Kids distribution team and today's stuff

I have not posted much about the kids so far as I am not with them during the day. Martha who is with the kids team was kind enough to give me her camera chip so I can post kid pictures. They have been working hard, very hard. Noah was pulled today form distribution to packaging as they needed heavy stuff done and he is a work horse. Jesse appears to be having a ball during the day with her new friends but when she is exhausted at night she says she wants to come home. I suspect she is having fun but would not be disappointed to leave tomorrow. Here are kids sorting and delivering bikes to the catalyst sponsorship kids.The kids have distributed 250 bicycles to girls in the catalyst sponsorship program along with a months worth of food to hundreds of families.

The building team has almost completed two houses in Kien Giang, and have completed three homes in the Dong Thap province in 1.5.days....go builders. The families who the homes are for are working right along with the team.
Caroline is briefing the kids distribution team.

The medical team I don't have a full count, but today alone we completed 313 medical exams. It was a brutal day, the crowds became ugly as people begged to be seen, stole tickets that had been handed out to those who had been chosen to be seen and numerous other ploys to get in. it is so sad to turn people away however there are only so many of us and so much time. I had a women begging me to get her 5 year old in who looked about 2-3 years old. She put my hand on her head to show me she had a fever. I admit I found myself calculation how to sneak medication out of our pharmacy, but really we just can't as the needs go on and on and we must stop somewhere. It is just so heart breaking. I was on crowd control today and ended up doing comic relief for the waiting masses....the Vietnamese think i am REALLY funny, or they were just laughing at me. Either way, I had a ball, made some adorable little friends who followed me all day. Two girls actually rode home and changed into their best clothing and came back just for me to get a picture. I took their address and hope to get the pictures printed in Saigon and mail them the pictures.

I am eating so much, a big difference from my previous four trips, I figured I was sick on every trip as careful as I was so why starve and get sick anyway. I must say I have had some of the most delicious meals and have no had one stomach issue. many on our trip have not been so lucky. Last night, we were served rabbit, okay, I draw the line and the waiter did not know what to do as I went running off screaming with Jesse screaming at my side. Jesse and I have moved to the vegetarian table permanantly. Above is our kids visiting a school and playing duck duck goose with the kids from the school.

Tuk Tuks and pork chops

We got on the buses this morning, drove a short distance and pulled up to a line of Tuk-Tuks. The buses could not make it into the area we were working in so we had to take the Tuk-Tucks. We crammed ourselves and supplies into and on top of them and off we went, over wood planked bridges that we watched the planks jump up after we crossed. It was really a highlight. Our Tuk-tuck group laughed the entire ride over yesterday when the kids returned from the beach. Jesse has not eaten anything except white rice since we arrived. Martha happily told me that Jesse really enjoyed lunch and ate very well. My first thought was, "wow, they must have found pasta". Wrong, they found PORK CHOPS!
I am not sure what part of the last name Connelly- COHEN Martha seemed to have missed. Once my heart stopped pounding out of my chest, and I realized the lightening bolts were not stiking, we had a good laugh, which continued onto the Tuk Tucks this morning. Possibly next time Martha could add a bit of shredded cheese to them and add a milkshake on the side!


Once we arrived, we took a medical team photo and then we set up our stations and saw another 300 or so people. One woman was waiting for the nurse and was spitting up blood. We raced her to the front of the line to the doctor in a panic. Turns out, many people here chew Betel nuts, sort of our equivalent of chewing tobacco. They chew it and spit it out but it looks like blood....not to mention how it turns their teeth black.

Our next unexpected event was the arrival of five men who were building another charity house and the roof collapsed in on them. This was the one day that due to bus confusion, Katherine did not have out main "for the team" medical bag that contained sutures. After much searching, a suture was found, lidocane was gotten from the dentist and out neuro-surgeon sutured up the gashed head wound. The other guys were badly bruised.


This is the hospital we were working out of. The FDA would shut us down if they saw us counting pills out of plastic grocery bags sitting around on dirty tables....








Went for a walk around after lunch and decided to try my hand at rice picking, the field workers laughed at me, go figure.

This house had dinner ready and waiting which has a different meaning here. Hey, this solves the lack of refrigeration problem....falling asleep now, will be back tomorrow.

