Lance and Kristen Baker

This past weekend the Da Nang Street Children’s Program put on a special two-day camping event for 6 orphanages in the Da Nang area and they invited Kristen and I to join.

Each orphanage or “family” had a special tent that they set up and decorated.  These tents were set up around a main stage which was where most of the events and activities took place.  The whole event just had such a fun vibe to it.  Kristen and I felt like camp counselors and all of the children seemed so happy.

During the day they had cooking contests, drawing contests, sang songs and did fun games for all of the children present.  Because of the heat, there was a lot of down time were we would just sit and hang out with the Promise House kids in the tent.

Lai (left) and Minh (right) made a new friend with this girl from another orphanage.

Afternoon swimming in the river.

In the evening, they had a special sort of talent show.  It started off with the lighting of a huge bonfire and we enjoyed an opening show by a Vietnamese illusionist who was really good!  For the following two hours, various groups from the different orphanages performed songs, dances and fashion shows.  The theme of the weekend had to do with protecting the environment.  The kids from Promise House did a fashion show and wore costumes that were made out of materials that should be recycled rather then thrown on the ground.  We were so proud of them, they looked so good!

Lai and Long in their newspaper outfits.

Waving to the crowd.

Girls from the Dai Loc orphanage performing a dance.

Lai from Promise House also sang a song.

I can confidently say that our night at the camp was the worst night’s sleep I have ever had.  The picture below isn’t that great but it shows the general sleeping condition.  The sides of the house were open, we had no mosquito nets, for safety the overhead light was left on all night and we didn’t have anything to sleep on.  Most of the children didn’t seem to mind and fell asleep rather quickly.  Kristen and I on the other hand… we probably slept about 3 hours total.

This is a picture from earlier in the day during nap time.  Those wooden slats don’t really help with getting a solid night’s sleep.

Despite the rough night, Kristen and I were so glad that we were able to share such a special and unique event with the children.   It was fun to have a lot of down time and sit together enjoying the day and we were so proud to see them up on stage performing.