Yesterday we were honoured by a visit to our little house here at An Bang Beach from Miss Hoa, Mr. Thinh and Thuy from VAVA. They came to deliver certificates for each of the donors who now are acknowledged with the Golden Heart Award.
It will give us great pleasure to deliver these certificates to our donors. Some names will be misspelled and one bachelor has suddenly acquired a wife who is recognized on his certificate. But the appreciation is deep and genuine and we know from the past that donors get great pleasure at receiving these certificates when we get home.
Because the VAVA staff speak little English we always need some help on these occasions. Ni from Reaching Out acted as translator for our office visit and yesterday our Vietnamese grandson Sesame (Vung) aged 11 took on the job. How proud we were with his performance. He was diligent in listening carefully and easily translated the messages back and forth. You would think that he was a professional! The VAVA staff were very impressed and Thuy especially greatly admired Sesame's composure. It will be her job to work with foreign donors in the future. We were happy to hear that more help is on its way from Europe.
It was an education for Sesame to learn about micro-loans and how they work. An avid fish breeder and fisherman he was pretty excited to hear that one of the loans helped a fisherman set up his business. The staff brought pictures of some of the loan recipients so Sesame could see this man's operation.
With Sesame's help we also learned that the recipient of two cows will use them for breeding and not dairy.
Bruce and I are also included in the acknowledgments, with certificates and flowers.
What a great job we have. We deliver the funds on behalf of you all and get the hugs, smiles and heartfelt appreciation.
This is shaping up to be a most rewarding Journey of the Heart. The intense heat has broken and the rains have come to cool us and make our work a little more comfortable.
Thank you for sharing your adventure.
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