Vietnam Anonymous Limited

Thien An Orphanage

2008-07-17T00:48:00.000-07:00

Last week we visited Thien An Orphanage in Ham Tan District in Binh Thuan. The orphanage is run by a group of Catholic* sisters, headed by Sister Mary Thanh Mai.

The orphanage has approximately 35 children, and also takes care of pregnant local women who would otherwise abort their pregnancies. The orphanage appears to be well managed, although it suffers from the usual lack of resources.

It was very hot on the day that we visited (it usually is hot there) and the electricity was out across the region. Apparently the electricity doesn't work for a number of hours every day, so the children have to suffer in the extreme heat. The orphanage is trying to raise money to pay for a generator so that they can runs fans all day in the nurseries and elsewhere. We were told that they need a 10 kilowatt generator which will cost about $USD1200. We are looking to raise the money for this generator for the orphanage. If you would like to contribute, please email us at vietnanon@yahoo.com and we will co-ordinate with the orphanage.

The orphanage also is looking for funds to help take care of the pregnant mothers and babies. It costs $200-$300 to see each pregnancy through to the end. It costs $30/month to care for each child in the orphanage.

We plan to visit Thien An Orphanage again in the next week or so.

We told Sister Mary that we would write about the orphanage on the blog and she sent us a personal message to be posted here, describing the activities of the orphanage and some of her needs. You can read the letter here (PDF). You can see some photos of the orphanage and her residents here and here.

(* For the record, we do not endorse any religions on this blog, and we have reported on our visits to Buddhist, Catholic and Government orphanages and organizations)

Mekong Delta

2008-07-13T01:55:00.000-07:00

When we were in Saigon late last month, we had the pleasure of joining up with a group of American 'Viet Kieu' led by Dr Phu Ngoc Nguyen of Global Community Service Foundation (GCSF).

The group was in Vietnam for a number of projects, including the delivery of 180 bicycles to needy children so that they can ride, rather than walk, the long distances to school. The group also built and donated some houses, and housing improvements, to some people in need.

Here is a pic from a recent GCSF event when a bunch of bikes were given to school kids.

The group invited us to join them one day on a visit to Mekong Delta to witness a small ceremony when they handed over a new home to a poor family in the village of Tan Thanh. Dr Phu said a few words (pictured below), in Vietnamese of course, to mark the occasion, as did the woman of the household (pictured left, standing). It was touching, despite the fact that we couldn't understand the words.

Some of the village kids came to see what the commotion was all about:

After the ceremony, we visited a house in another village which was to have a floor added (the floor is currently just the dirt on the ground.) The man of the house is also having some health difficulties and in need of a hernia operation which the group is trying to facilitate.

After the group had finished their work for the day, we all jumped on a boat in the Mekong for some lunch and recreation, hopping from island to island. First stop was a delicious lunch in a stilt house, with seafood and chicken, Jack fruit, and the ubiquitous warm beer.

Yummm, grilled fish.
And here is some Jack Fruit on a tree. Apparently it tastes great in a fruit shake for breakfast.

This pic was snapped from a boat in the river after lunch. These local lads were swimming in the river and enjoying the shade under the bridge... It sure gets hot in the Mekong...

After lunch we visited another island with a (very manual) coconut candy factory, and shop for tourists. These women are hand-wrapping the candy.

Our last stop was on another island which featured an orchard with various fruits where we were treated to a recital of old Vietnamese songs, sung by members of the family who run the orchard, while we feasted on fresh fruit dipped in chili salt.

Some kids watching the performance:

After the performance, we took a stroll through the orchard and climbed into little boats on a little river that runs through the island. This pic shows our oars-woman at the front of the boat, who is five months pregnant.

Thanks to Doctor Phu and friends for sharing their day with us.

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For more background, these two articles (1,2) from earlier in the year describe some of the good work that GCSF is doing in Vietnam, while this article describes the recent trip by Dr Phu and his friends and family. Another organization represented in the group was Viet-Nam Assistance for the Handicapped (VNAH) which provides wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs. The group also lobbies for rights for the handicapped here, for example, ensuring that building codes include wheelchair access.

Phu My Orphanage, HCMC

2008-07-12T00:48:00.000-07:00

When we were in Saigon in late June, we visited a Catholic orphanage for abandoned children with physical or mental handicaps called Phu My Orphanage (aka: The Handicapped Orphanage Protection Center of Thi Nghe).

The orphanage appeared well managed, like all of the orphanages we have seen in Vietnam, although the caregiver-to-child ratio is much higher than we have seen, with 400 children and only twenty caregivers. Given that many of the children at the orphanage have significant problems and many are permanently confined to bed, the orphanage could use a lot more staff.

We spoke with the Vice-Director, Sister Marie Nguyen Thi Hon, and asked her what type of volunteers she needed, expecting that she'd tell us that she needed qualified medical personnel. She told us that they have doctors there at the orphanage every day, and therefore they don't require doctor volunteers, although physiotherapists would be a great help. What they really need is simply for volunteers to come and spend time with the children, perhaps pushing a wheelchair around in the garden area, reading a book to the children, or pushing a swing etc. The most common health issues that the children face are bed sores, choking syndrome and bone weakness.

(The images are from this web page)

The orphanage also maintains two other venues; a 'daycenter' which houses 200 kids during the day so that parents are able to go to work, and a 'teaching farm', 200km north of Saigon, where young adults are taught farming skills so that they can re-integrate and become self-sustaining. We didn't get a chance to se that, but it sounds like an interesting idea.

If you are visiting Saigon and would like to help out for a day, or a month, or on a regualr basis, the address of the orphanage is 153 Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Str, Binh Thanh District, HCMC. ph: 08 899 6563. Email: mocoithinghe@vnn.vn

Mobile Libraries Project

2008-07-04T00:43:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the previous post, we are back in Vietnam for an exciting new project: delivering Mobile Libraries to schools in Binh Thuan Province.

The Mobile Library concept has been running since 1979 in Thailand. In the last few years, Le Ly Hayslip and the Global Village Foundation have been placing Mobile Libraries in schools in Quang Nam Province in Central Vietnam. We visited some of those schools in April and wrote about the experience here.

Global Village Foundation will now implement the Mobile Library program in Binh Thuan Province, and we'll be there to help!

The Need
Global Village Foundation describes the need on their website:

We hope to provide assistance in addressing two major issues that we have identified in Viet Nam, especially in the rural, central region. The first is the literacy problem, and the second is the shortage of books and other reading materials to be used as teaching tools.
[...]
The Vietnamese education system divides primary schools into Main and Subordinate schools. The Main primary schools receive most of the attention and funding, which means that each school is equipped with a library, but not the Subordinate schools. Our aim is, therefore, to provide these Subordinate primary schools with Portable Library Units filled with books so that children attending these schools will not be left behind, educationally speaking.

The Mobile Libraries
The Mobile Library units are simple boxes which hold approximately 250 books each.

Here is a picture of one of the Library units ready to be moved or stored.

And here is a Library unit displaying the books in a classroom.

And here is the Mobile Library in action in the classroom.

Sharing The Books
Each school in the program is given a Mobile Library Unit at the beginning of the semester, and the children can read the 250 books over the semester (approximately 4 months). At the end of the semester, the Mobile Library Units are rotated through the participating schools, resulting in a fresh batch of 250 books in each school. The rotation program is based on a 2 year cycle, such that each child will have access to nearly 1000 books over the cycle (4 semesters).

