accept second rate work, because they usually only stay for a day of two. I have another week, and I insisted she make me a whole new shoe. We'll see how that goes. Don't think she's my best friend!
Had dinner at Green Moss (you must try it, recommended in Lonely Planet for good reason). Had pork with chilli, garlic and lemongrass, and shrimp with chilli and green peppers. Plenty of selections for less adventurous eaters, and Western and Thai foods as well. It's away from the river, so not as busy as some of the larger restaurants. Well worth a visit. Around $7 each for a drink, a bottle of water, two dishes and rice.

Little boy I often see near CHIA

Fantastic storm a couple of nights ago. Before this, the heat was unbelievable.

One of twins, in a shop near CHIA. Had hugs for ages, didn't want to give him back!

Pond at the front of Cua Dai hotel

Opening morning at Lavender, on Cua Dai (just down from Cua Dai hotel).  Go there to be pampered and to say hello to Tony.

My feet are cleaner than they've ever been while in Vietnam!

Marble Mountain. I've been up there before but didn't go up today.

Green Moss: Pork with chilli, garlic and lemongrass

Shrimp with chilli and green peppers

Looking forward to tomorrow. Sizzling eggs with Robyn in the early morning, then a cooking class at Morning Glory. This trip has seemed to become all about food. Need to get back to the kids next week and stop obsessing over the coffee and where the next delicious meal is coming from!

Morning run in Hoi An

Near the river

Sun over the fields

Colours early morning are beautiful

Just missed the sunrise!

I'm moaning about being up at 5, and these guys are already out fishing!

Fields of morning glory

Some of the sights on my morning run this morning. If you plan to exercise while you are here (and it's in hotter weather), don't go any later than 5 am. The humidity makes it very hard to breathe. Don't be an idiot like me and go without a water bottle!
Yesterday was a little slower after our massive successes of the day before, but never mind, We have options for employing our carer and the next few days I want to spend revisiting our kids to have enough info to write their programs to demonstrate to Phuong how to teach the carer. It could easily be that families pull out at some stage, and I want Phuong to have all the resources at her fingertips to choose another child. Looking forward to a good day today!

Can you really make a difference as a volunteer? YES!

 I'm so excited about yesterday it's all I can think about.
Yesterday, it struck me, that on this day, at this time, I could be 100% sure that through my efforts, I had truly achieved something worthwhile for my Vietnamese friends. After months of preparation at home, writing resources just for them, bringing whatever I could fit in my bag and then this past 1.5 weeks of slowly, slowly- today just took off at an amazing pace. Initially it looked like our POD model was almost impossible to tie down to a place and time. It seemed impossible to find staff, or to find an area we could start in and very little had happened here in terms of planning the multitude of steps necessary to get it going. We were going to a rural area, then we were staying in Hoi An. It seemed impossible for Benita and I to get them to a point where they could proceed confidently when we left.
On Monday (a holiday) we sat down and worked hard for a few hours ready to march in on Tuesday and start working through every aspect of the POD systematically. The biggest change I could see needing to take place was that 2 months had been estimated as the length of time needed for training the carer of the children. Benita and I wrote a schedule that brought this right down to 2 weeks.
Not an auspicious start when the coffee shop was closed, however Phuong and Quan were ready for us on Tuesday and we jumped straight in to work. Quan (or Peter Pan as I like to call him) had been to the fireworks in Da Nang the night before and had almost lost his voice. Hysterically funny to listen to him trying to talk with his voice cracking like a teenagers! When we raised the issue of the shortened training (and then the  possibility of really bringing closer the start date of the POD), Phuong, who thinks of things carefully began with "but..." and after this, I kept telling her to get rid of that word. We need to think of the best things happening, not the worst! After consideration, you can't imagine how fast things started to happen. We suggested that the next step was a parent meeting to get a firm commitment from them that they support the POD, and want their child involved. Phuong and Quan sprang into action, phoning, and even jumping on their motor bikes to go and rustle up the parents for a 2pm meeting. AMAZING. In Australia, we would have given the parent 1 month notice of the meeting and five dates to choose from, but here, the meeting is today, get there!! Bless them!
We flew to the computer and wrote the agenda and wording of everything we thought the parents needed to know about the POD and got together all the resources Phuong could show the parents to demonstrate what the kids would be doing during the day: movement and positioning opportunities, communication and language, signing, rest, fun activities and free play, water play, music, hand skills etc. We used Benita's schedule and wrote up a day's worth of activities to explain to the parents. Finally, we got out the iPads Benita is donating and thank goodness we left it till then! Peter Pan couldn't keep his hands off them!
Phuong initially asked if Benita and I could help her give the talk, but we said we would sit back and help only if needed, as it is their initiative and we didn't want it to be seen as something devised and run by 'Westerners'
I WISH YOU COULD HAVE BEEN THERE. Like I said, it was the single best experience I've had as a volunteer. The parents were interested and asked questions and listened carefully to Phuong and Quan. What an amazing bunch of loving and motivated parents. If we had had a list of all the things we wanted our pilot programs' parents to be, they ticked every box. Problems we have been working on to solve, they solved in an instant (like how to have enough hands to help at lunch, and where would the food come from). I could scream at the frustration of not being able to chat with them and get to know them. In one instant, I looked across at Benita, and I bet I was smiling like a mad thing at the speed with which we had moved today, and what had been achieved. The best bit was the parents all chatting together, and they didn't want to leave at the end, as they kept talking amongst themselves. We had unwittingly just started our first support group!
I think Phuong and Quan should be enormously proud of what they achieved today, and within a day or two, we will hear back finally (one parent is very interested, but she already does 1 hour of physio daily herself on her child, and worries the POD won't do as much as her) and will decide about a carer.

Debriefing on the balcony with local vodka and Pringles, fantastic dinner of noodles and curry at Pho Real, which is next door to the Green Field Hotel on Cua Dai. It is a small place, but you'd regret it if you missed their chicken curry (they are also my morning coffee shop). Late start tomorrow as CHIA have meetings and English lessons, but Benita and I plan to work from the hotel.

Phuong preparing for parent's meeting

Demonstrating iPad

Not sure what was happening here!

Phuong and Peter Pan

Quan and a parent enjoying the iPad

Parents getting to know each other

Phuong discussing the POD with parents

Fantastic reception to the idea of the POD

More Tam Ky children