The School Team . . .

This year the school team was divided into 3 groups, the painters, the market, and the food distributors.  Brianna was glad to be on the painting team.  Little did she know, however, that the team was to paint the entire school!

The market team sorted out the many donated items and had to sort them out and create a market for the local community.  Throughout the school year, the students earned vouchers that they could use to shop at the market that our kids put together!  For many local families, this may be the only shopping they do all year.  

The food distribution team did just that.  My friend Martha is on the school team and here is what she wrote.  "Today we had food distribution.  Each month Catalyst distributes food to people in their community.  The food consists of rice, beans, oil, noodles, milk and formula.  The amount given will last a family of 4 for one month.  Many people from surronding areas arrived, thinking they would also be receiving food.  We said we could give them all but rice and oil, they were not happy about that.  One mother with a 9 month old and a 6-7 year old was in tears, she just wanted to feed her children.  It's hard to watch.  If we give food away for everyone, the program doesn't work.  The idea is to educate the children and teach the parents, for that they earn vochures for food and other items.  If a child scores well on tests and gets good grades, they get vochures.  If parents attend special trainings on the weekend, participate in community events, they get vochures.  If they don't do any of the above, no vouchers.  It's the give a man a fish, eats for a day, give a man a fishing pole he eats everyday philosophy.  Even knowing all of that it's hard to watch a mom have nothing to feed her children."  


The school team also had a lot of fun!  Since we were in Rach Gia for the entire trip, the kids got to play with the kids at the school and they seemed to really appreciate each other!  

  

  

The 3rd picture shows the chickens used in the "catch the chicken game."  

I understand that the Vietnamese American kids didn't do so well in that one!

Delays in the Blog

I forgot to mention that Brianna and I had been trying to post while we were in Vietnam, but we had trouble getting onto the blog site.  We had decent Internet access in our hotel, but there are some sites that are difficult to get on no matter when you try!  Those of course, are the sites where free thinking takes place!  In 2008 I was told to try posting in the middle of the night.  It sounds crazy, but due to the time change, I was often awake by about 3:00 am and what can you really do at that time!  Well, that's the time when there are fewer censors working in Vietnam and it is easier to get on those sites.  In 2010, I was often awake in the middle of the night, but I guess the censors were too!
I didn't think of it until this weekend, but I could have emailed the blogs to Phil and asked him to post the pictures and text from home!  This year may not have worked out too good since he was at home battling pneumonia, but not I have a plan for 2012.  Now that I am back on U.S. soil . . . no problem sending these out!  Now though, the jet lag is killing me!  Saturday, Phil and Brianna were out of the house.  I went to bed about 11:45 am for a quick nap even though I wasn't tired.  I thought it would allow me to stay awake past 9:00 pm.  Unfortunately, I didn't wake up until 5:00 pm!

The Building Team . . .

During this Aid Expedition, the building team is working at 2 sites.  Half of the team is building a playground at the Catalyst Foundations school.  The other half of the team is beginning the construction of a house only a few blocks away from the school and where our medical team set up.  I was able to see the construction taking place on the playground daily, and I had intended to see the home construction, but we were so busy at the medical site that I didn't get there until the last day.

 The playground started as a grass covered area and the team had to dig up all of the grass before they could pour the cement.  I don't know how they did it considering it was between 95-103 degrees each day.  I was very fortunate since the medical team was in the shade all day, and the heat still got to me on Monday and Brianna didn't feel well later in the week too!  We had quite a few people on the building team who were ill from either heat or food related illnesses, but they kept going like Energizer Bunnies!  

  

  

This is a picture of when the project was almost finished.  The team was in the process of installing the "sails" that will provide shade!  We had a ribbon cutting ceremony at night when the local community cooked dinner for us.  More details on that later!

This is a picture of the family that will move into the new house that is being built and they are standing in front of their current house.

