The Ride to Kien Giang

The ride from Saigon to Rach Gia, the capital city in Kien Giang Province was incredible.


The ride was much shorter than it was in 1999. I think some of the time was saved because at least 1 ferry was eliminated with the construction of a new bridge. Some of the rivers in the Mekong Delta area are very wide. When we need to take a ferry, we must all get off of our tour bus and ride the ferry across the river. The bus also gets on the ferry, but often there is a long wait for the buses and cars, so the passengers may be on the first ferry available, but the bus may not make it for 1/2 to 1 hour later. The line for buses returning in the opposite direction had to be at least 2 miles long!

Another reason that the trip was much shorter than 1999 is because of the new highways and bridges. There's more construction going on here than in Milwaukee! About 1/2 of the trip is now a 4 lane highway. In addition to the new highway, bridges across the highway were needed so people could cross from one side to the other, but I did still see several people just run across the road! Yikes - the drivers here can be more than a little crazy, but I'll save that for another time! The last half of the ride was still a 1 to 2 lane road through many small villages. Many of the bridges that cross over very narrow rivers are only big enough for one vehicle at a time so it can get crowded. There are so many rivers in this area that sometimes you may cross 4-5 bridges within a mile!

It was so nice to see so many improvements in the area which is really what this whole trip is about. Most of the changes were where the new highway is locatd, but it looks as if they are planning to continue the new road so hopefully the progress will continue towards Kien Giang which will then help their economy. There is a small island off the coast called Phu Quoc and tourism is increasing tremendously. A few years back I read that it was considered an undiscovered paradise and after we visited there in 2008 I have to agree! The beaches are incredible! Because the island's tourism has grown, there are more people visiting the Kien Giang area and they are hoping that it will provide more job opportunities for the local community.

In addition to the new road being created, there are so many new houses! In the past the older homes that needed much repair far out numbered the newer homes. Now there a piles of bricks that were delivered to new housing sites every couple blocks! They are tearing down the homes that can't be repaired and building new, beautiful, and colorful homes. Unfortunately, my camera battery died before we left Saigon so I couldn't take pictures, but I'll be sure to get them on the trip back on Friday! 
The area around the Catalyst school is changing as well. In 2008 it was in the middle of an open field. Now there are buildings around it which I think are some of the homes that were started as part of our 2008 trip, but I'll find out more later in the day.
We spent the afternoon sorting out donations for each of our teams. I am going to be conducting vision and hearing screenings and we are expecting 700 people on Monday and the bus leaves for the site at 6:00 am!  Since I don't have any medical knowlege and I don't speak Vietnamese, I'm sure it'll be eventful!

It's 3:49 am and jetlag is still causing me to wake up about 1:00 each morning so I'm going to try to get some sleep!