a mom, a kid, oh... the things we can do

2010-04-02T23:54:00.001-04:00

2010-04-01T10:58:00.000-04:00

The lables for the last post got all messed up. I swear the internet here just messes with evrything from formatting to spelling! Anyway, the pictures of the houses are houses that Catalyst has built. They have moved all of the families out of the first dump and into homes. Now their work is focusing on the new dump.\
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A day of fun!

2010-04-01T03:08:00.001-04:00

Catalyst is moving onto dump # 2! The chickens in the basket were for a game of catch the chicken! You can imagine how well our children did with that game! All of the food you see was being prepared for the Khmere Tet, which is the Cambodian Tet. Catalyst put on a huge Tet party tonight, with the local woman preparing all of our food. Maya ate her weight in pork! Crossing my fingers all will be digested well as we have a 6 hour bus ride in the morning! the party was amazing! I willl post those photos when we get home. The pictures of Eric swinging a alarge stick was a game that the local students provided for all of the children. It was blind fold the child. spin them and send them off to break the clay pot, sound familar? They then receive the gift in the clay pot. Clay pot sharreds were flying! We also played tug-a-war. The kids had a blast and the adults breathed a sigh of relief that no skulls were craked on the cement and no eyes were lost to sharreds of clay. And no chickens were killed in the chicken catch! However I think they may have ended up on our dinner plates? the next blog will be from our very own kitchen!!!! I am hoping Maya will write a little!!!!

Food distribution day!

2010-03-31T01:58:00.000-04:00

Getting ready for another afternoon of "camp" The community children have a blast!

We are spending our entire week at the Catalyst school this time. I have noticed that the community children and our children are not only interacting more, but really excited to see eachother each day! Last expedition I felt this was missing, so i am so glad to see it this year! Clare and Noah with a couple of community children!

Ashton getting reading to pass along rice and oils to a family from the community. It's about 100 degrees and 98% humidity, this was really hard work!

Noah, John and Jeremy getting ready to share rice and oil. It looks organized, but 2 min. after I took the photo the children were surrounded! There is nothing "organized" in Vietnam!

Maya passing out noodles, milk and formula

2010-03-31T01:41:00.000-04:00

Today we had food distribution. Each month Catalyst distributes food to people in their community. The food consists of rice, beans, oil, noodles, milk and formula. The amount given will last a family of 4 for one month. Many people from surronding areas arrived, thinking they would also be receiving food. We said we could give them all but rice and oil, they were not happy about that. One mother with a 9 month old and a 6=7 year old was in tears, she just wanted to feed her children. It's hard to watch. If we give food away for everyone, th eprogram doesn't work. the idea is to educate the children and teach the parents, for that they earn vochures for food and other items. If a child scores well on tests and gets good grades, they get vochures. If parents attend special trainings on the weekend, participate in comunity events, they get vochures. If they don't do any of the above, no vochures. It's the give a man a fish, eats for a day, give a man a fishing pole he eats everyday philosophy. Even knowing all of that it's hard to watch a mom have nothing to feed her children.

Gekos in my underwear!

2010-03-30T11:18:00.000-04:00

Okay, so today was crazy! We had to set up "camp" for 300 kiddos, get a "market ready for the community and , and get rice ready for distribution tomorrow! This is ALL done by 29 children and 4 adults. We also have a lot of community children who like to help. We got it all done and everyone had a great time. All of the stickers are covering many children in the dump tonight! They LOVED the stickers! They plastered themselves with stickers. None of the children knew how to use a crayon on paper. Once the children showed them they were off and running! Donated toys and Beanie babie, (thank you Ashley) FLEW off the tables! The children raced to the market ahead of their parents so they could go to the toy table. They knew once the parents arrived they would be forced to use their "money" for clothing or worse yet, kitchen items such as pots and baskets. Just goes to show, children are the same all ober the world!
After this crazy day we decided to take the children and ourseleves to a roof top bar/restaurant to enjoy ice cream and cocktails, yummy!!!!! The place is actually called Yumi:)
I will have more time to write more abou the garbage dump and post more photos. Sorry about the way the writing and photos matched up, or better yet didn't match up! Nothing works as it should here!!
Oh, I need to explain the title of the post! We got our laundry back this afternoon and it was still wet. I draped everything everywhere and left for the afternoon. When we returned I checked the clothes and they were mostly dry; the a/c is running like crazy! Anyway, as I picked up a pair of underwear a geko scooted across my bed! I couldn't scream because I didn't want Maya to see it. I thought she'd walk to the airport and book the first plane home! So I quietlty grabbed a tissue and as I was about to grab the geko, Maya rounds the corner and simply states, "careful not to get the tail, it'll fall off and when it falls off it still wiggles. Can I go downsatirs with the other kids?" !!!!! I was stunned! She was cool as a cucumber! I'm still a tad grossed out tho!

2010-03-30T10:39:00.001-04:00

water puppet show in Saigonbeach in Phu QuocPPearl farm, watching the guy implant pearlsMaya snorlelingHanging thing:)This is the garbage dump where the people that we are her to work with live, work and find their food. These picture show their actual living condiotns. This community consists of people who are undocumented. That means they are unable to shop in the store, go into markets, etc... They must literally live off of the dump Setting up market day for the commuity. They will purchase items with vouchers they have earned for various reasons. This is the only way this communnity is able to buy goods.Maya and friends sorting and organizing for the market day. The kids were in charge of running the marketKids buying toys at the maket. These ladies had so much fun watching all that was going on!Beading with the local children

Clothing, craft supplies, paint, oh my!

2010-03-29T11:06:00.001-04:00

So today began around 5:45 am. The medical team was off to their work sit at 6 as the rest of us went about our morning in a sloth like fashion! We hit breakfast at 7:30 and work sites by 9. We were up to greet our friend Brianna as her mom is on the medical team.
Today our team, the school team, made our way to the school to begin the monsterous duty of seperating art supplies, clothing ,shoes and a multitude of other items. We are a team of 29 children between the ages of 8 and 14, a group of teenagers and 4 adults. We then have our teams split into 3 groups. One group is painting the building. They consist mostly of the older boys. Then the other teams are sorting items for our market we will be holding for the people of a specific area. These folks will be given vouchures to purchase clothing, shoes and toys. The kids will be organizing and running the market. We are also preparing for a camp in the morning and another camp in a day or 2. The kids will be running stations; tye-dye, beads, friendship bracelets and arts and crafts. All of the village children will come to enjoy, 300 kids to be exact! Should be fun, I think!!! Oh and did I mention how hot it is??? No, not in tis post you say? Well, it's HOT!!!!! 15 bottles of water per day per person. Even with that you don't find the need to use the rest room very often! It's also really humid. The sweat never actually dries to col you as it is meant to be! You just spend your day soaking wet! Always happy to see the shower at the end of the day!
The hotel we are in is fine. In the states it would rank maybe 1 star, here it's probably 3. After taking a shower we have a river running through the bathroom. If everyone statrts flushing our bathroom seems to collect all of the sewage oder, pretty I know, but I had to share! The gekos have managed to find other rooms to hang out in, thank heavens! We do have a flat screen tv, a fridge, wifi, a/c,hot water, and a lock on the door, so no complaints really!
My computer will not recoginize my picture card, so I plan to borrow a compter tomorrow to post pictures from our snorkeling in Phu Quoc, work here at the school and other stuff, so stay tuned!
I leave you all to go to sleep, count my blessings and e humbled by all I see!

