From the Peterson Family's blog:
Tuesday started and ended similarly as Monday. We ate at a local Vietnamese restaurant which was very good. It is all very exhausting. We have to meet at 6:30 am and go eat. Then we take a bus to the restaurant and eat and then go to the medical center. We set up all of the stations (everything and I mean everything must be removed and taken away in the evening so it will not be removed during the night) and then the people are allowed to come through. They go through various stations with nurses (after registration) and then doctors if necessary and flouride treatments for the kids and hearing and vision test and then blood draws and vaccinations (if they have been tested).
The police came today and took some medicine but left it when they realized there was no profit. One of the translators I was with was so mad but there is nothing you can do. As it was when I was here the last time, the people seem to work around the system and seem to have a lot of spirit. They are very nice overall and love the children.
Anyway it was a very long day and now we start again on Wednesday. Hopefully it will go well and it will definitely be hot.
*Caroline's notes:
The volunteer Vietnamese doctors from the hospital are no longer with us so our numbers have drastically decreased. But now we have an actual "line" of patients instead of a mob of them waiting for us. Now at each table there's a care provider, a translator, and a patient - and most importantly breathing space. We would LOVE to have a dentist or a whole bunch of them for the next expedition. I think most of the children's ailments could be solved if we extracted their abscessed, infected teeth! On Tuesday we saw 229 patients!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
School Team - Tuesday
From the Nelson Family Blog:
Today was a very busy day for Grace’s team. The kids started their day with a tour of the garbage dump where many of the Catalyst kids live, and work sorting through the trash for pennies a day. Caroline, Catalyst’s amazing leader, felt it important that our kids understand why they are working so hard on the Expedition, and what they did all that fundraising for. The kids had the choice of staying on the bus or walking through the outskirts of the dump (don’t worry – they wore proper footwear and were fully supervised). Grace opted for the tour and took all the photos above. I asked Grace if she would like to write something for this post, and she declined – it was just too sad for her to talk about much less write about it quite yet. I think the photos will speak for themselves. The teddy bear on the woven mats under nothing more than a tarp is what I thought about tucking Grace into bed tonight. It should be noted that this is the “new dump” – when the old dump closed many of the families who lived there moved to the new dump, and apparently the conditions at the old dump were even worse, which is hard to fathom.
After their visit to the dump, the kids returned to the school for arts and crafts with the Catalyst kids. There were stations for tie-dye, friendship bracelets, beads, sidewalk chalk and drawing, as well as a game of soccer. All the kids had a great time. After the fun and games, the team set up for a market in the school’s courtyard. All the donations the volunteers brought – clothes, toys, personal hygiene items – were available “for sale” to the school kids and their families. The kids earned “Catalyst Dollars” (although I guess it would be Catalyst Dong) by doing their school work and getting good grades, and their families earned additional coupons for participating in Catalyst activities. The items were priced and the kids had to pay 20% of the price marked – making both the school kids and the volunteers do some math to figure out pricing and make change. They were also able to use real money they had saved, which was given twice its face value. The toys were the most popular item, although some kids were apparently required by their parents to spend some money on personal hygiene kits (shampoo, toothbrush, soap, washcloth, etc.). There was also a housewares section and the ladies crowded around made it look like Black Friday shopping for the limited supply bargain. FCVN kids, your fun packs were sold at the market and I saw kids with your letters. It looked like the community had a wonderful time, and being able to shop for their items must have been empowering. Between the incentive it provided the Catalyst kids, and their families, the opportunity for our kids to organize the items and be the salespeople and the math lessons, it had to be the most rewarding shopping experience in history.
Today was a very busy day for Grace’s team. The kids started their day with a tour of the garbage dump where many of the Catalyst kids live, and work sorting through the trash for pennies a day. Caroline, Catalyst’s amazing leader, felt it important that our kids understand why they are working so hard on the Expedition, and what they did all that fundraising for. The kids had the choice of staying on the bus or walking through the outskirts of the dump (don’t worry – they wore proper footwear and were fully supervised). Grace opted for the tour and took all the photos above. I asked Grace if she would like to write something for this post, and she declined – it was just too sad for her to talk about much less write about it quite yet. I think the photos will speak for themselves. The teddy bear on the woven mats under nothing more than a tarp is what I thought about tucking Grace into bed tonight. It should be noted that this is the “new dump” – when the old dump closed many of the families who lived there moved to the new dump, and apparently the conditions at the old dump were even worse, which is hard to fathom.
