Amazing People Doing Amazing Things

Wednesday's visits were with two different places of worship, a Catholic church and a Buddhist pagoda. One of the many reasons I loved Children of Vietnam - they serve everyone! We started out at the Catholic church, where we visited with an amazing woman, Mother Mary Teresa. The church is located in downtown Da Nang and they support a variety of programs including a kindergarten on site. They also take orphans and they support a feeding program at a local hospital that we got to visit. The woman is just amazing. She drives this little truck full of soup mix twice a day to hospitals to feed patients and caregivers. She was the sweetest thing! She has family in Australia so she spoke a bit of English. She was such a joy to meet.

After chatting with her we went to the hospital to see the meal distribution. The hospital was packed...lots of people everywhere. Not the hospital I'm used to but the facility didn't look too bad from the outside. We didn't get to see inside because the feeding site was in a courtyard area in the middle of the structure. They rolled in the meals on a cart and Rebecca and I actually got to participate in the feeding which was pretty neat! Andrew didn't want to do it, so he took pictures (he's funny like that). We had two big pots of "soup mix" (as they call our meals) that we served until they were all gone. Mother Teresa said we were to serve 1.5 scoops but it was quite hard to follow the rule when so many people were lined up to receive food and they kept coming back for more. It's pretty amazing that she does this every day...

For lunch we went back to the hotel to do our own thing, so Andrew and I split from the group and checked out a donuts shop around the corner that had good wifi...we were needing some sweets. It was an interesting experience, having donuts in Vietnam haha. They were really good though! There was a buy 5 get one free special so of course we had to do that.  We each had a Vietnamese coffee and of course, Andrew had himself a $0.50 beer haha. After lunch we met back up to do our next visit at a Buddhist pagoda.

The temple was a bit outside the city and very colorful. We took off our shoes as we walked in and then spent some time interviewing one of the monks and the person in charge of their charity work.  The temple serves as an orphanage and supports other programs in the community including a lot of disaster response work.  We started by touring the part of the orphanage where the babies were kept. They had over 40 young children at the facility...amazing. People just drop kids off when they can't take care of them, and due to having issues with local adoptions, the pagoda has decided to keep all of the children until they are 18 rather than adopting them out. I'm not sure how they'll sustain so many, but they seem to have a lot of support from the community, We spent quite a bit of time with the children and then toured the kitchen and saw that they had prepared some meals especially for us. Unfortunately we didn't have time to eat them but we took them to go :)

The next stop was another hospital supported by Mother Teresas Catholic church. This hospital was specifically for women and children. It had a designated area for feeding but with this spot, they tend to not use all of their meals at once and end up going around to all of the rooms individually and serving patients in their bed. We stayed for a bit to watch some of the distribution and then after a while, decided we would head back to the hotel because we needed to prepare for a presentation the next day to the Children of Vietnam staff and other partners they support in the Da Nang area. Rebecca and I hung out at a local ice cream shop to get some internet and Andrew went off to his new favorite pub while we worked. After a few hours of working, we decided to call it a night and headed to bed.

The next morning we went to the Children of Vietnam office to present on Stop Hunger Now to all of the partners they work with. The presentation went really well and I think we answered a lot of questions they had. I'm excited to see how the partnership develops of the next few months in result of this visit. After the presentation we went to a really need cafe called Bread of Life. This cafe was all "English" food but it was special in that all of the staff, besides the girl at reception and the waiters, are deaf. The deaf community in Vietnam doesn't have a lot of opportunities, so it was wonderful to eat at a restaurant that was such a good cause. The food was really yummy too! We had some pizzas and burgers and ate off each others plates. The special dessert for the day was pumpkin pie so we snagged the last piece. It's not the same as in the states (probably because it's homemade, no can) but it was delicious!

After lunch we went to see a ceremony where 25 girls were being awarded scholarships by Children of Vietnam. It was an amazing experience. The girls are all from disadvantaged families and they applied to get the scholarship. They receive free schooling as well as tutoring and other supplies they need to attend school from the 6th to 9th grade. Once done with 9th grade, the girls will go to high school and eventually, college. COV is planning to support the girls all the way through as long as they keep their grades up :) The girls were so sweet receiving their awards. Rebecca went up and helped distribute the scholarships and as she was handing them out, she told them that "school is very important" and one of the girls answered, "I know".