The books vary in topic and grade level, and include both Vietnamese and English language titles. The book list is developed in conjunction with the Education department.

Donations

Please consider donating to help us help the Vietnamese children. Donations are tax-deductible.

Contact us at VietnamAnon@yahoo.com, or Le Ly Hayslip at Info@globalvillagefoundation.org

Here is a short clip of two of the libraries in action in a class room from our visit earlier this year. It's pretty simple, and pretty effective, right?

We'll keep you posted as things progress.

Trip overview

2008-05-31T04:53:00.000-07:00

Our trip is over!

Thank you so much for sharing our trip with us. We hope that you've enjoyed our blogging along the way.

We met a lot of great people in the last few months as we traveled from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay to Sapa to Hoi An to Dalat to Phan Thiet. We hope that you've enjoyed meeting some of them too.

We interviewed Duc and we visited the Pagoda Monastery (post 1, 2) in Hanoi. We posted some pictures of Ha Long Bay and Sapa (more). We visited a Black H'Mong school near Sapa (more) - and some other schools (more)in the same region.

We interviewed a bunch of people in Hoi An: Bruce & Elaine, Le Ly Hayslip (more, more and more), Josh Solomon and Karen Leonard. We also had a post on Agent Orange.

We even wrote a post or two about the delicious Vietnamese food.

Thanks also to Vinh, Hung, Le, Cy, Trung, Lan and the many others who made our trip so memorable... So memorable, in fact, that we'll be back in Vietnam - soon! How soon? By the end of June.

We have a new project and are rushing to finalize the details, and the requisite fund-raising. We'll have a new post up soon with more details. You might be able to help...

More soon.

Agent Orange, Apocalypse Still

2008-05-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

As a result of her high profile helping the people of Vietnam, Le Ly Hayslip of Global Village Foundation often receives letters from Vietnamese families asking for help. She recently received one such letter from a husband and wife with two twenty-eight year old sons who suffer from the effects of Agent Orange. The family has at least four letters from different doctors confirming that Agent Orange caused the genetic problems.

The father worked for the American military during the Vietnam War, running missions searching for Viet Cong after the Americans defoliated a forest by dumping Agent Orange from the air. The father still has his official papers from the US military.

Given our interest in Agent Orange, Le Ly arranged for us to visit the family at their home in a remote village near Hoi An. After a 3 hour drive, and a one-hour walk through the rice paddies under the hot Vietnamese sun, we interviewed the parents and met their sons.

Firstly, for some background about Agent Orange in Vietnam, please read "Apocalypse Still" by investigative reporter Robert Dreyfuss in Mother Jones in 2000:

"In the years since the war's end, however, the reality of America's chemical warfare in Vietnam's forests and rice paddies has slowly begun to unfold. Though thousands of American veterans of the war now receive government compensation for illnesses linked to Agent Orange, the United States has yet to accept responsibility for the devastating effects of its campaign on Vietnam. Millions, perhaps tens of millions of Vietnamese, combatants and civilians alike, were showered with Agent Orange, and then lived, worked, and breathed amid the residue of an especially virulent form of dioxin, a byproduct of one of the defoliant's chemical components. This poison, a carcinogen once described as "the most toxic molecule ever synthesized by man," infiltrated the country's water and soil, entering the food chain and accumulating in people's tissues, even passing from mother to child through breast milk. According to Vietnamese estimates, the millions of gallons of Agent Orange that soaked the southern half of Vietnam during the 1960s eventually killed or injured 400,000 people and reportedly contributed to birth defects in 500,000 children. Chillingly, its effects are still being felt, not only among older Vietnamese, whose cancers and other illnesses are often linked to Agent Orange, but among second- and third-generation children of the war, whose twisted bodies and crippled minds bear silent witness to the scourge."

Please read the rest, which Dreyfuss calls "One of my most important pieces. " (see here (pdf) for the version of the article with photos)

The US government is still denying the extent of the problem, their culpability, and their liability. There are some positive-looking moves, however, with the US House Foreign Affairs holding some hearings last week called "Our Forgotten Responsibility: What Can We Do To Help Victims of Agent Orange?"

In our interview, the parents described their ordeal: When the twins were 3 years old, the parents realized that they were having developmental problems and took them to all the major hospitals in Central Vietnam for help. They were told that they only have two options; either take the children to a foreign country to get some medical treatment, or simply take the children home and try to look after them.

The family couldn't afford to travel to seek medical attention, so the twins, now 28 years old, have been at home ever since. The twins can't feed themselves, and they can't talk. Their entire existence is lying on a shared, cane bed which has slits in it so that their bodily waste can fall through to the floor.

The twins appear to be able to communicate with each other via sounds and eye contact, and appeared to know that we were in their room, with one of them appearing to show us his bed sores.

The parents are both 60 years old and aren't sure how long they will live. One of their main concerns, now, is that there isn't anybody to look after their sons when the parents die.

We'd like to thank the family for sharing their story with us.

If you'd like to help the family, please contact us at vietnanon@yahoo.com or contact Global Village directly: info@globalvillagefoundation.org

Food for Thought (part 2)

2008-04-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

(This blog-post is a change of speed from our usual posts)

We had planned to take at least one cooking class while in Vietnam, and after some research, decided that Hoi An sounded like the best place... The most famous cooking school there is Red Bridge Cooking School, but after taking a closer look, we decided to attend the competing cooking school at Morning Glory Cafe. There were several reasons for that: 1. We dined at Morning Glory frequently and loved their food. 2. The classes seemed a bit smaller and more personal. 3. Their prices were more reasonable. 4. It was highly recommended by the locals.

We booked a class one day prior to the session, and showed up there the following morning at 10am. We were a little early, so we sat in their outdoor setting and sipped our strong Vietnamese ice coffee and engaged in some people watching while we waited for the other attendees to arrive.

Once everyone arrived, we were taken upstairs to their cooking demonstration room. The entire set-up was very impressive - it was spotlessly clean, with cooking facilities for each participant, and a good view of the instructor - both directly, and via an angled mirror behind her. Each cooking station had a gas stove top, preparation mat, and cooking utensils, all set up...

When we arrived, each station had one white Vietnamese eggplant in the middle of the preparation mat, so we cleverly figured out that our first dish was going to be eggplant related!

Our instructor, Ms Lu, has been working at the school for over 10 years since her early teens. Her English was very good, and we could all follow her instructions clearly.

Our first lesson started with an introduction to Vietnamese white eggplant, and how to trim and slice it appropriately, soak it in salt water for 10-15 minutes to remove bitterness, how to fry, flavor, and finally present it artfully...

Here is the recipe for delicious & healthy fried white eggplant:

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Fried White Eggplant
Serves: 1
Preparation Time: 45 mins
Cooking Time: 6 mins

Ingredients
1 small white egpplant
1 bowl water (cold)
1 pot water (boiling)
2 tbls vegetable oil
2 tsps Light soy sauce
1 tsp Brown sugar
1 tbls Green onion (1 cm round)
12 tsps Fish sauce
1 tsp garlic (chop finely)
1 tsp chili (chop fine)

Method
* Thinly slice eggplant halfway down. Flip over, rotate 90 degrees, repeat the slicing
* Soak eggplant in cold salted water for 30 mins
* Place eggplant in boiling water for 7 minutes. Place a heavy plate on top of eggplant to ensure that it is fully submerged.
* Remove eggplant from water and place between the bottom of two plates and squeeze, draining excess water from inside eggplant
* In a saute pan, heat 1 tbls vegetable oil until hot. Place eggplant in pan. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side. When done, it should be golden brown and crispy on the outside
* Mix soy sauce and sugar together
* In saute pan, heat 1 tbls vegetale oil until hot. Add green onion and fry for 2-3 minutes, adding fish sauce at the end of cooking time.
* Put eggplant on plate, top with fried green onion and drizzle soy sauce around
* Mix garlic & chili, place in center, and serve.
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Next we were taught how to make the famous Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls. The instructor's assistants placed fresh rice papers, a plate of washed and chopped herbs, slices of roast pork, halved pre-cooked shrimp, bean sprouts, rice noodles, spices and sauces for the dipping sauce on each cooking station, and we began rolling... Note the chives sticking out the top!