Phu Quoc to Kien Giang

2010-03-28T00:24:00.000-04:00

We just arrived in Kien Giang and the work is about to start! We are getting a bit of down time before heading off to sort all of the meds and tons of other doantions.
I have a boat load of pictures to post from the last few days. I have been having internet issues. Yesterday, Saturday, we took a tour of the northern part of Phu Quoc. It was suppose to be a half day tour, but turned into a full day! We visited a pepper farm, vey interesting to see how pepper grows! Then went to a beach area , I think the purpose was to buy sea shells! I am pretty sure our tour guide was related to the sellers of the sea shells:) Then off to luch and 2.5 hours of snorkeling off of a small, remote island, simply spectacular!!!!! I will post pictures later tonight, they are awesome!!!!!
Well that's it for know, off to work we go!!!!!!

2010-03-26T21:02:00.001-04:00

Our resort in Phu Quoc!

Phu Quoc

2010-03-26T04:16:00.001-04:00

We arrived in Phu Quoc yesterday. The island is amazing. rain forest to the north and amazing beaches to the south. the flight from Saigon was 45 min. We will atke a ferry back to Kien Giang on Sunday. It is here that we will meet up with the expedition.
Today we took a tour of the island with a tour guide. We went to local makets to buy our food for luch; elephant fish and squid. We then headed to what was voted the most beautiful beach in the world by ABC News. How they became the experts on beaches, I'm not sure, but they were right! Sao beach is amazing. White sand, blue water, just like the Caribbean! We all had a blast swimming and eating our freshly purchased seafood!
we then went to a pearl farm. These pearls are amazing! The prices are equally amazing. Maya scored a pearl necklace which will be her high school graduation gift, something I could never swing in the states! Then we headed back to our resort.
The Sea Star resort is great. We have individual bungalows steps from a beautiful beach. Coconut and almond palms are every where. The beach has resorts and restaurants all up and down. When we want to eat we just walk the bach and find a good place, very fun!
louise, if you are reading this, my hair is up every day!!!!!!!!!! It is so humid that MY hair actaully gets frizzy!!! I have NEVER had frizzzy hair in my life! HAHA!!!!
So, all is well! We are so excited to be experiencing things that I never that we would. We are so fortunate!
Miss you all! I'll try and send a little warth and sunshine your way!

2010-03-23T21:40:00.001-04:00

Elephant fish, deep fried and quite yummy!
Coconut candy "factory" The candy is really fabulous.... OSHA may take issue with some of the practices!

Paddling along the river ways

Local fresh fruit. Logden berries, durien, pineapple, papaya and lechee nuts.

2010-03-23T21:32:00.001-04:00

markets on Unicorn Island
Maya and Jesse riding in the paddle boat

Typical home on Unicorn Island
A visit to a bee keepers home. Drinking sweet tea and eating candies made from honey

Crossing the Delta, passing many islands where a large percentage of people live and work along the delta. Most fish, dredge sand to sell to Singapore and other islands that would like to become larger. they provided most of the sand for the expansion in Dubai. The barges were impressive! I hope to figure out how to upload video soon!!!

Simply awesome!

2010-03-23T10:09:00.003-04:00

Amazing and breathtaking! We started our day riding in a bus for about 3 hours going about 50 miles! The traffic is so bad in Saigon that it literally takes 3 times longer to get anywhere. The sights were great and we all had a nice time meeting new people from all over the world. Once in the Mekong Delta area we boarded a motor boat that took us across the river to Unicorn Island. Once across we treked through the villiage. We were treated to some local honey, tea, and candied banana, ginger and peanuts.
We then boarded paddle boats and made our way through the intericate water ways that connect islands and villages. Due to the remote location the children do not receive any form of education. Maya thought that sounded perfect! The paddle boats were amazing, it was nice to see village life in the remote areas.
After the paddle boats we got on another boat and went to Coconut Island where we were able to watch them make this delicious coconut candy. We bought a total of 240 pieces of this decedent candy, yes, we'll share!
Then it was off to lunch which consisted of pork, rice veggies and elephant fish. Maya ate 3 pieces of pork and quite a bit of the elephant fish, which was okay, not sure I would eat it again.
We then hopped on a motor boat for our 3 hour ride back to Saigon. So fascinating to see how life works on the river.
I will post pictures which can say so much more than I can. I also have video, but it's having a hard time loading, I'll try!
Marjorie, in our group was a newlywed couple from Ireland. He was from Northern Ireland and she was from Limmerick, I think.
Tomorrow is our last day in Saigon before we head to Phu Quoc, so off to finish our shopping and a swim in a hotel pool with some new friends we met today!
The picture won't load! I'll try again tomorrow!

2010-03-23T07:19:00.001-04:00

Today's adventure will be........................

2010-03-22T18:22:00.002-04:00

Off to the Mekong Delta, home of the floating markets, great food and amazing sights. Along the way we plan to visit Unicorn Island, Turtle Island, ride bikes to a village and of course, do a little shopping. With the exception of the bike ridding, this promises to shape up to be a fun day! I like bike ridding, but there is a person in our group who shall remain nameless who does not know how to ride a bike! We'll have to see how we get around that. Maybe they will have a bike built for 2?
We had a great dinner last night at a fabulous outdoor restaurant, then home and to bed early. The jet lag is just bubbling under the surface! Hopefully today everyone will be a bit more acclimated.
Stay tuned for some pictures and hopefully some video of our amazing tour.! I will try and post tonight.
Also, a great big happy birthday to Shealyn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy 4 year old birthday, we LOVE you!!!!!!! (It's March 23 here :) )

PS, spell check does not work here, sorry for the misspellings and any other ways I can slaughter the english language!!!!

more pictures from the day

2010-03-22T03:18:00.003-04:00

Views from our hotel window

lunch at Wrap and Roll, really yummy!

