December 08, 2005
Children’s Physical Therapy Ward Visit in Xin Man
Thursday morning Pam, Levi and I hoped into a 33,000 Vietnamese Dong taxi ride to the headquarters of the Vietnam Ministry for Population, Family and Children on D Tran Phu where we were greeted by Huyen, the Deputy Chief of Communication for The National Fund for Vietnamese Children which is a division within the ministry. Huyen, a friendly and beautiful Vietnamese lady, was our interpreter and guide for the trip north into one of the country’s most least accessible and visited regions, the Xin Man district in the north of the Ha Giang province. Once we introduced ourselves, and Pam had taken a quick potty-break, Huyen lead us outside to our transportation: our driver and his late model 7 passenger 2.5 liter diesel Isuzu Hi-Lander with air-conditioning, LCD screens in the front seat headrests, and a wide selection of Vietnamese music. This luxurious surprise is in contrast to Pam’s previous journey in an old Russian-manufactured military jeep. No complaints.
We are on the road at about 0900 heading through the suburbs of Hanoi and northward on Route 2 via Ninh Yen, Tuyen Quang and a quick detour to our driver’s house to pick up his briefcase when Pam makes her first of many ‘Can we stop for a toilet’ requests. At first Huyen thought she was joking and ignored her. The second request fell on deaf ears and started to upset Pam somewhat. The third, more forceful demand got results and we stopped off for a pee break no more than 20 minutes after leaving Ministry HQ. There were two more potty break requests in the next hour. Seriously. I was entirely unsympathetic.
Once we cleared the rough roads of the greater Hanoi region we picked up speed…to a whopping average of about 60kph. We saw many rice paddies, produce bearing scooters, and near fatal accidents. At about 1300 we stopped for lunch in Vihn Ngoc and three discrete police check points/bird flu-related vehicle sterilization stops. At these stations a man would spray down the outside of our Isuzu, paying particular attention to the wheels with some sort of chemical compound. Can anyone say H5N1? This part of Vietnam is the current global bird flu ground zero. Spooky shit.
After the last road block we made the final part of the journey into Ha Giang, the provincial capital of the same name, where we stopped off at the provincial office of the Ministry for Population, Family and Children. There we meet two vice-chairwomen of the provincial ministry, had tea, and turned over out passports to receive travel clearance to the Xin Man district and province where the hospital is located. After tea and extended formalities we were ushered to our hotel, the Khach San Hoang Anh Hotel. Levi and I split a room for 120,000 Dong each.
That evening we (Pamela, Levi, our driver, Huyen and I) meet the two vice-chairwomen again along with several of their minions. One of the vice-chairwomen, don’t remember her name, took a liking to me. :D We had dinner and many toasts with accompanying shots of vodka. Lots, actually. After dinner and well pissed, we took a walking tour of Ha Giang and saw the local communist party history museum, excited children on the street shouting ‘Hello!’ (their only English, other than ‘OK’) and a barber shop where this really cute little Vietnamese girl refused to smile until she saw her own picture on Levi’s camera. (Mom: click the link to see the pictures.) Levi and I finished up the evening, along with a new minder/guide who spoke no English, at some beer joint near the hotel.
Because of the brevity of our overall stay in the province, one day plus two for travel, the following morning’s departure was at a painful 0600. We all hopped into the Isuzu and headed 45km down to Vih Ngoc where we turned on a secondary road. The term ‘secondary road’ is generous…it was more like a 100km long driveway to a mountain retreat of an aging literary recluse. Single lane, many pot holes, tight curves, dodgy bridges, 10%+ grade hills, etc. For the first few minutes it was incredibly romantic and idyllic. After twenty minutes or so I was feeling a bit queasy. Soon after I requested a puke break where most of my small breakfast and coffee nourished the plants of the northern Vietnamese highlands…and fifteen minutes later my second puke stop relieved me of anything left in my tummy. After another quarter hour on the road Huyen joined me in a roadside gastronomical purging choir. My third puke pit stop left me not only feeling some major pain, but also ashamed for teasing Pamela the day before for her now innocent ‘potty breaks’. By the time we reached Xin Man I was dry heaving. At the last a fifth (sixth?) stop I accused Pamela of taking a picture of me in my most painful and helpless moment. She sarcastically responded: “I am not that kind of person!� Oh…like the kind of person who would take an unflattering picture of you while completely inebriated on a train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and post it on the internet. Ouch….
