What a send off!

On our final day in Lang Son everyone was invited to come for lunch and a great celebration.
In attendance were kids, scool officials, orphanage officials, government officials, past principal of the school, teachers, us and a number of others. I think I was told that there were 100 adults. We all had lunch under the tent that you can see in the photots, then the kids did some singing and dancing for us which included a song in English. It was so sweel. Then a few people spoke (and it was translated), the top 10 kids in the class that were living in difficult financial situations (which I think is all the kids...) were given gifts and $5 (which they all gave to their parents, to give you an idea, $5 can feed their family for a few days). Then we got to my favorite part! We had purchased 10 bikes for the school, I am so proud to say that 2 came from Steve, Natalie and I and 4 came from our friends Amy and Darin. The bikes will be loaned out to kids that have a long commute to school (some have an hour or more to walk and as I understand, they have been doing it since they were about 5yrs old or less). Once the kids are no longer at the school (which ends at grade 5) they will give the bike back to the school and the next child that needs it will get it. The bikes will always be owned by the school.

this is the orphanage director accepting a donation of clothing for the babies.

As a thankyou, the kids at the school drew us the nicest pictures. Mine are currently posted to my fridge. The are pictures of people, the world and some doves.

My friends Lelan and Leing with Kem (means ice cream in Vietnamese) who became the trip mascot.

This is us with the school principal. Without her, none of this work would be possible.

dance party- Vietnamese style. Some of these steachers had never danced before.

These are some of the kids at the school, you can see Natalie in front crashing the picture.

Oh those toasts....so there was always rice wine served (think vodka only not at all smooth). The custom was that someone would invite you to s toast. You would stand, do a quick shot of rice wine after offering each other one of a variety of toasts and reverence, and finish by shaking hands. This is my friend Hannah being toasted.

some of the teachers from the school

party under the tent

the table set with lunch. The rice wine would be poured into water bottles. Yes, one day at lunch (not this one) I got the bottles mixed up- boy was I ever surprised!

The last check on the chickens. These are from the school flock. We were so happy to see them get bigger and fatter each day.

Yeah for bikes!

Natalie spared little time letting the kids put her on the back of the bike for a ride around the play ground.

Even the teachers took turns

YEAH WE DID IT!

Stay tuned for the next chapter as it unfolds!







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Photos- as promised!

We we are home and getting our bodies re-accustomed to western time and digesting the trip, all we saw and all that we did. The trip was a life changer that reaffirmed how much a handful of people can do. On a personal note, I am now so happy to have local friends in Vietnam, including: Manus, Son, Vincent, Linh, Hanh, Huan and Quoc (I will confirm and correct the spelling)as well as the school principal, teachers, kids and others we met along the way. Our transport to the school was a mini bus as there were about 13 people in our caravan headed to help with the project including three in my family, Hannah our friend, Bonnie and her family, translators and a very safe driver.

Here I am with my daughter Natalie. Needless to say, she fell in love with the chicks- I must admit, they were pretty cute!

People came to pick up chickens by bike, by foot and by scooter. We could feel the joy from the families. I cant even begin to tell you how proud we all were to be giving these chickens away knowing what a hand up they would be for these families.

pick up by bike, chickens are in the box in the front and the feed is strapped onto the back.

After all of the chickens had gone to thier new homes, just the school flock (which was 140 birds!) remained. The chicks will stay in this room until they are big enough to go into their new chicken coup. Winter is cold in Lang Son so the coup must be built to keep them warm. In many homes we visited, the livestock would be kept in a room off the kitchen- I thought that it might be for warmth.

Here is a picture of one of the chicken caretakers that we provided funding for.

Here is the (almost)finished chicken coup. There will be a yard fenced in with chain link fencing for the chickens to roam in.

This is the inside of the coup while it was being built. Bamboo was used to brace the walls. They would also use it as scaffolding to reach the top of the walls during construction. The guy in the door, is Lester, one of my friends loooking like he is ready to defend chickens against any foe that comes thier way!

Through the NGO Families in Vietnam, some of these kids are sponsored by families in north america (and perhaps elsewhere). For these families, we had lots of stuff to drop off at the homes of the kids including: blankets, rice, cooking oil, clothing, treats for the kids etc. Hannah and I went to about 5 of the families homes. While we were there we collected information about medical needs, birth control needs, and indicators of how the family was doing financially: any livestock we saw, any glass in the windows, presence of scooters or bikes. The government pays childrens school fees until they are in grade 5. All families told us that they hoped to keep the kids in school past grade 5- hope is the key word here! This is a picture of the room that we used to keep the donated items for the sponsored families. See the little faces at the door, the kids were so excited and curious to see what we were doing in there!