Out side of the market. This young boy and his mom were seperating seeds to sell.

Not sure what happens with the sea horses, but they were in jars in the fish secdtion of the market. I can't imagine they would be good to eat, but who knows?

2010-03-22T02:47:00.003-04:00

The street near our hotel. The hotel is nice. It's located in the baqckpack district, so loads of shops and very fun to walk down the streets!
Fresh fish! Too bad it's not smell-a-blog! The aromas are intense!

In the produce section of the market

On our way to Behn Tahn Market AKA Heaven on earth!~!! Best shopping bar none!

Breakfast! Pho for the kids
So far everyone is having fun! We are back at the hotel as it is almost 2 in the afternnon. We are all tired and it's really HOT outside. So after a morning of shopping we are back and enjoying the AC.

For Mr.Brinkman's class; the answer to the question in the last post is...... 500,000.00 dong equal $30 US dollars. Maya found something for all of you at the market, but it's a surprise!

Later today we will head out again to explore the streets of Ho Chi Mihn City!!!

We are here!

2010-03-21T19:11:00.002-04:00

OKAY 30 hours traveling across the world isn't a bowle full of cherries, but the destination is amazing! The travel went as well as one woul expect with 3 kids and 3 adults stuck on a plane for 21 hours. I began the 2nd leg of the trip, the 13 hour leg, by having a glass of wine land in my lap about an hour into the flight! It was a rather full glass of wine an very cold! Thank heavens I packed about 3 outfits into the carry-on! Sitting in soaked clothing for that flight would not have left me feeling too happy!
Well it is now 6 am Monday morning and Maya has been asleep since about 1 am. Sleeping on the palne is not her idea of a good time! She did manage to sleep about 3 hours on the plane, but didn't bug me at all, she was a great traveler!
We were met at the airport by some folks from Eurakaz as promised! They got all 15 very large bags loaded up and got all of us safely to our hotel. We were happy to arrive and settled into sleep! The plan for the ay, SHOPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! of course:)
Here is a question for Mr. Brinkman's class, we are going to exchange our American dollars for Vietnamese dong. The exchange rate is 19,000 dong = 1 US dollar. Maya wants to exchange 30 dollars. Can you figure out how many Dong she will get? We'll give you the answer in our next post!!
Well, Maya just woke up so it's off to get reay for our day! We' ll post pictures tonight! Have a great ay everyone!

2010-03-19T13:48:00.002-04:00

Okay, tomorrow is the day! We have a 9 am flight from Hartford. We will arrive in Saigon at 11 pm Sunday night! It's a long trip, but so worth the 30 hours we will spend traveling. All I can say is thank God for the DS, the netbook and the ipod!!!!!!! Oh and REALLY thank God for sleeping pills(thank you Gail!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maya is still too young for sleeping pills so Dramamine we will try! Our next post will be from Vietnam!!

2010-03-14T20:21:00.001-04:00

Pre-travel information from head of Catalyst
We have 80 volunteers, as young as 7 years old, traveling from across the U.S and Canada in March 28 - April 1, 2010 to Kien Giang (the southern most province of Vietnam near the Cambodian border). We will be building a home and playground, provide medical assistance to over 2000 people and reach out to the 300 children Catalyst Foundation serves in Vietnam. We're excited to have many of our volunteers return for a second, third, fourth and some for a fifth time! We also have a few new volunteers that have never been this far from home before or returning for the first time since they adopted their child from Vietnam. We're all very excited to get started but we still need your help! Help us reach our fundraising goal! Please Donate Today!We're also looking for any donations of the following items:Arts & Crafts SuppliesFrisbees, game balls, temporary tattoosSmall toys - yo-yos, marbles, cards, jacks, matchbox cars, etc. Stickers, stickers, stickers MultivitaminsToothbrushes/toothpaste Travel size soap, shampoo, washcloths Onesies- for infants under 12 months Board games & coloring books

2010-03-13T19:37:00.005-05:00

Some of our bags are backed and we're getting ready to go................

Got together with sandy and her kids to pack up our donations! thanks to everyone who donated items! as you can see we have a ton. So far we have 3 very large duffel's, and we think one more will do it!

Someones missing from the photo you say? That would be Maya. She decided to be especially pre-teen today. So Jesse (Sandy's daughter) and Jessee's friend, Julia decided that they would help out! Oh and Sandy's 11 year old, Noah is also missing from the picture!

2010-03-04T13:35:00.002-05:00

We are coming down to the wire! In 2 weeks we will be leaving for our second aid expedition! We are excited and looking forward to our adventure. However, I have done very little to prepare! Last time I felt like we prepared for months, this time it's this thought that keeps popping up, but no action! We have collected a ton of stuff to bring; stickers, crayons, markers, tooth brushes/paste, clothing, but I feel like we don't have enough! I don't know if there is ever enough!
We have so much, and yet the families we work with have nothing. I feel that we arrive, work and leave and the families are a bit better off, but in the big picture have we made that much of a difference? I try and remember a saying that I believe Caroline Tico-Parker (founder of Catalyst) once said, "One person can't change the world, but you can change the world for one person." If our trip changes the world for one person, it's so worth everything! The big picture is over whelming. So many people in our world need so much, not just the people of Vietnam. I can't help to think if each one of us makes a point to have a positive impact on one person in this world, what an amazing world this would be!
So, those are my thoughts today! I try and focus on what I can do, and not what I can't. We will make a difference in some one's life and the greatest gift of all? They will make a huge difference in ours!

Two months and counting

2010-02-10T13:07:00.003-05:00

This trip is creeping up on me! I did manage to create a donation page! The address is www.firstgiving.com/marthawylie
We need to raise at least $1,500 for Catalyst in order to participate in the expedition. The donations go directly to the projects in Vietnam, I cover our costs from airfare to food. So, if you are so inclined, feel free to visit our donation page, every little bit helps!!! Thanks!
We have decided where we will spend our first week! The first 3 days we will be in Saigon, doing day trips. The next 4 days we will be staying on the island of Phu Quoc. We are staying at a quaint little resort called Phu Quoc Seastar Resort. $35.00 a night will get us a beach villa and breakfast! Sure can't beat that with a stick!
The 2nd week we will be working on the expedition. Not a lot of details on that yet. I do know that we will be staying in one location this year rather than traveling to a new location every other day.
I will update as we get closer and have more details.

2009-12-07T18:05:00.003-05:00

I am very excited that Maya and I will once again return to Vietnam with the Catalyst Foundation! We will be leaving at the end of March for 2 weeks. One week is expedition work and one week will be tourist stuff. Our plans at this point include a trip to Hanoi, Sappa and Ha Long Bay. Nothing written in stone as yet, but I know the plans will be great!

