MEDICAL AID FOR VIETNAM MISSION SUMMARY
Oct. 8 - 23, 2011
Medical Aid for Vietnam Fall 2011 Mission began on Sunday Oct. 9, 2011 as team members gathered in Lan Lan 2 Hotel (Saigon) to sort out medical supply and medication. Intermittent rain brought cool breezes and pleasant comfort to an over populated city of Saigon. Only 11 members (half of the Team) were present at Team's first, fine and fabulous dinner hosted at Nhat Ha restaurant by a friend of the Medical Aid for Vietnam. Most of team members, however, were present the next morning as we loaded up a chartered bus and headed northwest to Bao Loc, a city in the mountainous area of Lam Dong province. When we stopped for lunch 4 hours later at Madagui, a heavy rain poured on us like rushing water fall. We arrived in Bao Loc early afternoon and checkedin Minh Quan Hotel that located right on National Highway 1.
The next day (Tuesday, Oct. 11), we got up at 6:00AM for Mass (for those who wanted to attend), followed by breakfast and then headed out to our first outreach site at Loc Tan village. A local Sister of the Lovers of the Cross joined our team as a guide and team supporter. It took the bus more than an hour to get to the outreach site as it missed a turn and got lost onto a narrow, down slope and eroded brown dirt road. Grown along both sides of the road are vast fields of coffee and tea as this land is known to offer one of the best coffee and tea in Vietnam. It took quite some maneuvers for the bus driver to find a spot wide enough to make a U-turn and head back to the right road.
We finally got to the site at nearly 9 o'clock and everyone hurriedly plunged in to set up their prospective units: Medical, dental and pharmacy. At this first site as also on the next 3 other sites, we did not have an optometrist/ophthalmologist so our Team could not offer eye examination or give out eye glasses. Most of the people we saw at this village are mountainous minorities of Chau Ma and K'Ho ethnics. We break for an hour lunch on site and continued our work until 5PM. On this first day, Dental team saw 189 people and gave out 200 hundreds tooth brushes and tooth pastes, and Medical team served another 120 people (a total of 309), while Pharmacy team gave out vitamins and medicines to everyone that was seen by our Team. We completed our first day as it started getting dark. We arrived back at our hotel at 6PM, refreshed and showered. Three volunteered members from Houston, Texas arrived and joined us as we started to walk out to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
We started our second mission day (Wednesday, Oct. 12) in the same manner as the day before but with a more completed team of 19 volunteers. The sun shined brightly and warmly as we reached the second outreach site, an under construction Parish church in Dai Loc village located at about 40 minutes bus ride from the hotel. With more aiding hands of a doctor and a dentist from Houston, our Team was able to serve more people. Here, Dental team encountered a few tough cases and served 167 people while Medical Team served 236, a total of 403.
Thursday’s morning, Oct. 13, we bid farewell to 2 team members as they left for Long Xuyen. Our Team also checked out of Minh Quan Hotel and travelled to Dalat, a city located at 1,500 meter above sea level. Before leaving Bao Loc, we visited Anh Sao School Center that housed 50 deaf and dumb children and Loc Phat Center for Handicapped and Orphaned Children that housed and trained other 72 handicapped.
We arrived in Dalat early afternoon and checked in Hoang Anh Gia Lai hotel. We then ventured out by foot and with umbrellas on hands to explore the city as a thin mist of rain sprinkling on us. This light sprinkle eventually turned into heavy rain drops that soaked most of us cold and wet.
On the next two days we were supposed to work at 2 ethnic villages nearby Dalat; however, for some reasons, local authorities did not grant us permission to work in the vicinity of Dalat. Fortunately, the local Sisters were able to make arrange for our Team to work at other 2 villages in Bao Loc instead. That means we would have to travel more than 2 hours back to Bao Loc.
It rained on the morning of Friday, Oct. 14 when we left Dalat at 7:10AM and descended back to Bao Loc. After nearly 2hr1/2 we arrived at Minh Rong village. The bus couldn't make a corner turn to get to the site which was another kilometer away so we had to hire a smaller "trucker" to haul our "luggage" to the site. It rained as we set up our site and continued through almost the whole day. Villagers are mostly K'Ho ethnics who shared little of Vietnamese language but through the help of their ethnic interpreters, our Team served 365 people (206 by Medical team and 159 by Dental team). Another long bus ride back to Dalat exhausted most of us and Dalat city seemed already asleep as we got back to Hoang Anh Gia Lai hotel to claim our most needed night rest.