After dividing up all of the donations, it was delivery time! On to the backs of scooters we went, driving on those little motorbike roads through and area that it so poor but so beautiful at the same time. These families are all farmers. Depending on the season, they grow corn, sweet potato or rice. This is me on the back of the scooter with my friend Son driving.

One of the sponsored families received 3 pigs. The first thing I was surprised about was how the pigs were wiggled into little bamboo baskets so that they could not move much making it easier to pack them on the back of a scooter. Also, the mother of the sponsored child was so happy to receive the pigs (the father has passed away creating an extra hardship for this family- but the daughter is in school -YIPPEE!). You can imaging how happy they were to be wiggled out and stretch! The second thing that surprised me was that the mother came to the school and walked 2 out of 3 of the pigs home. the pigs must have been 40 lbs each. We delivered the thris pig.

Here is Hannah helping to carry the little pig to its new pig pen.

These are the kids in the family that have received the pigs and other much needed items from thier sponsor including a bike so that the oldest can get to school- ok..funny story....we bought the bike, wanting to buy it a bit bigger so that the child could grow into it. We did not see how tiny she was before buying the bike. So, we show up with the bike and some people are snickering but we did not know why...until we saw her. Happy to report that we did replace the bike we brought with a smaller bike.

This is an example of the motorbike roads that weave through the country side. They are wide enough for 2 bikes to pass each other but that is about it. It some spots, they are baely fit 1 bike. I did close my eyes once or twice but then decided that it we were going over, I needed reaction time to be able to adjust my weight, catch myself or just pray. That being said, I loved every minute of it and am so grateful for the life experience that I have gained on this trip.

Here are a few pictures of the beautiful country side that we rode through.

now a few pictures from the school- we had such a great time here. the kids treated us like rock stars when we would drive up and you could see how happy the teachers and support staff were to have us there. I look forward to the next trip back and continuing our work there.

this is the garden at the school.

Here are the kids all sitting outside to greet up and get candy, soccer balls, skipping ropes, sidewalk chalk and frisbies and other fun stuff.

Check back in a few days, on the final day we had a big party at the school. Us, teachers, school support workers, officials, kids...food....rice wine...beer...dancing.....so much fun!
(it was the first time some of the teachers had ever danced!)

And now there are none!

I have been trying without luck to get pictures posted over the past few days with no luck, so here is a catch up and I will get many more pictures up within the next few days.

We left Lang Son a few days ago, it was an amazing sucess. We will now follow up over time on how the project moves forward. The school principal is my new pen pal. I will practise Vietnamese and she can practise English and I can keep up on how the project is doing.

In addition to the chicken project at the school, we were so pleased to be able to give the school 10 new bikes. The bikes will be lent to children that kive far from the school and have to walk each day (some walk an hour or more). The school goes to grade 5, once the child moves to the next school, the bike is left for the next child. The government in this area (becasue it is so poor) pays for the kids to go to school until grade 5. When we asked sponsored families if they plannd to keep thier children in school past grade 5, most of them told us that they hoped to but it will depend on whether they can find the money. I think it costs $10/month. I learned quickly that bikes are transportation here- a bike can greatly improve the quality of life for a family.

I was so happy to see the chickens go to their new homes! By the time we left, there was only the teaching flock left for the school. We hired someone to take care of the chickens and was she ever doting on them! I will post a picture of her later. We bought 1100 chickens, knowing that some would perish. I am happy to say that we only lost about 40 chicks. That left 140 chicks for the school (they planned for 100). I will post picture of the chicken coupe at the school (it is delux!). The chickens will stay in the little room they have been kept in until they are big enough to go into the coupe (they would fit through the chain link fence that pens in thier "yard" right now. Even over the few days that we were there, each morning they would be just a big bigger, just a bit fluffier and just a bit faster! It brought us all so much joy to see them so healthy.

The school chickens will reproduce (more babies for families), they will produce lots of eggs for lunch (in addition to what the kids bring, this wil be great nutrition for the kids)and the school will teach the kids how to care for the chickens (a teaching flock).