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Fresh Spring Roll
Servings: 2
Preparation Time: 3 Minutes

Ingredients
* Rice
* Raw Herb (lettuce, basil, coriander, chives)
* Marinated Pork loin - baked or steamed
* Boiled Shrimp, cut in half
* Rice Paper

Method
* Wet your rice paper both sides with wet towel
* One big chopstick of herbs on rice paper and a chopstick of noodle on top, 2 slices of pork loin, 2 slices of shrimp
* Cover noodle & herbs completely
* Fold the side of the rice paper
* Place chives decoratively, sticking out of end of roll
* Roll up rice paper to the end
* Serve with peanut sauce

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After the fresh spring roll, we began our instruction on two famous Vietnamese salads (it can also be considered an appetizer since it contains meat): Green Mango Salad and Green Papaya Salad. Since there is very little or no variation between the two, we chose to give you the Green Mango Salad recipe below.

Our instructor also showed us a whole banana flower, which is the main ingredient on the Banana Flower Salad, one of our favorite dishes in Vietnam.

Back to the Green Mango & Papaya Salads... Before we get to the recipe, we want to take the time to tell you about a great little tool that is used for preparing items for salads. Here is a picture - it's about 8 inches long.

And here's a close-up of the 'pointy end.' When you drag those little loops down the side of a fruit, the result is thin strips of the mango/ papaya etc that can go directly into the salad.

Here is Lu using the tool.

Here's the recipe
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Green Mango Salad

Servings: 10
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

* 1 tbl Vegetable oil
* 1 tbl Red onion (chop fine)
* 3 tbl Lime juice
* 1 tsp White sugar
* 1 tsp chili (chop fine)
* 1 tsp fish sauce
* 1 tsp garlic (chop fine)
* 1 cup Roasted peanuts (crush)
* 200 gram green mango
* 1/2 cup mint leaves
* 1/2 cup basil leaves

Method

* Heat vegetable oil in skillet until hot
* Add red onion and saute until golden brown & set aside
* In a bowl, combine lime juice, white sugar, salt, chili, fish sauce, garlic, and half of the roasted peanuts
* Mix the dressing with the green mango, allowing it to soften and the dressing to drain through
* Mix half of the mint and half of the basil into the golden brown red onion and vegetable oil, making sure it has cooled to a warm temperature, ensuring the herbs will not turn black
* Place salad on plate. Top with red onion & herb mixture first, then top with the remaining peanuts, mint and basil.

(Hint: carrot & cucumber can be used instead of green mango.)

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Next up was the famous Hoi An pancake - which is made with a rice flour mixture, no dairy. We don't have the recipe for this one, unfortunately. We cooked these at our cooking station, with a little help from Lu. The instructions were only to cook the pancake for 10 seconds in the little pan before adding some bean sprouts and some herbs, and then folding in half - although in reality, the pancakes were on the burner for at least 30 seconds - even when Lu was demonstrating...

And here's the end product. The white triangles at the top of the plate are rice paper which you wrap around the pancake before consuming.

Next up: Main Course. We were asked if we were vegetarian - and 'vegetarians' were tasked with cooking one of our favorite dishes in Hoi An - fish with turmeric, wrapped in banana leaves. We ate this dish as often as possible - our favorite was at Cargo Club.

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Grilled White Mackerel with Turmeric

Servings: 1
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 12-15 minutes

Ingredients

* 1 tbls Vermicelli noodles
* 1 tbls wood ear mushrooms (slice thin)
* 1 tbls Turmeric (grated fresh or powder)
* 200 grams white mackerel (cubed)
* 1 tbls vegetable oil
* 1 tsp fish sauce
* 1 pinch salt
* 1 pinch black pepper
* 1 pinch brown sugar
* 1 pinch chili (chop fine)
* 1 tsp garlic (chop fine)
* 1 tsp red onion (chop fine)
* 1 tbls Green Onion (1cm round)
* 6 banana leaves

Method
* Soak vermicelli noodles and wood ear mushroom in cold water for 10 mins to soften
* Cut mackerel into evenly sized small cubes
* In a saute pan, heat 1/2 tbls vegetable oil until hot, add turmeric and cook for 3 mins
* In a bowl, mix the fish with remaining vegetable oil, fish sauce, salt, black pepper, brown sugar, chili, garlic, red onion, green onion, and turmeric once it has cooled.
* Take two pieces of banana leaf and arrange on top of one another to create an 8-point star
* Lay fish down, centered just below the middle of the banana leaves
* Begin folding from the bottom up, then one side at a time, close by folding top down
* With remaining leaves, wrap the envelope. These leaves will char when cooking.
* Place on grill, cooking 5-7 minutes on each side
* To serve, remove outer charred leaves and place green leaf with fish on it onto the plate, folding excess leaf under the plate

(Hint: If using powdered turmeric, only toast it lightly before adding to fish.)
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The 'non-vegetarians' in the class cooked BBQ chicken on skewers. As you can see from the recipe below, you just toss all the spices into a bowl with some oil, and marinate the chicken and then threading a skewer through the chicken. The only trick was knowing which spice was which (no labels)!

Here is the end product, presented artfully, as always.

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BBQ Chicken in Kefir Lime Leaf

Servings: 2
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
* 10 skewers
* 200 grams Dark chicken meat (cubed)
* 1 tsp Vegetable oil
* 1 tbls galangal (chop fine)
* 1 tbls Lemongrass (chop fine)
* 30 lime leaves
* 1 tbls garlic (chop fine)
* 1 tbls chili (chop fine)
* 1 tbls shallot (chop fine)
* 1 pinch 5 Spice
* 1 tsp fish sauce
* 1 tsp brown sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp black pepper

Method

* Soak skewers in cold water for at least 15 minutes
* Finely chop 5 lime leaves
* Marinate chicken in oil, all the spices, and chopped lime leaves
* Let stand for 15 minutes, or up to several hours
* Fold chicken cubes between lime leaves
* Place two pieces of chicken on each skewer
* BBQ chicken, rotating every 2 minutes until done cooking
* Plate and serve

(Hint: Lime leaves should be young. This means they will be light in color and soft.)

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Actually, we didn't actually cook these dishes (the chicken and the fish) - we only prepared them. When we were done preparing, the assistants came around and collected everyone's meals and did the actual cooking in another room.

When our class was finished, we all sat in the dining room and were served the feast that we had made - it was delicious, and particularly satisfying because we made it ourselves! Hopefully we'll be able to perfectly recreate the dishes at home without Lu and her team looking over our shoulder...

Next time you find yourself in Hoi An, consider the Morning Glory cooking school - even if you don't consider yourself much of a chef! It's lots of fun. You'll also receive a booklet with lots of recipes, and one of those handy salad tools pictured above.

