Cam Ranh/Nha Trang

We left for the airport after visiting the American war museum in HCMC. The process of getting checked in, through the airport, and into the Vietnam airlines flight to Cam Ranh went smoothly, and after a 45-minute flight, we were back on the ground in a warmer climate. From the airport we went straight to House of Love, an orphanage that Brittany's Hope works closely with. The orphanage is run by sisters and all of the children there have a sponsor and received gifts at a ceremony on Sunday evening. On Saturday, we only stayed for a few hours to get to know the kids. I held some babies and then spent most of the time talking with two girls who are currently in university and came back for the weekend and to help out with the kids and be there for our visit. They were super sweet, but didn't speak much English. After spending a few hours at HOL, we made the hour (or so) drive to Nha Trang, passing by the resort built for the 2008 Miss Universe competition. The view was beautiful as we saw the moon rising along the coast. We were all pretty tired at that point, but we ate a brief dinner and gotto meet Peggy & Bob's sponsor daughter before checking into the hotel. She's inher third year of university studying English, and in the process of applying for a visa to spend her 4th year at etown. How cool is that?!
Our hotel here is awesome. The whole city has a great vibe to it. There is a large Russian influence/tourist contingent, and someone said there are also a lot of Aussies that come to this area for the surf. Either way, I like it. We're right on the water, and I went for a walk Sunday morning before we left. Early morning is the busiest time of day here due to the high temperatures, so there were lots of people out and about during my morning walk; selling snacks/breakfast on the streets, riding their motorbikes, doing stretching and dance-like exercises along the beach, and a lot of people plying badminton. It was a good break for me to be up and away from everyone, even if it was only for an hour.
When we left the hotel, we went to a rural community about 20 minutes away from HOL to deliver cooking oil & rice. We pulled up in our coach-style bus, along a dirt road that was barely wide enough. Needless to say, we attracted a lot of attention. Mai-Lynn and Hong said they've never had anyone or any aid groups visit them, so this was a big deal. Some government officials came with us to distribute the supplies and have a presence. One of the sisters and some older kids from HOL came to help out. It was very interesting to see the village and the people. We only stayed in one section, and just saw the main little strip with its few houses, but the similarities between village life in different parts of the world were amazing. We stayed there for a while, helping to distribute and taking photos of everything going on. When it was time to go back to HOL, the kids climbed into the truck to ride back, and Mai-Lynn did too. They motioned for me to go too, so I did.  We had a lot of fun, and the older girls were very cute trying to take care of me when we came too close to trees. The day at HOL went by quickly. We spent it eating lunch, playing with the babies and kids, sorting gifts, helping the kids decorate frames for their sponsor families, and just hanging out. Another group of kids came from anoth orphanage run by sisters not too far away, and they were even cuter!  All the kids seemed fascinated by my facial piercings and they like to point at them and then my earrings. Cute. Our day there ended with the gift-giving ceremony, dinner, and some performances by the kids. They sang, danced, and did a modern version of Cinderella, with references to Internet and beauty competitions! Overall it was another great day!
This morning is our last day here with the kids, and we are taking them on a field trip to the beach!  This should be interesting!!!!

HCMC, Can Tho, Ben Tre & Everything in Between

Over the last few days, we've done a ton of things. Lots of traveling by bus. For me that means a little bit of time for journaling, a little bit of time for taking photos out the bus window, and a lot of time for napping. And while our bus is quite comfortable, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's flight that will at least give us a small break from being on a bus.
So far we've been to a community center, program for blind children, Cu Chi tunnels, a floating market, and one government-run orphanage. Soon we'll be to the House of Love (Brittany's Hope), where we will have a few days with the kids. We've been able to see a lot of things so far, which is good, but everything has been very scheduled, leaving little free time or time to relax/get to know your surroundings. I don't really feel like I've gotten a good grasp of Vietnamese culture or society yet, and I really hope to have at least a little feel for it before we leave.
To get to Can Tho we had to drive for several hours.  It was worth the drive, though. We ate dinner along a river and walked around a little bit as a group, going briefly through a night market of clothing. The next morning we were out of the hotel at 5:30 and walked back down to the dock to board a boat that would take us down the river and through two floating markets (one wholesale and the other fruits). We all got to try some durian at the second. From there we stopped at a fruit plantation/tourist area and walked through before sitting down for a morning snack of water apples, papaya, pineapple, dragon fruit, and a few others. We then got to eat at the hotel for breakfast, which had no vegetarian options. Oh well.  On our way back to HCMC we stopped at a state-run orphanage in Ben Tre. It was very different than what a lot of people expected, and somewhat difficult to see the poor conditions. We spent about 2 hours there with the kids before making the drive back.

Vietnam!

After a painfully long 16-hour flight from JFK to Hong Kong which left on Monday morning and arrived in Tuesday afternoon, we had about two hours before our connection to Ho Chi Minh City left. We finally arrived at our hotel in HCMC around 7:30pmcon Tuesday. The whole group was exhausted; with no other choice, we rallied and headed to exchange money and eat dinner before heading to bed horizontally for the first time in a few days. We had to be up early this morning. With the bus scheduled to leave the hotel at 6:30, we didn't have time for a full breakfast, just a boxed one on the bus. As we headed out to Can Gio during the morning rush hour traffic, we got our first glimpse at the city. More motorbikes than I've ever seen before. They're everywhere, yet with no identifiable traffic pattern. We traveled by bus, ferry, and boat to an island with government officials to hand out care packages and bicycles to kids that brittanys hope works with in the community. It was a formal ceremony of sorts, filled with speeches, photo ops, and organized chaos. From there, we took a brief walk through the village before heading back to the boat, then bus, then ferry, then bus (again), with a stop for lunch somewhere along the way. Luckily for me, I'm not the lone vegetarian, so we get our own table with plenty of veg-friendly foods. Yum!!! We sat in a ton more traffic in the afternoon as we waited to get back across HCMC to a center for blind children that is run by some nuns. They sand and performed for us, while some of the Etown students prepared games and activities accentuating their other senses. It was a jam-packed day. Upon returning to our hotel in HCMC, I went with 6 other "adults" for a hot stone massage. Totally worth it. Tomorrow is another full day (with time for a buffet breakfast). The group is splitting up, and I'm headed to see the Cu Chi tunnels. While I'm certain it will be a fascinating morning, I can't help but be mildly anxious due to the crawling-through-small-spaces-designed-for-wartime aspect of it all. Hopefully I'll be able to post some photos before the end of the trip, but no promises.

Time to dust off the old passport...

As I looked back at this blog, and stepped back in time, I realized just how long it has been since I've been abroad in a social work capacity.  Not to mention how much has changed over the past two and a half years.

Well, the time has come again.  On Monday I head to JFK airport, bound for Vietnam.  I'm looking forward to the trip, a trip co-sponsored by my alma mater, Elizabethtown College, and a wonderful organization, Brittany's Hope.  I'd wanted to go on this trip when I was a student, but the stars never seemed to align just right to make it a possibility.  Well, although the timing is never really quite right, and my work has been chaotic and somewhat unexpectedly in transition for the last two weeks, they're incredibly supportive of my long-planned trip.  While I really haven't had time to prepare for the trip over the last two weeks, I am excited and very much looking forward to another adventure abroad, even if it is only short-term.