THANH & GHI'S FIRST MONTH IN MELBOURNE

Thanh and Ghi's first month. A thousand first experiences. We stopped counting after the first week.

They have settled in remarkably well and are extremely happy. Ghi and Thanh had a week and a half to get their bearings before they commenced their training at Mariana Hardwicks. Their week is now quite full and includes English lessons two nights per week taught by Lifestart volunteer, ESL teacher Lee Dib. ( Thank you Miss Lee for helping!)

It is winter in Melbourne so getting used to wearing layers of clothes, singlets, gloves and scarves is so very different to life in Vietnam.

As are flanelette pyjamas, hotwater bottles, carpeted centrally heated rooms, thick mattresses and doona's, a kitchen with endless gas and water you can drink straight from the tap, hot water showers, dishwashers, met cards, pampered poooches that have their own wardrobe of clothes, refrigerators, shoes and socks and not flip flops, Melbourne trams, traffic lights where you have to wait for the little green man before you cross the road! supermarkets with their huge variety of goods, shopping centres that are like little cities, soooooooooo many cars, the price of everything being at least 10 times more expensive than in Vietnam, lawnmowers and houses that have lawn to mow, lots of trees, parks and gardens, motorbike helmets that cost $1,000 and big motorbikes that cost more than a house in Vietnam, zero degree temperature, free public toilets- no peeing in the street, underground train stations, buskers and street performers. The list goes on and on however I think you can imagine what a big undertaking this is for them both.


I have only just realised that many Melbourne suburbs are like little " ghost towns" there are hardly any people on the street. Ghi and Thanh both asked "where is everyone???" Compared to Vietnam that has a constant life force on the street all of the time, Melbourne really is very quiet.
Ghi loves the fact that we have lots of native birds in our back yard every day, he said that this is not a familiar sight in Vietnam.

I hope that the photos ( there are 35! ) will paint a good picture for you of this very memorable month in wonderful but chilly Melbourne.

Lots of Love from Karen.
www.lifestartfoundation.org.au

P.S. I still need help with getting some tables organized for the Lifestart Foundation Dinner Dance and Charity Auction on July 26th. If you are able to be a table captain please let me know.

Donations for the Silent Auction would be gratefully accepted. Can you get these into us asap please.

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