Lastly, this is Gina, also from CT., who appears to be "switching teams". Sorry jean, I am only the messenger....

By the way, these are the only facilities available to us and it is awful! I had to put the photo up, one slip in that place and I would need a bullet to my head.

This is a bank of homes in Dong Thap where we are working.

The road to Dong Thap

We wrapped up our work in Kien Giang, packed our numerous bags of supplies, loaded the bus and headed out for the province of Dong Thap on Tuesday March 25th (I think). We left at 4:00pm and 5 hours and two ferry rides later we arrived.

The kids were enjoying the ride, being silly, singing songs until it got late and we had to get off the bus two times, walk through crowded markets and onto the ferry, cross, walk and re board the bus. It got tiresome. The sights along the way were fascinating. Life revolves around the Mekong delta, the homes are built on stilts hanging over the river. All aspects of life get done in the river. Food and water come from the river and human waste is deposited into the river, and bathing is done in the river - yes people, the SAME river. AND, the Mississippi is clean compared to this water!

Ooops, don't know how this got in but this is a group waiting to be seen by our medical team.

The kids had a day off of work today and were taken to a beach. Evidently, it is a rare sight for people in this area to see 8 white adults with 25 predominately Vietnamese kids spending a day at the beach. From the moment the group arrived, they were followed by locals who watched their every move, the watched them eat, watched them swim and watched them play and of course in true Vietnamese style the laughed at everything. A good time was had by all, well all on that team anyway, the rest of us were busy at work!

Moving on...

We finished up in Kien Giang today, Tuesday 3/22/08 I think it is. we packed up our stuff and and moved on to Dong Thap province. What we have seen and witnessed has us baffled how people live at all here. At least 85% have parasites, not to mention multiple other medical issues. Although we treat them and they go back to the same conditions, we are at least able to provide a six month reprieve from the parasites so their bodies can catch up and grow a bit. We will also use the data from our exams to provide statistics to another organization in hopes that they will see the need to come in and put in a fresh clean water system for these people. More severe cases will be referred to Red Cross and/or other organizations.

Kien Giang work done....were on the move!

As the lines finally dwindled, our work today, Tuesday 3/28/08 (I think),is coming to an end in the first province of Kien Giang. In 2.5 days we

saw about 550 patients. Our patient flow has been tweaked to maximum efficiency and we finished a little before expected leaving us a few minutes to play with some of the kids. We really had to beg them to let us take pictures - NOT! We have multiple Polaroids and were delighting moms and kids alike as they waited with photos of themselves, most of the people here have NEVER had a photograph of their kids.

The stories are heart breaking. The amount of physical abuse of all kinds is overwhelming. The medical team doing "histories" were hearing the same stories of abuse over and over. So sad and nothing we can do at this point to curb that. I suppose as the catalyst work continues and the poverty decreases as the education increases this will hopefully change however it is so hard to not be able to have an immediate fix. Poverty manifests in so many way's other than hunger.

One funny story was a woman who came in and out team member at the first station announced she was coughing up blood. I grab her and raced her past the line to the doctor. Turns out, the women chew these beetle nuts, may be a different word, but they chew them and spit part of it out which looks reddish. Okay, so who knew!

You may notice in many of the photo's the boys have dyed there hair....these are known as the "bad boy's" of the dump. they find peroxide in the dump and use this on their hair. Bad or not, they are full of giggles and cute as buttons.

We packed up all of our supplies and took a lunch break while waiting for the bus. Keeping supplies organized and knowing where everything is has been a challenge, but we have made it work.

Another boxed lunch from the back of a car....day six and I have yet to puke my guts out as in the past so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

The kids had a day at a beach today and had a ball. I was delighted (hear the sarcasm) when they returned and my friend Martha who went with them told me how great the kids did. I of course asked if Jesse ate anything as this has been a hugh issue 9along with her outright refusal to take her malaria pills). Martha delighted in telling me that Jesse loved her lunch and ate almost all of it.....thinking "where did they find pasta", I asked, "oh great, what was for lunch. Martha delighted in telling me "PORK CHOPS".....one big "OY VEY" pretty much sums that up!

