Day 3 - 25 November 2008

Things to be brought to the Dieu Giac Orphanage.

Chilling out in the bus.

The name of the Orphanage in Vietnamese language.

Our day started of with the visit to Dieu Giac Orphanage. Upon arrival, we were introduced to the children.



After splitting ourselves into groups, we started our first game – designing photo frames, with the crayons, glitter glue and stickers. A girl sitting on a mechanical merry-go-round.

With language barrier, we faced difficulties communicating with the children. However, we persisted and tried our best to get a common understanding with the children. Although we faced certain problems such as working and communicating with the children, we still managed to conduct our activities smoothly. Some of the photo frames were also amazingly beautiful and creative.


A demonstration by Cherie, Xing Jie, Kaiser and Jeffrey.

Juliana and Yi Ting guiding a young boy on how to colour his photo frame.

We then moved on to the next activity – designing your own t-shirt. Each child was given a shirt to design using fabric paints. Some of the children were very innovative with their designs of their favourite cartoon characters such as the pokemon and doremon. It has indeed impressed all of us. Kaiser and Jeffrey were reaffirming the creativity of the children to boost their confidence.

Jun Xing and Yi Ling were watching the progress of the child's art piece.
Beverley was mentoring a girl while Wei Rong was overseeing the group activities.
Angeline was bonding well with the girls.

After the t-shirt designing, the children were release for lunch while we started placing the small gifts for each of them. Their photo frames were also slot with different papers such a the most creative group and the most cooperative group to encourage them.

Due to the time constraint, we could only carry out two activities with them today. Although we were dead beat but we all felt that it was worth it. During this visit, we also went around the orphanage to see the environment the children live it. They only sleep on wooden beds with straw mats and their playground was a little run down. But as long as they get to play, they are contented.

The dog was also enjoying our presence at the orphanage.

One of the photo frames done by the most innovative group.

We were also saddened to see the two children aged 4 and 6 with illnesses. The four year old kid has her head bigger than usual and had problems moving herself. She is unable to speak nor move and she has to lie on the bed all day long. The other kid, aged 6, had deformed bones. Like the four year old girl, she couldn’t move and had to stay in bed. This experience and the things we’ve seen has made us realized the importance of being contented, filial to our parents but at the same time, learning to help the less fortunates to share our happiness and joy with them.
After bidding goodbye to the children, we left for our lunch. Our next destination was Reunification Palace and the War Museum. With the help of the tour guides, we understand more about Vietnamese culture and history. We got to see pictures, statues and hear stories about the Vietnamese pasts. It was very new and interesting for us to learn the history of another country.

A fusion meal: Indian chicken curry with the Vietnamese salad and rice.

The Reunification Palace

Resting at the the staircase in front of the entrance to the Palace.

Guess what Jun Xing was imitating.

Jeffrey posing beside the cannon at the War Museum.

At nearly 4pm we went back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner in the hotel at 7pm. Unfortunately , we were unable to go to the market for shopping due to the rain. However, this also provided us with another chance to have extra rest time to energize us for the next day.

(Reflection was done by Koh Hui Lin and Yeo Xing Jie of 3/5)