Accompanying us to the district was a man who I now believe was our ‘minder’; someone to watch over us, make sure we did not do anything ‘wrong’ and ensure we had a good time. I’ll call him ‘Bob’ for now since his name eludes me.
Five painful hours later, we arrived in Xin Man. First stop was the local party headquarters where we met in a large traditional Vietnamese style meeting room. We met many functionaries headed by the Chairman of the Communist Party of District of Xin Man. After introductions they escorted us to lunch at a local hotel accompanied by all the technocrats and a few extras for a total of about twenty people. Pam, Levi and I sat at the center table along with the Chairman and his Vice-Chairman. As is custom in Vietnam, we were supposed to eat everything until full and drink to every toast. Pam and I were glad Levi was there because we were not up to it. He gladly went along with the rice wine toasts and fondue-style meat lunch. To avoid offending them, we had to explain why I was in such a poor state…which granted me a little bit of sympathy…and them several minutes of laughter at the silly foreigner’s expense.
After lunch we sat down for tea, Levi shared a Bon Song (???) with the three most important party officials, and we chatted a bit about our itinerary. Twenty minutes later we hopped into our SUVs and were off to the short drive to the hospital.
It was a very surreal scene: a single massive soviet looking building with several smaller shabbily constructed and maintained satellite buildings situated around two faces of the main building’s perimeter. The first peripheral structure we saw where many people were milling about was the children’s ward of the physical therapy unit. Pam met with the hospital administrator and inspected the project proposal with Huyan while Levi and I wandered around and took a few photographs. Next stop on the tour was of the building itself where we met many of the patients and their parents. We took some pictures, asked some questions and then moved onto the next building. This is when some of the locals started to warm up to us and ask basic questions 
that the Vietnamese like to ask, like “What is your name?�, “Where are you from?�, and “How old are you?� After a detailed inspection of the second building we gathered people for a group shot. Of all the locals there, one ethnic woman and her baby stood out. Her child was maybe a year old and strapped to her back. She was beautifully dressed in traditional-but-everyday-clothing. Her child was strapped to her back…and every time I approached to say ‘hello’ her kid would burst into tears.(mother and child)She found this amusing and kept trying to introduce her child to me. We did do not better than getting myself within 2m before all hell broke loose. :P While the child’s mother and I had no language in common, we both found it worthwhile and entertaining to try and get the child and I to interact. I hope she remembers this exchange as much as I will. (Poor kid will grow up scared of white guys with beer bellies…no Santa for this child…)
After our inspection of the facilities and paperwork, we head back in the direction of Hanoi. Because of the length of the journey we spend the night in Viet Quang, which is still in the Ha Giang province at the Hoa Don Ban Hang Hotel. Our 500,000 Dong per night room was decorated in 8-year-old girly pink much to our chagrin and Pam’s amusement. Pam and I skipped dinner and left it to trusty Levine to represent us. Our minder showed Levine dirty movies on his mobile phone and let Levi know over dinner that the house prostitute was available in room 604.
The next day we headed back to Hanoi in an uneventful 5 hours. No puke breaks, no unnecessary potty breaks. Huyen and our driver did give us a bag each of tea from the Ha Giang province, which Levi and I later used as little presents for drivers and guest house owners along our route to an in Laos.