The next stop was an orphanage just a short walk from the school. The orphanage used to be further away with gardens and pigs and a mushroom farm but unfortunately, the government wanted the land it was on and made them move. Luckily, the government paid for a brand new facility, which was actually really nice. They have only been there a month but they seem to like it. They have both girls and boys at the orphanage and most of the children were a bit older, no babies like the pagoda.  They send the kids to public school each day and as we were about to leave, we saw some of the kids walking home from class. They're pretty cute :) When we asked them "what are the challenges that you face" they said they were fine, that they loved their new facility and that they feel the kids have enough because they want the kids to learn to work for what they have. The woman that ran the orphanage was so cute. She used to be a librarian that volunteered at the orphanage but she fell in love and decided to work at the orphanage instead and is now the director. She was full of smiles and laughs and you could tell she really loved what she did.

After the visits we had an early night. I did some work at the ice cream shop again and then turned in for an early night. The next morning was going to be an early one. We were going to the mountains of T

Seeing the Meals Served for the First Time...

 Our first day of partner visits with Children of Vietnam started at their office here in Da Nang. We met early in the morning and got to meet their staff and learn a bit about what they do here in Vietnam. The nonprofits reach is amazing! They work in schools, orphanages, hospitals, churches, pagodas, elderly homes, and they also work a lot with disabled children.  After introductions and overview we headed out to our first visit at a home for the elderly and disabled. We started by interviewing the Director of the facility. He seemed to be very passionate about what he does but he also mentioned that he lacks a lot of the funding and specialized staff that he needs.

 The facility was pretty typical of Vietnam and quite sad. We were able to see the kitchen and watch our meals being served to a group of elderly residents. The residents were very sweet and probably a bit overwhelmed with all of us there. After visiting with them for a bit we went to tour the rest of the facility. The rooms were very empty with hard beds and no mattresses - again, pretty typical in Vietnam. The children sat on the hard floor and had no toys or things to play with. It was a very basic facility that needed lots of TLC. I know that they are doing the best they can with what they have…but what a stark contrast to what we have in the States. It broke my heart to see how little they had to work with. No equipment for the handicap children, very few staff that weren’t trained properly to deal with the needs of the children. It was rough, but I know COV is doing what they can to help improve the situation.

After leaving the first facility we went to lunch at a restaurant in town that served Vietnamese food that happened to use New Zealand and Australian beef. Andrew even recognized the brand haha. It was a delicious lunch (I thought) but the servers got a bit frazzled dealing with all of us as well as a full restaurant. Service in Vietnam is quite different from the States. They don’t watch the table for needs and really only come when you wave or yell at them. It’s much more laid back and they don’t feel the need to attend to your every need. I kind of like it. The food was really delicious and it was fun to watch the COV staff haggle with them on the price since they weren't happy with the service.

The next visit was to an amazing special needs school that is run by nuns from the Catholic church. What a contrast from the morning visit! It was beautiful! We interviewed the nuns and got to see their passion and hear about the amazing work they’ve done. They not only work at the school and help the kids through school and vocational training, they go out in to the community and provide support and rehabilitation to people with special needs as well. They have vocational training programs such as sewing, carpentry, baking, gardening, and massage/physical therapy for disabled people. We got to tour all of the training programs and pop our heads in to some of the classes. The kids looked so happy and they had everything they needed. Books, art, toys, medical equipment, clean water, etc. The facility was gorgeous…the model facility. It really shows how much support the Catholic church has and gives to their programs in the area. Beautiful…just beautiful.

That night, after debriefing on all we saw that day, we decided to go over to the expat bar again, Bamboo 2. We had told a few of them that we would be heading back so that we could watch the New Zealand vs South Africa rugby match. Andrew had convinced the Australian owner to play it for us since we weren’t going to be able to catch it Sunday night. Not long after we got there, Rebecca and Nancy joined us and we all ordered some “English” food and had a few Vietnamese beers. It was a good time! Great to get to know the girls better and Andrew got to watch his game – so we were all happy. Unfortunately that night, I woke up at about 11am with some intense pain in my chest…something I’ve never experienced before. It felt like I had swallowed my malaria pill and gotten it stuck or something, even though when I took it, I didn’t have any problems. The pain persisted until I took an anti-acid and just pushed through the pain to go back to sleep. I have no idea what it was but I assume it was heart burn or something because I guess the medicine worked if I didn’t wake up again with any problems. That morning when I woke up, the pain was there again. When I went to eat breakfast it hurt every time I swallowed food or a drink. Pretty miserable stuff.

