Evening dinner and show with the kids and families

This evening, we had our farewell dinner with the Vietnamese children and families. Each year, there is the Little Red Fairy contest which is a drawing competition where children compete for money which they can use for their families or for school scholarships. The US consulate and one of her team were at the event. From what I understand, she had heard about the work Catalyst was doing and wanted to come down from HCMC and check it out. She was friendly and praised Catalyst for the direct efforts of the organization.

The show included a song from each of our Catalyst teams which were written by the Frisch family. The songs are clever and in English so I don’t think the Vietnamese kids have any idea what they said, but the point was to put us all up on stage for the amusement of the children even if they couldn’t understand. There was also a “fashion show” by the young adult men and women which was a little odd as it didn’t seem like any of them actually wanted to be doing this. I think this must be some tradition as every year there has been a fashion show. Not sure I get this. The highlight of the show to me was some lovely dance performances by some of the Vietnamese school age children. Throughout the whole evening, the DJ had the music super, super loud. Caroline kept going up and turning it down to a reasonable loud level, but they just turned it back up. Several of the Catalyst adults went and sat way in the back of the school yard so that they could save their eardrums. Overall, it seemed like the Vietnamese families and children had a great time which was the point.

That night I found a cute little baby with his mom and gave him my Habitat bear. When you donate over a certain level to Habitat for Humanity, you get a cute little stuffed bear. I have several from my own donations and from friends and families who have donated. I like to give them to the children of the houses we have built. I didn’t have a chance to meet the children from the house this year and I heard there were several kids at the house and I only had one bear with me. When I saw this little baby, it seemed like a natural decision. The mom was very thankful and the baby seemed to respond well to the bear. I hope it brings good memories to both over time.

The New Garbage Dump

Catalyst provides financial support, school scholarships and food to a community in Rach Gia who has been living in the garbage dump. Caroline explained to us earlier in the week that the government had closed down the original dump which is near the school and housing we built for them (see my earlier blog on March 28). We visited the new dump today. It is more spread out and flat then the old dump and not as many family shacks were visible. We wandered around and took photos and talked to some of the individuals who were living there via our translators. Anna was with us and she shared a few of the stories of the families with us. There was a young couple (21 and 23) who were married a few years ago. She said she was living with her mom in Saigon but had moved to the south to get married. The couple had a young baby and said that this was the only work they could find. Anna didn’t want to pry too much so we don’t know how they fell on hard times. There was also a woman with another small baby who was on her own. While were there, the garbage truck arrived and dumped its load. The families went to work immediately sorting through the garbage and collecting any recyclables they could sell or food they could eat. It is hard to fathom that people have to live this way and there is not another option.

Games with the school kids

During the day today, our Catalyst children played games with the Vietnamese children. They played Tug O’ War which is always a favorite and despite the fact that our American children and physically larger than the Vietnamese children, we consistently lost. The Vietnamese children may look small but they are strong as they don’t spend their days sitting around playing video games.
We then joined them for a very funny (for the spectator) but humiliating (for the players) game of clay pot piñata. This works exactly like the piñata we know but you swing at a clay pot which has a prize in it. Our Catalyst kids were not good at this at all, but it was very amusing too watch. Somehow the Vietnamese kids were better. Maybe this is a game they play often?
And then came the next game, which we knew the American children would lose at…..catch the chicken….literally. We will definitely be hiding these photos from PETA. It was very chaotic as would be expected with a game of catch the chicken. I wondered how many of these chickens would become dinner after we played with them this afternoon. I would be reminded again as I filled out my international customs cards and declared I had not been on a form or had contact with any animals besides domestic dogs and cats. I didn’t catch the chicken (or even try) so I don’t think this is a lie.

Cooking Competition

When we arrived in the morning, there were about 12 Vietnamese women setting up the kitchen area for cooking. They spent the entire day preparing and cooking the meals. As this was right next to the playground construction area, we got to see the whole process. It started with deck ducks and chickens that needed to be plucked and gutted and cut up and then seasoned and cooked. This was quite a long process and we got front row seats to all the blood, guts, etc. I really do think I would be a vegetarian if I had to see my meat prepared. There was also pork mush and many vegetables and rice and noodles to be cooked. Sandy helped them prepare and cook for several hours and loved it. The whole time they used the water from the hose to clean and prepare the food and dishes. All of us made a mental note to not eat anything that was not fully cooked tonight as the unfiltered water in Vietnam is not safe to drink or wash your food. And not to mention all the meat and poultry that was left sitting around for hours outside before it was cooked. It made my stomach hurt just thinking about it. I didn’t eat lunch that day as I just couldn’t stomach anything. I had a cliff bar and almonds once I got back to the hotel.

We found out later that night that there was a cooking contest between the teams of women. They won Catalyst money for their families. I am pretty sure we paid for the food for the evening too as they were serving us as well as all the Catalyst sponsored Vietnamese children. There was soooo much food and I felt so bad that I could not eat most of it. At dinner they sat us with the Vietnamese children and we made sure they ate as much as they wanted of everything. The food looked and smelled so good and there was so much food left over, but I am sure the families will eat it. I did try some sweet potato curry which was excellent, a small half bowl of rice and three small fried egg rolls (with ??? inside). Unfortunately, by focusing on eating the one thing which I knew had been cooked (the egg rolls), I ended up eating the one thing cooked in peanut oil!! This is why I carry benedryl. My throat was feeling tight and I was wheezing a little which clued me in to the fact that the egg rolls must have been cooked in peanut oil. I took one benedryl and felt ok after 5 mins so I did not panic. I told one of our doctors so she could keep an eye on me if things got worse. I do carry an Epipen with me at all times on this trip, but I have luckily never had to use it.

Final Playground Installation

Today’s project for the worksite was to put the playground in place and hang the remaining shade sails. We had requested the night before that some metal plates be welded to the base of the playground so that there would be a way to bolt the playground to the concrete. Luckily this actually happened and someone showed up mid morning with a cement drill to attach the playground to the cement. Sometimes, things work out as planned in Vietnam…..rarely, but it can happen. When we arrived at about 8:30 in the morning, there was already a large (15’ x 30’) stage set up for this evening’s event. The stage covered about a 3rd of the playground area, but was luckily far enough forward that we could still put in the playground and the sails. If it wasn’t for that sail pole we had in place, they surely would have put the stage right on top of where the playground belonged. We were able to complete the playground on time with all shade sails in place. Also, while he was out getting chain and bolts yesterday, Dwight saw a wood ships wheel and got the idea to put it on the play structure so the kids could spin it. This took some creative thinking as it needed to be attached to the play structure in a secure way that would not leave sharp bolts in the path of children. With the help of some of the Vietnamese helpers, his idea became reality and we were happy to see many kids playing with the wheel later that day. Dwight also searched the stores in town to find some type of padding to put at the bottom on the slides. He found rubber padding that is about 2-3” thick. Unfortunately, it will not last long with the weather, but at least it will be in place for a little while and may prevent some cracked heads or broken arms. Despite our nature to protect our children in America, it became pretty clear that safety is left to one self here. See other blog entry that mentions playing Tug o’ War on cement!

Market at the school

This year, the school team hosted a Market for the community we support. The market was set up outside at the school and included not only the donations of toys, clothes, toiletries, school supplies we had brought with us, but also kitchen cooking and serving items and other basic household goods. The prices we offered were below that which could have been found at the “real” market in town. Over the past months, families and the children that Catalyst supports have been earning vouchers for tasks such as good behavior in school for the kids, or helping out at school by the family members, etc. The vouchers represented Vietnamese money (Dong). Those with vouchers had first access to the market and could use their voucher money to choose whatever they wanted. Once the vouchers had been used, the general community was allowed in to make purchases with real Dong. Our Catalyst kids were the shop sellers. I heard that our kids were very strict about making sure that the right amount was being paid for in vouchers or Dong. Kristi was sharing with me that it became a madhouse once we put everything on “sale”. This was a creative idea which catalyst had not done in the past. It provided goods of their choice for free or discounted to the community and kids and raises some money for Catalyst. I learned later that there was a situation during the market where some of the Eurekez (Catatlyst hires them to be our translators) staff were taking the money received from market customers and spending it to buy things they wanted. Magali and Caroline had a talking to them of course as soon as they knew.

House Team

In the afternoon, I went over to the home team to see the progress. To get to the house you had to go down the road with the bridge and then turn right immediately after the bridge on to a small path along the river. The path led to a “monkey” bridge which is a hand-made bridge built out of tree branches, etc. It was pretty sturdy compared to some I have seen but I still decided to walk on the cross beam to make sure it would hold my American weight. The house we are building is tucked behind another house on the path. It is a brick house covered with stucco as is almost all the buildings in Vietnam. I guess this is because there is not a lot of wood available or it is too hot and humid for wood. Not sure what the reason is, but they are all made with hallow bricks and covered and secured with stucco. Our team had built up the walls about 4 feet over the past few days and they continued to build from unstable scaffolding (made of tree branches again). It is tedious work with little shade and only spaces for a few bodies as the rooms of the house are very small. There were also a few “skilled” locals who were directing our team and working on the window forms. It is unlikely that we will be able to finish the house in the time we have, but the donation money will provide the remaining funds to finish the house after we are gone. The house is being built for a woman and her two youngest children (age 2 and 4). Her husband left them a few years ago and although she has older children (17+) also, they are in Saigon trying to find work.

Mass Cement Production

We poured the cement for the last pole in the morning and then continued to pour cement through the yard. The Vietnamese students who are running the cement mixer decided they did not want to pour in sections anymore which meant no more forms. I finished forming the last row we had started and then we agreed to not frame the rest of the yard (about 50% remaining to complete). Once they started pouring a very large section, they realized they had poured too high. Now they understood the reason for the molds and the plumb lines. Sometimes you just have to let people do it their way and find the mistakes themselves. Once this happened, we began running plumb lines (but not frames) to make sure the cement was flat and/or slopped towards the drain we had designed in the back of the playground. A few hours later, when they were having problems with getting the cement the right thickness because it was not staying in place, they asked us to build to long forms for the remaining yard. The sections were still twice as large as the original ones we were building, but it was amusing to me to see the progression of thinking. We got the whole yard filled with cement today.

The concrete is a mixture of small rocks, sand, concrete mix and water. I shoveled rocks all day from the large pile into buckets which could be lifted to be dumped in to the cement mixer. It was not constant work, but it was labor intensive. Good thing I had all the practice from shoveling snow off the deck through the winter.

About 10 minutes after we finished pouring the last of the cement, the rain storm came through and it poured for about 10 minutes. Any chance we had of having smooth cement at this point was now ruined by the little dents made by the rain. Oh well, it was good enough for Vietnamese standards as the students didn’t seem to be bothered by the rain at all. We put up one shade sail before leaving the work site at 4pm. A nice luke warm shower was a nice reward for another day of hot, hard work. Dinner = same, same with fish heads and unidentifiable meat with noodles and rice. Once again, we headed to Yumi Café after dinner and this time Jack and I started off downstairs and then moved up top and met Dave Virgil and Dwight.

Medical Team - Pharmacy Concerns

I had a few minutes with Anna before dinner and shared today’s Medical team drama with me. Supposedly, someone who was at our clinic yesterday got sick (vomiting and diarrhea) from the drugs our Pharmacy provided and they called the police to claim that we were trying to poison the community. So some officials came and watched the Pharmacy for a while, not saying who they were or what was happening. Our team did not notice of course because there are always a ton of people standing around watching us anyway. Eventually they explained why they were there and the confiscated all the medicines that the Vietnamese doctors had brought with them yesterday. I guess it was one of those drugs that had been provided. Then they insisted that we give over all medications that had an expiration date in 2010 or earlier. That meant we lost the majority of our medications. Somehow the officials were talked in to giving back any medication which expired after June 2010. Caroline and Anna dealt with the officials on all of this. I thought about Delores (my sister) and how she would have reacted last year when she was the lead Pharmacist on the team. She would have had a fit! Of course without being able to speak Vietnamese she would not have been able to give the officials the “talking to” she would have in English. I am sure Delores would have been very, very upset and let them know it somehow as this would have drove her crazy! Anna was pretty annoyed about the situation too as should be expected.

Del - The Pharmacy was an open air section of the building this year. You would have appreciated that part. Jo and Christi worked in the Pharmacy again this year.

Volunteers in Vietnam

We have 2-3 Vietnamese engineering students helping us this week. I heard that their professor asked for volunteers to skip school this week to help the US volunteers on this project. They have been the ones working the cement mixer and smoothing out the cement. They definitely know what they are doing. On the first day we also had about 10 other students come by for about 2 hours to help us dig up the yard. As we only had tools for about 8 people at a time, we took turns which worked out well in the heat. We have also had some random locals come by and help. Phan explained that the locals and students really like to help Catalyst as they can see the results of our work. The school and attached library were built in 2007 and the nearby housing was built with a joint agreement between Catalyst and Habitat for Humanity. Apparently most in country NGOs have to go through the government and about 50% of the fundraising goes to the government and not to those in needs. Also, he explained that most of the local help is in the form of money directly to families. Although this helps temporarily, the results are not visible for the community to see and the results are not sustainable. He used the analogy of giving someone fish vs. teaching someone to fish.

This is a picture of one of our captians, Dave Schweir. He was in charge of the playground site and all of us workers. No wonder he looks tired and hot in this photo. Thanks Dave for being an amazing leader!

Hi ho Hi ho its off to work we go

Another day at the work site. Load the bus at 7:30 for breakfast – “same, same” meaning same time, same restaurant, same breakfast. That is one of the few disadvantages of traveling with a large group instead of on my own as there are not that many restaurants that can fit 80 people and get everyone served in 30 mins. Therefore, there is not much variety.

Our job for the day was similar to the first day but more cement pouring then shoveling and grading. The team got 3 squares of cement poured the first day, but it was slow as we were mixing the cement by hand. The Vietnamese would mix the cement on the ground and then we would shovel it in to the wheelbarrows and pour it. We were able to get a cement mixer from somewhere but the town had a power outage for most of the afternoon so we could not get any electricity. We started the day off by laying out the shade sails again to figure out where to put the poles. Before we could pour more cement we needed to know where the poles needed to be placed. The poles are 5 meters high and will be used to tie off the sun shades. Hard to describe, but if all goes well there will be photos to explain in a few days. Funny thing was that they didn’t seem to fit the same way that they had the day before. Odd. So, we moved them around until we found a configuration that we thought would provide shade for the yard and leave an opening for the towers of the playground. Once we had the pole locations identified several team members dug 4-5 foot deep and 2 feet wide holes. That was tough work.

I got put to work building the forms for the cement sections. This involved a lot of measuring, plumb lines and hammers and my tendency to want perfection and precision was appreciated by Dave S who is one of our team leaders. He also strives for the best we can do. We got 2 and a half rows completed. With the cement mixer working today, it was a challenge to keep up the forms with the cement making team. We had a limited amount of material for forms so we would have to wait for a section of concrete to form enough to be able to pull out the used form and put the form in the next section. Besides building forms there was still a lot of digging, weeding and grading the rest of the yard to prepare for cement. Our team put in three of the four poles and angled them so that we would have the proper angle for tension of the shade sails.

Sometime during the day someone was instructed to go buy rope to attach the shade sails. They came back with rope that was about 2 inches in diameter. Humph….something did not translate well on that request. I think asking for strong rope without also clarifying that it needed to be thin rope to fit through the eye holes, was the mistake. So, we knew there would be a few more hardware store runs tomorrow. Of course there is nothing like a Home Depot or Lowe’s here. We have found some small shops that have supplies with the help of the Vietnamese local students.

We finished pouring concrete for two and a half rows of the yard, which is about 1/3 of the yard. We quit at about 4:30 so we would have time to go back to the hotel and shower before dinner. This time I was smarter and took my shoes off before I went in to the hotel so I did not dump sand and dirt all over the hotel room.

The hotel in Kien Giang

As previously mentioned, there are three of us that are staying at a hotel two doors down from the rest of the group. I guess it ended up being good for us as we are hearing about people not getting hot water, not having their rooms cleaned and not getting towels. Our room is pretty basic and the beds are ridiculously hard but the rooms are cleaned each day (even with my piles of playground sand everywhere) and we get clean towels each day and our laundry back each morning. Sounds like a 5 star hotel compared to the main hotel. Anna and I have kept the air conditioning on each night and by 3am each night I am freezing as there is only one very thin comforter and no other blankets. I am not sure why I don’t get up and turn down the AC. Perhaps it’s the hard bed which makes it nearly impossible to get up from bed as I am so sore……of course being sore from the work site isn’t making this hard bed any better. Oh well, at least I can sleep almost anywhere and the construction/home team doesn’t have to be on the bus until 7:30. Sorry medical team.

Day 1 at the work site

Ouch, I’m sore. Today was our first full day at the work site. Our primary task for the day was to shovel out 3-4 inches of dirt from a 30’ x 50’ area which was the old playground. When we arrived, there were no shovels so we sent most of the people to the home to start laying brick for the house and a few of us stayed at the playground and strategized about how to put up the sun shades after the playground is assembled. It felt like a game of Tangoes.

But I get ahead of myself, we loaded the buses at 7:30am and drove to breakfast. There was a small menu we could order from and I ordered Café Sua (black coffee with condensed milk) and rice noodles with fish and shrimp. I think my body may go in to shock as I don’t usually drink caffeine or milk, and definitely not condensed milk. Oh well, I am doing ok so far. It is nearly impossible with our menus to not each breads either as every meal has noodles, bread and/or rice. I am trying to limit the breads intake but not completely as I would starve if I did that.

We arrived at the school at about 8:30am. The “shovels” arrived an hour more later and they had to be assembled. Hum….The shovel, hoe, pick parts were made of metal but they needed to be attached to the wood handles with screws or nails. I was desperately wishing for a Home Depot or Lowe’s at this point. Mental note – great idea for opening a new business in Vietnam. The tools lasted most of the day, but as they broke (handles snapped in half or shovels fell off of handles) we sent them over to the pile and the Vietnamese just put them back together again. Not a very efficient tool. After lunch, someone showed up with better tools (large Hoes). Yes, the quote of the day was “the large Ho’s saved the day”. Funny, but so true. Those hoes made the job so much faster!
As we dug out the grass and dirt we hauled it away in wheelbarrows and dumped it in a ravine near the school. As we got areas cleared and graded, then the frames for the cement areas were built by Dave S. We were able to get 90% of the yard cleared and two sections of cement poured by 4:30, quitting time.

Dinner was at the same place as the night before. I think it is the only restaurant in the area that can fit all 80 of us. At dinner, Caroline (Executive Director of Catalyst) gives brief summaries of the day and instructions for the next day. She announced that the medical team saw over 700 patients today with the help of 25 local Vietnamese doctors. The school team which consists of 29 volunteers under the age of 15 and 8 adults and teens, sorted all the donations and prepared for camp activities with 250 local Vietnamese kids. The school team will be hosting games and crafts for the local kids as well as distributing toys, clothes and food to the local families.

Drinks at Yumi’s Café again. I had a great talk with Phan who is from Holland, born to Vietnamese parents. We talked a lot about the difference in cultures between the US and Europe. Smart guy.

Prep day at the school

It was 3pm when we arrived and we split in to our teams to sort medicines (medical team), sort clothes and toys (school/distribution team), and plan the playground (Construction/home team). I am on the playground construction team.
We measured the playground equipment and grass area and drew a diagram of the new playground. I was very happy to see that we are assembling a manufactured playground and we do not have to build it from scratch as we had suspected. There is an old, smaller play set on the grass area which has large holes in the slides and an old swing set with no swings. We took out the old play set.

After some basic announcements from Caroline and our team leaders, we went to the hotel at about 5pm. The whole team of 80+ people except three of us are at the same hotel. I am in other hotel with my roommate Anna and JP. I guess some people decided they wanted single rooms instead of sharing with a roommate and the hotel was short by two rooms. Since Anna, JP and I have no children or other family members on the trip, we got to be the winner. Also, Anna and JP both speak Vietnamese so if I need anything they can help me. Anna is really sweet. She is from Minneapolis and just finished her schooling to be a Pharmacist. She is our dedicated Pharmacist for the trip, which was my sister’s role last time. She was in Vietnam in 2007 with a college trip. On that trip, the team helped build the fence and the library at the school. This is her first time on a Catalyst medical Aid expedition. She is on the medical team of course. Our room is basic and has a twin bed and a full bed. She picked the twin so I have the bigger bed. The beds are very hard. I feel like I am sleeping on the ground it is so hard. And there is only one thin comforter with no sheets or other blankets. We have been running the air conditioning and I have been sleeping in my sweater as it has been cold in the middle of the night. I suppose we could figure out how to adjust the AC, but we haven’t bothered yet.

We met the bus for dinner at 6:30pm. Dinner was the usual Hot pot with fish balls and veggies, yummy fish, fried sugar cane, beef in greens and rice. We ordered cold Heineken beer also. After dinner, a group of about 10 of us went to have drinks at a new bar/café called Zumi about a block away. It is nice and the weather is perfect at about 8pm. We had Tiger beers and sat and talked about past Aid trips and all sorts of other topics. I finally felt tired and was ready for a real night of sleep after 2 days with only about 4 hours of sleep.

Arrival in Rach Gia at Catalyst School

We arrived at Rach Gia, Kien Giang at the Catalyst school. This is the school that Catalyst built 5 years ago for the children living in the garbage dump. I learned from Caroline that the garbage dump has been closed for about a year now, which means that the families living there had two choices: 1) They could stay and continue to pay rent, but were not allowed to work at the dump anymore to help pay for the rent. This meant if they stayed they had to find other work in the community somehow to pay the rent. It is very hard for these families to find work as many of them are undocumented in the sense that they do not have official papers from their ancestry. This could be because several generations ago they immigrated to the country or just because someone along the line lost the paperwork in a fire or some other way. Despite all of this, some of the families have chosen to stay at this garbage dump to be near the school so their children can continue to go to school in hopes of a better life. 2) Another option is to move to the new dump which is 30 km away from the school. This makes it much more difficult to continue to go to school. But with a Catalyst bicycle and the Catalyst scholarship money which pays for school and food for the family, some of the families have chosen this option. As always, the children have to stay in school for Catalyst to continue to pay the scholarships and provide the food. If they miss school, they are kicked out of the Catalyst program.

March 28 – Travel Day

I didn’t sleep much at all last night, but I feel totally awake so I guess it doesn’t matter. I really think the Malaria meds have me wired. I did contact my doctor ahead of time and ask how it would react with my Thyroid meds and she said it would be fine. Time will tell. So, it was no problem to wake up at 5:40am after 2 hours of sleep. A quick shower and then dropped my bags down to the lobby. Breakfast was on the 10th floor overlooking the city. I sat with a woman named Christy (not Chrysty from 2008 and 2006) and her Vietnamese son Ashton (age 11) and Dr. Chris who is in charge of our medical team.

Dr. Chris shared the story of her Saturday adventure. She and one of the other volunteers took a taxi across town to get to the Catalyst press conference. The driver insisted that they keep their backpacks in the trunk. When they got out and got there backpacks, the women at the shop nearby started pointing and making a huge fuss as the cab drove off. They had seen the driver take out a laptop from Chris’s backpack. Luckily, the women from the shop had the information on the cab driver and wrote everything down. Chris talked to Caroline and Chris was sent with one of the Eurekaz translators to the taxi headquarters to see what they could do. The cops arrived and they interrogated the taxi driver. Eventually he left and said he did not take it but thought he knew where it was. He came back with the laptop and demanded a reward for “recovering” the laptop. Chris ended up having to give him about US$10 as a reward. It was a 6 hour adventure. So, I will be making sure I am extra careful about the laptop. I brought the cable lock to lock it down in the hotel while we are there. We are in the same hotel all week so that will make it easier. There is the chance that they could cut the cable, but I will have to take that chance.

We are on the bus to Kiang Giang now. It is a 6-8 hour ride depending on traffic even though it is only about 150 miles. The roads are small here and are often one way each way. We stopped 2 hours in at a nice rest stop and enforced the “Sarah” rule of everyone goes to the bathroom even if they don’t think they need to. The Sarah story is from 2004. The short version is that she ended up having to go to the bathroom in a farm house pig pen (literally).

Arrival in HCMC, Vietnam

I slept on the 2 hour flight to HCMC. Upon arrival, I waited in the usual slow line for passport control and then collected my luggage and headed to customs. They scanned my luggage (they scan everyone’s luggage) and then I walked through with no questions. I have never had any problems with customs – I think it helps that I am usually traveling by myself and looking sort of like a back packer. Arriving in HCMC is familiar now as I have been here four times, but it is still so different then America that it is like arriving for the 1st time again. As it was 11pm, the crowds outside the airport were small for typical Vietnamese arrivals, but still 3-4 rows deep of people waiting for friends and relatives. The whole family and distant family seem to show up for anyone arriving. As I followed the gated path through the sea of Vietnamese people, I saw the familiar and friendly Catalyst sign and then I knew I was in safe hands. Catalyst contracts with Eurekaz tourist agency for all of our logistics and they are responsible for meeting all of us at the airport. There were supposedly 3 other volunteers on the flight with me but I had not recognized anyone. They put me in a taxi with one of the Eurekaz staff and they stayed to look for the other volunteers.

Taking a taxi from the airport to District 1 in HCMC feels like the initiation phase and welcome back to Vietnam. Despite how many times I have seen the swarms of traffic of motor scooters and taxis and tuk tuks, it still feels like an experiment in physics as everyone just keeps moving and judging how the others are moving to that no two vehicles end up in the same spot at the same time (crash). My taxi driver was a maniac in American taxi terms, but not so bad for Vientam. Despite closing my eyes a few times on “close” passes, we arrived at the hotel with no dents or scraps. Success!

Check in to the hotel was simple and I was shown to my small, but clean room. I noted that Caroline was in room 903 so I stopped by to get instructions – luggage in the lobby by 6:30 and breakfast done by 7:00 to load the bus. It was 11:30pm Vietnam time. I sorted the goods in my suitcases more so that I could get rid of one large duffel bag of just supplies. I was about to go to sleep and then decided to go cash money at the front desk. There were about 6 Catalyst volunteers just arriving and I joyfully recognized and greeted several. Now to remember everyone’s name is going to be a challenge. Dave Virgil was there and he and I agreed to meet up in 20 mins to go have a beer. Yes, it was midnight already, but as Dave said to me, “I am only here for a short period and I want to take advantage of all the time I have here”.

Dave and I met in the lobby and walked a block to an intersection with several large bars full of small tables filled with a mix of Vietnamese and tourists from all over based on the accents we heard. Dave is father to Maya and Leam. Leam was adopted from south Vietnam at the age of 5 months and Maya was adopted from Cambodia. Maya and Leam and their mom Dorothy stayed home this year due to finances, but their family is very committed to Catalyst since their trip with Catalyst in 2008. I remember hanging out with Maya a lot on the last trip. She was my buddy for several days on the 2008 trip. Dave and I had 333 (Vietnamese beer) and Tiger Beers (Thailand) and enjoyed our conversations about Vietnam and US relations and adoption. After 2 beers it was about 3:00am and we decided it was time to power nap before the 6am wake up call.

Flight to Hong Kong

Flight to Hong Kong

Our flight finally left the ground at 3pm. I had a lovely Chinese-American couple next to me (live in Texas) who got up often which was nice as that meant I got out of my window seat at least 4 times on the 14 hour flight. There were four movies on the flight, and I watched three of them. All three were all pretty serious movies focusing on the challenges of parenting and death.
By the 3rd movie I was seriously wishing for a good comedy about something silly or an action movie. I guess I should have watched the 1st movie which was “Mr. Fantastic Fox”. They actually fed us 3 times too if you can call airplane food being fed. The views over Russia were really amazing. It was a very clear day and I could see where the ice was breaking off in to the lakes and streams. I tried to take a bunch of photos out the airplane window. Overall the flight was long but uneventful which is good. I slept for about 2 hours. I should be more tired but I think my malaria medications are kicking in – they always seem to make me hyper.

We arrived in Hong Kong late as expected. My flight for HCMC leaves here at 9pm which means I will arrive in Vietnam at about midnight. Hopefully Catalyst in country staff are checking the flight schedules and will be there to pick me up. Caroline is always on top of these things so I am not concerned. And if I’m lucky, no one in Vietnam security will be awake enough at midnight to harass me about my luggage. Looks like I am supposed to line up now to get on my flight. There is a young girl (age 4 maybe) traveling with her family and she has the cutest roller luggage – It looks like a penguin!! I am going to try to get a picture without looking like a child stalker.

