It's my life....: It's Becoming Routine

Breakfast at the rooftop of our guesthouse.

Monday Jan 24, 2011

It's my fifth morning (Monday) in Ho Chi Minh and i seem to have a morning routine now. I wake up without an alarm at 630am, jump in the shower and get to the rooftop to meet the girls for breakfast at 7am-ish. Usually I'm the last one to show up. Colette and Annette are still away in the Mekong so I expected to see Beth and Liza. They both came up a bit later, Beth had some tummy nausea problem and Liza just had tummy problem. They both decided to skip breakfast but showed up anyway and kept me company. It was a Vietnamese breakfast day which was a bowl of pho. At 745am our taxi comes to get us as usual. The guesthouse staff is excellent, especially Nang. She's been our Vietnam mom. She takes care of our questions and makes sure everything goes smoothly. We even think that when we leave the guesthouse she worries for our safety. Every morning she calls the taxi company to make sure we get picked up. When the taxi comes she will walk us out, put us safely in the car, then make sure the driver knows exactly where Go Vap Orphanage is located. She will then jot down his car # and ask him for his cell number. She will also tell him what time to pick us up when we are finished. When we are done she will even call the drivers cell or mine to make sure we have been picked up for our ride back to the guesthouse. If we have any complaints she will call the taxi company to report it (one driver got us lost). She has truly been a blessing

Artists hard at work

This time Liza had another helper in class...French Emily who lives in Brazil but is in Vietnam for three months. Beth and i wet to the terminal ward. On Mondays the little ones have outside play time. They put out these colorful foam mats for some of the kids to lay on. Others are placed on these green rolling chairs. Then they scatter toys around the mats or hang them on strings for the kids. Outside play time is nice because it's a change of environment and gives them some fresh air. I think this is the time that their crib bedding's are changed. I also noticed that the nurses are constantly wiping the floors to keep them clean. We always take our shoes off before entering any room/ward. I started bringing a pair of the disposable United house slippers after the second day when I stepped on some saliva bare feet in the VVN classroom. I can handle a lot of dirty things but that was too much for me. After outside playtime everyone goes back inside for two hour naps. We usually will leave then. Our afternoons have been free.

Beth and I decided to go back to Ben Thanh Market to do some shopping. Liza decided to stay in and rest.

Every ones been warning us to be careful of the motorbike riders that will grab your handbag as they speed by. Well....guess what? We were crossing the street and a motorbike rider that was turning left rode by in front of us and grabbed hold of the shoulder strap of Beth's pouch! Thank goodness it was a thin strap that was attached to the pouch by hooks that gave way easily. The pouch fell and the rider ended up with just the shoulder strap. What a relief that she has her pouch and didn't get hurt. Even though we've all been so careful it still happened to one of us! Beth said that it should have scared the crap out of her but she's still constipated :). Sorry Beth that was too good not to share. But it was definitely a wake up call that you can never be too careful or cautious.

We all decided it's best not to tell Nang (

Vietnam

mom) about this. She will just worry more for us.

Dinner was leftover seafood splurge from the night before.

Tuesday and Wednesday are our free days from the orphanage. Tuesday Beth and Annette are touring pagodas and the cu chi tunnels. Colette's going shopping for artwork for her beautiful home. And Liza and I have been to Vietnam before so we're skipping the tours and will walk around the city and visit the Saigon River. I'm looking forward to a leisure day.