This Week

This week we have settled on a place to live, negotiated a rental arrangement (complex), moved out of the hotel and deposited all of our luggage and belongings into our new abode. We were lucky to have some help working our way through this process from a local expat real estate guy.
The boys have had 2 visits to their new school Greenshoots which is about a 7 min walk from our new address either down our lane, along a busy road and back up another lane or the back way through a network of small laneways, that we are unfamiliar with at this point. They went on Wed for lunch with the other kids, which consisted of a bowl of Cau Lao - the local noodle dish with yummy salady things and a bit of meat & croutons on top. Then they jumped into some soccer they had going on in the afternoon. Yesterday (Fri) they went back for some of the afternoon where the kids were planning a large mural project with the art teacher for a wall that backs onto where the primary/middle school is currently based.
Monday they will get started fulltime.
The last day or 2 we've had Tropical Storm warnings hovering around this area with some kind of weather system brewing out over the ocean towards the Phillipines. It was headed our way but now seems to have swung south. Despite that we are getting some heavy rain and had a few big gusts of wind strong enough to blow a few trees & powerlines down nearby. It has made us get a bit organised for the upcoming rain/stormy season of Oct/Nov and we now have a cupboard full up with candles, matches, extra water, tinned food, rice etc for when the storms kick in and power is out, roads are floded.
So far the house seems to be nice & waterproof but I guess I shouldnt speak too soon.
This week at work I went out and did an outreach visit to a shelter for young adults with disabilities where they get vocational training and a place to stay. It was a 45 min ride on the back of my Vietnamese co-worker's motorbike back towards Danang. Not bad in fine weather but not sure how we'll go in the wet. Am going to explore all of my transport options and see what works best. Next week I'm going up on the local bus to try that way. It will be a weekly visit at this stage. Was also asked to step into a small orphanange attached to the centre while I was out there. Some very dedicated staff and some small people with very difficult stories. Hard.
There is another adult shelter I am going to try some outreach at once a week, which is much closer, in Hoi An. This week a team of us went over there and did a big cleanup job on a room that they have made available for me and my Vietnamese co-worker, Sang to use.
We have an exercise group running 3 times a week in Hoi An at the Free Disability Centre which is the building that I'm largely based at and several of the women who work at the Lifestart Foundation workshop making & selling their craft & art, attend this group.
Anoter highlight of the last couple of weeks was being invited along to the local Disabled Peoples Group meeting. We arrived at the meeting, at a local Pagoda, and realised we were the reason for the meeting. We were sat up the front on tables in front of a small crowd of 50 - 70 people and their families and were introduced. Karen (Lifestart Foundations's founder) made a short speech which was then interpreted and then applause !!
Tomorow we may try the trip back to Danang to do some top up shopping for bulk food supplies. We've had a nice few days of eating out a lot, there so many good & cheap restaurants but the rate these boys are eating we are going to need serious wholesale supplies so we dont become destitute in the next few weeks. I swear Josh has grown another couple of inches in the 2 weeks I was here before them all and that speed of growth comes with a large appetitie attached ! Even $5 main courses add up when you need 3 of them to fill you up.