Day 5: Hospital Day 3

Our shifts at the University Hospital Center continues today, as my group got a tour of the ICU rooms and got to interact with some more heart patients. About half of the room is now replaced with new kids, since most of them probably went into surgeries yesterday. The new kids are a bit quieter than the ones from yesterday. One girl, Tuyết Nhi, was four years old. She was adorable just like any other kids here. She was with her grandmother, whom she seemed to be very close to. She was very playful with her grandmother, but she was very shy when I approached her. She soon fell asleep, and I had a small chat with her grandmother. Tuyết Nhi had no father, for he left her and her mother even before she was born. Her family came from the poor rural area. At the age of 2, she almost died from drowning when the flood hit her area. Her mom and her grandparents worked together to raise her. Her congenital heart diseases were supported by another charity, which I did not really fully understand when she explained to me. Well, at least that she was able to diagnosed her condition early and have it operated so she can have a longer and happier life. The grandmother continues to tell me about her family. Aside from her daughter, who was Nhi’s mother, she also had 4 other boys. She worked really hard to help her youngest son, who was 17, to stay in school. He worked really hard during the summer for 1,000,000 VND to help his family. That’s about 50 dollars…












After lunch we head for the Heart Institute to visit more children patients there. This institute had about 100 doctors and run as a non-profit facility. We packed for them two bags of toys, so every one of us grabbed one of the toys upon arrival to give to one of the kid. Even though the visit was not long, it was long enough to make an impact on us. One of the heart patients that we met had all of his arms and legs amputated due to complications after the heart surgery itself. I spent most of my afternoon here talking to another patient named Minh Trung. He is 12 years old, and he recently had his surgery and will be leaving the facility in a few days. I was there with Jacqueline, Kalvin, Andrew P, and Kevin. We talked to him, and found out more about his family. His family was from Tien Giang, and most of the money used for his surgery was from money borrowed from relatives. Oh, and also, Trung is a very good looking kid. Everyone who was there agreed so as well. He was really sweet while talking to us and answered nicely all the questions we asked him. When we asked him what he wants to be when he grows up, he said he wants to be a lawyer and an actor. It was amazing to see a kid who had been through that to still look forward and have a dream. I really hoped that his dreams come true.






The patients that I encountered today will always have a special part in my mind. They are some out of millions like them in this country who struggled so much every day to survive. It’s a blessing that they still have an opportunistic look and strive to achieve their dreams. Here’s a prayer to this war-torn country so the people can soon escape poverty and move forward.
Over and Out.

Day 4: Hospital Day 2

There are days where there is nothing that can really go wrong or cause disappointment, and today would be one of them. Today we continue our day at the hospital, and our first stop is at the heart patient room. We got the chance to meet the two heart patients, one of them being Hiền that we met yesterday. The other is named Quỳnh Như. Tran and Cece gave them each a gigantic stuffed animal. Apparently the bear was more popular…lol
My group continued our shift at the hospital by touring the General Surgery and Gastro-Intestinal Department. One of the nurses of the department showed us around the department and how things are run here. As a fun activity, we learned how to wash our hands using a proper way taught in the department. This proper way was written in poetry form, which I am quoting here:
“Together as one
Do not pressure each other
Do not divide the three split seven
Do not opposing each other
Go over the five continents
Find the hero
Join with together”
I am still someone confused with one or two steps, but Jonathan got it down pretty quickly. Our tour of the department ended with an hour of visit in the heart patient’s room. The heart patients were not present, but we interacted instead with other heart patients. Even though they are not sponsored by us, a lot of them are still very poor and had been through a lot. The two that I got to interact with during this visit are adorable as well. They are both very playful. I gave my whistle to one of them and he won’t stop blowing it. The other one liked to make guns out of building blocks. He liked Power Ranger and can impersonate their moves. Tran, Cece, Kevin, and Ai-Vy are so good with kids!
The best part of the day to me happened during lunch. Earlier during the trip the chocolate were packed accidently in a box and were lost while the boxes got transferred to the hospital. Steven blamed himself that it was his fault for this lost. During lunch, Andrew P. made an announcement, and said that everyone is going to chip in $1 for us to buy new chocolate for the orphans. It made me so happy that everyone offers this. It showed that they understand and know why they are here on this trip. We later purchased one box of 12 chocolate cases filled with chocolate that were wrapped in coin shaped wrappers. The cost was 264,000 VND total. Thank you so much everyone for your help. We’re excited to give them to the orphans.

Over and out.

Day 3: Hospital Day 1

Everyone got a little bit more sleep this morning as wake up time was not until 7:00 AM and we did not leave for the hospital until 8:00 AM. It is funny that this year our members are always on time while the 2 bus drivers tend to be late. Good job you guys!

We headed out to the hospital and did our shifts for the day. My group was instructed to go into the OT (I am not sure what this stands for…Steven should know). Anyways, we observed a piece of infected skin got removed from someone’s leg. It was quite interesting, actually. Too bad this department only allowed us to stay outside and observed through the glass. Before our shift at the hospital ends, we got the chance to meet one of our heart patients, Hien. She is 7 years old and is adorable.







After lunch about 10 people stayed back to continue to observe surgeries, while most of us went back to the hotel. The guys and I decided to go out and play basketballs with the locals before dinner. Dinner was held on the cruise boat by the river, which was always pleasant.

Sorry that I've been behind on updates.

Over and Out.

