Vung Tau orphanage

Next week (10 September) I will start voluntary teaching at the orphanage in Vung Tau. There are 3 centres. I'll be teaching 15 pre-schoolers - yes, the age group that I have sworn off teaching at ILA - for 2 hours per week in company with one of the other ILA teachers, Geoff (also Australian). The kids will get 6 hours English teaching per week as part of the pre-school program that will be held 5 mornings per week.

This post is just to introduce the topic and show you a few of the beautiful kids at the centre. There are many babies here as well, aged from 1 week up, and altogether approximately 90 children are living here at the moment. Mostly they are under 6, but a few older children who are HIV positive also live here. The second centre in Vung Tau houses the older children, and the third almost completed centre at Long Hai, will be a day centre catering, in part, to people with a disability. There are also about 200 people living in the community supported by the organisation that runs the centres.

Sponsorship and donations are always welcomed as there is not a strong social welfare system in Vietnam and relatively little assistance is provided by the government. Overseas aid is always program-based and so cannot often be used to provide for the daily needs of the children.

'Mary' Mountain

Although the statue of Jesus, Arms Outstretched (I think this is the name in Vietnamese) is the more visible and better-known Christian statue in Vung Tau, there is another statue and mountain climb on Big Mountain. This is known amongst the teachers as 'Mary' Mountain, and I took the opportunity of being a Vung Tau local to take Thanh there for a visit. (Although it turned out he had been before!).

'Mary' Mountain is a much larger complex than Jesus. There are extensive grounds, at least one large church, chapels, the stations of the cross, a large new building under construction, and Mary herself to see. And then there is the climb to a cross high up on the mountain.

This is the mountain climb to beat all others in Vung Tau, I think. Seen from the road the steps appear to go straight up like a ladder. Once on them, you find that they do wind, but the mountain and steps are very steep. The cross is at about the highest point I've been in Vung Tau, on a par with the old radar station peak, and offers a similar view on a clear day across the mouth of Ganh Rai Bay to the Mekong delta.

National Day trip

2 September is the National Day of Vietnam and commemorates the date in 1945 when Vietnam declared its independence, forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The new nation almost immediately had a shaky start and ultimately its territory was constrained to the area known as North Vietnam (1954 to 1975).

This year National Day also coincided with 15 July in the Buddhist/Lunar calendar, which is an important day for remembering people who have died. For the teachers at ILA though it was principally a cherished paid-day off, the last one for the rest of 2009. Many of us spent it on a trip organised by the ILA centre to nearby Long Son Island in the immense Ganh Rai Bay, behind the Vung Tau peninsula and at the mouth of the Saigon River and the northern most mouth of Cuu Long (the Mekong).

As the crow flies our destination was very close - just across from our point of embarkation in Rach Dua ward. But the actual route - taken by a former navy vessel - brought us along the shipyards lining the bay towards Big Mountain and then out into the waters of the bay. In all it took us between 1 1/2 and 2 hours each for the outward and homeward journeys.

We did not depart from a particularly well-used or maintained wharf . It was low tide when we left and even lower when we returned. To reach our sturdy vessel we had to climb/jump down from the wharf onto one boat and then cross several others, then step down from the last one onto the railing of our own boat. A nightmare for our British former OHS officer!

Our destination was a floating seafood restaurant opposite the island (incidentally you can actually drive there - how prosaic!). Here we dined on crab, numerous large oysters, and fish steamboat. Being a holiday the restaurant was packed and diners were continually coming and going well into the late afternoon.

Kayaking (50,000 VND) and jetsky (sic - 700,000 VND) were available for hire by the hour, and a few budding whitewater sailors (including complete novices) took to the water for a time. All too soon, though, it was time to return. It was an enjoyable day out and we got to see the industrial side of Vung Tau, on which much of its wealth is built, but which is generally invisible to us.