After my attempt at eating something for breakfast, we headed off to the Quang Nam Province to see some kindergartens. It was such an amazing day!! Probably going to be one of my favorite days of the trip (I know, it's only day two but still).  We started with interviews and then we got to participate in feeding the kids their snack. The kids were so adorable! They loved being with us and eating the meals with us. The impact for me was huge. It just made my heart sing! The area we were in was a particularly poor one, so most of the kids are in the school on scholarship or reduced school fees. They get to eat 2 meals at school and the teachers care a lot about the kids, sending meals home to the children with extremely poor nutrition and families that can’t support them well. The facility was pretty nice too. They even had a water filtration system! I was really impressed!

For lunch we went to a local restaurant that served us so much food! We all ate it family style, picking and choosing as we went. It was hard to eat yet again but I pushed through it and tried all the food that I could. We ate lunch with the Quang Nam Charity Association Directors, who are the ones that get meals from COV and provide them to programs in that district. It was quite a fun lunch. They offered Andrew a beer and he said no, but they were very persistent so eventually he went with it. Big mistake. They proceeded to challenge Andrew to drink his whole glass of beer multiple times…playing with him and testing him haha. He passed the test. They liked him a lot haha. After lunch we went to have coffee near bye. The coffee here is very interesting. It’s Vietnamese coffee and it is made very strong, slow drip, and they add “milk” which is actually sweetened condensed milk. Sounds strange – tastes amazing!


After coffee we went to the second kindergarten. It was another wonderful experience with a school that was very similar to the first one. We got to feed the kids their snack again and the children yet again, stole my heart. This time, I got to sit with the kids and eat with them. One little girl was the cutest thing ever. She kept looking at me and giggling…she was a bowl of laughter! She followed me around a bit, giggling the entire time we were there. I wanted to take her home with me haha. I also had my first experience in a squat pot while I was at this school. I don’t recommend it…haha.

That evening we went to dinner across from our hotel in a little Vietnamese restaurant called Kimdy's. It doesn't look like anything special, but the food was really good! Andrew and I had some pork pho and beef with fried noodles. My chest was still hurting so I didn’t get to eat too much, but my lovely Andrew made sure all the food didn’t go to waste ;) We sat for a few hours at dinner, talking about work and projects and the programs COV has. A great ending to an amazing day.

I still have to remind myself at times that I’m here in Vietnam. It’s been such an awesome experience and though the days feel very long, and we’ve done so much, I know that it will be over before I know it. I’m just trying my best to soak it all in. I have a feeling we’ll have to come back to visit Vietnam again. This place is pretty amazing.

Can I have a photo?

Sunday morning we decided to rise early to see the sunrise. We got up at around 5am and headed down to the beach, thinking we would be one of the few in the town up that morning. To our surprise we walked out the door of the hotel and saw hundreds of people! They were all exercising on the sidewalk and on the beach. Doing aerobics, playing volleyball, swimming, stretching, doing sit-ups…it was amazing! There was music on the loud speakers and it seemed like everyone was up! I couldn’t believe it! The day was quite cloudy so we didn’t really see the sunrise, but we spent quite a bit of time observing all of the people. It was so strange to see so many people up and active at 5:30am. I guess it makes sense…it gets really hot during the day so you might as well be up when it’s bearable out…but still…wow!

After our morning surprise we went up to the hotel to have some breakfast at their buffet. It was gorgeous! So many things to choose from and such lovely staff. We even had one of the managers come up and ask about our stay. She was from Estonia and spoke great English. She had only been in the country for 4 months and she gave us some great information about the culture. Once we finished getting our fourth round of food (haha) we decided to go up and swim in the rooftop pool. It was sprinkling rain by then, and the water was a bit chilly but basically like bath water. As we were swimming we noticed 8 couples out on the beach taking photos in wedding clothes. They were twirling and running through pigeons, dragging their lovely dresses on the dirty wet ground. A bit strange, but kind of neat. I’m sure the photos turned out great with the birds flying in the air and the beach with dark clouds in the background.

Once we were done swimming we showered and went to tour Lady Buddha, a large statue at the edge of the peninsula. We took a taxi over and got dropped off at the base of the steps. There were multiple temples with marble statues scattered all around. The main statue was of lady Buddha and it was ridiculously tall. At night the whole thing lights up and you can see it from most areas in the city. Apparently you can go inside and it has 17 floors…but we couldn’t find any stairs. So we took a few photos and then decided to try to find a cab to get back to our hotel. As we were waiting in the hot sun, watching all the full taxis pass by us as they went further up the mountain, I got a tap on my shoulder…”Can I get a picture?” Yeah…you read that right. A girl wanted a photo with me? And if that wasn’t strange enough, another group of boys came down a few minutes after and asked for a photo as well! It was right when Andrew had finally nailed a taxi but we jumped in the photo with them really quickly and they were all so excited. They said we were so beautiful…very odd.