At the beach, it seems our group was quite the sight as throngs of Vietnamese crowded around the kids and watched their every move laughing at everything...groups just stood and watched as they ate, swam, and played. I guess seeing 20 Vietnamese kids, five white kids, and 8 white large adults are not a common sight in these parts. Actually, many kids around here and seen very few white people as they call us. The kids on the beach did play and interact with the group a bit I understand. I will try to get Martha's disc later and post some of those pictures.

The garbage Dump

Today we had a visit to the "Garbage Dump" otherwise known as HOME to 300-400 families. The dump actually charges rent to these people to live and work here. The "houses" with electricity are $30.00 per month and $10.00/month without electric. Entire families work through the night picking out plastics, metals, and anything recyclable that the dumps then pays them on a good .35 cents.....children from ages 5 on up work from 3:00pm till 3:00am. The kids are running among the garbage bare foot! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

A day in the life.......

Okay, I have an unexpected free hour so hope to update everyone on what is really happening here. We are working like dogs but the needs are so great nobody is upset or minds the long hours. We lost a nurse and two translators today due to illness, I must say I am surprised that we have not lost more. I have put food in my mouth that never in a million years would I have expected I would eat, nothing out of the ordinary but it is where and how it has been cooked that is the problem. We have no choice and caution has gone to the wayside in favor of survival. We are drinking bottled water however I do not want to know where the ice in the cooler is from that the water bottles are resting in as the ice melts, has come from. We must drink so we do, we must eat, so when meat and food orders arrive from who knows where in the back of a car we eat! May G-D be with us! The bathroom issue is another story.....suffice it to say that I am just

SO FAR OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE! Those of you who know me well may never tease me again about my neurotic OCD issues as I have let them all go in every aspect of my daily life here. I have mentioned that we are sleeping wrapped in silk sleeping bag liners that have been soaked in DEET and other chemicals to save yourself at night? Need I say more.

Now for the REAL stuff. Our mornings begin with 6:15am on the bus to breakfast. We are at the work site with people lined up waiting at 7:00. We quickly prepare our work area and the day begins. The medical team is seeing close to 300 people daily. Here are pictures and descriptions of our work stations.

The crowd arrives before we do and push, shove and fight their way in to be seen.

Patients are registered and a "file" is
started on them. This is in hopes of follow up for larger issues.

Next station is height,

& weight, then on to eye exam. The sad
thing is that even using the symbol eye chart
we have patients that don't know what the
symbols are, they don't have a word for boat,
+ sign, circle.









Next stop is Dr. Judy the dentist. She checks for basic issues that we note a follow up is needed and everybody gets a fluoride treatment.






We have three nurses who triage patients and due to our Hugh turn out numbers they are writing orders for medications as well.




This is the doctors "exam" room as well. We are working out of the school that catalyst built for the "garbage dump" kids.

This is our pharmacy. We have a pharmacist as well as other volunteers who are packaging meds and a translator who writes the directions on the plastic bags in Vietnamese. Lets just say if OSHA ever passed through they would all keel over and die, we have grocery bags full of pills just spread out on table, in suitcases, on the floor, and anywhere else there is a space.

Short on time but here are pictures

Typical street scene


Kids at breakfast - Long (Noah) has eaten stuff that I am gaging just thinking about. Most of our food can comes looking right back at us or can get up and walk away....no, not undercooked, it still has feet!

Beyond exhausted....

As much as I love my blogs being on the comedy side, with the work we are doing and things we are seeing, it is very hard to find any humor. The medical conditions of people here are appalling. We see kids who look 3 years old and they are 7 &8, 85% of the people we saw today have worms, we have already run out of medication. As kids are reading this blog as well as adults, I will not go into detail on much of what we are seeing but believe me I must have uttered the words "Oh, dear G-D this can't be real"!

During our lunch break today, which was "take out" delivered out of the back of a car and lord only knows where it was made, a boy about 9 years old came to us crying in pain. Turns out he was "coined". His mother took a heated coin and scraped it across his chest so hard repeatedly that his entire chest was bruised. This is done to keep the bad spirits away. It is done all over the body with coins or spoons, many of the women we saw today had bruises running down their necks from spooning.

Back to lunch, yes, I was so hungry that I actually took food from the back of a car, sat on a woman;s front porch and ate who knows what.....I have eaten food of of plates and utensils that I never thought in a million years I would do. I am WAY out of the comfort zone on this trip.