To get to the building site, everybody needed to cross the monkey bridge!That means everybody and some of the supplies needed to cross over the narrow bridge.  We may actually be considered fortunate since in 2008 I saw monkey bridges that were only several inches wide!  It was amazing to see how easily the kids ran across those tiny bridges.  I'm sure Brianna could do it since they are about as wide as a balance beam, but I don't think she could do it while carrying a 40lb bag of rice.  At least not without a little practice!

The larger supplies came by boat.  

The walls are literally going up around one of the new residents!

When I walked over on Thursday, the walls were almost done and they were ready to start the roof soon.  Here is also a picture of the living room.  

  These are a few words from my friend Sandy who was on the building team.  "Work has been progressing along but with very little tools and no machines, everything is done by hand. I am on the house team. yesterday we laid bricks in out 18'x6'' two room "house". Today we began the floor. We first stuffed rice bags with clay that was dug out of the ground from area that will be the latreen and carried it to the floors. The clay was then pressed down with a weighted hand press. Next step was to carry sand from about 500 yards up a narrow path in pails and rice bags to cover the clay and press that down. Next was to carry rocks in same manor....we finished the back room and were told to wait for the "inspector" before we continued further. Of course in the process, the front wall accidentally got knocked over. It was a labor intensive day to say the least. The heat is unbearable, I have never sweat and been so dirty at the end of a day as I have been the past two."

The Medical Team . . .

Monday was unbelievable. The medical team saw over 750 patients! In addition to the Catalyst staff of 3 doctors, 6 nurses and 1 medical student & non-medical volunteers, we also had 25 Vietnamese doctors volunteering. Some people waited 6 or more hours to see a doctor in the 90+ degree heat with a lot of humidity. The doctors and nurses were mobbed and overwhelmed and there was just complete chaos. For many of the patients, their only medical care is when we are in the area so they are persistant. The medical team is set up at a building about 1 block from the Catalyst Foundation School. It's an odd building which isn't ideal for this, but it is better than everybody being under the intense sun. Despite putting barriers around the work area, the children and adults alike will try to sneak in. Many of the children playfully try to enter and it becomes a game.
The patients start by having their height and weight checked and evaluated by a growth chart. Then they went to vision and hearing testing which I helped to conduct. Fortunately we didn't find too many boys and girls with poor eyesight, but there were some that had possible hearing losses. Then they had their blood pressure and pulse taken before sitting down with a nurse to talk briefly about their health history and potential issues. They are then referred to a doctor if needed for further evaluation. The children also went to a dental area where some extractions were done as well as fluoride treatments. Finally, they had vaccinations, and if necessary blood drawn for lab work. Their last stop was the pharmacy for vitimins, at the least, and medication. All of the medication was donated and either brought by the Catalyst volunteers or the Vietnamese doctors. There is quite a bit less medication this year than there was in the past and it's possible we may run out before Thursday.
Vision and hearing tests were interesting since we usually didn't have a translator with us. If the children knew numbers it wasn't too bad, but if not we had to try to get the to point which way the symbol on the chart pointed, and they couldn't understand English. Many were too young to communicate with so we really couldn't test vision. Once or twice though, we did have children that not only knew the Vietnamese numbers, but they also recited them in English! It felt really good since those kids are part of the Catalyst Foundation's school! One little girl was very afraid of us and not cooperative (we are big and dressed in scrubs and very, very sweaty!), but when she was finished she was blowing us kisses! At the end of the day there were still people in line and after they waited for hours, we had to ask them to come back on Tuesday.
Tuesday was a lot less crazy since we only was 255 patients, but we were without the Vietnamese doctors. I took myself off vision/screening and worked on crowd control to keep out the people trying to sneak in and to move the patients from one station to the next and try to keep them in line. Again, they were sneaky and tried to move ahead in line or were sitting on stools and they didn't know which end was the front. One man spoke very good English and told me that the lady he was with was his aunt (his mother's sister) and he said that they were always glad when we visited and thanked me several times. Later I heard a nurse tell the same story so he was making sure that everybody knew how grateful his family was for our help.