Final Numbers!

2008-04-10T13:22:00.000-04:00

Final Numbers:
This post is copied from our fearless leader - Caroline

Our expedition is over - most of us are home now and going through some culture shock and of course dealing with jet lag. For such a huge group, we were an amazing team that worked hard with an exhausting schedule in just 8 short days. We want to thank all those that have followed our blogs, donated money, toys, stickers, hats, t-shirts and everything else. Your generosity is amazing and so much appreciated.

Here are our final numbers:

over $53,000 raised and priceless in-kind donations

350 children & 40 chaperone's went to camp (including transportation, lodging, meals & clothes) to see the ocean and have fun! (they traveled by bus up to 14 hours to get to camp!)

250 bikes given to every child in our scholarship program in 5 different towns

10 kg. of rice, 10 kg. of dried beans, 5 kg. of sugar, 1 box of instant noodles and some candy :) to 280 families (that's enough to feed a family of 4-6 people for a month!)

700+ "fun bags" given to school children in 5 different villages - the fun bags were 100% made with donations of toys, clothes, stickers and drawings (mostly from school children in the U.S.)

350 "fun bags" given to all the children that attended camp.

2 new houses started in Rach Gia (Kien Giang)

2 houses renovated in Tan Hoi Trung (Dong Thap)

1 new house started in Tan Hoi Trung

1 house renovated in My Hiep (Dong Thap)

1 new house started in My Hiep

2 houses renovated in Sa Dec (Dong Thap)....all in 5 days*

we also funded the construction of 2 new houses (1 in My Hiep and 1 in Sa Dec)

for medical check ups:

in Rach Gia (Kien Giang - day 1 - 82, day 2 - 275, day 3 - 182, total= 539

47% were treated for parasites, 100% of the patients work and live in the garbage dump

in Tan Hoi Trung (Dong Thap) day 4 - 277 total (192 under age 18, 2 needed follow up)

in My Hiep (Dong Thap) day 5 - 313 (203 under age 18, 5 needed follow up)

in Sa Dec (Dong Thap) day 6 - 231 and 7 kids at our orphanage...

a grand total of 1367 patients in 6 days

after flying thousands of miles to get to Vietnam we then traveled:
120 miles via plane to Rach Gia (Kien Giang)

70 miles from Rach Gia to Cao Lanh (Dong Thap) by bus and two ferries - 6 hours

10 miles from Cao Lanh to Tan Hoi Trung (Dong Thap) by bus and tuk tuk - 1 hour

15 miles from Cao Lanh to My Hiep (Dong Thap) by bus - 45 minutes

25 miles from Cao Lanh to Sa Dec (Dong Thap) by bus and one ferry - 1 hour

85 miles from Sa Dec to Saigon/HCMC by bus - 4 hours

15 miles from edge of Saigon to our hotel by bus - 1 hour

75 miles from Saigon to Long Hai (for camp) by bus - 3 hours

80 miles from Long Hai back to Saigon by bus - 3 1/2 hours

*our bike team traveled 100 miles from Cao Lanh to Saigon in 12 hours and survived!We're already looking forward to the next expedition (I think!)...thanks again for all your support! More pictures will be posted soon!THANK YOU for being the Catalyst for positive change for the children of Vietnam!

I am exhausted just reading about what we did!!! It seems surreal!

we are home!

2008-04-04T06:31:00.002-04:00

We are finally home! We got in around 10 pm last night. I have never been so happy to see our little house!!!! The flight home was LONG! We flew straight from Singapore to NJ, about 18 hours. Maya barely slept, which means I barely slept. Maya was then up at 6 am! I feel like I've been run over by a truck!!!!!!
Glad to be home :)

The girls go shopping!!!!

2008-04-02T00:06:00.003-04:00

goodnight Vietnam!

smoothies at Gloria Jean's
The Rex Hotel

Okay, we did some serious shopping damage today!!!!! Maya and I set out at 8:30 and just returned. We hit the Tax Store, which is a mall like place with 3 floors of everything you could imagine! For example we bought beautiful embroidered t-shirts, $2.00 each, au doi's for $4.00 a piece, embroidered wall hangings, $15.00, you get the picture! Now we just have to find space in the lugguage to fit everything!

Maya was a pro. She had her own purse filled with Dong, Vietnamese currency. I'm not sure how much she started with, but she has a little left over :) She insisted on paying for her own stuff with no help from me!

We ended our shopping spree with smoothies at Gloria Jean's, the coffee shop. It was soooo nice to have something ice cold! I still have yet to find an iced cold Diet Coke!!!

We leave tonight on a 7:50, pm flight to Singapore. In Singapore we have a 12 hour lay over. Fortunatley the airport has a transit hotel. We'll check in, catch a good night sleep and hop on a 22 hour flight from Singapore to Newark. We should arrive in Newark around 6 pm on Thursday. We are both excited to get home. We have been missing everyone!

So long from Saigon!

Back in Saigon

2008-04-01T06:49:00.004-04:00

The Opera House
The Carvel Hotel

Well, it's our last night in Vietnam. to celebrate Maya and I just ordered room service! Spaghetti no sauce, just butter for Maya and steak and fries for me, we are soooooooo excited!!! The food this trip has been very, very traditional. At times I had no idea what I was putting in my mouth. I just opened and hoped for the best!!! So tonight we are jazzed to have a good solid meal! The only thing missing is diet coke! I have seen a diet coke in 2 weeks! Instead i went for a tiger beer!

Being back in District 1 is bring back so many memories from when I was here for Maya's adoption. We are staying in the Huong Sen Hotel, right around the corner from the Carvel Hotel which is where we stayed 9 + years ago. The area has developed beyond belief. It's more like 5th Ave! The smell is gone and the shops and resturants have sprung up! The prices have gone up a tad as well! Every shop we went into the shop workers looked at Maya and asked "Vietnam baby?, I give you a better price". We got some neat stuff! We are off to the market tomorrow to finish up our shopping. We have a flight out at 8 pm, so we have most of the day, YEAH!!!!
The largest change is that we can actually cross the street with relative ease! when we were here before gail and I never crossed the street! Maya and I crossed many today and did not totally fear for our lives. They finally have signal lites and cross walks! You still have to be careful, but most motorists obey the signals. In 1999 there were no signals and nobody obeyed any type of road rules!!! Crossing the street literally meant you had a very, very good chance of being run over!

