The Christmas festivities for yours truly started, as last year, with the ILA Vung Tau party on 13 December. This year we went to the Palace Hotel, and enjoyed an extensive buffet dinner at tables set out around the swimming pool. The party continued well after the party, as people got into the singing mode already promoted by karaoke, and broke out Christmas song after song until past 11pm. God knows what the people in rooms overlooking the swimming pool thought was happening! Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.
From that event, my Christmas shifted strongly to a focus on the children at the residential centres in Vung Tau. On the evening of 23 December I went to the children's party hosted by Belly's Bar on the waterfront near Front Beach. The children from "P" and "N" centres all came along, and greatly enjoyed the food and fun. And of course, they especially enjoyed Santa Claus' visit!
The next day they had a second party, this time courtesy of APER. I was an accidental invitee to this one, only knowing about it because I had taken Bi out for the morning to go to the beach and a ride around on the motorbike. Here you can see Phuc with the plane he received, and Dung comfortably sitting to eat his lunch!
That night I went out with Bao and one of his students. Firstly, we went to Ba Ria and ate a great goat curry. After that we journeyed to Phuoc Tinh, a fishing town close to Long Hai, which has a strong Catholic population, and an even stronger compulsion to string up all manner of Christmas lights and displays, especially nativity scenes. In Phuoc Tinh town we stopped off at one of the big churches and watched an all singing/all dancing presentation of the birth of Jesus and the visits of the angels and the wise men. The end of the show had a very large cast of players on stage, including tiny nuns and a very small Pope! I was also interviewed by BRT television station and was asked what were my impressions of Christmas in Vietnam. I answered about the similarities that I was seeing between communities that like to put up and visit Christmas light displays.
On Christmas morning I met up with Angie (fellow ILA and volunteer teacher) for coffee and then we went to visit our class at the centre to had out presents. Many big thanks to Killki, Chaska and Rumi who decided that they would like to donate their Christmas money from me, directly to the orphanage, instead of giving it to them. I made Angie cry when I told her this :( Here you can see the building blocks that the kids have given to the boys in the class and the modelling clay for the girls, plus the big jar of lollies!
After that Angie and I set out for Tommy's 1 where a group of 12 of us from ILA were scheduled to meet for Christmas lunch of roast turkey and vegetables. After all that it was time to take a rest in the time-honoured traditions of Christmas Day afternoon.
From that event, my Christmas shifted strongly to a focus on the children at the residential centres in Vung Tau. On the evening of 23 December I went to the children's party hosted by Belly's Bar on the waterfront near Front Beach. The children from "P" and "N" centres all came along, and greatly enjoyed the food and fun. And of course, they especially enjoyed Santa Claus' visit!
The next day they had a second party, this time courtesy of APER. I was an accidental invitee to this one, only knowing about it because I had taken Bi out for the morning to go to the beach and a ride around on the motorbike. Here you can see Phuc with the plane he received, and Dung comfortably sitting to eat his lunch!
That night I went out with Bao and one of his students. Firstly, we went to Ba Ria and ate a great goat curry. After that we journeyed to Phuoc Tinh, a fishing town close to Long Hai, which has a strong Catholic population, and an even stronger compulsion to string up all manner of Christmas lights and displays, especially nativity scenes. In Phuoc Tinh town we stopped off at one of the big churches and watched an all singing/all dancing presentation of the birth of Jesus and the visits of the angels and the wise men. The end of the show had a very large cast of players on stage, including tiny nuns and a very small Pope! I was also interviewed by BRT television station and was asked what were my impressions of Christmas in Vietnam. I answered about the similarities that I was seeing between communities that like to put up and visit Christmas light displays.
On Christmas morning I met up with Angie (fellow ILA and volunteer teacher) for coffee and then we went to visit our class at the centre to had out presents. Many big thanks to Killki, Chaska and Rumi who decided that they would like to donate their Christmas money from me, directly to the orphanage, instead of giving it to them. I made Angie cry when I told her this :( Here you can see the building blocks that the kids have given to the boys in the class and the modelling clay for the girls, plus the big jar of lollies!
After that Angie and I set out for Tommy's 1 where a group of 12 of us from ILA were scheduled to meet for Christmas lunch of roast turkey and vegetables. After all that it was time to take a rest in the time-honoured traditions of Christmas Day afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment