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.
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.
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