Posted by stu at 03:42 AM | Comments (0)
Children’s Physical Therapy Ward Visit in Xin Man
Thursday morning Pam, Levi and I hoped into a 33,000 Vietnamese Dong taxi ride to the headquarters of the Vietnam Ministry for Population, Family and Children on D Tran Phu where we were greeted by Huyen, the Deputy Chief of Communication for The National Fund for Vietnamese Children which is a division within the ministry. Huyen, a friendly and beautiful Vietnamese lady, was our interpreter and guide for the trip north into one of the country’s most least accessible and visited regions, the Xin Man district in the north of the Ha Giang province. Once we introduced ourselves, and Pam had taken a quick potty-break, Huyen lead us outside to our transportation: our driver and his late model 7 passenger 2.5 liter diesel Isuzu Hi-Lander with air-conditioning, LCD screens in the front seat headrests, and a wide selection of Vietnamese music. This luxurious surprise is in contrast to Pam’s previous journey in an old Russian-manufactured military jeep. No complaints.
We are on the road at about 0900 heading through the suburbs of Hanoi and northward on Route 2 via Ninh Yen, Tuyen Quang and a quick detour to our driver’s house to pick up his briefcase when Pam makes her first of many ‘Can we stop for a toilet’ requests. At first Huyen thought she was joking and ignored her. The second request fell on deaf ears and started to upset Pam somewhat. The third, more forceful demand got results and we stopped off for a pee break no more than 20 minutes after leaving Ministry HQ. There were two more potty break requests in the next hour. Seriously. I was entirely unsympathetic.
Once we cleared the rough roads of the greater Hanoi region we picked up speed…to a whopping average of about 60kph. We saw many rice paddies, produce bearing scooters, and near fatal accidents. At about 1300 we stopped for lunch in Vihn Ngoc and three discrete police check points/bird flu-related vehicle sterilization stops. At these stations a man would spray down the outside of our Isuzu, paying particular attention to the wheels with some sort of chemical compound. Can anyone say H5N1? This part of Vietnam is the current global bird flu ground zero. Spooky shit.
After the last road block we made the final part of the journey into Ha Giang, the provincial capital of the same name, where we stopped off at the provincial office of the Ministry for Population, Family and Children. There we meet two vice-chairwomen of the provincial ministry, had tea, and turned over out passports to receive travel clearance to the Xin Man district and province where the hospital is located. After tea and extended formalities we were ushered to our hotel, the Khach San Hoang Anh Hotel. Levi and I split a room for 120,000 Dong each.
That evening we (Pamela, Levi, our driver, Huyen and I) meet the two vice-chairwomen again along with several of their minions. One of the vice-chairwomen, don’t remember her name, took a liking to me. :D We had dinner and many toasts with accompanying shots of vodka. Lots, actually. After dinner and well pissed, we took a walking tour of Ha Giang and saw the local communist party history museum, excited children on the street shouting ‘Hello!’ (their only English, other than ‘OK’) and a barber shop where this really cute little Vietnamese girl refused to smile until she saw her own picture on Levi’s camera. (Mom: click the link to see the pictures.) Levi and I finished up the evening, along with a new minder/guide who spoke no English, at some beer joint near the hotel.
Because of the brevity of our overall stay in the province, one day plus two for travel, the following morning’s departure was at a painful 0600. We all hopped into the Isuzu and headed 45km down to Vih Ngoc where we turned on a secondary road. The term ‘secondary road’ is generous…it was more like a 100km long driveway to a mountain retreat of an aging literary recluse. Single lane, many pot holes, tight curves, dodgy bridges, 10%+ grade hills, etc. For the first few minutes it was incredibly romantic and idyllic. After twenty minutes or so I was feeling a bit queasy. Soon after I requested a puke break where most of my small breakfast and coffee nourished the plants of the northern Vietnamese highlands…and fifteen minutes later my second puke stop relieved me of anything left in my tummy. After another quarter hour on the road Huyen joined me in a roadside gastronomical purging choir. My third puke pit stop left me not only feeling some major pain, but also ashamed for teasing Pamela the day before for her now innocent ‘potty breaks’. By the time we reached Xin Man I was dry heaving. At the last a fifth (sixth?) stop I accused Pamela of taking a picture of me in my most painful and helpless moment. She sarcastically responded: “I am not that kind of person!� Oh…like the kind of person who would take an unflattering picture of you while completely inebriated on a train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and post it on the internet. Ouch….