Fortunately Wednesday we don't have to leave for breakfast until 6:30 am! I just downloaded Brianna's pictures, but I don't know what they are and she has already been asleep for about an hour. After dinner we walked with a lot of our friends to a place down the road that had drinks and ice cream! I knew she was tired when she finished her ice cream and asked to go back to the hotel rather than for another bowl (well, actually it was served in a martini glass!).

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!

Brianna's Thoughts . . .

Today is Sunday and I woke up sometime around 1:30 - 2:00 am. and I didn't fall back asleep.  
It is still Saturday in Wisconsin. Today we have a 6-7 hour bus ride. It's going to be long for me and my friends.

I think I'm going to be in the painting group the group I always wanted to be in the painting group it is the group that that paints the classroom for the children.

We went shopping last night. I walked a ton.
The plane ride from Korea to Vietnam was nice and short, I fell asleep before we even got off the runway.

The food here is the freshest of all the food I've ever tasted.

I think the Vietnam is the motor scooter capital of the world.

And if you readinhg this from Pleasant View Elementary - there is an opera house!

Saigon

Our flight to Vietnam went as smooth as could be! We even arrived a little early, but it was still about 1:00 am before we reached our hotel so it was about 1 1/2 days of travel time to get from our house to our hotel!

The hotel is in the heart of the city and you can hear horns all the time. It reminds me of the slot machines in Las Vegas. Brianna was up by 6:30 am, but I think her internal time clock is starting to adjust. She is
asleep already and it's before 8:00 p.m. 

We had a long day of shopping! The Ben Thanh Market is incredible! It is an indoor, non-air conditioned "mall" and People are packed shoulder to shoulder walking down "aisles." Each vendor has their own "shop" and it is mostly organized by what they are selling. The t-shirts are in one area, the linens are in another area, etc. The vendors are scrambling to make a sale so they were hounding us from the moment we walked in the door! I really thought Brianna would be put off by their aggressiveness, but the shopper actually loved it. In addition to the products that are for sale, they also sell fresh flowers, vegetables, fruit, seasonings, meat. Remember, this is not an air conditioned building! We saw tables with beef, pork and chicken, but Brianna found the liver, intestines, brains (I have no idea what kind of brains), and seafood. We also saw the men cutting the heads off frogs! It is very colorful to say the least!

The last time I was at the Ben Thanh Market was in 1999 when I adopted Brianna and I am glad it hasn't changed a bit!

We did quite a bit of walking today and saw the Ho Chi Minh City Opera House which illustrates the French influence on the architecture in Saigon and the Rex Hotel. The hotel was the hangout for many reporters during the Vietnam War and it has a lot of nostalgia to it.  Daily press conferences were held in the hotel, and some of the first guests in the hotel in 1961, while construction was still in progress, were American soldiers who were waiting for their tents to be ready.  Now it is a very upscale hotel!

I wanted to change my American dollars for Vietnamese Dong, but since it's Saturday the banks were closed. We walked quite a way and then Brianna recognized a money changing place that we used in 2008! I couldn't believe she remembered it! By this time we were so far from our hotel we decided to take a cab to get back rather than walking in the 90 degree heat. Fortunately, it isn't as humid as it usually is and there was even a little cloud cover. 
We had a press conference and there was a television crew and several newspaper reporters that attended to learn about what the Catalyst Foundation is doing to help the Vietnamese communities. In addition to donations of clothes, medical supplies, and toys, we raisedover $28,000 towards this relief effort! The amount of monetary donations is down about 80% since 2008 which probably is due to the Haiti & Chile earthquake relief efforts and our struggling economy. In any case, every little bit helps, and in Vietnam the funds go a lot farther than they would at home, and the need is so great.  Thank you to all who supported us and this cause!

Tomorrow we will leave by 7:00 am and drive to Kien Giang. Then the work begins . . .