Food for Thought (part one)

2008-04-28T03:06:00.000-07:00

(This blog-post is a change of speed from our usual posts)

We know that many of you have been anxiously awaiting our food blogging - well, here is the first post.

We've decided to have 3 food-blogging posts - the first will be about the basics: ingredients, cooking methods & produce. We're not food experts, of course, so this will just be our cursory observations.

Rice is, of course, the main staple in Vietnam - not only as the rice that we know, but also rice paper, rice noodles, rice crepes, rice crackers, rice wine, rice gelatin - and we've probably forgotten a few others... The rice paper comes in 3 or 4 different forms; the soft fresh form for making fresh spring rolls; another variation for making fried spring rolls, and another which is grilled or fried, similar to pappadam, like a cracker, which is served as a side dish to accompany salads and certain appetizers...

Here are many of the rice noodle forms in the Hoi An market

Rice paper used for fresh spring rolls - filled with bean sprouts, mint, shrimp, roast pork, and other vegetables...

Check out the big bowl of rice vermicelli noodles, served to accompany meals in a village house where one of our new Vietnamese friends lives (more on this later!)

Rice, pappadam style

Rice is also used to make rice wine and rice whiskey. For some reason, it is often sold in glass jars with various snakes floating inside!

Vegetables are also very popular - the most common (almost as common as rice) is water spinach - a.k.a. Morning Glory - a semi-aquatic tropical plant which "flourishes naturally in waterways and does not require much if any care." It is most commonly served simply sauteed with garlic, garnished with some hot chili pepper, and maybe drizzled with a dash of nuoc mam (fish sauce) - it is absolutely delicious. Apparently it is expensive in the West because it needs to be washed repeatedly to get rid of all the mud, dirt, sand, silt and whatever else it grows in...

Morning Glory (water spinach), served at one of our favourite restaurants in Hoi An, called... Morning Glory! It is sauteed with large sweet garlic, and on the top, sprinkled with fried shallots, chopped fresh red chili pepper, and drizzled with fish sauce (nuoc mam) and a dash of sesame oil. It really is delish!

Eggplant is another popular vegetable - they use a variety of eggplant species - the most common is the Asian eggplant called 'white eggplant' - others include Japanese eggplant and occasionally Italian eggplant.

Fried white eggplant - another of our favorites

The markets are colorful, with colorful characters, and fresh vegetables everywhere...

Tofu is another popular dish, made out of soybean. Tofu is popular among the many vegetarians in Vietnam - and is sometimes used as a meat-substitute, leading to some bizarre situations. When we visited a Buddhist orphanage in Hanoi, we were invited for 'vegetarian' lunch. When we sat down at the table, there were a dozen or so dishes that resembled various meat products, all made out of tofu (we worked out later) - for example, tofu shaped (and sliced) like fried squid, tofu-shaped like fried chicken pieces, tofu shaped liked pigs trotters etc. Each dish was artificially flavoured appropriately...

There are also various types of potato, including many types of sweet potato; yams, cassava... This appeared to be a regional phenomenon. We came across these mostly in the mountain regions of Central Highlands - particularly the markets in Dalat.

The Vietnamese consume lots of fruits too: dragon fruit, various banana species, mango, pomelo, tangerines, jack fruit, durian, papaya, rose apples, avocado, various melons, coconut... all widely available, looking fresh, luscious, inviting, and of course, very, very cheap!

Meat consumption is led by seafood on top of the list (in our experience) - from an incredible variety of fish, to shell-fish (shrimp of all sizes, oyster, abalone, clams, snails, lobster etc), eel, frog... Seafood was our preferred choice as often as possible, because it is often presented live in the outdoor markets in pots, or tanks, guaranteeing a certain level of freshness - particularly when the creature is butchered live right in front of you!

Live eels for sale in the market

Eels butchered / scissored on request!

Fried eel on the dinner table. Yum! (We actually ate this dish 5 times in three days in Dalat!)

And here are some happy frogs, prior to having their heads scissored off by the mean market lady!

And frogs on the dinner table

This is the common way that fresh seafood is presented in the restaurants - either on ice, or alive in tanks...

Lobster on the table in Mui Ne. We ordered this one from the tank on the street - and a few minutes later it came nicely grilled on the BBQ, seasoned with chili and garlic.

Other popular meat products include pork, chicken, and beef (we were told that 'beef' is often water buffalo which has outlived their usefulness dragging ploughs around the rice paddies - resulting in dark, tough meat called 'beef')... Much of the meat is available in the outdoor markets, with slabs of meat sitting on open wooden tables, in the heat, unrefrigerated, attracting flies... This is a common sight, which commonly suppressed our appetite for meat...

Here are some not-so-attractive chickens spread out on an open table at the Dalat market...

And here are some various red meat products - including organs - again, out in the open. This picture was taken in Sapa where the climate is cooler - the scent of red meat sitting in the open in the hotter climates can sometimes become unbearable...

Vietnamese Flavours: Spices, Herbs, and Sauces
Yum! Roots - various types of ginger and fresh turmeric - are used heavily in Vietnamese dishes, and of course garlic is a given (the large, sweet garlic which they call French garlic, and the small, pungent garlic, referred to as Vietnamese garlic)...

The first basket on the left carries both ginger and turmeric - the lighter root on the left is ginger (Vietnamese use two types of ginger - the larger, smoother root, and the smaller, more irregular-shaped, more pungent ones, which you see in the basket on the left) To the right of the ginger is the fresh turmeric, used to add color and flavor. In the West we mostly use turmeric in powder form... Fresh turmeric is also apparently used to stop bleeding if you hurt yourself... such as, you know, if you fall face-first off your pushbike in the middle of the street... for example.

The large basket in the front contains small pungent Vietnamese garlic. This picture was taken in front of one of the village houses that we visited. The garlic is sun-dried for their own consumption...

Lemongrass is also widely used in broths and sauteed and simmered dishes

Vietnamese rely heavily on fresh herbs for flavoring - particularly mint, basil, coriander/cilantro, chives, and spring onion... Mustard Green is another which is served as a condiment, as well as eaten with food... Again, these herbs are widely available in all the markets, presented fresh, beautiful, and of course, cheap, cheap, cheap...

These herbs aren't very distinguishable from each other here, but there are heaps and heaps of fresh, inviting herbs from mint to basil, from cilantro/coriander to basil and mustard green...

As soy sauce is the main ingredient for Chinese food, Nuoc Mam (a pungent fish sauce based on anchovies) is used in almost every dish for flavouring, and in many cases is used as a substitute for salt... Tamarind, a sour, pungent fruit, is ground into a paste, diluted, and used as a sauce for many dishes. It adds a nice sweet & sour flavor. Soy sauce is usually used as a condiment presented in a small bowl, to accompany dishes as they are served, not as a cooking ingredient. Lime is also used as both a condiment and an ingredient in many dishes...

Dried shrimp, shrimp paste, dried squid, and certain dried shredded fish (fish flakes) are sometimes sprinkled over salads and some appetizers to add texture and flavour.

Here are various dried squid and fish products, together with some commonly used spices...

Various fresh hot chili - both green and red - are used as both garnishes and spicing/heat element in many dishes

As far as dry spices goes, Chinese 5 Spices, nutmeg and both black and white pepper are the main spices. In some sauces and dishes, a dash or two of raw/brown sugar is used to balance the acidity and add flavors...

Here is a bundle of spices presented by one of the market vendors - dried turmeric, white pepper, black pepper, dried star anise, chili flakes...

