a beach trip for the orphans

By one life, live it
A group of 57 children from Vinh Son orphanage, Kontum and adult supervisory attended the 3 day Beach Trip to Nha Trang this year. This trip was a special gilf from FoCH, Inc., a group of nice Americans who have a deep love for the unlucky Vietnamese orphans.

This is to report that the children, the nuns, as well as my two daughters and I have all returned safely and tired after a beautiful trip. The 2007 Beach trip has ended.

The bus departed from Kontum early in the morning down to Nha Trang.  The Saint Joseph Seminary there offered the children rooms and food during time they stayed in Nha Trang.

The first day we visited Hon Chong beach of Nha Trang. The afternoon was most beautiful, blue sky and beautiful blue green water. The beach sand was very clean and bright and the shoreline was edged with many large and beautiful rocks and boulders.

After the exciting day the children all had dinner at the seminary. The Fathers there helped us to order the food for the children’s dinners. The evening was fun, we were all tired so the kids went to bed at the Seminary

Even though the children were very sleepy, we still had enough energy remaining to take a cyclo to go shopping for food to have prepared for lunch for the children the next day at the beach.

The second day, after breakfast with bread, kids wore their bathing suits with their street clothes over them. This day was to be spend at another area beach, it is called Doclet beach, which is about 60 km north of Nha Trang.



I must say that this was the first time the tribal girls ever wore their swim suits and were very embarrassed.  So it was natural for them to say, "…too much skin showed off" and then run as fast as they could and splash into the water. Once in they were a little afraid to come out.

The teenage girls did look real good in their new swim suits, so much so that the local boys whistled at them. Then they were very embarrassed.

Y Kiều My, Y Mư, Y Yit, Y Linh
XM và CN

Later on the girls got familiar with their suits and agree to let me take their photos. Although the tribal boys were also very shy, they wore their swim trunks with long T-shirts to cover their butts.

Lunch was served with sandwiches, bread, cheese, sausages, gio lua, gio thu, cha chien thit cha bong, fruits: lychees, water melon, longans.....milk and cakes. Talk about a good time, swimming and lots of food!

We all returned to Nha Trang after 2 pm, visited the main church of Nha Trang and then back to the Seminary for dinner already ordered and prepared by the nice Fathers there. Sleep for all followed very soon.

On the third day kids went to visit Monkey Island, lunched at a restaurant and then started their return trip to the Orphanage late in the afternoon. The 2007 trip has ended and boy was it a success. We are all very tired and happy.

Many kids had serious motion sickness, especially little Vi, Mu, Vui. They all carried a small plastic bag with them every where they went in case they had to upload their stomachs. On bus, off bus, from church to beach, from seminary to hotel ... each kid each had a bag everywhere they went. It was humorous ... but so very touching. If I had been car sick I could not have even moved my head, but our kids, even with their stomachs up side down, still enjoyed everything. Their excitement as if they knew they would not have any other chance to travel for a long time ….. if ever again.

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