After visiting the statue we packed up and took the afternoon to work and read at the hotel rooftop restaurant. Around 2pm we decided to take a cab to check in to our next hotel, the Luxury Hotel, that is further in to the city. We are staying here until Saturday when we depart for Cambodia. We got to the hotel and it was definitely a change of atmosphere. It’s like we were in a whole new country. The city atmosphere was different and the hotel was much more modest. As we went to go up the elevator the power went off…lovely. Not a great first impression. So we went upstairs and the rooms seemed pretty nice…nothing special. They have really firm, uncomfortable beds and pillows, and horribly spotty internet, but at least they have air conditioning! When you look out the window you can see the Han river and my favorite bridge, the Dragon bridge. It's a newer bridge but it's really cool. At night it changes colors and on Saturdays and Sundays it does a bit of a show, breathing fire and spitting water. Unfortunately we didn't get to see that because it rained and they didn't do it :(


After checking in, we decided to go for a walk and check out the area. We walked up and down the river and popped our head in to the local mall and a few other shops. On the way back we noticed a tacky looking bamboo bar that was filled with white people watching rugby, so we decided to go check it out. We ordered a Tiger beer each and started to make friends. The bar was filled with people from Australia, Ireland, England, and America – the expat bar. We sat and watched the rugby game for the next few hours to kill time before we met up with my coworker and our partner. It was so much fun! We watched the game and the rain as it poured outside. When we left we knew we would be back…Andrew decided it was going to be our watering hole for the week haha.

Around 5pm we went to the hotel lobby to meet Nancy, the Executive Director of our partner, Children of Vietnam. We took a cab together to go pick up my co-worker, Rebecca, who was just about to fly in from her extremely long trip from Albania, where she was visiting family. Once we had Rebecca we decided to go get food at a restaurant called Apsana that serves traditional Vietnamese food which was actually Khmer (Cambodian) food because long ago, Vietnam was part of the Khmer empire. They had a huge menu, and we had no idea what to get, but we all decided on something and were pleasantly surprised by the result. We ended up sharing and had a nice variety of beef that we cooked ourselves in a hot vinegar, some sweet and spicy pork, and a few other Vietnamese foods. While we ate we were entertained by live music and even a dancer! Pretty neat! And all for only $30 USD for the four of us! We had great conversations and got to know each other a bit before turning in early for bed. The next day started our visits…the main reason for this awesome adventure…

How NOT to shop in Vietnam

We're here! After a 25.5 hour haul across the world, we finally made it to Vietnam! We took a route from Raleigh to New York to Hong Kong, ending in Da Nang. The flight from JFK to Hong Kong was a brutal one - over 16 hours...eek! Four movies separated by awkward sleep and two meals, sitting behind an extremely aggravated infant. Poor Andrew got stuck next to the weirdest woman who felt the need comment the whole flight on how the woman's "husband" in front of our row wasn't helping the mother take care of their child the whole flight. She was all up in Andrew's space and when she spilled her Bloody Mary on Andrew, she wasn't at all apologetic, she was more concerned about getting a re-fill. It made me giggle when we got off the plane and realized the woman in front of us wasn't even with the guy next to her...tis why you shouldn't judge.

Hong Kong was one big airport! With a Popeyes? So strange. And no mom, we didn't eat there haha. We arrived in Da Nang in the evening at around 7pm, making it out of the airport in a reasonable amount of time and exchanging a bit of cash before heading to our hotel. In Vietnam the currency is called dong and the conversion rate is about 21,200 VND per 1 USD. Taking the taxi sure was an experience! Reminded me of driving in Haiti! Everyone was on motorbikes and there were little to no rules. Just drive where you want and honk if you're bigger than the other vehicle haha.  We decided to splurge a bit for the first two days we were here and stay at a lovely beach-side hotel called A La Carte. It is the first hotel in Da Nang to have a rooftop pool and bar. The whole place was like a dance club, playing American pop music 24/7. The rooms have great big windows and neat lights that only turn on when your key is in the light switch thing. Pretty neat. We were off to bed by 9pm, so pooped from the long journey we just had...but we had big plans for the rest of the weekend!

Saturday morning we were up by 6am.  Definitely not our norm but it's apparently routine here in Vietnam! We decided to go have breakfast at the roof-top bar and discovered that there were plenty of people awake, hanging out on the beach and driving their motorbikes on the roads. After a lovely breakfast of yogurt, salad, fruit, Vietnamese coffee and a Tiger beer (they forgot Andrew's food so he ate off mine), we decided to get our stuff together and take a day trip to the ancient city of Hoi An. The hotel had a shuttle that was cheaper than a taxi, so we took that and headed in to town.