Cooking Methods and Meal Types
As everywhere, Vietnamese have a bunch of different cooking methods and meal types - from soups, which they refer to as pho, to noodle dishes, from simmering hotpot dishes, to BBQ/grill - they have it all.

The most common dish is pho (brothy soup) which can be chicken-based (pho ga), beef (pho bo), seafood, vegetables, etc. The broth is the most important element - this is where the mastery/flavour comes into play... They simmer beef, chicken, and/or pig bones for hours (if not a day) The resulting broth is graded based on its flavor and clarity... Lemongrass, fish sauce, garlic, onion, are all used in various combinations to flavor the broth. The next main ingredient is the noodle - mainly thin rice noodle. The meat (chicken/beef etc) is placed on top of the broth, after it is poured in a bowl with noodles. Garnish is then placed on top - basil, mint, hot chili pepper, green/spring onion. Pho also shows regional distinction - the three best known are those in the North (Hanoi), Central Vietnam (Hue) and South (Saigon). Almost every block, in every town, city and village has a pho stand or store-front restaurant. People in Vietnam eat pho as both a meal and/or snack - it is widely available and very very cheap.

Noodles aren't only used in soups - as in Chinese cuisine, Vietnamese consume a lot of stir-fries, saute and salads based on noodles. Again, variations depends on regions and seasonal ingredients. For example, in Danang / Hoi An area, they are known for their Cau Lau - "A textured wheat noodles mixed with veggies, bits of toasted rice paper, slices of pork and a wonderful light sauce... Interesting trivia... supposedly true cau lau cannot be made outside of Hoi An as the water for the dish must come from the Ba Le well, an ancient water hole hidden away in surprising spot, behind some very suburban houses."

This was the best Cau Lau that we had in Hoi An - again, at Morning Glory Cafe. We tried it at some Western hotels and it sucked...

Hotpots - simmered dishes
This is similar to Japanese Shaba-Shaba. Basically, you have a pot filled with broth or water placed on a portable hotplate which sits on your table. Plates with meat (seafood, chicken, beef or pork), vegetables (bean sprouts, mustard green, spinach etc), herbs (mint, basil, coriander, chives, green onion) are provided - and since it is mainly for group dining, everyone participates, mixing the ingredients in the simmering broth, adding various flavouring elements such as hot chili pepper, fish sauce and chili paste...

Here we are dining with our Vietnamese friend Le Ly Hayslip, over a traditional seafood hotpot. As you can see, to the right, is your fresh mix seafood as the main ingredients. In the center is the hotplate over which the pot of broth sits, simmering. To the left, is the mixed vegetable plate to go into the hotpot last, and some fresh herbs to be eaten raw with the meal (it is not always obvious which is which). As always, there is a bowl of rice vermicelli noodles as an accompaniment. What you can't see is a bowl of fresh, hot, hot, hot chili which we sprinkle over our meal once it is served for that needed heat element!

Others
Grilling and BBQ-ing are commonly employed methods - both at home and in restaurants. Since flavoring is very important, items are usually marinated first...

Frying is also used here and there - the Vietnamese usually use peanut oil for frying.

Salads
Salads are heavily and commonly consumed in Vietnamese cultures - from delicious green mango salad to banana flower salad. They are all delicately flavored , texturised in layers with great care, and artfully presented. The main flavoring elements are mint, basil, coriander, lime and lime juice... In some cases, seafood, pork, chicken or beef are included - along with crushed peanuts and/or sesame oil.

This is one of our many fave salads in Vietnam - Pomelo salad. It contains pomelo (a citrus fruit similar to grapefruit, but sweet), bean sprouts, spring onion, shrimp, mint, fried shallots, dried shrimp, hot chili pepper, a drizzle of lime juice, cane sugar, and fish sauce dressing. Absolutely yum.

Deserts and Baked Goods
As far as the baked goods are concerned, the French influence is indubitably present. We have travelled extensively, but Vietnamese baguettes are by far the best we have ever come across. The breads, particularly the baguettes, are incredible - across the whole country.

Here is a not-so-great photo of the bakery at Cargo Club, one of our fave restaurants in Hoi An. Their baguettes were to die for...

As far as traditional Vietnamese deserts are concerned, they can be broadly categorized as gelatinous - whether fried donuts filled with gelatinous fruits/fillings sold on the street corner, or steamed flavoured gelatin puddings in banana leaves...

Che is one of our favorite traditional Vietnamese street deserts - it's like a light pudding, with either corn, or mung bean, or tapioca base, served with lightly sweetened coconut milk and ice (the better restaurants always boasted of the fact that they made their own ice, and tried to convince us that we weren't eating the ice that we had just seen dragging down the street behind a motorbike!)

Here is the sweet corn and coconut milk che from Morning Glory Cafe.

Here are some profiteroles - the French influence is quite obvious in Vietnamese food - but thankfully, mostly in a good way! These puff pastries are filled with light custard / cream, served cold, with a drizzle of chocolate sauce...

Presentation
Last but not least, the food here is always presented artfully, tastefully, and delicately. Every day we marvelled at the effort taken in presenting the food - whether it was a green mango salad sprinkled with golden brown crushed peanuts and decorated with fresh red chilli pepper sliced to represent a flower, or vegetables such as carrot, cucumber or tomato, cut and sculpted on the plate... Deep fried shallots are also frequently sprinkled over certain salads and appetizers for texture, flavour and color.

Obviously from the pictures of the food above, you already know that Vietnamese presentation of food is very artful and appetizing. Here is one more picture to convince you... Here is a dish of simply grilled shrimp. Simple it is not, right?!

Next Up
Our adventures in cooking class at Morning Glory Restaurant in Hoi An...

Lifestart Foundation

2008-04-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

We met with Karen Leonard of LifeStart Foundation - a non-profit foundation "created to help orphans, street kids and families in Vietnam to become self-sufficient."

We have been in contact with Karen since before we arrived in Vietnam, and had a couple of meetings with her before she took us around and shared with us some of her projects in action.

Karen's foundation is involved in several projects in Hoi An, including an education program for a select group of street children, business development and arts & craft training for disabled adults, sponsoring a select group of poor families in Hoi An, and providing medical care in conjuntion with other groups such as Dr Josh Solomon's Hoi An Foundation and Robyn Morley's Children Hope In Action.

As we have previously emphasized, our focus has been primarily on smaller NGOs with on-the-ground leadership and hands-on management. Based on our research, LifeStart Foundation fit these criteria, and we had been looking forward to meeting with Karen and her team. Karen and Lifestart exceeded even our expectations - Karen is passionate about her work, she is very hands-on, managing all her projects on the ground, she is very energetic and hard-working. Everybody we spoke with in Hoi An spoke very highly of Karen and the work that she is doing.

Here are two videos - the first is an 8 minute interview we did with Karen - she discusses some of the specific needs and requirements of disabled adults, LifeStart's objectives and needs, the natural limits of small NGOs, and working with the Vietnamese government.

The second video highlights some of LifeStart's work - the first segment is some footage from the disabled women's project, teaching disabled women to be self-sufficient by producing a range of arts and crafts products including cards, bags and vases. The second segment shows Karen, working with a translator, developing a meal plan for a twenty year old terminally ill woman. The final segment is a short interview with a recently-retired LifeStart volunteer from Australia who discusses some of the ways he has been able to help LifeStart during his short tenure here.

These first two photos are of the disabled women's group in action, learning their arts and crafts which they hope to turn into an sustainable internet ecommerce business. The women appear normal & healthy in the photo, but many of them can't walk due to polio or landmine accidents, resulting in the loss of one or both legs.

