Monday March 5

Today Muriel, Susan, Dr. Hang, The´, Craig, Tien, Binh, &  Kha went to visit the pre-school that Dr. Hang had told us need help buying playground equipment.  We toured the three classrooms and the common area.  When we toured the playground we realized that they did need new equipment, but not just the two pieces that we were looking at but all four.  Not being in our budget, we had to start looking at alternatives. 

Slide set that needs to be replaced, it is rusting away.

On our look we also noticed that the tables and chairs that they used for class and lunch were very old wooden and in bad need of replacing.  They showed us what they have been replacing them with, folding tables and metal and plastic chairs.  These cost about $40 US for a set of two chairs and one table and have a 3-7 year life.  This like most steal does not hold up long due to the weather conditions here. One other thing is the roof in one classroom needs replaced very soon, that will cost around $5000US (more on that later).

Newer Tables             Old tables

Lunch

After a long discussion with the Buddhist nun we were then invited to have lunch.  Once we finished lunch we headed to the company that makes the playground equipment.  It was a short 15 minute ride that was on the way home.  We toured the factory and asked a lot of questions.  We then went to visit two schools that had bought some of their equipment to see how it looked and held up to the weather conditions in this area.  After two visits and talking to some of the teachers we were not sure what to do, as the equipment might last 2-5 years if we were lucky.  So, we went back to the drawing board.  We decided to return home and sit down and talk about our options. 

We discused at length and over several phone calls to the manufacture and looking at our budget we picked out two pieces, however that left the table and chairs.  To the rescue The´ offered to donate the funds needed to cover them.  We then placed the order and now only have to wait to the end of the month to see the results.

Later that day we took a tour of the Imperial City. 













On the way home we stopped at the Buddhist Temple that does the Silk embroidery.  The girls are between 16-27 years old.  They are taught starting with the simple projects and then move up to the harder ones as they get better.  One print can take up to 2 months to complete, depending on the print.  Here is a video of one of the girls at work she has been doing this for 7 years.