Day 2: And It's Our God-forsaken Right To Be Loved

Woke up at about 5:10 am. Went around floors 4,5, and 6 to make sure everyone there is awake.
After a nice breakfast, we took the bus and headed to Đức Huệ, Long An to give scholarships to 50 poor students of Bình Hòa Nam Elementary. After 2 hours through the countryside and about 20 minutes on the Vàm Cỏ River, we reached our destination and were immediately welcomed by the many nervous yet heartwarming smiles. The ceremony proceeded as scheduled with speeches from Dr. Duy, Mr. Long (the Social Worker), a student representative, and mine. Oh, I almost forgot, Tuan Ngo got called on by Mr. Long at the end and was forced to deliver a speech on the spot. He was able to make a lot of the kids laugh, so props to him. We then got to hand backpacks and 400,000 VND to each kids. I got to hand my portion to an adorable girl. She was so shy; after saying "thank you," she slowly edged backward to her friends. I really wish I got to talk to her. Times to mingle with the kids after the ceremony was cut short because of a small drizzle, as the students rushed home quickly to try and beat the rain. Although we spent a minimal amount of times with the students, I am still happy. The money, which maybe sounds mediocre to us, makes a big difference in the lives of these students. I hope that these scholarships, along with how proud we are of these students, would motivate them to work even harder to achieve their goals.
Aside from the scholarship ceremony, Steven, Tran and Sean went separately to visit a house built for one of the girl receiving the scholarship. MEMO had 14,000,000 VND worth of leftover medicines, and the authority of Đức Huệ donated another 7,000,000 VND to her family, who had not have a house for three generations. The house is not fully complete, as it still needs to be painted, but at least now this family has a permanent place to live.















The ride back was quite pleasantly relaxing. We got back to the hotel just in time to get ready for dinner. If you went to 4G, you will remember the outdoor buffet restaurant site. Yes, we went there today. Well, not necessarily there…It turns out this restaurant operates in many sites, and we went to another site aside from the one from last year. The scenery was just as nice and the food was just as good. It was a dinner full of bánh xèo (Vietnamese crepes), snails, BBQ Pork, and so much more Southern Vietnamese food. It is hands down my favorite restaurant on the mission.
It is surprising to say that the food was not the highlight at the restaurant. Well, at least to me it wasn’t. Wait, before I get to my favorite part, there is another thing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AI-VY!!!!! We got up on stage and sing happy birthday! Hope you enjoyed all the happy birthday singing that we did. =]
Throughout the meal, there were performances by a band going on constantly. As we finished the meals, the couples in our group (Franklin &Sophia and Andrew& Jannett) got up and showed us amazing dance skills. Also, we happened to have dinner at the same time with another group, which appeared to be a group of foreign volunteers working with children with Down Syndrome. A little girl in that group came over and asked the guys in our group to dance. She danced with Jonathan, then with Kevin, and the Jeremy, and then me. Thank you Kevin, Jon, and Jeremy for giving me the courage to go up and dance (which is something I am not comfortable doing). It was so much fun!! The little girl has so much energy! After a while she pulled Natalie up too and the three of us got into a circle and dance. It is one of those moments that you just forget about everything. Stuff like that is what makes life beautiful: it doesn’t happen too often, but once it does it just lifts your hearts up. She was adorable, innocent, and talented. It is just amazing to see someone less fortunate and had went through so much still smiles and laughs and have fun. Maybe to me she had gone through a lot, but it seems that she continues to look forward and be happy. Not only that, she was able to spread her joy to others like me.
“I’m Yours” was played next. The little girl pulled Jerome and danced with him. The song was just perfect for the moment. EVERYONE got up and join hands with Jerome and her into one big gigantic circle while singing to that song. It was an a amazing way to end the evening.





And it’s our god-forsaken right to be loved loved loved loved loved <3
Over and Out.
Wait not yet, just one more thing. People seemed to be really tired on the bus today.

Day 1: The Chaos of Departure and Arrival

I cannot believe it is finally here: MEMO 5G. It has been a year since MEMO finished its 4G mission to Vietnam, and now we are coming back once again to provide help and support to those who are less fortunate in this country. I must say, I am even more excited this time around to go back. I will do my best to document what we do each day and share them on this blog using my mediocre Canon Powershot and mediocre writing skill.





Thank you everyone for trying to arrive at the airport in a timely manner. We were able to identified all of the medical supply boxes and checked them in. After about 20+ hours of flying and transiting, we arrived in Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Saigon under the POURING rain. The chaos began here. As soon as we passed through customs, everyone rushes to the luggage claiming areas to retrieve our medical supplies box. Our contact from the hospital was already present, along with two of our members, Fritz and Jerome, who arrived before eveyrone else. As the boxes rushed out into the lanes, members started gathering them together while officers tried to identified each box. Box number 16 gave us a very hard time...In the end we were able to get everything in and transported to the hospital.



After checking into Hoang Hai Long Hotel 3, our group wandered for the first time in the streets of Saigon looking for Sim cards and places to exchange currencies. We were able to exchange at the rate of 20,520 VND for 1 USD. During this operation i almost got hit by a moped...The rest of the day is free, so most people used it to visit families and loved ones in Vietnam.

Tomorrow, our real mission begins as we will go to Long An to provide scholarship for 50 students. Wake up time is 5:30 am and everyone will need to be on the bus by 6:30 am. It is 1:21 am, I guess this means goodnight for now.

Over and out.