2008-03-31T06:35:00.002-04:00

We have arrived at Binh Chau, Ho Coc. This is a ecotourist resort that is amazing!!!! This is our little bungalow!
Maya outside our little house
We did a mud bath! This resort sits on hot springs with theraputic mud! We sat in a giant tub of really hot water, got out smeared our selves with the "mud" and baked in the sun. Then we got back in the fiant tub to rinse off! We had such a blast!!
Maya and friend Zach, riding on an elephant at the ppol!
This place is beautiful. The gardens are amazing. There are acres and acres of green space and gardens, a far cry from all of the other places we have been!
The entire team has arrived at the resort. This is our last day and night all together. we are having a big cook out tonight as a farewell. Everyone will go their seperate ways tomorrow. Maya and I will be heading to Saigon for 1 and a half more days. We plan to shop, shop, shop!!!! Afew other families are heading there as well. We leave Vietnam at 10 pm Wednesday night. We fly to Singapore and have a 12 hour lay over, then we ly straight from Singapore to Newark, 22 hours on the plane non-stop!!! While we are in Singapore we will get a Transit hotel room in the airport. In the moring we will take a 2 hour tour of Singapore and then head back to the airport. We should arrive in Newark at about 6 pm!
We will be glad to get home, but sad to say good-bye to so many new friends! This has been a fabulous experience! We have seen sooooooo much and really experienced Vietnam in a way we never could have on our own!!!!

2008-03-30T11:49:00.002-04:00

A woman selling squid and shrimp, she'll even cook it for you, Yum
arts and crafts at camp
fresh seafood anyone?
a young boy recieving a new bike and food for his family
these are paper cranes that maya recieved as a gift from a child at one of the schools

a day at the beach!

2008-03-30T11:15:00.002-04:00

Today we spent the day at the beach. It was camp day! All 300 of the children that Catalyst sponsors plus our 25 kids and 80 or so adults took over a large section of beach for games, food and swimming! It was amazing!

Imagine 300 kids that have never left their villiage, never been in a hotel and never having a day off from work enjoying 1 entire day that was designed just for them! We played games did arts and crafts and just had fun. the kids were so delighted. My favorite was the little girl in the tiarra! Every little girl whether they live in a dump in Kien Gang or in a penthouse on 5th ave. should have a tiarra!!!!

The day started with "organized" games. That last about 30 minutes. All the kids wanted to do is go in their rooms and take showers!!! I guess having never seen a shower it was a much larger attraction than any of us could provide! After lunch we brought our kids back to our hotel for hang time while the Catalyst kids showered, again and rested. Many of them did not feel well after lunch. the poor babies ate so much food they were sick. this is probably one of the first meals they did not have to gather on their own, imagine what that must have been like for them!

we then all gathered for dinner and skit night. the children all put on skits, it was hilariuos. We were treated to traditional dance, music and song.

Tomorow we say good-bye to the kids and head off for our last day as a team. We are spending the day and night at a hot springs resort, about 45 miles from Long Gai. i can't remember the name of the place! It will be our celebration day for loads of hard work!

This trip has been incrediable. Maya and I have made friends that I hope will continue to be friends for many years. as I sit here freshly showered and comfy I can honestly say that I am so glad we did this trip. It has been rewarding, eye opening and some of the hardest work I have ever done. I am so proud of Maya who has worked her little tail off with very little complaint. She has been bagging 10 pound bags of rice, helping to move 100 bikes from one space to another, helped children learn new games without understanding a single word they said. She has been out of bed and ready to move to a new site by 5:30 in the morning and she has figured out friendships with 25 children from all over the country. During most of this time she has done all of this with a smile on her face!

I am ready to come home, eat some good food and sleep in a comfy bed! It didn't help when Gail reported to me what Tyler Florence was cooking on the food network, TEEHEE! Seriously though, we have tried some really, really traditional foods. Some was fabulous and some was not. I have to say that one of my most favorite things was fried sticky rice balls, simply amazing!!!

I am off to bed. Hopefully we will have internet at our next spot and I will post more!

Martha

new day, new place!

2008-03-29T18:56:00.002-04:00

We are now in Long Gai. A beautiful beach resort town on the South China sea. We arrived after a long day in Saigon where we played games and distributed about 100 bikes, beans and rice. After our hard work we had pizza for lunch! We were All excited to see pizza!!!!! It was probably the worst pizza I have ever had, but it tasted so good!!!!!!
Today we have a fun day with all of the children, 300,that we have been visiting for the past week! For all of them this is their first time out of their village, fist time in a motorized vehicle and the first time staying in a hotel! Their little faces are amazing!!!!!
I have to run, breakfast at 6:15! I hope to get on-line tonight. The internet out here is sketchy at best! I alos hope to post pictures tonight, so stay tuned!!!!

once again, pell check does not work so please excuse the typos or the just blantant misspellings!!!!

pictures

2008-03-27T11:09:00.003-04:00

this little girl took a shining to Maya:)
Yup, that's where we go potty! We call it the squatty potty!

typical "houses" outside of the city

pictures

2008-03-27T10:52:00.004-04:00

Maya playing Viet, Viet Goose!

Another sweaty day!

2008-03-27T10:02:00.002-04:00

Well it's Thursday night and it's hard to believe we are almost halfway through our trip! Today was another amazing day of interactions and food distribution. In the morning we went to a school to play games and exchange art work. The children at this school were working on their English. I had so much fun with about 20 kids. They all took turns saying "hello my name is_____, what's your name? i am x years old and how are you today?" I would answere and would ask them the same questions. Then they tried to get me to ask the same questions in Vietnamese. All I can say is that it turned into and giggeling session and then into "pee in your pants" laughing session. They thought i was so funny! I may take this shstick on the road!

I would have to say the funniest part of the day was when another woman and I went to the "grocery store". We need to get snacks for the kids and I needed to get some stuff for Maya and a couple of beers for me! We take a taxi literally 2 blocks because the gals at the hotel said it was much to far to walk... We arrive at the store and soon assemble a large antorage to follow us through the store. They follow along and giggle, good thing I have a decent self image! We get all the stuff we need and go to check out. Well, I guess people don't wait in line here. If yoiu are unloading your cart, everyone goes ahead of you! Charlene, the woman I was with is unloading onto the counter and 1 guy goes in front of her. She says out load, "sure go ahead, I'm just unloading, no need for you to wait!!!!". Of course no body understands and they all start giggeling. Another guy cuts her off she says the same thing and they all react the same way Number 3 comes along and Charlene, a middle school principal, throws her hand in the air, yells STOP, I AM NEXT!!!! and they all stop, stare and giggle! The 2 of us were laughing so hard we couldn't even get our money out to pay! The people at the store came over to help us!!!

