Thanksgiving at Little Rose, Visiting the Green Bamboo Shelter

Even though the Vietnamese don't typically celebrate Thanksgiving, I've tried to bring a little Thanksgiving to Vietnam since it is my favorite holiday. Sunday at the Little Rose Shelter, I taught the girls how to make pumpkin pie. I had made pumpkin pie a few times in the United States before, but it is a completely different experience in Vietnam, especially with 20 teenage girls! When I had made it before, I always used canned pumpkin and ready-made crust. These things were not available in Vietnam so we had to make the crust from scratch and use a real pumpkin. Also, pumpkins in Vietnam are a little different than in the US. I was a bit concerned because the outside of the pumpkin was green and yellow but the pie ended up looking the same and tasted wonderful. Cooking was a bit chaotic and I ended up very floury, but in the end we had a lot of fun and produced three fairly decent looking pies. Anna and Alyce also came to help out. Anna and I did a performance on the bamboo flute which we recently learned to play and Anna also showed a couple of the girls how to make an origami turkey.

Baking the Pie, Basically one of my favorite pictures ever

The pie right before going in the oven

The next day, following up on Anna's popular idea, I did origami with the girls at the Little Rose Shelter. The girls loved it and it no one wanted to stop. The especially liked making the boxes and by the end of the day there were boxes of many colors everywhere.

The next day, I went to visit the Green Bamboo Shelter, a partner shelter of the Little Rose Shelter. It is similar to the Little Rose Shelter except it is for boys and near the center of the city. I met one of the supervisors at the Little Rose Shelter and he invited me to come check out the place. The boys are a little younger than at the Little Rose Shelter. They are ages 7-16 instead of 12-18 and have not necessarily been abused. Many of them were homeless or their parents sent them away because they could not afford to take care of them. The boys were incredibly energetic, but in a surprisingly well behaved way. As soon as I came, they starting showing off incredibly complicated break-dancing and gymnastics moves. One boy pulled on my arm and said in Vietnamese that he wanted me to draw with him. He took out paints and a piece of paper. Even though he had only heard my name once and only knew a few words in English, he painted my name on the paper and spelled correctly SARA.

Me and some of the boys

They were little monkeys

Mặc dù người Việt không ăn lễ Tạ ơn nhưng tôi muốn cho lễ Tạ ơn đến Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ. Chủ nhật tuần trước tôi làm bánh bí với các em gài ở đó. Làm bánh bí ở Việt Nam hơi khó vì ở Việt Nam không có "ready-made crust" hay hộp bí. TÔi phải làm bánh "from scratch." Làm bánh với 20 người thanh thiếu niên cũng khó lắm! Anna và Hồng đi Mái Ấm để giúp tôi. Anna và tôi đã chơi sáo và Anna dạy các em gái làm gà tây origami.

Vì các em gái rất thích origami, nên thứ hai tôi làm origami với các em gái. Chúng tôi làm hộp, con méo, con chó, và con hẻo. Làm origami vui lắm.

Thứ hai, tôi đi thăm Mái Ấm tre xanh. Mái Ấm tre xanh là mái ấm cộng tác với Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ. Mái Ấm này và Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ khác nhau tại vì Mái Ấm Tre Xanh có các em trai thôi. Các em trai nhỏ hơn các em gái ở Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ, từ 7 tuổi đến 16 tuổi. Tôi thấy ngạc nhiên vì các em trai vừa năng nổ vừa lịch sự. Tôi chơi nhiều với các em trai. Các em trai rất thích nhảy. TÔi cũng giúp các em trai học bài tiếng Anh.