Child Profile: Ly Dai

Ly Dai is 12 years old and he's about to begin the 7th grade. He sits in the front of our under twelve English class where he takes the prize as one of our most active English students. He's also one of our most active computer students and usually attends multiple computer practice sessions each week. He studies hard and plays harder, and he's one of these people who seems to enjoy everything he does immensely. The other day on one of my visits to the orphanage Dai yelled "What do you like?" at me and then without waiting for a reply yelled "I like green!". It's good to see that some of the English we're teaching them is sinking in.

Dai's been at Hoi Tu Thien for 3 and a half years now. He's from the same town of Co Do in O Mon that many of the children come from. His father still lives there and works as a laborer, but his mother has passed away. Dai says that he hopes to be a doctor in the future, because as he says: "Doctors can help poor people." In his free time, I sometimes see Dai playing marbles with other kids his age in front of the orphanage or making impressive constructions out of "lego-esque" building blocks.

Child Profile: Thuy

Meet Nguyen Thanh Thuy. She's 13 years old and also come from the town of Co Do, in Can Tho province. Her parents still live in Co Do with her younger brother, but they are very poor. Her father is able to eek out a living as a manual laborer in Co Do. She's been living at Hoi Tu Thien for more than three years now and only gets to go home 2 ro 3 times a year to see her family (although they are only a 30 minute motorbike ride from the orphanage). Thuy studies in the 8th grade. Her favorite subject is literature, because she "likes to read stories". When Thuy is older, she hopes to become a tailor. She's not sure why she wants to become a tailor, but she thinks it's a good job and she likes to sew.

Thuy studies in our English class and is also learning some basic computer skills in our program.

Child Profile: Quang

Dao Quang, 13 years old, comes from Co Do town, a small town in the country outside Can Tho where his parents and 7 brothers and sisters live and work as rice farmers. He has been living at Hoi Tu Thien for over two years and only sees his family once a year on the Tet holiday. Because his family is poor and cannot afford his school fee or to take care of him and all of his brothers and sisters, Quang has come to live and study at Hoi Tu Thien. Quang is now studying in the 7th grade and hopes one day that he can become a teacher (although he's not yet sure which subject he'd like to teach). His favorite subject is physical education, but he's also keen on English. In his free time he likes to watch films, especially Chinese Kung Fu films about the Monkey King.

I know Quang as an intelligent (although sometimes restless) student and a very sweet boy with a disarming smile and a penchant for complicated handshakes.

The New Blog

I just set up this blog and it's going to take me a while to figure out some of the formatting issues. I'll try to keep this updated on a weekly basis, so check back often.