We took the kids to a great park to play. When you go anywhere you usually have an official following right behind. Well, this one official was standing and watching all of us play soccer and frisbee oh and my darling child was letting balloons go flying and making a hidious sound as they lost air through out the park, cute, huh? Well, this one official began to play frisbee with the kids. It was amazing!!! we have great pictures, just have to find out on who's camera so I can post. The officials in Vietnam are not typically shall we say out to make friends, so this was really amazing!

Tomorrow we leave Dong Thap and head back to Saigon. We will do work on saturday and then have camp on Sunday and half day Monday. will post more from Saigon.

I also want to apologize for typos and the lack of a ton of detail. By the time I sit to do this it's late and I am exhausted!
Love to all!
oh and Maryann, i tried to email you, but it wouldn't go through!
and Stepahnie, just in case I don't get on line tomorrow night, have a fantastic wedding day!!!!!! Congratultions to both you and Dane! I will raise my glass to you at breakfast on Saturay as you all raise yours to toast your wedding!!!!!!

And... to get more info on our trip and other perspectives check out the catalyst blog and sand's blog, both listed under "other sites" to the right of this page. don't go to catalystfoundation.org, that's just their web site, go to the 2 others!
Off to bed for me! have a great day everyone!
Love,
Martha

pictures

2008-03-26T10:58:00.002-04:00

Our Tuk-Tuk!
Girl recieving a fun bag

eating at the beach. Notice all the people watching us! They are standing off to the right.

On the road again.....

2008-03-26T10:11:00.002-04:00

Sorry for not posting last night. We took a 5 hour bus ride over the scariest bridges and the bumpiest roads I have ever been on! We have moved from Kien Gang to Dong thap, i think! It's hard to keep track, but anyway after 5 hours and 2 ferry rides we arrived very late, so no time to blog!!!

Yestarday,Tuesday, the school team got the day off, YES!!!!! We took 25 kids to the beach. We went to Ha Tien which is located as far south west in Vietnam you can go. We had a blast!! I have added a couple of picture, but the best was sitting to eat luch. people just lined up and stared at us. We now know what animals in a zoo feel like. We are getting use to the stares. People just come to a dead stop and stare and I mean stare! It's ver unusual for white people to be in this area, nevr mind white people with vietnamese kids!

To Mrs. Smo's class: Great questions! We understand very little. we can understand hello, thank you, and good bye, that's about it! The children here love to yell hello to us and then they giggle! We can not read any signs what so ever!!!!
We are enjhoying most of the food. Maya is being very adventuresome in her eating. Last night she was eating and came acroos a chicken foot! She stopped eating!
There are no american resturants.
The hotels are okay. not as clean and nice as American hotels, but they are not too bad. We do however have a geko living in our room, yew!!
The actual temp. is about 100-110. The humidity is very high, higher than anywhere in the US. We ahve to drink at least 20 bottles of water a day to stay healthy!
On the TV we have found cartoon Network and Disney Channel, both in english!!!
Please don't hesitate to ask more questions, those were great!!!!

Okay, here is what our day is like! We are up at 5:30 and on the bus by 6:30. We take a bus to a town and then travel by Tuk-Tuk for about 20 min. into the villiage. The tuk-tuk goes over these bridges that the planks rise up after we go over it! When we arrive in the village we head off to the school. They usually preform a dragon dance, have a little ceramony to welcome us and then we play games and pass ou beanie babies.
We taught soem students, about 40, how to play duck, duck, goose. Only we called it Viet, Viet, goose! Viet (VIT) is chicken in Vietnamese. It took us 20 minutes to get the kids to understand! I have never laughed so hard! Our kids and gthe school kids really don't interact. They both keep a distance from one another. This game helped to bring them all together, it was really neat to see.
I think the language barrier and the obviuos difference in "status" is the barrier. We are really working hard to get them together!
After the school we take another tuk-tuk ride to the food distribution area. In this area the kids are passing out food and bikes. This is also where they are handing out fun bags. The reaction of the children recieving all of this is very somber until they hit the street, the the smiles begin and the giggeling. It is the most amazing thing to watch!!!
I can't even begin to tell you how amazing all of the kids are. They are working so hard in very difficult conditions, never mind the emotional stuff with being in their birth culture! They whine very little and complain even less. I told Maya that the bar is being raised at home now that I know what she is really capable of!!!!!!
This trip continues to humble me! It is truly amazing to see first had how the Vietnamese people must live and what they must do meach day just to survive! I shall never complain of my small house again!!!!! So we are happy, hot, tired, dirty and humbled!
Once again I will post pictures, they really are worth 1000 words!!!
Love,
Martha

a few more picture!

2008-03-23T10:54:00.003-04:00

Maya eating pho for breakfast, the beach and our hotel in Rach Gia

Getting the fun bags organized for all of the children. It is so hot they we all ahve to drink at least 20 bottles of water a day!

We are here, we are here, we are HERE!!!!!!

2008-03-23T10:28:00.002-04:00

It is know Sunday night about 9:30, i think! I have not gotten the time thing down yet! the trip here was long but fine. Maya was a trooper for the 30 hours we spent traveling. In singapore we discovered the "transit Showers"!!!! We all ran in and took a quick shower before we boarded our last flight to HCMC, Vietnam. I can say that a shower never felt so good!!!!!!!!

We arrived in HCMC at 11 am Saturday. They have built a new airport, just opened 7 months ago. It is beautiful!!! Customs and immagration were a breeze! The immagration officers were so nice and helpful. A FAR cry from 1999!!!!!!

Once we got to our hotel we called Ahn Tuyet, our translator from Maya's adoption. We then went off to the Bihn Thi Market. Just as amazing as I remember! Maya was in her glory!! We then went back to the hotel for a quick swim and dinner with Ahn Tuyet. Sadly Maya did not make dinner. We sat at our table and Maya fell instantly asleep, as did Jesse and Noah. We will meet up with Ahn Tuyet again on the 1st!!!! Mayabe Maya will be able to stay awake!

To all of my friends in Mrs. Smo's class: I can't wait to tell you about the market. I bought each of you a small gift. but, it's a surprise!!!

Today, Sunday we flew to Kien Gang Province. We are in Rach Gia. this is where Catalyst has their school. Today we sorted and added to over 700 "fun bags". We also scooped and weighted 85 bags of rice. The kids were AMAZING. It is beyond hot here and when I say hot I mean HOT!!!!! All who know me know just how much I love the heat! But I remain cheerful and happy, after all it's just a state of mind! I am posting pictures that will say more than I ever can!

We al so want to send out a really big HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY TO SHEALYN!!!!!!!!! We love you tons!!!!!

Martha and Maya

the bags are packed!!!

