A New House and a Dilemma

The same day Orange Helpers dedicated the Tran family house, we also dedicated a house for Le Thi Dao, a mentally challenged 42 year old woman in La Hai, Dong Xuan district. Her father was exposed to Agent Orange in the war and died of cancer years ago. He left her only a dilapidated room attached to an old house occupied by her sister’s family.

The new house was built on a small plot of land donated by the commune near her old residence and a young nephew will live with her to help her cope. At the dedication, Dao was a little bewildered and unable to speak, but her sister gave a tearful word of gratitude.

Later that day we visited Nguyen Thi Thu, a 35 year old whose story is almost a direct parallel with Dao’s. Her father was also a participant in the war who died many years ago of Agent Orange related cancer. Thu is severely mentally challenged and occupies her day drawing water from a well and pouring it into a big filter jar. She too was unable to converse with us. Her home is one of the worst I have seen here. The mud walls are riddled with cracks and collapsing at the corners of the building. The thatched roof has large missing areas and is at all effective only because of plastic sheeting draped over it. The floor is dirt and the inside is dark but for the light streaming in through the holes in the roof and walls.

We inquired about building a new house for Thu but were told that the land her house stands on has been set aside by the state for future road widening. There are no plans to do this at this time, but new construction or even repairs of the existing house, are forbidden at this location. Further, Thu depends on the kindness and watchfulness of her immediate neighbors for her day to day survival. In order to have a new house, she would have to move away from her lifeline. This is not the first time that we have been stymied in trying to find a way to assist an AO family, but we will be keeping an eye on Thu’s situation as we pass by frequently.

Moving Day for the Tran Family

Yesterday we went over to Song Cau to dedicate the new house for the Tran Family (see previous blog below). The home site is on the mother's family's hilltop property about 1 kilometer from the road. Several tons of materials for the construction had to be hand-carried along the winding, uphill, dirt path.



The upside is that the site provides a lovely view of the surrounding rice paddies and mountains in the distance.

In contrast to the one room, dirt floor shack they previously occupied (see previous blog), the new house has 3 rooms, a sturdy roof, and a dry cement floor. The family chose cement over tile for the floor to allow for some other design features they wanted. There are a living room and two bedrooms, each with good lighting and ventilation, with all rooms connected by an indoor hallway.




As usual for these dedications, there was a brief ceremony with dreadful speeches being read verbatim from papers (typical for ALL speeches in Vietnam), a banner thanking Orangehelpers, a plaque on the house, the giving of housewarming gifts (cash and a case of dry noodle soup), and lots of photos.


We learned that in addition to the maladies described in the previous blog, the little boy also suffers from total blindness, but as in the case of a lot of the kids we meet has the sunny personality of a giggly 9 month old baby.

It was wonderful to see the change of accommodations for the family and the joy on their faces as they came into their new first home - just ahead of the rainy season. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.