Orphanage Preparations

First..a quick note to Mike. Kevin's e-mail address will come up if you go into Entourage, click on new, and begin to type hart....the address should pop up. You could also try typing in Kevin Brown and it should come up. It is only on the main computer and not on the lap top.

Today, we travelled out to an orphanage with Simmi and his family (who came here from the United States for a reunion). It was a very sparse clean place. Right now there are 250 kids there, of all ages. Some have no parents and some have one or both parents, who can't afford to raise them, so they bring them to the orphanage to be raised there. On weekends the staff is gone and the children have to cook for themselves. The 10 of us decided to bring food out to the children tomorrow (Sunday). We all contributed enough money to buy the food. There is food being prepared for them tonight. Some of the group went out and bought 250 flip flops, 20 soccer balls and 15 rattan kickballs for the boys. David and I went to the big market and bought 100 pairs of underwear and 100 pairs socks for
the girls. We also bought hula hoops for the girls and tomorrow we will buy oranges. By the time we left the market our tuk tuk was quite full with bags and boxes of items to be taken to the orphanage. Our room at the hotel is a little full of the stuff we purchased today. We will be
eating with the children tomorrow around 11 a.m. I imagine will be quite an emotional day for us. The assisstant to the director expressed her graditute to us.

We had initially planned to go onto the Mekong River to see the caves which are filled with carved Buddhas but it was too late by the time we got back to the hotel, after being at the ophanage. This afternoon while walking through the temples a young monk approached us for an opportunity to practice his English on us. He is mainly self taught. When his mother died, 5 years ago, he left his home to became a novice monk. (He is 18 years old). David in the next few days will be volunteering his time teaching and/or reading English to the monks here and I will be going to weaving school to learn about dying silk.

So watch for news about the ophanage cavalcade in our next blog entry. Time to go to sleep on our very firm queen sized bed and lumpy high pillows. It is 10 at night. No minced frog or deep fried duck beak with a morning glory sauce today. Love Carol and David

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