My last few days in Hanoi I was a little under the weather and so slipped up in the evenings and missed blogging the last few days of my trip. But don't worry- its all described here.
So, on Day 16, Thursday, I continued to make preparations for the upcoming trip (where we hoped to clean the blue baby cottage some more and paint the exercise/rehabilitation nearby) as well as, with some help from Viet Vu, contacted some more volunteers. On Friday (Day 17), Viet and I visited Mr. Can to discuss what we had recently heard from the orphanage about the drip system; that the lines were dripping very very fast (too fast) but that it was working. I was concerned that the pressure would be to great for the lines and would harm the drip tape and was thinking perhaps would would need to purchase a pressure regulator. However, Mr. Can suggested that we simply regulate the time we run the trip lines instead of the pressure. He showed us a timer but said that with a system as simple as ours doing it manually with the tap switch on the line would make more sense. This tap would also allow us to control the pressure on the line (which was supposed to be between 1 and 2 bar). After we left, we walked several shops down the street to a paint shop, where we purchased a large 18 L bucket of paintand brushes/rollers for the room we would be painting on the Day 19 trip.
That evening, we made a trip to METRO, where we purchase a few other supplies we needed for painting (including paint trays, which we actually had to replace with lunch trays since we couldn't find proper paint trays at any paint shops) and tons of diapers- well over 2000!
The following morning, I met the bus and Viet at UNIS, where we loaded up our supplies on the bus and met the volunteers who were joining us. The morning was wet and rainy, and we were concerned that this would could be a setback for painting.
When we arrived, the vice director suggested we wait on the painting because it was so wet, and so instead, we went ahead and continued cleaning the aqua baby cottages as planned. We cleared up most of the green growth in the small courtyard area, which was previously nearly totally green, and some of our party played with the kids and gave them soymilk. After some confusion about which building we were actually painting with the vice director (the director was gone on a visit to southern Vietnam), we began painting the exercise/rehab building. We wiped down the pillars on the front first, and then quickly began painting using the rollers we had purchased. To our dismay, the paint below simply crumbled under the rollers and accumulated on the rollers and on the wall, making painting a clean coat difficult. We then decided to break for an early lunch and then go and grab some sandpaper in the town while we were "out" (the lunch place was around the corner from the orphanage and the main shops were several blocks away).
After eating, we started sanding, which didn't seem to be helping too much since only some of the paint would come off. We decided to continue painting, and were able to complete the main pillars on the front of the building without too much hassle. We then began to clean up our area (we were short on newspaper for the ground and the rollers proved very messy without proper trays so this took some time). After this was done, I went ahead and got some of the photos/footage I needed of the finished pipe and irrigation system. We then left the diapers and clothing donations we had accumulated, except this time, instead of giving them directly to the cottage as we had been doing in the past, we left them with the vice director, who would distribute them appropriately.
After another hour-and-a-half home, we were exhausted. I only had 2 days left in Hanoi, and so my options to finish painting the building were limited- I either had to go back on the Sunday or Monday (before my flight) and finish. However, in the car from UNIS, Mr. Vu (viet's Dad) suggested hiring someone to finish painting the building. He pointed out that this would be cheaper than us driving out there and said that he could arrange it. After some deliberation, this is what I decided to do. I needed the remaining time anyway to visit friends and pick up things to bring back to the US for my family.
So, this marked the "end" of my physical work at the orphanage. However, I still had some funds left, so I have arranged for their use in some other projects at the orphanage; some of the money would be used to fund the tiling of some of walls in some of the Thuy An buildings. This would be particularly helpful for cleaning as a new paint of coat wouldn't be needed to really clean the walls but a simple scrub down with some cleaner. I am also hoping to use some for a sustainable solution to the orphanage's diaper problem; I did some research, after a point made by Mr. Buckner, into reusable diapers with disposable inserts. This alternative to the wasteful and expensive demands of using disposable diapers would be much more economically viable for the orphanage, effectively address the problem, and would be much more eco- friendly. I will continue to find out more about this option and may ultimately arrange for a large shipment of these diapers to be sent to Thuy An.
On Monday, Day 20, I spent some time downtown and took a final visit to get some Vietnamese food before getting on the plane that evening and flying for 20+ hours to Bangkok, Frankfurt, and ultimately Atlanta, where I safely arrived in the early evening on the 21st.
