A morning at an orphanage and an evening with a fortune teller

Today we went to a Buddhist orphanage. We got to play with the children and it was absolutely fabulous. I love cute kids. It was sad to see so many orphans, but I am happy that they can be in such a friendly and loving environment. When we arrived the children ran out and grabbed us by our hands and led us inside to play with them. I was handed a baby who was just the cutest thing. I was relieved that she didn't whimper once (I am pretty talented when it comes to making babies cry). Babies here don't fuss nearly as much as babies back in the states. I think it is because they aren't as coddled and well, babied. I have noticed that the children in Vietnam are much more mature. I think is can be attributed to the fact that kids are needed to help around the house, watch younger siblings, and even contribute financially by working with their parents on the farm or in the informal sector. Since I will be returning to Hue for my ISP I am going to be spending time each weekend volunteering at the orphanage. I have already given them my name and am getting cleared. Hooray! I am glad that I will finally be able to volunteer at an organization instead of just visiting, wishing I could do more, and then leaving. Here are some pictures from today's visit– I know there are some of me and my adorable little baby on Vy's camera so I will snag them from facebook once they are posted.

I loved jumping rope with the kids

Simon swinging the kids around– they loved him!

Lunch time.

My favorite picture of the day. I liked it so much I even put it in black and white. Check out the little girl
on the left with the cute ponytail.

This evening I visited a fortune teller. It was actually the weirdest thing ever because so much of my fortune, and others, was very accurate. She knew that I had moved once in my childhood, that where I lived in the states had a lot of spirits (our farm has said to be haunted), that I am very independent and don't like asking for things, that someone on my father's side of the family was recently ill, and then she said a lot of stuff about my family that was just extremely accurate and therefore creepy. She also said I was careless and bad things will happen to me if I don't start to be more careful. Regarding my future: I am going to seek a higher education and have a successful career. One thing that I didn't like to hear and I hope is wrong is that right now I am in bad health. BUT after discussing it with my friends, I'm hoping it is only because for the past few days I have been feeling under the weather. As we all were analyzing our fortunes someone pointed out that everything she said can be interpreted differently. Go ahead and judge me for taking this seriously but it is eerie that so much was accurate. Erika is studying abroad in Madagascar next semester and the first thing the fortune teller said to Erika was, "You are studying abroad for a second semester." She didn't say that to anyone else. Very, very, creepy.