We met the the social center that my daughter is from (which I wrongfully called it the orphanage- but it is also home to seniors and people with special needs). The social center is also in need. We hope to help them get more pigs (breeding pigs, not meat pigs). We also got the first steps clarified for the scholarship program. The social center has some great candidates (that have already won acedemic awards). The last think the center needed were resources for the special needs kids. Not just wheel chairs and walkers, but someone to come and do some therapy with the kids. We are hoping to partner with universities in Hanoi and have the students in this field come to Lang Son for practical training (internship). This is a nice compliment to the scholarship program for the center.

We met a great fellow who runs another center for orphaned kids with no where to go. It is called the "Hope center". I will post pictures soon. It is a very modest facility but a happy place. We enjoyed our time with them. It is not supported by the government in any way so they rely on local donations. They do a lot for themselves, they have chickens, pigs and a huge garden. The pigs are meat pigs, we hope to get hem some breeding pigs as well. Breeding pigs cost $100 each- I was shocked it was so high- but it makes sense why everyone has meat pigs which can be easily purchased in the market (breeding pigs must be ordered). All of the kids are in school.

So there are the coles notes! Please bear with me as I post pictures and fill in the gaps of our amazing adventure. We look forward to coming back and seeing the kids and continuing our work in Lang Son.

thanks for checking in!

Then there were 300 chickens!

as we went about visiting the three satelite schools and enjoying lunch with the school officials, families came one by one to pick up their chicken. They came on foot and by bicycle with boxes and baskets to pick up the cute little chickens that offered so much to the family they were going to.
When ever I returned to the school between trips (on the back of the motorbike through the hillside- sometimes closing my eyes) I would check on the chicks, fill water and make sure they had food. Everytime a family would come, we would all be so proud of our accomplishment. We started with the idea to help last fall and now we are here in the middle of such a beautiful country side, reminded of both how much we have in north america and the importance and beauty of simple living. Tomorrow is a down day to shop and be a tourist and visit some family. Stay tuned for another post the following day when all the chickens should be at thier new homes and we visit the orphanage and meet with the officials to help set up the scholarship fund- oh...we have a party planned as well!

1000 Chickens..thanks to you!

Today was a whirl wind. Along with making certain the chickens find their new homes, also on the agenda is....
-visiting families sponsored through the NGO "Famillies in Vietnam" and delivering money, food, blankets and other much needed necessities compliments of the sponsor.
-visiting the satelite schools connected to the elementary school that is hosting the chicken project
-overseeing the construction of the most robust (brick and mortar) chicken coupe for school to house the teaching flock of chickens
-spending time (and giving out candy and treats to the kids at the elementary school. They are all very poor, but so many are beyond poor. Some of these kids are sponsored.
-visting the orphanage where a new scholarship will be set up- thanks to the generosity of a familiy that like us, also adopted a child from the orphanage.
-meeting with a number of government officials about the chicken project and scholarship project.

Where to start...how about with the 1000 baby chickens that arrived at the school this morning. Boy, are they ever cute! We were going to deliver them, but now the school has decided that the parents will pick them up. I will make sure they are all named appropriately and sung to as promised...

We did get on the back of scooters today to deliver the much needed food, blankets, clothing etc to the sponsored families. What an adventure that was! We were on little motorbike trails most of the way. The trails wound through the country side past people homes. No addresses or any markings of who lived where. My friend that was driving told me that they all just know. He goes to alot of new places so sometimes he takes a photo of the intersection of trails to remind him. I think I would get horribly lost on my own and end up living out my life trying to find my way out. Along the way, we wound through rice paddies, crops of potatoes often with water buffalo lounging around. It was peaceful and beautiful but you could not help feeling the poverty as we passed so many simple brick and mortar houses. All of the kids that are sponsored will also receive chickens.

On one of the trips to a sponsored family,we also took a pig on the scooter. It was not a tiny piglet either. It must have been about 40lbs. I was surprised that it was possible to pack a wiggly little pig!

Here is some of the soup served as part of lunch along with some rice, and other great nourishing delights.

Here are some kids at the school

1000 chickens....so cute....

here are a couple on their own showing thier "individuality"

the home of one of the sponsored families. Look at the motorbike trail, it is the only access. This family did not have a motorbike or transportation.

Where there are chickens....there is chicken feed (or...at least that is what I think it is!)