Accompanying us to the district was a man who I now believe was our ‘minder’; someone to watch over us, make sure we did not do anything ‘wrong’ and ensure we had a good time. I’ll call him ‘Bob’ for now since his name eludes me.
Five painful hours later, we arrived in Xin Man. First stop was the local party headquarters where we met in a large traditional Vietnamese style meeting room. We met many functionaries headed by the Chairman of the Communist Party of District of Xin Man. After introductions they escorted us to lunch at a local hotel accompanied by all the technocrats and a few extras for a total of about twenty people. Pam, Levi and I sat at the center table along with the Chairman and his Vice-Chairman. As is custom in Vietnam, we were supposed to eat everything until full and drink to every toast. Pam and I were glad Levi was there because we were not up to it. He gladly went along with the rice wine toasts and fondue-style meat lunch. To avoid offending them, we had to explain why I was in such a poor state…which granted me a little bit of sympathy…and them several minutes of laughter at the silly foreigner’s expense.
After lunch we sat down for tea, Levi shared a Bon Song (???) with the three most important party officials, and we chatted a bit about our itinerary. Twenty minutes later we hopped into our SUVs and were off to the short drive to the hospital.
It was a very surreal scene: a single massive soviet looking building with several smaller shabbily constructed and maintained satellite buildings situated around two faces of the main building’s perimeter. The first peripheral structure we saw where many people were milling about was the children’s ward of the physical therapy unit. Pam met with the hospital administrator and inspected the project proposal with Huyan while Levi and I wandered around and took a few photographs. Next stop on the tour was of the building itself where we met many of the patients and their parents. We took some pictures, asked some questions and then moved onto the next building. This is when some of the locals started to warm up to us and ask basic questions that the Vietnamese like to ask, like “What is your name?�, “Where are you from?�, and “How old are you?� After a detailed inspection of the second building we gathered people for a group shot. Of all the locals there, one ethnic woman and her baby stood out. Her child was maybe a year old and strapped to her back. She was beautifully dressed in traditional-but-everyday-clothing. Her child was strapped to her back…and every time I approached to say ‘hello’ her kid would burst into tears.(mother and child)She found this amusing and kept trying to introduce her child to me. We did do not better than getting myself within 2m before all hell broke loose. :P While the child’s mother and I had no language in common, we both found it worthwhile and entertaining to try and get the child and I to interact. I hope she remembers this exchange as much as I will. (Poor kid will grow up scared of white guys with beer bellies…no Santa for this child…)
After our inspection of the facilities and paperwork, we head back in the direction of Hanoi. Because of the length of the journey we spend the night in Viet Quang, which is still in the Ha Giang province at the Hoa Don Ban Hang Hotel. Our 500,000 Dong per night room was decorated in 8-year-old girly pink much to our chagrin and Pam’s amusement. Pam and I skipped dinner and left it to trusty Levine to represent us. Our minder showed Levine dirty movies on his mobile phone and let Levi know over dinner that the house prostitute was available in room 604.
The next day we headed back to Hanoi in an uneventful 5 hours. No puke breaks, no unnecessary potty breaks. Huyen and our driver did give us a bag each of tea from the Ha Giang province, which Levi and I later used as little presents for drivers and guest house owners along our route to an in Laos.
Posted by stu at 03:42 AM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2005
Pam's email story
Pamela, my colleague from Child’s Dream, is in the north of Vietnam now scoping out new projects for the organization. She wrote this form email to her friends and coworkers about her experiences so far and I asked her for permission to share it with everyone. Her writing is really good! You can check it out on the new Pam’s Stories page. Maybe I can get her to start her own blog...
Posted by stu at 01:54 AM | Comments (2)