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.