Hoi An was quite an interesting experience. The town wasn't too busy when we arrived around 9:30am, but the locals were ready for us! We stepped off the shuttle and were instantly dragged in to a tailors shop as they told us they could make us something just for us, at a "good price". We did good and passed on that shop but then the swindler found us. Her name was "Flower" and she found us at a hat stand. Andrew had wanted to buy a hat and a watch that day, so we were in the mood to buy and man was she taking advantage of it. We forgot that we needed to haggle and bought the hat for 150,000 dong. Not too bad considering that's about $7 but I think we could have got it for MUCH less.  Flower asked where we were from and said her grandmother was living in Atlanta. She made some good connections and gained our trust quick...we're so gullible. She told us where to go to get to the old part of town and then sent us on our way...but that wasn't the last we saw of her.

After traveling around through the city, stopping to grab a bite to eat and some drinks (pho bo, a Larue beer, 2 waters and some delicious vietnamese coffee for 110,000 dong or $5 USD), we got to the riverside and here comes Flower. She was quite adorable, in a little motorbike helmet and wearing a pink sweatshirt. She called me "chicken hair" (if someone could explain to me what that means I would be greatly appreciative haha) and told me I was "very beautiful" and told Andrew he was "very handsome". We told her we were looking for a watch so she took us to a specific shop...for some reason it didn't click that she was probably working on commission, but we went with it.  They tried selling us on the expensive watches and we thought we were being smart by passing and going with a little plastic one...they ran to get a new one for us (because we're special...not) and when they came back, said it was 25 dollars. We were like, 25,000 dong? And they said, no, 25 USD. Andrew tried to barter but we weren't good at it and only got them down to 500,000 dong.  He felt kind of good about it but then after the next purchase we realized what had happened.

Flower took us through the central market, showing us the neat local fruits like this rambutan (also known as a "hairy cherry"), and weaving us through the people. It was busy now, and the streets were filled with motorbikes that were ready to run us over haha. She was on a mission, and as we weaved through the crowds we started to realize she was taking us to her families shop.  She had mentioned it before but we didn't think anything of it because it was a tailor and we weren't looking for anything specially made.  But then there we were, sitting in this inside market, flipping through the books of dresses and suits. Andrew did great and passed, but then I was like, well, I did want a dress to wear here that was simple...and she did show us around...so I picked out a dress and asked for the price. They said it depended on the material so we went over to the wall of fabric and I picked out a fun purple. "It's 45 dollars" said the woman who was swindling me. I looked at Andrew, the money controller, and asked him what we had left. Before I knew it we had handed her 1,000,000 dong and I was being measured. Speed must be there thing because it was purchased and a done deal before I could think through a thing. "Come back at 1pm" they said. So off we went...totally confused...

After the buyers remorse we realized that Flower had bailed the moment we sat down to look at the books of clothing options. Off she had went to find her next victims. Man was she good!! So we went to a cafe and had a beer (333 beer for Andrew and a Tiger beer for me)...sitting there thinking "what the hell just happened?!". We were a bit angry at ourselves for quite some time, and after picking up the dress at 1pm decided to leave the town early and get back to our hotel before we made any other bad decisions. We took a nap for much longer than we had intended and when we woke up, we decided "what's done is done, and now we've learned" and went up to the rooftop bar to eat dinner (because we were out of dong and had to put it on our hotel tab haha). What a great choice! The bar was pretty packed with a variety of customers young and old. There were children running around everywhere! I was so amazed by how they were allowed to just run free and any time one of the kids fell, no one cared. They were face planting left and right, jumping back up, and running full speed again. Definitely not how parents work in America...freaking out if our kids stub their toe haha.

We ordered a beet and beef burger and some calamari to start, accompanying it with a Tiger beer for Andrew and a mango martini for me. The food was - interesting - but not bad. I think I'll stick to Vietnamese food though for the rest of the trip haha.  Dessert was the best part. We saw a few people with ice cream in fun bowls and decided to try it out. They had all sorts of fruit flavors and of course chocolate. We got two chocolate ice creams and before we knew it, there were two chefs in front of us, making it right at our table with nitrous oxide! It was amazing! And surprisingly very delicious!  We saw a few more people order ice cream and they didn't get a show, so I have a feeling they did that especially for us. I'm not complaining. An awesome end to the day, eating our made to order ice cream as we listened to the loud American pop music haha. After filling our bellies, we decided to turn it in early so that we could wake up the next morning for the sunrise. Unfortunately we didn't get a nice sunrise, but we did get another interesting experience...to be continued...haha.