Day 7 - Mon, Sept 19 - Visit to James' Orphanage +

(Warning: this post is very long because I forgot to break our day up into sections)

Breakfast before our day out:

Mom is gaining quite a liking for Pho!

Yum, Yum!!!

The banana pancake and Pho

Trying new things for breakfast...egg & bread!  lol  :)

Headed Out Toward Orphanage

A mother and two children on motorbike, with a big balloon in hand.

Bob, this tree is for you! 

 Also, this line of banana trees.

As we drove, we had three very sleep children...in fact, each time we got back in the vehicle today, they fell asleep again.  We were all a bit tired from the very busy days and late suppers, therefore late bedtimes.

Tour of a Silk Factory in the Silk Village

On our way out to the orphanage, we went to a famous old silk village.

The silk worms have made cocoons

Here the silk worms have eaten the leaves. After the workers pull the silk worms from the cocoons, they sell & eat them.  These were the dried silk worms that we ate earlier.

An old-fashioned spindle they still use

A huge old wheel that they use to make the thread & wind it into spools.

The other half of the huge wheel above

Another huge old something...that spun the silk even finer and into spools as well.

The silk must be soaked to soften before weaving

Boxes & bags of spools of silk

Looking into the factory work area

The workers keep busy, even amidst the tourists and picture-taking.

The very old looms that are still used to weave high quality silk material

There is one woman per loom that is operating

The paper above the loom looks like it has been randomly hole punched all over, but it is actually the pattern that guides the loom and creates the pattern on the material.

A peek into a room as we walked down the hall.

Men drinking at a bar--late morning.  I took the picture for the straw thatched roof.

Entering into a touristy area of the silk village...several different shops, each one of which also have their own old loom that they are making more material on.

Also there was a temple, and around any temple are beautiful gardens & scenery.

Here is some more foliage for you, Bob!  :)

Are we a bit tired & goofy or what??

A pomelo tree

A starfruit tree

Close-up at a silk shop

A very long carrier!

A loom with its parts listed

Back on the road -- toward the TuLiem Orphanage

The Eiffel Tower!!....ooops, or not!

We learned that they paint the bottom portion of the tree bark to keep insects & animals from munching and snacking on it.

Be careful with your steps!

Very typical attire for driving:  long pants (or a long wrap-around apron), 

a coat with sleeves that cover the whole arm and the back of the hands,

plus also has a hood, upon which they also wear a helmet.  

Small patches of corn planted in the rice fields

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Arrived at the TuLiem Orphanage...but!

There were two location possibilities for the TuLiem orphanage.  We arrived at the 1st place Perfume thought was most likely James' old orphanage.  Neither John nor I recognized the building, and it was closed until 2pm anyway, so we went to the second location.  That one didn't look a bit familiar, either....hmmm.  We decided to go do some other sightseeing and then come back at 2pm and talk with the Director to determine whether or not it was James' old orphanage.

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1,000 Year Old Village

When we arrived, we saw an engaged couple taking pictures for their upcoming wedding.

 Note here that they both have dark hair... for later poses, they both have lighter hair.

Here we are at the entrance to the 1,000 year old village 

Below, I am taking a picture of the sign that described

 & gave information about this village.  

Here is what was written:

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Cultural Heritage Conservation

Award of Merit 2013

Historic Buildings in Duong Lam Village, Son Tay, HaNoi, Viet Nam

     "This project has restored five selected buildings in Duong Lam Village in the successful effort to showcase the value of vernacular wooden architecture in Viet Nam, which is increasingly threatened by deterioration, neglect, and loss.  Through careful documentation and the revival of traditional construction techniques, the restoration has returned the buildings to their authentic condition and now assures their on-going maintenance by the local craftsmen trained over the course of the project.  The exchange of knowledge among the carpenters, Vietnamese architectural historians, and Japanese experts was a key feature in this commendable collaborative initiative.  The Duong Lam Village experience established a noteworthy model for future conservation efforts in other rural villages across Viet Nam. "

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 So this 1,000 year old entrance led us into the very old village.  This village is still fully in operation and those whose ancestors built/owned buildings in this village still live here.  It was a little weird realizing this as we walked through their village as tourists.  It seemed to be a bit invasive to their privacy.  But Perfume said that they are happy to have the tourists because it is a source of income for them. (We paid to enter.) 

Restful, relaxing scenery

Mom in the Rice Field 

 Small/short doorways and narrow alleyways

A small convenience shop

A bent sign for a bent curve...

 A special thing in this village is the brick that was used throughout for building...they are the original 1,000 yr old ones, and the brick are no longer made this way in Viet Nam.

Japanese tourists

Australian tourists

Mom & flowers

 Again...short doors!

I don't remember the name of this tree--anyone recognize it?

Perfume had us eat the leaves.

They were very good...tasted like lemon.

Lunch at the 1,000 Year Old Village

We took a narrow alley, leading to this oasis, 

which we learned was where we'd eat lunch.

Do we look a bit tired??

First we were served green tea.  (The Sprite is James')

The almost newlyweds were back...this time in brown silk with lighter brown hair.

They wanted to take some pictures with us.

We got to take some pictures behind their professional photographer.

 Some of their traditional wedding poses were different.  It would have been interesting to have been able to spend more time learning the reason behind these kind of photos.

Our lunch arrived.  Rice noodle soup with Japanese cucumbers and spring rolls.

Perfume ordered John a different lunch since he wanted rice instead of noodles.

More poses we got to watch as we ate.  It was great entertainment to watch them!  Her dress was a beautiful bright pink!  Reminded us of you, Cyrena!  :)

This is one of the buildings they restored.  It shows a traditional house with 3 openings across the front where there would have been shutters to close by night.

