Off to the Orphanage

We're off to the orphanage again in about 45 minutes. It takes about an hour and a half to get there, or at least it took that long to get back from there yesterday, over some pretty rough roads. We might take a more direct route today.

The trip to Phan Thiet from the orphanage yesterday was pretty amazing. We went through rice paddies and dragonfruit (my new obsession, it is so freaking yummy) fields, and some salt flats. We saw people working the fields in their conical hats, leading cows around, and we saw some water buffalo rolling in the mud. We went through small towns where every house has a little storefront selling something in it. The architecture is so different. We'll post some photos later -- we've taken about 500, but we won't subject you to them all.

The hotel is amazing. A gorgeous resort right on the ocean in Phan Thiet, the fish sauce capital of Asia. Which means at certain times of the day, the fish sauce scent wafts over you as you lay in a hammock or by the pool, and it's, um, perhaps not that appetizing to our Western palates.

The food here is incredible. I may never eat shrimp again after I come home, because it's not going to compare. Yesterday, one of the new moms and I shared a steamed crab in a ginger/soy sauce. It was kind of like a stone crab -- I'm not sure of the species. Not as sweet as our blue crabs, but just delicious.

We switched rooms yesterday from the main hotel to one of the villas, which is a four-room building with a large common room. We're on the ground floor, so we have a little patio and then lush green grass in front of us all the way to the ocean. Lots of room for Loc to run around when we get him. There's a playground nearby too, although it's a bit close to the archery range for my tastes. The room is a little dark -- all teak -- and a little more humid, with its stone and wood open-air shower, than in the main hotel, but it has oodles of charm. And I think the layout is better for Loc, with all that room to run around in instead of a hotel hallway. I can't wait to get him here and let him try the pool and the beach.

At the visit yesterday, we got to talk with Mrs. Thu, the orphanage director, about how Loc came to be at the orphanage. We only got a few more details, but every bit is so valuable to us to be able to tell him later. Two of the families we're with were given photos of their children's birth mothers yesterday, an incredible gift from Mrs. Thu.

Loc's nanny, Phuong, seems to take really good care of him and is so generous with helping me with him. She assures me he sleeps through the night and will go right to sleep the minute I put him down. Okay, lady, I'm going to hold you to that one! Ha ha.