This photo is of a classroom in session where a select group of street-children is provided with general education and English. In addition to two day-time classes, LifeStart's school also provides evening classes. Some of these kids come from abusive backgrounds, and others have been exploited in one way or other... Without LifeStart (with some help from the Vietnamese Government), these kids would not be receiving any education, and/or care.

Karen took us to visit this family - the mother belongs to the Disabled group in Hoi An. She doesn't have any legs, and walks around the house wearing shoes on her hands. Karen helped her get a special 3-wheel motor-bike which enables her to travel to her clients to pick-up work-orders involving computer work.

She has two daughters, the oldest is around four years old, and the younger is about 9 months old. Her husband repairs shoes for an income and works from home. He is able-bodied. They have a kinda romantic union story: one day she was locked out of her house, and due to her disability was unable to get in... he was passing by, offered to help her, and the rest is history...

Here is another of Karen's clients - he is going to pick up and repair cell phones using his newly modified 3-wheel motorbike provided by LifeStart. When Karen returns to Vietnam in a couple of months, he will have his business plan prepared for her evaluation...

The next three photos show another of LifeStart's projects - sponsoring families who live in their boats on the river in Hoi An under extreme poverty. Many of the children of these families also attend the LifeStart school.

The first picture is of a boat where a family of seven lives and works. The boat is approximately 14 feet long by 3 feet wide. In the foreground is Phuc, a boy of 13 who lives on the boat with his family, and attends LifeStart's school - he has acquired a good level of English thanks to Karen and her volunteers.

The next pic is of a similarly sized boat that is home to three people, and is also used for 'commercial' fishing to provide for the family. The final picture is of a replacement boat that Karen is getting made for the family. The boat will also have a motor which will enable the family to travel out of the river and into the sea where the fishing is more viable...

We're going to be on the road for the next week or so. We have a couple of fun and yummy food related posts that we will try to publish while on the road.

Next we'll be reporting from Dalat and/or Phan Thiet (Mui Ne)...

Dr Josh Solomon, Hoi An Foundation

2008-04-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

Last week we met with Dr Joshua Solomon of the Hoi An Foundation, a non-profit organization which provides medical services to disadvantaged Vietnamese people in the Hoi An region.

Hoi An Foundation's current focus is treating "hearing impairment, HIV infection, chronic medical diseases, health prevention, and rehabilitation for children with disabilities"

We spent a morning with Dr Solomon in his clinic, observing as he treated patients and interviewing him and An, his assistant/translator. Dr Solomon invited us to follow him around on his rounds, visiting patients who are unable to get to his clinic for a variety of reasons, but unfortunately we were unable to join him because he was heading to the US.

Dr Solomon works with a number of other NGOs in and around Hoi An, including Lifestart Foundation, Kianh Foundation and Children's Hope in Action - everybody speaks very highly of Josh.

In Part One of the interview, we see Josh in action with a patient, and he discusses the need for treatment of chronic diseases.

In Part Two of the interview, Josh discusses AIDS/HIV in Vietnam

In Part Three, Josh discusses his objectives, and his needs. He is looking for volunteers from across the medical spectrum; doctors, physiotherapists, speech therapists, nutritionists and nurses. Josh is also looking for certain medical equipment which will enable him to deliver medical services more efficiently. Of course, cash donations are also always valuable...

Thanks Josh, and good luck with the fundraising...

Global Village Construction Project

2008-04-11T03:18:00.000-07:00

As we mentioned in the previous post, we had a full day with various Global Village Foundation projects. In the afternoon we visited some of GVF's schools, and we spent the morning with GVF founder Le Ly Hayslip and two of her staff members, traveling to a nearby village to visit a site where GVF is building a house for a family - the father is in a wheelchair and makes his meagre living selling icecream to support his wife and three children - ages 6-12. All three children are in school.

We'll take you on a visual tour of our morning...

Our day started in downtown Hoi An with Le Ly and two GVF employees, Vinh and Hung - five of us with three motorbikes. Le Ly first took us to the Hoi An Central market to purchase those conical hats that are so popular here. She bargained with the local vendor - 3 hats for 36,000 Vietnamese Dong - approximately $2.40 in total! Man, we were so thankful later in the day after spending a few hours under the blazing sun... no wonder these hats are so popular here in Vietnam! Of course, we felt silly being the only non-Vietnamese wearing them - but the embarrassment was way worth it!

Next stop was waiting for the barge by the riverside where old ladies sell various sweets and refreshing drinks - Le Ly purchased a bag full of fried donut-y looking gelatinous sweets - they appeared to be fruit gelatin wrapped around sweet corn paste and then deep-fried in god-only-knows what kind of oil... some of us were more adventurous then others when Le Ly offered them around...

Another vendor had a very basic, hand-operated metal presser through which she fed raw sugar-cane to extract juice. The juice is then mixed with water, lime juice, a dash of salt, and ice of very questionable cleanliness... (we often see big blocks of ice being dragged through town on the back of motorbikes!) However, scientifically speaking, this drink makes perfect sense here in Hoi An - replenishing the body fluids lost in the heat (and for other reasons) - basically, it is Vietnamese Gatorade!

When the barge arrived, we all piled on - the five of us and our motorbikes, women traders on their way to and from the markets, and a bunch of local construction workers...

After 20 minutes or so we were in a different world, just 5 kilometers or so from downtown - but a world away; apparently very few tourists get here...

As we rode on our bikes to the construction site, we were greeted by school kids, water buffalo, pigs, and cows as we passed fishermen, rice fields, sleepy village houses and traversed another river on a rickety wooden floating bridge...

When we arrived at the construction site, especially Le Ly, all the locals came out to investigate the noise - old women, school kids, basically the entire neighbourhood...

The family is living in the unfinished house while the construction is taking place - with the piles of sand, dust, concrete and construction equipment lying around everywhere. As you can see, the father is very happy, and thankful to Le Ly and GVF for building the house, and we're sure he'll be even happier when construction is finished in a week or two...

The eldest child was at school, but we took a photo of the younger boys (below). One of our members is sponsoring the three children to go to school - for the grand sum of $200 per annum for all three. Sixty five dollars per child doesn't sound very much, but many Vietnamese children don't attend school because their parents simply can't afford it. Sixty five dollars includes: school tax, books, notepads, pens and pencils, backpack, two uniforms, school shoes and rain gear for the long rainy season in Vietnam...

We wish the family all the best - and study well, kids!

Global Village Foundation - Mobile Libraries and a volunteer

2008-04-11T02:35:00.000-07:00

We spent a day with Global Village Foundation (GVF) - checking out various projects. In the afternoon we traveled with full-time Global Village Foundation employee, Vinh, and one of their volunteers, Coleen from Alaska, USA.

We went to two schools built by GVF - we spent a couple of hours at one school which is the current beneficiary of GVF's Mobile Library Project. We saw how the Mobile Libraries are used in the schools and enjoyed watching the kids enjoy the library during classtime.

Each fold-up mobile library contains approximately 250 books - in both English and Vietnamese - and these libraries are rotated through the school district each semester, such that each school has access to 1000 books per year.

The first video includes a snapshot of a mobile library in use in a classroom, a few minutes of Coleen teaching the English class using a book from the mobile library, and a cute short segment with schoolkids singing in class.

The second video is a short interview with Coleen, talking about Vietnam, Global Village Foundation, and her experience as a volunteer.