Thanks again to all those who have donated and have been following my blog- if there are any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment!
So, on Day 16, Thursday, I continued to make preparations for the upcoming trip (where we hoped to clean the blue baby cottage some more and paint the exercise/rehabilitation nearby) as well as, with some help from Viet Vu, contacted some more volunteers. On Friday (Day 17), Viet and I visited Mr. Can to discuss what we had recently heard from the orphanage about the drip system; that the lines were dripping very very fast (too fast) but that it was working. I was concerned that the pressure would be to great for the lines and would harm the drip tape and was thinking perhaps would would need to purchase a pressure regulator. However, Mr. Can suggested that we simply regulate the time we run the trip lines instead of the pressure. He showed us a timer but said that with a system as simple as ours doing it manually with the tap switch on the line would make more sense. This tap would also allow us to control the pressure on the line (which was supposed to be between 1 and 2 bar). After we left, we walked several shops down the street to a paint shop, where we purchased a large 18 L bucket of paintand brushes/rollers for the room we would be painting on the Day 19 trip.
That evening, we made a trip to METRO, where we purchase a few other supplies we needed for painting (including paint trays, which we actually had to replace with lunch trays since we couldn't find proper paint trays at any paint shops) and tons of diapers- well over 2000!
The following morning, I met the bus and Viet at UNIS, where we loaded up our supplies on the bus and met the volunteers who were joining us. The morning was wet and rainy, and we were concerned that this would could be a setback for painting.
When we arrived, the vice director suggested we wait on the painting because it was so wet, and so instead, we went ahead and continued cleaning the aqua baby cottages as planned. We cleared up most of the green growth in the small courtyard area, which was previously nearly totally green, and some of our party played with the kids and gave them soymilk. After some confusion about which building we were actually painting with the vice director (the director was gone on a visit to southern Vietnam), we began painting the exercise/rehab building. We wiped down the pillars on the front first, and then quickly began painting using the rollers we had purchased. To our dismay, the paint below simply crumbled under the rollers and accumulated on the rollers and on the wall, making painting a clean coat difficult. We then decided to break for an early lunch and then go and grab some sandpaper in the town while we were "out" (the lunch place was around the corner from the orphanage and the main shops were several blocks away).
After eating, we started sanding, which didn't seem to be helping too much since only some of the paint would come off. We decided to continue painting, and were able to complete the main pillars on the front of the building without too much hassle. We then began to clean up our area (we were short on newspaper for the ground and the rollers proved very messy without proper trays so this took some time). After this was done, I went ahead and got some of the photos/footage I needed of the finished pipe and irrigation system. We then left the diapers and clothing donations we had accumulated, except this time, instead of giving them directly to the cottage as we had been doing in the past, we left them with the vice director, who would distribute them appropriately.
After another hour-and-a-half home, we were exhausted. I only had 2 days left in Hanoi, and so my options to finish painting the building were limited- I either had to go back on the Sunday or Monday (before my flight) and finish. However, in the car from UNIS, Mr. Vu (viet's Dad) suggested hiring someone to finish painting the building. He pointed out that this would be cheaper than us driving out there and said that he could arrange it. After some deliberation, this is what I decided to do. I needed the remaining time anyway to visit friends and pick up things to bring back to the US for my family.
So, this marked the "end" of my physical work at the orphanage. However, I still had some funds left, so I have arranged for their use in some other projects at the orphanage; some of the money would be used to fund the tiling of some of walls in some of the Thuy An buildings. This would be particularly helpful for cleaning as a new paint of coat wouldn't be needed to really clean the walls but a simple scrub down with some cleaner. I am also hoping to use some for a sustainable solution to the orphanage's diaper problem; I did some research, after a point made by Mr. Buckner, into reusable diapers with disposable inserts. This alternative to the wasteful and expensive demands of using disposable diapers would be much more economically viable for the orphanage, effectively address the problem, and would be much more eco- friendly. I will continue to find out more about this option and may ultimately arrange for a large shipment of these diapers to be sent to Thuy An.
On Monday, Day 20, I spent some time downtown and took a final visit to get some Vietnamese food before getting on the plane that evening and flying for 20+ hours to Bangkok, Frankfurt, and ultimately Atlanta, where I safely arrived in the early evening on the 21st.
Thanks again to all those who have donated and have been following my blog- if there are any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment!