Tu LIem

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We’re starting to feel like we’re in wind-down mode for our trip. Three full days left so still plenty to see and do, but most of the big things we wanted to do have now been done. (Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, Temple of Literature, One Pillar Pagoda, etc). Yesterday was a big day. In the morning we visited with Dr. Hong who oversees the orphanages in Hanoi. We met her nine years ago - in fact, she and her brother were the ones who delivered Jessie to us on the back of a motorcycle! It was great to see both of them again. We also saw Mrs. Thuy, who ran the Claudia Hotel, where we stayed on our first trip to Hanoi. Like Dr. Hong, she recognized Jessie immediately, calling her by her Vietnamese name (Lieu) and her nickname (Beo - which means big and sturdy!). After the customary cup of tea, we left with Dr. Hong to visit Tu Liem Orphanage (now less imaginatively called Orphanage Number 3). As predicted, this was a good and important, but difficult experience. Josh especially was impacted by what he saw. There were about 20 babies and a couple of toddlers there. The older kids go to school during the day, so we didn’t see as many as the last time we visited. To call the facility sparse would be an understatement. Barren is more like it. The babies were well attended to, but it was achingly clear that the bag of supplies we brought (medicine, clothes and toys) were desperately needed, as was the sizeable cash donation we brought from our adoption agency back home. To give you a sense of the economy here, the caretakers at Tu Liem earn about $30/month. That’s a little less than what we are paying for a hotel room per night while we are here. It also means an annual income of about $360.
One exciting outcome from the trip to Tu Liem: Dr. Hong also told us that she might be able to arrange a visit for us with the foster family that cared for Jessie when she was an infant. Jessie has said several times that she would like to meet her birth mother and/or the foster family. We don’t have a way of making the first one happen, but it would be wonderful to have the opportunity to do the second. We hope it can happen before we leave.
We followed the visit to Tu Liem with a much more upbeat stop: Ngan’s home. Her parents were thrilled to see us again and we had a nice visit and a chance to see a typical Hanoi home. They had fruit and nuts and juice and tea waiting for us and Ngan’s mother kept plying the kids with cookies and candies. They loved that we dove into all the food they offered! Their home is simple, especially by American standards. The kitchen has just a camping-style cooktop for all of their meals - though they did recently splurge on a microwave, courtesy of Ngan.
Finally, we went to the water puppet show last night. What a sight! The puppets are brightly-colored and move so gracefully through the water. There is a group of musicians off to the left of the stage playing music to accompany the show, which is a series of Vietnamese folktales. The puppeteers are behind a curtain, standing in the water. Very, very cool.
We had planned on having dinner after the show, but Jessie and Jed were both pretty tired. Bill took them back to the hotel and Josh and I had a really nice simple supper at an outdoor restaurant that overlooks the city from the 5th floor of a building right in the center of the old district. It was a good chance for the two of us to get caught up and process all we had seen and done on the trip.
Today is a relatively quiet day: Bill is visiting several local high schools to talk about American colleges, and I’m going to take the kids out shopping (one at a time!) for presents for home. I’m hoping to have the kids post their own blogs later today. Looks like the rain outside has stopped so it’s a good time to head to the shops with Jessie. Hope everyone at home is doing well. Colleen.

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