We are still working on narrating our exciting trip during the morning when we visited a village near Hoi An to see a construction project sponsored by GVF - building a house for a disabled man and his wife and three kids. Stay tuned - we will post that shortly...

Here is a still shot of Coleen and Vinh being animals...

Here is a shot of the Mobile Library in action - simple, no?

And here it is ready for transit...

Here are some kids from one of the schools we visited

Everywhere we go in Hoi An we are shown the evidence of the Nov 07 floods - always demonstrated by pointing to the flood marks on the walls. The brown mark in this pic shows the damage at the school - about 8 feet high...

And we also visited a GVF kindergarten - the kids were all gorgeous

More soon.

Le Ly Hayslip Interview

2008-04-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

Last week we interviewed Le Ly Hayslip as we mentioned in the previous post.

We have been busy this week meeting with various people - sorry for the lack of posts. We'll have more posts in the next few days if the internet and electricity Gods are nice to us!

Here is the interview in 6 parts. We loved the interview - although we've had some minor difficulties with the editing process and some of the videos end 5-10 seconds before or after they should... The issue is in exporting the video from Windows Movie Maker - when we resolve it, we'll update the videos.

Part one: Le Ly discussing Large Vs Small NGOs

Part two : Le Ly on volunteering for Global Village Foundation

Part three: Le Ly on how you can help Global Village Foundation

Part four: Le Ly on how NGOs can be effective in Vietnam

Part five: Le Ly discussing Agent Orange and Land Mines in Vietnam

Part Six: Le Ly discussing NGO transparency

Le Ly Hayslip (part one)

2008-03-29T04:08:00.000-07:00

On Friday we had the pleasure of meeting Le Ly Hayslip, an American-Vietnamese woman who is the founder of both Global Village Foundation and East Meets West Foundation, and "author of two autobiographical bestsellers, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War, Woman of Peace, which were adapted into the 1994 film Heaven and Earth, directed by Oliver Stone and released by Warner Bros."

We were aware of Le Ly after our research into NGOs in Vietnam, although we had some misunderstandings regarding her current activities. We had expected (apparently many others are similarly confused) that her current activities were under East Meets West - a large NGO with a budget in the hundreds of millions.

As we have previously mentioned, our plan is to work with much smaller, less bureaucratic NGOs where the founders' vision and energy drives the activities on the ground. We are kinda wary of larger organizations which can be highly bureaucratic, hierarchical, with high administrative and overhead costs, many of which lack flexibility... Don't misunderstand us, it's not that larger organizations don't do good work, it's simply our preference to work with smaller groups, and it is our understanding that many others who are donating time and money share our preference.

As we were saying, we thought that Le Ly was currently working with the large East Meets West, but she quickly set us straight! Le Ly is currently working exclusively with Global Village Foundation. As soon as we introduced ourselves and explained why we are here, she enthusiastically welcomed us, immediately agreed to an interview, offered to take us around to see her projects, and offered the help of her staff! In fact, this is how it went: after a brief introduction, she asked "What are you doing now?" and within minutes we were in a car with her on our way to have lunch with her and watch (and film) her give a lecture.

Over lunch, we had a few questions that we had planned to ask her about working with large organizations, but almost before we started eating she was already chatting about the problems with large NGOs, talking freely about the fact that many of them are corrupt...

In absolute terms she expressed her determination to maintain Global Village Foundation (GVF) hands on, action-oriented, and driven by her leadership on the ground. Putting it under her terms, she likes the idea of a "One-woman shop." It is our understanding that there are only a handful of staff, and of course, she is here in Vietnam, overseeing the implementation of several ongoing projects.

As we discussed in our interview with Bruce and Elaine last week, one of GVF's projects is the Portable Library Project which furnishes books to remote schools. When GVF began the project 18 months ago, they hoped to deliver 35 'library units' - they already have over 200!

Some of GVF's other projects are in the areas of education, emergency relief, health and wellbeing... In the next few days we will be following Le Ly around some of the various projects and will report back to you the details... She has also volunteered to accompany us into the countryside to a few schools, orphanages, and family homes of Agent Orange victims. We'll have the full scoop on all of this in the days to come. Meanwhile, a great way to get a sense of her is to watch our recording of her lecture based on her autobiography. By watching these clips you will get a good sense of who she is, what she is doing, how she is going about it, and why...

Here is the lecture in four parts - you'll get to meet her as a child of war, as a survivor of war, as a teenage mother, as a dedicated and passionate activist, as an accomplished leader, and as the founder of Global Village Foundation.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

More soon.

An interview with volunteers Bruce & Elaine

2008-03-27T01:06:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is our interview (3 parts) with Bruce and Elaine - a volunteer couple from Canada that we met in Hoi An.

Bruce and Elaine provided us with a wealth of information and perspective from their experience - they have been here five times, with the current trip lasting over 80 days. They have been working with two organizations here, a well-known and well-established non-profit, Global Village Foundation, and the other is a for-profit organization called Reaching Out - and interesting project which manufactures and sells "a fine collection of handmade crafts made by talented disAbled artisans from all over Vietnam."

The interview is in three segments. In the first segment we discuss their projects in Vietnam and they offer some recommendations and suggestions for others who are looking to volunteer in Vietnam.

In the second video, Bruce and Elaine talk about Vietnam in general, offer some cultural awareness pointers, and share an interesting anecdote or two.

The third segment includes Bruce's perspective on Vietnam as a returning veteran from the 'American War.' We love this segment, and thank Bruce for his openness and sincerity in sharing these highly emotional perspectives.

Elaine and Bruce have also been keeping a blog, EB to Vietnam, during their time here. If anyone wants to contact Bruce and Elaine regarding either their time volunteering here, or issues related to veterans returning to Vietnam and 'replacing negative imagery,' we can forward emails to them for you.

Elaine & Bruce, we hope you get home safely and painlessly!

The Next Stage: Hoi An

2008-03-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

We made it to Hoi An and will be spending at least two weeks here on this trip. We decided to spend most of our time here because there are many organizations and NGOs in Hoi An that deal with children - particularly orphans, street children and disabled children.

Hoi An has some other advantages; it is centrally located, it is easy to travel to other areas, and it is relatively clean and quiet. The dining here is also great!

We've done a lot of research over the past year on many of the organizations here, and we are really looking forward to seeing them in action; how they operate, the challenges they face, and most importantly, the impact they make.

One of the main issues that we came across in our research is that it is difficult to evaluate the many organizations we came across. How can we help most effectively? Where are our resources best utilized? Which organizations have the best intentions, the best plans, and the capability to meet their goals? We suspect that many others also have similar difficulty in choosing which organization to support. Are some of the organizations too bureaucratic? Which organizations have high overhead and administrative costs?

How to Choose?

There are some great websites available for travelers who want to research restaurants, or hotels, or any other travel-related item - from beaches to zoos and beyond - with an abundance of critiques and reviews etc. We haven't found anything similar for NGOs. Our goal is to provide a blog which, in some small way, will be useful to others when they are trying to decide which organizations to help.

Of course, we will only be giving our own personal opinions about the organizations, our likes and dislikes etc, and we certainly aren't offering a professional evaluation. We will give organizations the right to reply to any of our posts, and all will be welcome to offer any further information and make any corrections etc. We also welcome feedback from any readers - either in the comments section of the blog, or via email. We are not associated with any organizations, we are not promoting or advertising any of them on their behalf, we will simply give our own personal opinions. Again, we are not professionals, though our opinions are based on some experience working with NGOs.