I spent the afternoon with the kids doing food & bike distribution. It was wonderful to see the faces of the girls receiving bikes light up.

The building team will be completing their first two houses tomorrow and from what I hear, the conditions for their team are definitely the harshest. The are building on the banks of the river, road to narrow to get supplies in so they have to haul everything. There are no bathroom facility's. I am thrilled to be on the medical team, but the builders say it is gruelling but the people so warm and friendly.

More to say and wanted to upload pictures but am dozing while typing so it is off to bed for me. Hope to get pictures out tomorrow.

Here at last.....

We have finally made it! Only 33 hours leaving West Hartford we landed in Vietnam and what a surprise it was. The airport has been redone, much less chaos than 8 years ago. We were met by the Catalyst staff and brought to our hotel. So much has changed, the area is really being built up and people seem to be a bit better off in Saigon than before, based on standards here, not at home. We checked into the hotel and headed out to go shopping at the Ben Than market, a large outdoor market that is like a maze but you can buy anything...after 20 minutes, the kids were just shot so back to the hotel we went.

The kids have been amazing the entire time, no complaining or whining, just great travelers all around. We took a quick swim and headed back to get ready for dinner. At 5:00om the kids sat anxiously in the lobby waiting for the infamous Anh Tuyet who help care for all of them as babies and help us parents navigate the system. We have stayed in touch via E-mail and heard of her wedding in December. Anh Tuyet finally arrived and it was wonderful to see her again. She could not believe how grown up her "babies" have gotten. Sadly, the kids were so tired at this point all three literally fell asleep with their heads on the table. I tried to pick up Jesse, she opened her eyes, looked at me, reached out for Anh Tuyet, wrapped her arms around Anh Tuyet's neck and just snuggled in and slept. Anh Tuyet was in heaven.

We had to get up and be ready at 5:00am for our flight to Kien Giang. After a middle of the night phone call to all of our rooms reminding us about the flight, it was hard to get back to sleep. We all got ready and raced to our rooms to find all the clocks were wrong and it was only 4:00am.

Anyway, we got to Kien Giang, had breakfast and the sorting of supplies began. It is hot beyond belief and working in this heat is oppressive however the needs of the people are so great you just keep going. We stopped for lunch and work began after lunch. The medical team did 82 exams in 2.5 hours, the food distribution team began sorting and packing rice and beans for tomorrows distribution, and the building team worked two site that they are putting houses on with poles right into the river to hold one side up.

I have so much more to say but am exhausted and we must be on the bus at 6:15am for breakfast and at work sites by 7:00. We see 300 patients tomorrow.

Will post pictures tomorrow which words just can't describe. To tired to edit and spell check so hope this is okay - will go over and fix tomorrow.

6 people, 5 hocky bags, 6 suitcases, 7 carry-on's.....2.5 hour drive!

Well here we are, the equivalent of 9:000am Friday, March 21st in Connecticut, 39,000 feet above the ground and 20 hours later, with our in flight path map showing our plane heading toward Baghdad! As it changes, we may actually be going just a little north of Baghdad which I assume is a good thing......

We left the kids school on March 20th at 1:00pm, and arrived in Cheshire, CT to pick up our travel companions, Martha and Maya. Our first task was to fit 5 hockey bags weighing 70 pounds each filled with donations, 6 suitcase, 7 carry on's, 3 large adults and tress children into a Toyota Sienna......I know my audience here, many of you can relate back to the 60's when a favorite past time was seeing how many people you could fit in a phone booth......for my younger readers, a phone booth was a tall square glass box, with doors that folded inward, that you would enclose yourself in and for a dime make a phone call. The glass prevented any air from passing inside while you stood dripping in sweat making your calls........please, not one comment from any of you asking why we just didn't use our cell phone's (I will have to block you from the blog).....AND we only got 3 channels on the black and white television.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of us crammed sardine style into the van. The important fact is that somehow to all of our amazement, we were able to do it and had a small bit of space to spare. Patty who was in the third row back may disagree, however Martha and I were quite comfy. It was a peaceful ride to JFK as the kids became absorb in the DVD "In Search of Dr. Seuss"....it even kept Patty quiet :-) Other than "Vivika", (my GPS) failing to work, we had an uneventful ride to JFK. Well, ALMOST uneventful, there was the small issue of getting into the fast pass lane in error. As I don't have a fast pass and could not get over to the cash lane, we had no choice but to drive up and wait. The toll booth officer did not think it was funny and after I made multiple apologies, as he yelled at me repeatedly while the line behind us continued to grow, he grudgingly took our money and opened the gate.

