Good Morning Vietnam!

The last few days have been amazing as we have spent it with a good friend from Phillips Spallas, Kieu-Nhi Le. She is currently working in Long Xuyen, Vietnam, for a NGO that supports and provides scholarships for young women at risk of being sold into the sex trade. All Julie and I kept saying to each other is that the work Nhi is doing is absolutely AMAZING. We saw so many pictures and listened to so many stories about these young women. These children would be leading a very different life if it weren't for Nhi and the program she is running [the program actually only has funding for 300, but they currently have 468 girls enrolled in school, so they are always looking for additional funding]. Nhi told us some interesting stories as well, such as the housing program in Vietnam...most peasants live in wood shacks propped on stilts so that when the Mekong Delta floods, their wood shack is above water [these wood shacks look like they might blow over in a light wind]. The peasants have health insurance provided by the government because they are so poor, however, if they get a new house (one of the government's new initiatives], they lose their health insurance! Therefore, the next time they get sick, which is inevitable in any family, they have to sell all their household items and oftentimes sell their new house to pay the medical bills!! After that they are back to square one, although now they have to rent a shack or build a new one! Therefore, most would rather keep the free health care, then get the new house.

We spent the evening before last in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). What a place! It was so lively as they are getting ready for 'Tet' [New Year's Celebration]...the Vietnamese New Year celebration lasts anywhere from 1-3 weeks (depending on which city/town/village) - what a party! So we were able to partake in some of the festivities! We went to dinner in Saigon with Nhi and some friends who were visiting from Dallas (2 doctor friends that were visiting Nhi and looking at some new medical projects). These 2 doctors were really funny and we got along splendidly. They are doing amazing work themselves, traveling around the world helping impoverished people around the globe. One was a plastic surgeon and the other an anesthologist, they perform up to 20 surgeries a day (when they are traveling). The surgeries range from a cleft palate, cleft lip, burn reconstruction, or tumor removal just to name a few. They had amazing photos and stories of the lives they have effected. After dinner we went to a Latin club/bar, with a live mariachi band!! The next day we traveled to Long Xuyen to see where Nhi lives/works (about 5 hours away from Saigon). We had a great meal in her City (about 300,000 residents)and walked around the 'flower mart' at night which was out for the New Years Celebrations. I've never seen so many yellow flowers, yellow for long life! Today we joined a gift ceremony (sponsored by the doctors from Dallas) where we handed out a 10 lb. bag of rice (which will last a week), a bag of groceries and $5 to over 100 poor people in the province. The smiles were amazing as they came to receive these gifts.

Tonight we are in Chou Doc, Vietnam. We will depart tomorrow morning by boat and travel up a tributary of the Mekong River all the way to Phnom Penh, Cambodia (it should take around 4-5 hours). We figured we have traveled by bike, car, bus and plane, why not travel by boat too!

Julie and I just finished our Valentine's Day dinner...at a very swanky hotel...but it is Valentine's Day, so we thought we would celebrate in style! Happy Valentine's Day. . .we send our love.