16th Jan 2007:

Boring day.

Slack at home.

But went to tamp's IKEA with my mum today. haa..
Simply love tat place. I know one more place to hang out alone. haha..
IKEA.

hahaa..

Listening to music by Beatles, The Carpenters etc..from the "Forrest Gump" soundtrack. Followed by jazz. It feels comforting to listen to jazz at night.. (^^) love it lots....very relaxing..

Ahhhh...

Recently notice one musical is coming to singapore soon - Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera". Still calculating whether i should spend tat money to watch. Heard of this play when i was in sec sch. When i was introduced to this musical and the composer by my music keyboard teacher. Wondering whether Sarah Brightman will be the lead singer again. Cos i wanna experience her vocal power. Live. hahaa..

hhaa..but i realise i've missed out one good musical - "My Fair Lady". Sigh..think this play's a good one too...


27th December 2006, Wednesday:

Time to leave Ha Tay.

(T_T)

me very sad....will miss the kids in Kim Bai...will miss the working staff of the rehabilitation centre for the handicapped.

And we also realised that some staff in the centre are no small fries.

The so-called security guard for tat centre, which is also our accomodation site, is no ordinary guard. And when he guards at night, he will sleep on the bed found in the kitchen.
Who's he actually?
He is a doctor.
No wonder he's so smart.
Somemore, i addressed him "uncle".
oh my goodness, oh my goodness...we had been always thinking tat he's a real security guard all along. Until the last three days of our stay.

Another one.
He often came to the centre in the day.
Swept the floor for us, fetched well water for us, and sometimes interrupted our cooking sessions. Trying to correct our kitchen skills.
Who's he actually?
He's a dentist.
But he's a nice fellow. And we have learnt a lot from him.
And of course, we have many interesting encounters with him, in terms of communications.

The way we communicate was totally hilarious. We were like playing "I show, you guess" game with him. Due to our language barrier, we had to go many different forms of gestures to communicate with him. The most funny encounter me and my frens experienced with him took place in the kitchen where we were trying to borrow a knife from him. hahaa..basically he could not understand wat we were trying to put across. hahaa..goodness me..

Anyway back to our topic.

Yup, we left in the morning.
The ride was pretty bumpy and a few of us had carsick in the end.

Immediately after we checked in a hotel, we went to have our lunch and then visited the Hoa Binh Peace Village. Initially, many of us had actually thought of it to be a real village. But realised it's not. It's a centre. A nicely built and painted building. A building which presents an atmospher of love and warmth. Peace Village bascially caters to the children inflicting with Agent Orange. Where they will stay there permanently and receive the necessary education and treatment from. And there are many other international delegations, e.g. Japan.

We visited the whole place. The children are either physically or mentally challenged. And we also got to visit the babies there.

After walking around, it's time for the health care workshop. Educating some kids there. I was in charge of teaching one batch while my another friend, Wi, in charge of the other. The batch which i taught was of around the teenage age. And they were easier to handle. Wi's side was a bit more difficult, the kids there were more difficult to manage. Their mental conditions seem to be more serious than my side's.

And i noticed that they have a shorter concentration span than normal kids. I actually tried to rush through the last part of the lesson.

Did the "head, shoulder, knees and toes" song with them. This time, i din make the same mistake...yeah..!!! but dun know why, my frens told me tat i looked very serious during that session...hahhaa.. =p

Saw one moment which touches me a lot. One teenager boy's legs were too weak to walk or stand, due to the effects of agent orange. So in order to move around, he has one particular friend who is always willing to carry him around. And this boy is not alone at all. He has friends around him, despite his physical condition. Looking at him and his friends, I am very touched and learnt that this is really what true friends are. (",)

There's one particular girl who seems to be quite aggressive. She kicked one of my frens' butt. Hard.

And haha..there's a playground in Peace Village and many of us indulged ourselves in playing the merry-go-round. hahaa.. =p

After the visit to Peace Village, we rushed to the Hong Duc Humanitarian Centre for a farewell ceremony. Again, the same agent orange victim sang us a song. And this time, he hugged everyone, except me. He din hug me, probably cos i was holding my digicam, filming..haha.. =p

All activities finally ended in the evening, when we finally could go back hotel to wash up.

And yes..!!! FINALLY!!! Enfin..!!! I saw a proper toilet system, swimmers can dive tremenously well...!! I could bathe in hot water...!!!!!! I had a proper shower system...!!! hhaaa..
And we actually heard from KP that one fren actually spent his 30 mins in bathroom. hahaha..

Well, we were deprived of proper bathing and toileting system for 10 days.

After the wash-up, we went to eat at the famour Pho24..!!
The pho was real delicious..!! hahhaa..we actually planned to eat kfc after watching the flag-lowering near Ho Chi Minh memorial square.

Again, we were deprived of fast-food restaurants.

Went for the flag-lowering session after our Pho dinner. It will take place everyday, at around 9pm. Throughout the whole session, we are prohibited to step beyond a yellow boundary.

Finally, KFC session..!!!!! =D
Fast-food restaurants are rarely seen in vietnam, probably due to its relatively high consumption cost.
So we went to the one and only one kfc for our supper. haha..and we were so picky in our orders la. =p

And yup, tat's all for the day. No debrief for this day. hahaa..finally no more debrief. hahaa.. =p

Ha Long Bay, off we go tmr..hee..

*to be continued...*