United Airlines Delays Flight

Here I am at SFO. In many ways it seems odd that I am headed back to Vietnam already - it seemed so many months away for so long. But, wasn't I just in Vietnam? Was that really 2 years ago? Am I sure I packed everything I needed to pack? Oh well, ready or not, here I go. Airport arrival was easy this morning thanks to my parents who picked me up and drove me to SFO. Love them! We didn't even have traffic this morning on the Bay Bridge. My two large bags passed check in with no problem. Weight limit is 50 lbs each and they weighed in at 47.5 and 43 lbs. But I don't think I could have fit much else in without having the zippers break on me. Security was easy with no long lines and I found my last Decaf, Soy Latte for the next 10+ days. I expect that I can get one in Australia and NZ so it is really just Vietnam where I am coffee free these days as they do not have decaf.

So, here I sit waiting for United Airlines to swap out the plane which apparantly has no air conditioning. I guess flying 300+ people in a closed in box for 14 hours is a bad idea. So, I can happily wait an hour for a plane with air conditioning. Hopefully, they will get the food and luggage moved over too : )

I am really looking forward to being in Vietnam again and spending the days working to make lives better for the families and children we support. We will be in Rach Gia the whole time. That is the community that lives in the garbage dump near the Cambodian border. I was there on my last trip with Catalyst and I am hoping to see some progress in the school kids (particularly their English) and the housing situation.

I am on the construction team this year. Our two main projects are to build a brick house (3 little pigs comes to mind) on the edge of the river and build a playground (including cement foundation) for the school. I asked to be on the playground team. As typical on these trips in Vietnam, we do not really know what this means until we get there. Some of the team is already in Vietnam and is looking for the right tools, etc. that we could not bring with us. But we won't know the real state of the situation until we arrive in Rach Gia on Sunday. So, Sunday night will be the construction team meeting for re-planning and setting the tasks for the week. Of course this meeting will be fueled by 333 (vietnamese beer). If we are lucky, the main supplies we need (gravel, lumber and sheet metal) will have already been delivered to the school. If yes, then "all" we have to do is figure out how to build a playground out of a pile of gravel (for cement) wood and sheet metal. Sounds like a Bob's Building Brigade adventure doesn't it. Wish I had some Bob's with me here. You would all love this!

But first, I need to get to Vietnam. Even if this flight is delayed longer then an hour, I am pretty sure we can make up the time on the 14 hour flight to Hing Kong. I have no idea how long the layover is in Hong Kong, but I suspect the plane to Vietnam will wait as I would suspect there are 100+ people on this plane that will be continuing on to Vietnam. Original schedule was for arrival in Vietnam at about 10pm Vietnam time. The bus to Rach Gia leaves early morning the next day so if the flight is delayed less then 7-8 hours, I should be fine. If for some reason, I am more delayed, then the adventure will begin as Catalyst in country staff figure out how to get me and my luggage to Rach Gia. We had this situation several years ago when someone missed a flight. I don't remember exactly how we caught them up to the rest of the group, but it was an adventure. Maybe I should have left a day earlier as this is cutting it close. Oh well, it will all work out someway - it always does. That's part of the adventure.

I am already super glad I brought my computer so that I can sit here and blog and not have to type on a blcakberry or iTouch (which I didn't end up buying). Hopefully I will be able to connect to wifi in Vietnam somewhere in Rach Gia. Our Director thought we would be able to, but as mentioned, things in Vietnam do not always turn out as planned. Worse case, I will type everything anyway and upload it all when I get to Australia.

Time to go check on the flight status.

Slideshow help?

Does anyone know how to make the slideshow display my photos instead of random photos? I am new to this blogspot.

Packing for Vietnam

I am less then 72 hours away from leaving for Vietnam. I have spent the last few weeks buying, collecting and organizing about 100 lbs of donations and personal goodies for the Aid Expedition. After many fundraisers and baby blanket sales, I exceeded my personal goal of $1,000 and a lot of in-kind goodies. Thanks to everyone for the amazing support! Now I just have to find some way to cram all of this in to my two suitcases / backpacks and try not to exceed the airlines weight limits.

Back to packing for me.....there will be more exciting posts once the trip starts.