2008-03-15T23:10:00.002-04:00

Okay, the bags are packed, the bills are paid, the house is clean and yet my Mom is still on her cruise!!!! Actually she wont be back until Wednesday night, just in time to hand off the dog and fish and a quick catch up before we leave Thursday!
I am amazed that all of our stuff fit! I just have the carry-ons to pack. I'd take a picture but I think the camera got packed!
Our visas should be here on Monday, just 74 hours before we leave, good thing I don't sweat the small stuff! Now I just hope that the visa with my old passport number will be okay with my new passport! The Vietnamese embassy assured me that as long as I bring my old passport and my new passport all will be fine. We'll see!
I am amazed by the papers I feel I need to bring! As a single mom I have to prove that I and I alone am my child's parent, thus I am able to take her out of the country alone! I am bringing her; passport, certification of birth, name change, adoption papers and her certificate of citizenship. This should cover all of the "single parent" bases!!
Now if only the government had consulted with me when they were re-designing the passport. I would have suggested a "parent page"! One page that lists the parent(s) of minor children. This page alone would prove whether there are 1 or 2 parents!!! If there are 2 and only 1 parent is taking the child out of the country then they would have to have the proper paper work! Don't get me wrong, I think the steps taken to prevent child abduction are wonderful, but as usual the government did not take the easy route!!!!
So off we go with a file of papers, fun bags, ramen noodles, a few outfits, Polaroid cameras and film, and so much more...

1 week away!

2008-03-13T12:13:00.002-04:00

One week from today we will be on our way! The house is trashed, the bills have not been paid and to top it all off my Mom is on a cruise!!!! Seriously though, the house is trashed, strewned with all of the fun bags, zip lock bags, Polaroid film and cameras etc... The bills will get paid and yet my Mom is still on a cruise! For those of you who don't know us, my mom lives about 1.5 miles down the street and is an amazing source of support! I LOVE that she is out having a wonderful time with her group of friends, but we sure do miss having her around!
Maya has collected over 100 "fun bags" and about 100 pictures to bring with us to Vietnam. Hopefully they will fit into 2 hockey bags! This weekend I have to get serious about packing. My dream is to have everything packed, the house cleaned to a shine and all of the bills paid by Sunday. I would love to live in a clean house for our last 3 days at home. With all of the fabulous donations and items we need to bring our tiny little house is busting at the seams. Every nook and cranny is full! In fact last night I had a supply slide in my bedroom, it landed on the poor dog! She was buried under zip-lock bags, cameras, film, peanut butter, ramen noodles and I-Pods! She moved to another room for the night!

2 weeks away!!!!

2008-03-07T23:04:00.002-05:00

Two weeks from tonight we will be all cozy in our seats on the plane. We are leaving on Thursday March 20. Our flight departs at 10 pm. In only 25 hours we will arrive in Vietnam all rested and ready for our adventures, YA, RIGHT!!!!!!!!!
This weekend I hope to pull out all of the summer clothes and see what still fits, Maya has grown about 2 inches and I will not reveal how much I have grown, GROAN!!!!! Hopefully everything still fits. All of the summer clothes in the stores seem to be "cruise wear" we don't need cruise wear, not this year anyway!
After a conference call last week, Maya and I have a better idea of what we will be doing on our food distribution/school team. It seems we will depart each morning at 7 am. We will travel to a distribution area where large sacks of rice, sugar, beans and nuts will be waiting for us. We will package and distribute enough food to last 150 families 2 months. We will distribute the food at 2 separate locations each day. At 11 am we will take the kids back to the hotel, have lunch and hang out for a short while in the AC and then set off for our school visits. i believe we will visit 3 schools each afternoon. During the school visits the children will pass out the bikes that have been donated, pass out school supplies and exchange art work that all of the children have been collecting. At 4 pm we will head back to the hotel, have dinner and go to bed!!!!
Our team has it a bit easier than the others. The home renovation team will leave at sun up and return at sundown. I think the sun sets pretty late! The medical team leaves at sun up and returns when they run out of patients. They are expecting 500 patients per day!
So, it seems that we will all have breakfast together and that's about it. I am so delighted that I get to spend my day with the kids! In am really excited to see the interactions and the excitement!
I have added an "interesting sites" section. Catalyst has an "official blog " site that should prove to be really informative. The teens on the trip will be responsible for gathering info from all of the teams and blogging each night. Check it out if you have a chance!

2008-02-26T08:17:00.001-05:00

change in departure plans, agian.... Looks like we will be leaving before Sandy, Patty and their kids rather than after them! You see it's Gail's 50th birthday on April 7 and the thought of not being able to ring in her 50th year just wasn't sitting right! So, Sandy spun her magic once again, and Maya and I will return home on April 3, no stop in Singapore. Now I can be there to help Gail celebrate the way one should celebrate their 50th birthday! Funny how things always work out in such a wonderful way!

ALIVE meeting and more "fun bags"

2008-02-24T22:15:00.004-05:00

We had our ALIVE meeting tonight. All of the kids put together "fun bags". With the help of the ALIVE mentors, the children were able to draw pictures and write greetings in Vietnamese. The kids had a blast. Here are a few photos of all the fun! I had to add a photo of the yummy chocolate covered strawberries! Thanks Katherine and Micheal!!!

Packing up the goods!

2008-02-23T20:08:00.004-05:00

We got together with Sandy, Patty and the kids to pack and ship all of the donatins that we won't be able to bring with us. The airline only allows 35 pounds per bag, 2 bags per person with no option to pay for over weight bags! So we are shipping them off to Catalyst in Minnesota where there are 20 people going and are willing to take our extra stuff! We only have about a month before we leave. I guess it's time to start packing and weighing all of our bags!!
Maya has collected over 40 fun bags thus far! I expect we will gather at least 50 more over the next couple of weeks.
Here are a couple of pictures of the packing party! We als had snow on friday so I through in a couple of pictures of Maya and Sally in the snow (sally is the dog!).

getting closer!

2008-02-17T19:41:00.003-05:00

We are about a month away from our departure date! I am amazed by all the stuff we have collected this far. We went to Kim's today to borrow a large hockey bag. Thanks Kim! I think we may need a few more hockey bags! The "fun bags" alone will take up one bag! At this point Maya has collected 40 or 50 bags. I think we will probably have about 100-150 when all is said and done. We also have a case of poloroid film, a poloriod camera, all of my niece Shealyn's summer clothes and if you know my sister that's a lot of clothes! We have stickers, small games, flip flops, crayons, about 75 onsies and so much more! Not to mention all of the over the counter meds! I will take a photo of all of the stuff as we pack the bags!!! At this moment all of the stuff is taking up every ounce of free floor space in my bedroom!

