Sunday, March 25, 2012

So much fun

Bin, the sweetest kid you've ever met.  He runs up and hugs anybody who comes into the room. 
Bin loves to have his picture taken.  Whenever I bring my camera, he always steals it from me and takes pictures of everything! 

Hanh, the troublemaker.  He's so much fun and so sweet, but always stealing candy and food from my backpack.  

Not sure what this little boy's name is (he can't speak), but he's so sweet and lovable.  His eyes are so big and kind. Sometimes he is very serious, and then I can always tell that he's thinking really hard about something.  I wish I knew what he was thinking about. 

Hieu! When I first met Hieu, I was a bit shocked and little nervous.  He cannot speak very well; his words are always constrained and forced.  He also walks very erratically and does not have very good control of his movements.  Whenever I see him walking around, I have to resist the urge to grab his hand and help him walk more steadily.  But, after spending some more time with him the other day, I realized that he is incredibly smart, enthusiastic, energetic, and quite the little joker too. Although his motor skills aren't developed enough for him to be able to write, he can read very well and spell too.  When I asked him what his name was, he tried to say it but I couldn't understand him because his voice was so strained.  Hieu, clever little boy, came up with a solution.  There were words written on the bench that we were sitting on, and Hieu began pointing at different letters to spell out his name.  It took a few minutes to figure it out, but after I finally said his name he smiled so wide and gave me a big high five.  

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Visas and Pizza!

My family successfully managed to obtain Visas to come visit us in the US this summer! It's very hard for Vietnamese to get Visas to travel to the US, so in order to celebrate, I made pizza and cake!

Cuc Phuong, Hue and Hoi An with the Family

The whole family!



Harvesting cassava at our homestay in a Muong village in Cuc Phuong National Park.

The mother at our homestay weaves scarves to sell to visitors in her spare time.  

Our "boat".. six bamboo sticks tied together.  We only got a little bit wet. 

Weiner siblings reunited

Cassava roots

A woman fishing

We met lots of little children while trekking through the villages!

A woman making lanterns in Hoi An.

The river in hoi an.  

A fisherman in Hoi An.

Drying out corn in the sun for chicken feed. 

More kids we met along the way!


Sugar cane, absolutely delicious

Andrew, doing a little fishing. 





Dinner!

Our wonderful host family

Buffalos, such big animals, but so gentle and friendly. 
Eating dinner with our host family.