After their visit to the dump, the kids returned to the school for arts and crafts with the Catalyst kids. There were stations for tie-dye, friendship bracelets, beads, sidewalk chalk and drawing, as well as a game of soccer. All the kids had a great time. After the fun and games, the team set up for a market in the school’s courtyard. All the donations the volunteers brought – clothes, toys, personal hygiene items – were available “for sale” to the school kids and their families. The kids earned “Catalyst Dollars” (although I guess it would be Catalyst Dong) by doing their school work and getting good grades, and their families earned additional coupons for participating in Catalyst activities. The items were priced and the kids had to pay 20% of the price marked – making both the school kids and the volunteers do some math to figure out pricing and make change. They were also able to use real money they had saved, which was given twice its face value. The toys were the most popular item, although some kids were apparently required by their parents to spend some money on personal hygiene kits (shampoo, toothbrush, soap, washcloth, etc.). There was also a housewares section and the ladies crowded around made it look like Black Friday shopping for the limited supply bargain. FCVN kids, your fun packs were sold at the market and I saw kids with your letters. It looked like the community had a wonderful time, and being able to shop for their items must have been empowering. Between the incentive it provided the Catalyst kids, and their families, the opportunity for our kids to organize the items and be the salespeople and the math lessons, it had to be the most rewarding shopping experience in history.
Building Team - Tuesday
From the Cohen-Conelly blog:
Work has been progressing along but with very little tools and no machines, everything is done by hand. I am on the house team. Yesterday we laid bricks in out 18'x6'' two room "house". Today we began the floor. We first stuffed rice bags with clay that was dug out of the ground from area that will be the latreen and carried it to the floors. The clay was then pressed down with a weighted hand press. Next step was to carry sand from about 500 yards up a narrow path in pails and rice bags to cover the clay and press that down. Next was to carry rocks in same manor....we finished the back room and were told to wait for the "inspector" before we continued further. Of course in the process, the front wall accidentally got knocked over. It was a labor intensive day to say the least. The heat is unbearable, I have never sweat and been so dirty at the end of a day as I have been the past two.
The other half of the building tram has 1/2 of the concrete poured for the playground, as well as two of the four pole cemented in for the shade covers. The means of measurements over here are quite something, we are told...about like this for everything, leveling is measure with string. Somehow it all gets pulled together.
School Team - Monday
From the Wylie family blog:
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!
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!
Building Team - Monday
I've decided that instead of restating what some awesome ae volunteers have already wrote I would just quote them...much more entertaining then reading my random thoughts. So this is from Susan's blog - she's on the Building Team.
Today was our first full day at the work site. Our primary task for the day was to shovel out 3-4 inches of dirt from a 30’ x 50’ area which was the old playground. When we arrived, there were no shovels so we sent most of the people to the home to start laying brick for the house and a few of us stayed at the playground and strategized about how to put up the sun shades after the playground is assembled. It felt like a game of Tangoes.
But I get ahead of myself, we loaded the buses at 7:30am and drove to breakfast. There was a small menu we could order from and I ordered Café Sua (black coffee with condensed milk) and rice noodles with fish and shrimp. I think my body may go in to shock as I don’t usually drink caffeine or milk, and definitely not condensed milk. Oh well, I am doing ok so far. It is nearly impossible with our menus to not each breads either as every meal has noodles, bread and/or rice. I am trying to limit the breads intake but not completely as I would starve if I did that.
We arrived at the school at about 8:30am. The “shovels” arrived an hour more later and they had to be assembled. Hum….The shovel, hoe, pick parts were made of metal but they needed to be attached to the wood handles with screws or nails. I was desperately wishing for a Home Depot or Lowe’s at this point. Mental note – great idea for opening a new business in Vietnam. The tools lasted most of the day, but as they broke (handles snapped in half or shovels fell off of handles) we sent them over to the pile and the Vietnamese just put them back together again. Not a very efficient tool. After lunch, someone showed up with better tools (large Hoes). Yes, the quote of the day was “the large Ho’s saved the day”. Funny, but so true. Those hoes made the job so much faster!
As we dug out the grass and dirt we hauled it away in wheelbarrows and dumped it in a ravine near the school. As we got areas cleared and graded, then the frames for the cement areas were built by Dave S. We were able to get 90% of the yard cleared and two sections of cement poured by 4:30, quitting time.
Today was our first full day at the work site. Our primary task for the day was to shovel out 3-4 inches of dirt from a 30’ x 50’ area which was the old playground. When we arrived, there were no shovels so we sent most of the people to the home to start laying brick for the house and a few of us stayed at the playground and strategized about how to put up the sun shades after the playground is assembled. It felt like a game of Tangoes.
But I get ahead of myself, we loaded the buses at 7:30am and drove to breakfast. There was a small menu we could order from and I ordered Café Sua (black coffee with condensed milk) and rice noodles with fish and shrimp. I think my body may go in to shock as I don’t usually drink caffeine or milk, and definitely not condensed milk. Oh well, I am doing ok so far. It is nearly impossible with our menus to not each breads either as every meal has noodles, bread and/or rice. I am trying to limit the breads intake but not completely as I would starve if I did that.