2008-02-12T00:44:00.001-05:00

Our Vietnamese culture class at Yale celebrated Tet this past Sunday. We had an amazing time! The Yale Lion Dance Team was there to teach all of us the dance of the lion. The biggest treat of all was their preformance. the Lion dance is truly magical to watch. I have a video that I will try to upload. Hopefully I don't like blow up my computer, I have no idea what I am doing :)!

2008-02-11T21:30:00.000-05:00

Maya was more than willing to learn the jumps in the lion dance! The lion dancers were so wonderful with all of the children! They were so happy to teach the steps and dance with the kids. It was 2 hours of amazing dancing and fellowship!

team assignments and Maya's "fun bags"

2008-02-05T13:19:00.000-05:00

We got our team assignments the other day! Maya and I are both on the school/food distribution team. I must say that I am delighted to be on the school team. I am really looking forward to meeting all of the children, seeing the schools and watching all of the kids break through language barriers and really work together! Nothing like watching first hand the amazing beauty of children working together from 2 different cultures. I would dare say that some of our world leaders can learn a lot from the children! The only draw back of me being on the school team will be the fact that Maya and I will be together all day! I know that sounds terrible and I really don't mean it the way it sounds. What I really mean is that I was really looking forward to Maya having her own experience without me. I am hoping that the team is large enough that she and I will be doing different things, that I'm not always in her space and that she is able to gain some independece and her own experience! With all of that said I am really glad to be on the school team :)!

Maya created her flyers for the fun bags, we made 147 copies and she passed them all out to her school friends. She was so proud the day she came home from doing this! It was really neat to see her beaming as she walked in the door. We have had so many calls from friends and people we don't know very well. Everyone is delighted to be able to share in this trip with us. I only wish that i could carry as many bags as I wanted onto the plane! People are so amazingly generous, asking what else we might need. We are so limited in space that we are not able to take too many extras beyond the fun bags and all of the other doanted items such as OTC meds, baby clothes, crayons, polaroid film, and stickers, loads of stickers! I figure Maya and I can both fill those giant hockey bags with donations, one big suitcase with our clothes and one medium suitcasee with food and stuff. I'm sure we will go over the weight limit!

travel changes

2008-01-25T11:23:00.000-05:00

Looks like we will be spending a day and night in Singapore. We got bumped off our flight from HCMC that would have brought us back to the states. So we will fly from HCMC to Singapore and catch a flight the next day. I am actually looking forward to seeing Singapore. the only down side is that we will not be traveling with our friends. That means it's all up to me to keep Maya busy on the flight home :) Thank heavens she loves her DS and any other technology I can provide!!

Maya is seems to be getting more excited about our trip. She brings it up in conversation more readily. I think now that she knows we will be staying in decent hotels and that we will not be seeing her birth family she is feeling a little more in control. She specifically asked if we would be contacting her birth family while we were there. At first she argued a little in favor of seeing them, but when I explained that this was not the purpose of our trip this time, she seemed relieved. I do plan for her to meet her birth family at some point, but not until she is older and can make that choice with more information and maturity. I feel that at the ripe old age of 9, she's not really at the place to make such a huge decision.

Maya met with her principal the other day to discuss her plans to ask her school community to put together t-shirt, tooth brush and tooth paste and a drawing into a large zip-lock bag. Her principal was very open to the idea and encouraged Maya to seek the help of the 4th grade. The population of her school is almost 1,000. So soliciting just the 4th grade should be manageable! Can you picture us packing almost 1,000 zip-lock bags and carting them off to Vietnam?! It would be amazing, but not very efficient!!

I just sent my passport off for renewal. Sandy brought to my attention that it expired on Sept. 23. We arrive in Vietnam on the 22 of March. When traveling to Vietnam and many other countries, you need to have 6 months left on your passport in order to gain entry into the country. So glad Sandy caught this! Can you imagine arriving in Vietnam just to be turned away?! Hopefully the process will be speedy and I won't have to hunt down my passport the week before we leave!

Donations

2008-01-14T19:15:00.000-05:00

I am so excited! Maya and I sent out fundraising letters a couple of weeks ago, I am amazed by the generosity of so many of our friends and family, it's really very overwhelming!!! We truly are so fortunate!

I had a conf. call last night with Caroline and Scot and about 20+ others who will be traveling with their children. It was a wonderful call. We spoke about the children's reactions in past expeditions to the poverty, food, culture, etc... I got so excited after the call. I can't wait to go!

We only have 7 more weeks! i know the time will fly. We still have some things to do before we leave. Maya is composing a letter to all of her school mates. She is hoping to have all of the children in her school, there are almost 1,000, put together a large zip-lock bag containing a t-shirt, toothbrush, tooth paste, a picture drawn by the child and a photo of the child. Maya hopes to collect all of these bags and bring them with us. She will have the opportunity to pass them out at one of the many schools she will be visiting. I think it's a really wonderful thing for her to do. I think it will be really important to empower all of the children on this trip!

As I get more information regarding exactly what we will be doing during our trip, I will pass it on. I do know there are 3 teams: the school team, the home building team and the medical team. I hope to experience all of them!!!!!

Travel Clinic

2008-01-03T13:10:00.000-05:00

We had our appointment with the travel clinic at UCONN. Maya was very nervous about the shots! We both needed typhoid and Hep A, so not too bad. Maya was a trooper! The appointment was informative and we left with some scrips for antibiotics and malaria pills. I feel better knowing that we have what we need. when I went in 1999 I didn't have any shots or scrips for anything. I made out just fine, but traveling with a child changes the thought process a tad!

We sent off passport copies so that Catalyst could apply for our visas. It's beginning to get more exciting! March 20th isn't all that far away! I am so curious as to what Maya's reaction will be once we arrive in Vietnam. She is the type of kid that holds her cards pretty close to the vest. When I ask her what she is most excited about she replies "shopping"! So, we'll see!

catalyst address

2008-01-01T21:33:00.001-05:00

sorry, i typed the wrong address for catalyst. The correct address is
www.catalystfoundation.org

setting up a blog

2008-01-01T20:29:00.000-05:00

At 44 I never thought i'd be "blogging", but here I am! It was actually easier than I thought! The purpose of this blog is to keep an account of our travels back to Vietnam. I thought it would also be a great way for friends and family to be able to keep track of us!

We will be leaving on March 19 for Vietnam. We will spend 2 weeks volunteering on a humanitarian trip with Catalyst foundation, http://www.catalystfoundation.org/ check them out, they are an amazing organization! They are totally grass-roots and seem to be making a huge difference in Kien Gang. I look forward to loads of hard work and very sweaty days!!