VN Day 6

This morning we woke up a bit early and headed to Kinh Luan for breakfast. We met up with our godparents and Nette. Mimi and I spent the day with them to visit some places. We started out visiting this HIV/AIDS home sponsored by a single priest with help from volunteers. The children there are all orphans and w/o family. He told us that there is at least one death a month because the hcildren are termially ill. He says that people sometimes just drops kids off at his front door and he takes care of them. He has thse boxes of ashes of the children that pass early. He tries to gather as many donations as he can to buy supplies, toys, medicine, and money to rent the property. The lease on the current building is about to expire so he is trying to find a new place the hcildren. Most of the kids don't even know that they are infected with HIV or AIDS and they die at anytime. Cha's job is to basically take care of them until they die. It was just beautiful to see their faces light up when we came to visit them with gifts. Their ages range from as young as 1 months to 12 years old.

After that, we had lunch and then visited this other house for the blind. In Vietnam, if you are blind, then you are baiscally useless to socitey, but this place makes you fel worth of living by caring for them, educating them, and training them for paralympics. I saw cases and cases of trophys and medals that they had won. When we met them, they weren't just blind in the yes, but some of them didn't have any eye sockets at all. They were very talented as well. A few of them played the keyboard so well, t was amazing. It was like listening to Paris by Night. They sang for us and we sang for them. They were being cared for by a nun and they learned much about God. It just me hard of all my blessing when they sang to us "God is so good to me".

After visiting the blind, we visited this school ran by nuns for poor and run away children. The school was completely free and no one was obligated to attend, but the children called it their home. They came on their own to learn and to eat when they finished work. The children sell lottery ticket results as work for money. They probably make about less than a dollar a day. When they get to the school, the nuns take them in but they aren't allowed to stay overnight so they kids have to leave by night fall. There are some kids that have been coming back for years. Some of th enuns had known the kids since they were young and raised them up. So we came with gifts of toys and money. They were all so thrilled, but humble and selfless at the same time. We gave them money and they told us that they would bring it back to their poor families before they used it for themselves. It was really moving for me to see them so happy. There was a little girl who witnessed someone kill her mother right in front of her. We left the children (60+) with smiles on their faces and food in their stomachs and money in their pockets. Mimi and I spent the night at Oscar Hotel.