We pulled out of Cheshire at 2:20pm and made it to JFK by 4:30. We had to be there by 6:30 but did not want to risk hitting traffic. Had to wait an hour for the counter to open to check us in, the kids pulled out games and did fantastic.

When the counter opened we could see all of the agents secretly praying that they would not be the one to pull the short straw, causing them to be the "unlucky" one to check in the 6 six of us with our 11 oversize check through bags taking up three full luggage carts. The agent was so confused getting us seats together, her machine giving trouble that she waved the weigh in process, slapped tags an our bags and said "just go"....Yeah, so far we still have ALL of our donations, still praying that we can say the same as we make our way through customs in Vietnam....

Had some dinner in the terminal and boarded Singapore Air flight #25 to Frankfurt, Germany. Okay, Singapore Air is wonderful for people of my culture....the food obsessed culture that is. A seven hour flight and we received dinner, breakfast, lunch, AND snack! Think back to my carry on bag photo, this is my kind of service. Not to mention the food was actually very good for airplane food. We had a very annoying "gentleman" seated behind us who, although having two empty seat next to him, decided that Noah and I could not put out seats back and he was yelling like a child "I can't eat, I can't eat, they must sit up". Okay, I was tired and just not in the mood for that, I am crowded also, that is part of flying cattle, I mean coach. Well, he was kicking my chair, banging Noah's seat back to make it go up, while Noah had finally fallen asleep, Patty told him to knock it off and not dare wake him and he called her the "B" word....all bets were off, a fight ensued, words only of course, and the flight attendants had to come over. The "Gentleman" was told we could keep our seat however we wanted them so he kicked the back of my seat the rest of the flight. Fortunately he got off in Germany so we are done with him. Much better "neighbors" on this flight. We spent an hour in Germany and re-borded the same crowded flight for an 11 hour flight to Singapore, 3.5 hours into flight, 7.5 to go.....

It has been 21 hours since we started off on our journey and the kids have slept a total of 4-5 hours each, Maya has only done an hour or two....yup, I can feel the tired crankiness creeping upon us and am expecting the fall out any moment..Oh, just looked over and Jesse is sleeping, go Jesse. Now, I will go try to persuade Mr. Thing to do the dame as we have shopping plans on the agenda when we land in Saigon and dinner with our old friend Anh Tuyet who cared for all three children as babies.

Leaving.....