Rain has stopped but it was still damp and wet the following morning (Saturday, Oct. 15) when we awoke, packed and checked out of Hoang Anh Gia Lai hotel. The same long bus ride got us back to Bao Loc again and then to Tan Rai, another ethnic village of Chau Ma minority. Our team worked past 6PM and had dinner right at the site. We served 454 people (307 by Medical team and 147 by Dental team). We left the site at about 8PM, stopped at a Tea Shop on the way to the hotel to purchase tea packages for gifts. We checked in at Minh Quan hotel at past 9:30PM then rested for the night.
Sunday's morning (Oct. 16), our Team continued our mission journey to La Gi, Binh Thuan. Our bus climbed and snaked slowly through an extremely narrow, winding but spectacular and breathtaking road that passes through mountains from Di Linh to Phan Thiet. We arrived in Phan Thiet at noon, stopped for lunch and then headed to La Gi and checked in Mom Da Chim (La Zi) Resort. The sun was still hanging on the horizon as we rushed to the beach and dipped in the sea until dark.
A local doctor and an ophthalmologist and other volunteers joined our Team and worked with us at the next outreach sites in La Gi. We also hired a local eye glasses store to bring their staff and equipment to exam people vision and make glasses at each site.
Monday Oct. 17, we worked at a church in Thang Hai village, Ham Tan. Medical team examined 334 patients, Dental team extracted 176 patients, and Vision team checked vision and gave eye glasses to 155 people. Together, we served 665 people.
Tuesday Oct. 18, we worked at Tan Binh village, La Gi. Medical team examined 253 patients, Dental team extracted 188 patients, and Vision team checked vision and gave eye glasses to 175 people. Together, the Team served 616 people. We ate dinner at the site, got back to our hotel and everyone plunged into the sea-water swimming pool. We had a blast good fun time. We had a tug of war in the water and a chase and catch game that we named "keng". We shared laughter until everyone was tired and craving for the blankets and soft beds.
Wednesday Oct. 19, we rested. Three members from Houston bid us farewell and left for Saigon. Rooms at the hotel we stayed were smelly and moldy so we decided to move to another resort nearby. Dat Lanh Resort located just 1 kilometer away and offered much better and cleaner rooms and nicer sandy beach. We lunched at a volunteer's home, drank cold 333 beers and coconuts, and then returned to the hotel and spent our day on the beach and at swimming pool.
Thursday Oct. 20, the bus took us to Hiep Duc church in Ham Thuan Nam where the Pastor had gathered people from 12 surrounding villages. Again, with support of a local doctor and an ophthalmologist, our Team worked until 5PM. Together we served 723 people (Medical: 350; Dental: 173; and Vision: 200). Since this was our last mission day, we packed medicines into boxes and gave them to various local clinics and hospitals. We traveled back to our hotel and congratulated each other for a fun-filled and successful mission.
Friday Oct. 21, we travelled 2 hours to Mui Ne, Phan Thiet and spent our day at the Sand Dunes where we lunched on variety of sea shells and rested on hammocks. We then spent the afternoon at a beach where we swam against huge rouge ocean waves and built mermaid and turtle "sand dunes".
Saturday Oct 22, we travelled back to Saigon and concluded our mission with a Team's Dinner and coffee night.
Sunday Oct 23, we bid farewell and every one departed to his/her destination.
In summary, 2011 October Mission gathered 23 volunteers from Houston and Chicago (USA), Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary (Canada), and Vietnam plus other local volunteers. During the two-week mission, we worked at 7 sites/villages and served 3,535 people: 1,806 for medical examination, 1,199 for dental and 530 for vision/eye. We gave out 2,800 packages of gifts (400 each site), 1,600 packages of tooth brushes and toothpaste (200 each site), and 483 pairs of eye glasses. We donated money to several local clinics to support their clinics and to follow up with patients whose ailments were beyond our scope. We also identified about 15 children with probable congenital heart decease. We paid to have them re-examined and transported 3 children from Bao Loc to Hue Central Hospital for treatment and surgery. We are also making arrangement to send other heart-problem children we encountered during the mission to Hue for treatment and surgeries.
Our sincere gratitude and appreciation extend to all volunteers and, particularly the Sisters of Bao Loc, who had sacrifice their time to make this mission successful and enjoyable. We also thank our benefactors whose donations have helped us reaching out to more people and offered them a chance of healing.
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