Hello everyone, i am sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog. I am now in Tam Ky. I have been here since Sunday evening, i have done some much already it is hard to remember it all. Tam Ky is town with the population of about 150,000 people, i am one of the few westerners living in the town, so i get alot of people looking a me lol.

I am living in the Global Volunteering Network (GVN) house while i am in Tam Ky. There are 5 other volunteers living in the house with me at the moment. They are Nancy, Sophia, Megan, Paul and Eadaoin. At the moment i am finding it very difficult generally.

On Monday i went to the baby orphanage, which is about 10 minutes cycle ride. The kids range from one day old to about 4 years old. The orphanage is funded by the government which means they don't have very much at all. All the kids really have are sets of clothes and a few toys. When we visit the orphanage we take a few toys along each time for the kids to play with. We also try and play a little football, sing a few songs and play a few games. It is hard to talk too them because they don't really understand much English. Mr T (placement manager) does help with this because he can understands alot of English. There are 7 babies with one or two 'mothers' to look after them. its very hard work for these 'mothers' to look after 7 babies night and day. The volunteers try and hold the babies as much a possible. For me the baby orphanage is the least challenging program because no teaching is involved, its just playing really.

On tuesday i went to 'Home of Affection', this is a centre with about 40 kids who's stories are all different but basically their parents cannot look after them. I have to teach a class of 8 kids English, they age from about 4 to 8. I found it very hard indeed considering i have never taught anything lol. I was only given the text book about 20 minutes before the class so had no idea what to do. I tried my best and i think it went ok.

I went there again today for my second class which went alot better because i had time to plan a bit. We will see though i don't think teaching is one of my many talents!

Today i also went to 'Tam Thanh which is a little fishing village about 30 minutes drive from the GVN house. This was also teaching English but this time to much older kids (ages 13 to 16). I found this very hard. I did not really know what to do in front of 26 teenagers whos English is ok but not great. I talked about different colours and about different body parts. I wrote the different colours and body parts on the board and asked the kids to repeat after me. Again i believe it went alright but i have no idea what i am going to try and teach them tomorrow let alone next month!

At the moment i am feeling quiet home sick really. I miss my dogs, home and singapore. Overall i am finding it very tough but i wasnt expecting it to be easy, the teaching is especially hard for me.

I will try and put some pictures up when i can. Sorry if there are mistakes but sitting in a internet cafe in Vietnam isnt the best place to write a blog lol with everyone looking at me all the time and saying hello every 5 seconds! I HOPE EVERYONE IS WELL AND I MISS YOU ALL LOADS.

ALI X