We arrived at the school at about 8:30am. The “shovels” arrived an hour more later and they had to be assembled. Hum….The shovel, hoe, pick parts were made of metal but they needed to be attached to the wood handles with screws or nails. I was desperately wishing for a Home Depot or Lowe’s at this point. Mental note – great idea for opening a new business in Vietnam. The tools lasted most of the day, but as they broke (handles snapped in half or shovels fell off of handles) we sent them over to the pile and the Vietnamese just put them back together again. Not a very efficient tool. After lunch, someone showed up with better tools (large Hoes). Yes, the quote of the day was “the large Ho’s saved the day”. Funny, but so true. Those hoes made the job so much faster!
As we dug out the grass and dirt we hauled it away in wheelbarrows and dumped it in a ravine near the school. As we got areas cleared and graded, then the frames for the cement areas were built by Dave S. We were able to get 90% of the yard cleared and two sections of cement poured by 4:30, quitting time.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Medical Team - Monday
So here's a look at each of our wonderful teams.
Our Medical team consists of 3 doctors, 1 student doctor, 1 pharmacist, 7 nurses, 13 "assistants".. and 6 "crowd control". The entire team had collected about 3 storage bins full of medicine, suture kits and fluoride treatments. But we were still quite low in a lot of medicines we really needed due to the natural disasters in Haiti and Chile. And going into it we knew we would really need a dentist for extractions.
On Monday we would be working side by side with 26 volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists from Trieu An hospital in Saigon. And we would need everyone as we approached the "clinic" we had set up and there was already well over 400 waiting for us. Unfortunately the patients were there way before we had any time to really set things up and then...chaos! It was a somewhat organized chaos but craaaazzzyyy most of the time!
Each table had a doctor or nurse and translator completing the medical history forms. Ideally it would have bee nice to have some breathing space but instead our patients who lived in the community were definitely anxious to be seen by someone, anyone who could help them; so each table had 10-15 people around it. Our doctors worked hard to diagnose the ailments and prescribe medicine and most important to see as many of the children as possible. Our non-nurse volunteers worked the hearing, vision, height, weight stations. And then some of them worked along side the dentists and hygienists to apply fluoride varnish on hundreds of little mouths. Our goal also was to get approximately 100 of "our community" (those that are living and working in the garbage dump and are active participants in Catalyst Foundation's community development projects) hep B tests and vaccinated.
After all was said and done, we saw 755 patients on the first day!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Day 1 - Ready, Set, Go!!
Sunday we arrived to our school in Kien Giang after an uneventful bus ride from Saigon (which is a major feat if you know what the traffic is like in Vietnam!) So before we post some pictures, imagine this - 80 volunteers, each checking 100 pounds of luggage, filled to the brim with medicine, construction tools, paint rollers, gently used clothing, toys, games, books, t-shirts, arts and crafts supplies, school supplies, drawings and even a few "flat stanleys" and "flat molly".
The luggage was brought down in 3 trucks and then put into two classrooms, it's about 90'F and 100% humidity but somehow felt "not as hot" because there was cloud cover. Half of us were still trying to adjust to the time difference and a little dazed and then Caroline (founder of Catalyst Foundation) says, "Welcome to Vietnam, I'll be your host! Now...ready, set, go!!!"
Within two hours we knew how much medicine we had, and an entire library full of everything else. The building team had surveyed their massive amount of work they would be doing and created their tool list and a game plan set for the next four days. We knew that Monday morning was going to be a challenge as we got started on our tasks but we were all excited to FINALLY start the 2010 Aid Expedition!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
We're all here!
All 80 volunteers have arrived from all across the U.S and Canada over the last few days. We have enough luggage (donations) to fill up 3 trucks the size of a small UHaul. And we've just held our one and only press conference in Saigon. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning and we'll go directly to the school to start the massive sorting task.
Our work sites this year are only a few minutes a part from each other so I suspect that we'll all be able to help each other out when needed. The community is ready and I know we're ready to start the 2010 AE! Stay tuned for more info soon!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Packing Party
This past weekend in Minneapolis a few families gathered to split up all the donations into a few hundred pounds of luggage. The whole team now is busy into our last minute preparations. We're still gathering donations and cash to make all our projects a success! We still need your help!
March Goodness starts NOW on our online donation site! From now to March 30 Catalyst Foundation is competing for the most donors that donate a minimum of $10. If Catalyst Foundation wins our "region" we advance to the "Final Four" and compete for $10,000!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Three Weeks!
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!
We're also looking for any donations of the following items:
Arts & Crafts Supplies
Frisbees, game balls, temporary tattoos
Small toys - yo-yos, marbles, cards, jacks, matchbox cars, etc.
Stickers, stickers, stickers
Multivitamins
Toothbrushes/toothpaste
Travel size soap, shampoo, washcloths
Onesies- for infants under 12 months
Board games & coloring books
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