Cows on the road with pedestrians & motorbikes

Mom & Perfume

Pomelo trees in the distance.  The forefront shows the ditches that

gather the rainwater and then it is funneled out to the fields.  In the middle of the picture is a taro plant.  It is used a lot to make candy, although it's not our favorite.

4pm: Made it back to the Orphanage...

 The Tu Liem Orphanage

 - a large orphanage on the other side of HaNoi, about an hour's drive

So, here is the story of James' orphanage.  He was indeed at the first TuLiem Orphanage we stopped at.  The reason we did not recognize the building is because 7 years ago, the old round building we remember was torn down so a high-rise could be built in it's place.  A new rectangle orphanage was built just across the alley still on the Orphanage's land.  The new building is very nice and brightly painted for the children.  They still have the same beds as before...steel frames with mats, but they had some new baby seat/jumpers than they had before.  It was neat to see the progress made for the children.  All the workers are volunteer.  A nice surprise was a western lady who has been volunteering there for about a month so far while her husband is in Viet Nam on business.  She is on our video, but not in any of our pictures.

These are views of the surroundings of the orphanage.  This one is across the street.

This view is to the left...

...and this view is toward the right.

and here is a longer view of the orphanage building

 James standing in front of the new building.

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We were ushered into this main room where Perfume talked extensively with the Director while we waited and I videoed it.  It appeared to be the type of room that giving/receiving ceremonies might be held, as well as meetings, special meals, etc.  There were many pictures of babies on the wall behind, and was brightly decorated.  The Director was able to tell us about the new orphanage building, as well as let us know that both the previous Director and nurse James had have since retired (about 5 years ago).  Disappointingly, we were told that pink eye was going around the orphanage, so we could look in at the children from a distance, but we could not go into the rooms or hold/physically interact with any of the children.  We had brought a big bag of candy for them, so we gave it to the Director and were able to watch her hand it out the children after they had finished eating their supper.  It was a lot of fun watching, even if we couldn't get any closer.

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We're not quite sure who this man was, but he was obviously someone of import.  I think James was either a bit overwhelmed or didn't quite know what to think at this point!

James and Perfume

James with the Director/Nurse and official

It was supper time by the time we finished in the meeting room and headed to see the children.  It is apparent the children are treated well, and are taken care of as best as possible.  We noticed this even when adopting our children 12 & 15 years ago...that despite the poor conditions, the babies themselves seemed well cared for.  All the volunteers seemed to genuinely love the children, enjoying what they do since they are obviously not doing it for the money.  We noticed that there were more boys than girls...Perfume said that China is now adopting VietNam's girl babies, so that's why there are now more boys in the orphanages.  Interestingly, we discovered that VietNam is just opening back up adoptions with the U.S.  Our understanding is that there are new stipulations, however, for only special needs children and sibling groups.

A very active young man who kept racing back and forth down the long outer hallway, checking us out and munching on his food.  Not quite sure how he escaped the room, though, as others were not allowed to leave until they had finished their supper.

"Peek-a-boo!"  We played what we could with them from afar  :)

This set of girls had balloons to keep them occupied.

The floors were kept clean and the walls were all brightly painted,

both in the rooms and down the outer hallway.

There were three newer jumper-type things for the babies to take turns with instead of just the one from 15 years ago.  The beds are still the hard mats that caused each of our kids to have a worn spot on the back of their heads, leading to an infection and laceration.  

No shoes were allowed in the children's rooms.  Even to walk down the hallway, the volunteers had to remove their shoes and use the flip-flops shown below.  It helps to keep everything more clean and reminded us a lot of when we lived in S. Korea!

This group played peek-a-boo and interacted a lot with us.  It was hard not to be able to go in and spend more time in closer contact with them!  They were so precious!

The Nurse Director handing out the candy.

This volunteer had her hands full keeping the children in the room until they finished their supper!  We were quite a distraction for them.  Here they are enjoying the candy as she pops some into each of their mouths.

With their mouths full chewing on candy, they wave good-bye to us with gusto.

They got released into the hallway as we took our leave.  That little boy in the middle front was quite a character and interacted a lot with John.

Leaving the Orphanage & Heading Back to the Homestay

A typical picture of an apartment building...it must have been wash day!

A truck full of bananas

A man on a motorbike carrying dozens of dozens of eggs...and on his cellphone!!!
I don't even want to imagine what it might look like if he crashed!

Perfume told us that they were duck eggs and are actually partially incubated, so there is a small baby duck inside each egg.  They hard-boil them and eat them, and apparently they are higher in protein than regular hard-boiled eggs.  We've learned that Vietnamese definitely like things that are higher in protein.

...and here are the ducks!!

As we headed through the ritzy up-and-coming portion of HaNoi, we were shocked to see this huge high-rise with a Korean name: Lotte.  We learned that it was indeed Korean, and it was just having it's grand opening.  South Korea is doing a lot of building and has several manufacturing plants in VietNam.  We never saw a big building like this even in Korea, though, when we were there 6 years ago!  It would have been large even to American standards, I think.  It created quite an impression and was even slowing down traffic a bit.

Couldn't even get the total height captured in the photo.

One of the many Lotte-gapers slowing down traffic in this area.

We really like the idea of having the time before the light changes posted at the lights.

Back at the home stay!  This is the vehicle that we piled 8 of us into.  That was not bad at all today.  Other days, we also had Perfume's 2 kids with us, for a total of 10.  No seat belts!

While some of us waited for supper at the home stay (Perfume and Coc only begin cooking after we are sitting there waiting), John & I went in search of the artist who drew our pictures with the kids as babies during each of previous stays for their adoptions.  We finally found him and asked him to draw one of all 5 of us.  On our way back to supper, we  saw this cake shop and took a picture because it reminded us of the cakes in S. Korea.