Her name is Huyen Thu, 5 years old and she's even more beautiful than many other children that I've seen. Her eyes are brilliant and sparkling, her smile is so gorgeous that I just couldn't take my eyes off. I just fell in love with her at the very first sight. You may think that I exaggerate somewhat and that children are all cute, lovely and adorable, but I'm impressed because she's the victim of Agent Orange (AO), the deadly toxic that I've heard about thousand times before. I even saw a lot of photos of defected bodies or faces of those who are seriously affected by AO. Frankly, they can't be called "bodies" or "faces" because every human features are all messed up and disabled in some ways ( I don't mean any discrimination). That's why I was surprised when I saw this little girl coming toward me with such a glittering face and offering me her candy.
I could hardly believe that she's like those defected people that I saw on TV, disabled body and mental illness. However, I have to say she's affected somewhat, though not seriously like the ones I've seen before, maybe she's the least serious case. Then, I have a vision that she will not end up with being useless and waiting day after day for her lifetime to pass. When I saw her writing Japanese alphabet, I was shock. She's 5 years old, affected by deadly AO and she learnt how to write those characters so quickly. As far as I'm concerned, there was a volunteer group from Japan came to Friendship Village for about 1 month, maybe Thu has learnt the alphabet from them. Though she simply recalls the characters and writes them down unconsciously, she's still amazing.
I have to say sorry because I spent too much time talking about Huyen Thu. I was so impressed by her that I stayed with her most of the time while my classmates strolling around and exploring other places. Of course there are many children living in the village, they're all cute, lovely and special in their own ways. They smiled all the time, some of them were very generous when they gave me pictures that they drew by themselves. I did have wonderful time being around them and started missing them, especially Thu, right after I left this village.
There is only one thing that I wonder, the director of the village said that those children were allowed to stay there 2 or 3 years. After that, they will come back to their houses and start supporting family. It's gonna be a good way to educate and train as many children as possible. However, for a small child like Huyen Thu, after 3 or even 4 years, she's not old enough to learn necessary skills to earn her living. Whether sending Thu back to family is good for her or not, I still can't find the satisfactory answer, though.
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