the school teachers and administration, Son and all of you have made the food for thought program successful. we delivered 600 chickens. I'l like to deliver another 600 and find a way to add pigs and ducks too. I wrote below about the type of chicken we delivered. it seems it's a chicken used for growing and eating, not the same as the chickens we see running around the country side.

however, people do have chickens and they are all eating better, including our students. I wish we could all go there- once you see the children, the area, meet the school staff it's easy to realize how much $5 or $10 dollars can do and how responsible this school is to see it gets done.

Let's call this "A SHOUT out to my PEEPS"

it's that chicken project. we began this paperwork on this project in 4/ 2009. blahblahbla...paperwork!

Our first chicken delivery was in January 2010.

since then TOGETHER we've delivered 600 chickens plus starter feed to 20 families in this village!

pretty good!

high 5's !!

a SHOUT out to our peeps!!

so there's a catch- yes there's always a catch. and always more to learn. damn it. :-)

the chickens in the project-all 600 of the chickens in the project are "industral chickens"

does this mean they wear a suit when they go to work laying eggs?

no - it means they grow quickly- and before they get to laying eggs or something like that- they are food - food for thought.

this explains why there were mostly chickens sent to the school and very little eggs- I wondered about this- but chickens were good enough so I didn't ask. duh.

This time at our big meeting we carefully introduced the notion of chickens, eggs, more chickens, more eggs, and so on............

I keep hearing the song 'the beat goes on...and the beat goes on.....' so we're going to try again with "home town farmer type chickens" the ones I see running around LS and Hanoi even!

will you try with us again?

I hope you say yes.

. http://familiesinvietnam.org/love_education_fund.shtml

one of our bigger sponsored families that's Son and Lelan passing out clothes and other gifts. they were so appreciative-Lelan said "at our home getting clothes is normal, here it was like we were giving them something beyond normal, something like a gold bar, they were very happy, little kids were jumping up and down"

some of our sponsored students meeting with the local department of education with us too

this family received rice, oil, clothes, and other items packed with love from their sponsor

Lelan, Les and Son deliver rice, oil, spices, clothes to one of our sponsored students who is in the lunch program.

lunch is better than ever thanks to you

lelan and lacey helping to hand out treats to the children at Tan Liem elementary school.

we wanted everyone to receive something sweet.

this is lacey playing at the playground at the somerset hanoi towers, this was just last week

it was cold!!!

we go back to LS to the school on wednesday. we'll give the school the chicken plaque of appreciation. that's not really the name of the plaque but some of the translations here are really comical.

i plan on taking photos and video. lelan has a class project and they have some gifts for one of the 4th grade classes. I'm going to shop tomorrow for more winter clothes. 2 days ago in the car in LS we past a student without shoes or socks. not a student at our school, it was in the middle of nowhere. he was walking with other students some had the blue and white school jackets. we continued on with our trip no extra shoes or socks to give him.

I have an idea. if anyone reading this has the spirit or energy to do this please do. i will help. the kids at our school could all wear uggs. they are comfortable year round. they get wet and they dry out. they are so warm in the winter. would someone contact uggs and ask them to supply our students with shoes?

After and then Before ...my LD AP post (small sigh).

See the old thin, rickety beds? in the 2nd pix? the old nap room at TL school. the new beds are clean, solid, traditional. the school admin hoped we would help upgrade the nap beds and add more nap space for the kids.

together we've made more changes. I plan to post over the next few days as we head out to Lang Son. thanks for all your support.

May 2010 to March 2011

Lang Son- here we come!

Here's our 10 month UPDATE

the plaque, the photos and the camera

I planned on getting lots of photos- I planned on bringing them home. well the best laid plans.....

Along with our FIV charity work, Son and I had a chance to visit birthfamilies for our private work. We visit birthfamlies - provide info, photos, translated letters, get info, photos, video of the Bf. We check on health, try to get a family health history, see if there are siblings who need help to go to school, or doctors.We do much more for the both families. We go between to the degree that is respectful and wanted by both parties. Every Bf and every Ap has different feelings about this life long relatedness. We do this for our children- and all our children born in Viet Nam who are being raised around the world.

So- while visiting a home- I left my camera!!! boo hoo- we were able to confirm it was there. Made arrangements to meet them a few days later. sob sob... oh well you can guess the rest.

I really thought they would bring it- for one thing- they knew we knew they had it. For another thing- we came bearing gifts.

Most of my photos were in that camera- what I downloaded is basically what you see. Even the photos of my 2 daughters visits with their birth families are missing- new babies in the families and all.

well the chickens- they are another story.!!!!

and the plaque is in motion- more on that too

we saw many interesting activites on the streets on the rode heading to and from Lang Son. This was a village closer to LS town enacting a religious celebration. The adults carrying the large gold temple would be chased by the younger people where ever he went- it looked like a game - the same group of younger people did the chasing.

How is this for wonderful ?? this is the new vegetable garden at our school- i was so excited to see this- I think this is the type of project that can really help the children. in this picture is the school principal and Son- we have a big gong in our back yard - actually on our deck. Just this moment it fell down and made a loud noise. I like to think it's a good sign- a joyful noise- to ring in a new time of health and learning for the children of this school. Son and the principal whose name I cannot remember- but will find and publish. She is so positive. She asked if we could have the chicken families send in money- after they sell the chickens instead of bringing in the chickens. It is hard to plan for the lunches when the children show up this day and that day- instead, chicken prices are up- if a family sells the chicken for top dollar and gives the school a total of 1 million dong then the school can buy pork for the children- plus plan ahead. We agreed with them- to make it easier, to make it work, to feed the children. we are on our way to the school. it is up ahead, see that camera in the mirror- it is still in viet nam and I'm not here are the children you feed. just some of them so cute, sweet, look so bright and today with a better chance than yesterday

here's a happy moment- with the Ambassador from Viet Nam - that's Lacey in her Aoi Da and sneakers! this was about a week before we left for Hanoi.

March 2010.