Well here we are, the equivalent of 9:000am Friday march 21st in Connecticut, 39,000 feet above the ground and 20 hours later, with our in flight path map showing our plane heading toward Baghdad! As it changes, we may actually be just a little north of Baghdad which I assume is a good thing......
We left the kids school on March 20th at 1:00pm, and arrived in Cheshire, CT to pick up our travel companions, Martha and Maya. Our first task was to fit 5 hockey bags weighing 70 pounds each filled with donations, 6 suitcase, 7 carry on's, 3 large adults and tress children into a Toyota Sienna......I know my audience here, many of you can relate back to the 60's when a favorite past time was seeing how many people you could fit in a phone booth......for my younger readers, a phone booth was a tall square glass box, with doors that folded inward, that you would enclose yourself in and for a dime make a phone call. The glass prevented any air from passing inside while you stood dripping in sweat making your calls........please, not one comment from any of you asking why we just didn't use our cell phone.....AND we only got 3 channels on the black and white television.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of us crammed sardine style into the van. The important fact is that somehow to all of our amazement, we were able to do it and had a small bit of space to spare. Patty who was in the third row back may disagree, however Martha and I were quite comfy. It was a peaceful ride to JFK as the kids became absorb in the DVD In search of Dr. Seuss....it even kept Patty quiet :-) Other than Vivika (my GPS) failing to work, we had an uneventful ride to JFK. Well, ALMOST uneventful, there was the small issue of getting into the fast pass lane in error. As I don't have a fast pass and could not get over to the cash lane, we had no choice but to drive up and wait. The toll booth officer did not think it was funny and after I made multiple apologies and him yelling at me repeatedly as the line behind us continued to grow, he grudgingly took our money and opened the gate.
We pulled out of Cheshire at 2:20pm and made it to JFK by 4:30. We had to be there by 6:30 but did not want to risk hitting traffic. had to wait an hour for the counter to open to check us in, the kids pulled out games and did fantastic. When the counter opened we could see all of the agents secretly praying that they would not be the "unlucky" on to check in the 6 six of us with our 11 over sized check through bags taking up three full luggage carts. The agent was so confused getting us seats together, her machine giving trouble that she waved the weigh in process, slapped tags an our bags and said "just go"....Yeah, so far we still have ALL of our donations, still praying that we can say the same as we make our way through customs in Vietnam,,,,
Had some dinner in the terminal and boarded Singapore Air flight #25 to Frankfurt, Germany. Okay, Singapore Air is wonderful for people of my culture....the food obsessed culture that is. A seven hour flight and we received dinner, breakfast, lunch, AND snack! Think back to my carry on bag photo, this is my kind of service. Not to mention the food was actually very good for airplane food. We had a very annoying "gentleman" seated behind us who although he had two empty seat next to him decided that Noah and I could not put out seat back and he was yelling like a child "I can't eat, I can't eat, they must sit up". Okay, I was tired and just not in the mood for that, I am crowded also, that is part of flying cattle, I mean coach. Well, he was kicking my chair, banging Noah's seat back to make it go up, while Noah had finally fallen asleep. Patty told him to knock it off and not dare wake him and he called her the B word....all bets were off, a fight ensued, words only of course, and the flight attendants had to come over. The "gentleman was told we could keep our seat however we wanted them so he kicked the back of my seat the rest of the flight. Fortunately he got off in Germany so we are done with him. Much better "neighbors" on this flight. We spent an hour in Germany and re-borded the same crowded flight for an 11 hour flight to Singapore, 3.5 hours into flight, 7.5 to go.....
It has been 21 hours since we started off on our journey and the kids have slept a total of 4-5 hours each, Maya has only done an hour or two....yup, I can feel the tired crankiness creeping upon us and am expecting the fall out any moment..Oh, just looked over and Jesse is sleeping, go Jesse. Now, I will go try to persuade Mr. Thing to do the same as we have shopping plans on the agenda when we land in Saigon and dinner with our old friend Anh Tuyet who cared for all three children as babies.

96 hours but whose counting....ME

This morning we were invited to speak about the expedition, the needs of the people and the goals of our trip, at Shul to the 7th grade Mitzvah (good deed) class. Wow, it is very hard to engage teens, they were pretty"checked out" on a whole however a few were right there, listening intently, asking good questions and showing real concern over the conditions we were discussing. Glad to see there were some hopefuls for the next generation....The kids did take time and effort to make some drawings and signs to share with the kids in Vietnam.

These posters were in the classroom and thought they were pretty cool. Below on the right side are some of the kids with their pictures. Now I must return to the packing frenzy.....

Noam on the right, being "squeezed" by me was of course less than thrilled, but as he is a family friend I could not miss out on the opportunity to totally mortify him......love ya Noam!

FIVE days and counting.....

We are in full fledged packing mode.....to the left is Noah's carry on bag.


Below is Jesse's.....Our goal is to keep 2 nine year old kids and an 8 year old busy while contained in an aircraft for 24 hours. May G-D be with us!















Of course, given my cultural back round, can anybody guess what the focus of MY carry-on is????
See below...

Okay, it IS all about the food! What if they run out of food on the plane??? What if we don't like the food on the plane....what if I have just lost my mind and need the food???? So much to worry about.....so little time!

Our visa's to enter Vietnam JUST arrived yesterday to Minnesota. They are expected to reach us Monday, 72 hours before departure, okay this alone is enough to push me over the edge.

For tomorrows fun.....soaking our silk sleeping sacks in special Permethrin formula so we do not get attacked by bedbugs....

Sawyer's Premium insect repellent, Military style Clothing treatment - soak for two hours, air dry
effective through 6 washings.....