Our Objective

Our plan is to select some organizations for review here in Central Vietnam. For this trip (Part One) we will mainly focus on organizations that work with children, primarily orphans, street children, and disabled children.

We will try to learn about these organizations via various perspectives; information provided by directors, managers and employees, information from the beneficiaries of the organization, feedback from people in the local community, and interviews which we will post on the blog.

Last but not least, we will offer our own personal evaluation/perspective of the effectiveness of each organization - based on their goals, and their ability to deliver.

One of the most important elements in determining whether to donate time and/or money to an organization is transparency. All organizations tell a great story with their websites and other marketing materials, however it can be difficult for others to scratch below the surface and determine whether the organization ought to be supported. We hope to be able to take an extra step and take a closer look at the operations. It will be interesting to see how open and transparent some of these organizations are, and to what extent they will open their doors and let us see their actual operations so that we can evaluate them more fully.

We will contact our target organizations, explain our goals, and try to set up interviews and meetings. If we find that any of the organizations are not fully transparent, we'll report that too. We recognize that some organizations may not always be fully transparent to us for a variety of reasons, some more legitimate than others, so we'll simply report that.

We already have a list of five or six organizations that we'll start with, some of them have come through recommendations from other people that we have met and interviewed.

We are excited and very interested about this project. We'll keep you informed as to progress along the way. We will be here for another 3 weeks or so for Part One of our project which will mostly be focused on Vietnamese children. We plan to return to Vietnam for Part Two later in the year when we hope to expand the project to more areas and more organizations.

We conducted an interview yesterday with two volunteers, Bruce and Elaine, who have been here in Hoi An for the past 2+ months, their fifth visit to Vietnam. They worked with two organizations - Reaching Out and Global Village Foundation - and we'll post that interview shortly.

Here are a few touristy pictures from Hoi An to start with - we'll have some more soon.

The river and the associated hustle and bustle is the focal point of Hoi An

Delicious open-fire roasted corn offered by many vendors along the banks of the river

A typical cafe in the center of the town, housed in an old building; a great place to people-watch and sip Vietnamese coffee

One of many store-fronts in the town center - they are mainly fabric and tailor shops

Central Market, Hoi An - one section is dedicated to seafood, others are dedicated to vegetables, spices, clothing, and of course, souvenirs for the many tourists.

Ma Trang videos

2008-03-24T23:31:00.000-07:00

We took a couple of videos at the Ma Trang village school near Sapa.

This first video is of a little 5 year old girl sweeping the classroom before class begins. The task had apparently been allocated to her for the day, and she took it very seriously!

This video is of a classroom of boys singing during their music class. They put on quite a show for us - although some were more enthusiastic than others... As we mentioned in the previous post, the only thing we could make out was the repeating of 'Ho Chi Minh' in the song they chose to sing.

Our next stop is Da Nang / Hoi An. We'll be visiting orphanages and schools in the nearby provinces and we'll conduct interviews with several NGO operation directors dealing with children.

Sapa, Day two.

2008-03-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, our second full day in Sapa, we again visited some schools. Unfortunately our guide Trung was not available and we had a new guide, Cy (short for Lucy), a 19 year old H'Mong girl from a nearby village. Cy had an interesting background, and was very open with us and shared her story. Her father died when she was very young, and her step-father didn't want Cy around his new family. At the age 14, by sheer luck she met a nice Australian woman, Kirsten, who took Cy and 15 other kids from the villages to Hanoi for 9 months to teach them all English so that they would be able to support their families. Unfortunately Cy did not know Kirsten's surname or contact details but we are hoping to find Kirsten and establish contact with her. Thanks to Kirsten, Cy is now able to support her family, as well as another family in her village.

Our first stop was at the school of a village called Ma Trang. Cy helped distribute some of the school supplies and wellingtons that we purchased that morning with her - unfortunately she also demanded that we also bring some candy for the kids, something that we had promised never to do! Cy did not take 'No' for an answer... On the positive side, Trung had suggested that we also pick up some noodles for the kids, which turned out to be a great idea.

Unlike Trung, Cy was not particularly discrete in distributing the supplies, and the whole thing became a circus with Cy directing the kids and telling them to line up to receive their candies and whatnot... We cringed while she disrupted all the classes! The last thing we wanted to do was put the kids under the spotlight or embarrass them - unfortunately we did a little of both.

All that said, Cy was vivacious and adorable and really enjoyed her role distributing the supplies - she loved keeping track of all the inventory, constantly counting and recounting the goods and determining how they were to be allocated - exactly one of each item per kid! Every time she finished handing out something, she would recount the inventory, and dutifully report to us, again and again and again and again, how the remainder would be distributed... man, we got very dizzy! Thankfully we had the cameras in hand to distract us from her!

These first 12 pics are from Ma Trong school - the first is a group shot of some of the 100 kids from the school. Cy organized the kids to line up for us (I'm not sure if she even asked permission from the teachers!)

This little boy was all alone, deep in thought, at the entrance to a classroom.

Here are some of the kids with their packaged noodle soup - they were running around excitedly showing them off to each other.

Another good pic of young H'Mong girls carrying and caring for their baby siblings.

These next two shots are of the school's youngest class. They were gorgeous. Before the class started, one little girl grabbed a straw broom and dutifully swept the floor. Perhaps it was her assigned task for the day...

This girl seemed to be the youngest in the above class.

These poor kids were made to sing for us by their teachers! They did a great job - we have a video clip of them singing which we will post when we can. I'm not sure if they were singing the national anthem - the only phrase we recognized was 'Ho Chi Minh'

Here is a shot of three girls after they realized what our camera could do!

And some more shots of some of the school girls

Walking to the next school, we ran into these kids on the road... Cy dutifully handed one piece of candy to each kid.

Isn't she beautiful?

Here are two pics from a school we visited that was officially in Sapa, although it was a few miles out of town

We then stopped at another village, Sin Chai, but the school was closed. Cy took us into one of the homes where a baby was about to take a bath - she was the only baby we have seen crying in any of the villages.

This gorgeous little girl was in the same home. The wooden structure just to her right is the ladder to get to the upper floor where the beds are. (Cy also demanded that we take a photo of some dried corn that was hanging from the ceiling)

Many of the homes are 'Stilt' homes, where the animals (mostly pigs) live on the ground floor under the main home. The floors are plain concrete with an open fire in the middle of the house used for cooking (including cooking food for the pigs)

These next six pics are taken on the pathway through the village.

We thought this woman was the grandmother of the baby, but she is actually the mother. It's amazing how quickly the women seem to age here. Women here tend to be married by 15 years old - in fact our guide Cy said that she was too old to ever get married at the ripe old age of 19!

Another cutie without pants!

And another preschooler looking after her baby sibling

Cy then took us to her home village, Lao Chai.

These two pics are of some boys playing in the mud.

These next two pics are of some of the girls who tried to sell us something or other. All of the villages are very adept at striking up a conversation in order to begin the selling process. The three main questions are: 1) You buy from me? 2) Where you from? 3) How old are you? The girls even have responses tailored to each nationality!

This next shot is of a family of three working in the field, with the baby horizontal on mum's back as she toiled the crop which feeds the family's pigs. According to Cy, once this crop is harvested, they actually cook it before feeding it to the pigs.

Cy took us to her family home - here is her mum cooking rice on the concrete floor in the middle of the house with Cy's baby step-sister on her back. Cy's 5 year old sister, her uncle and her step-dad also live in this tiny little house. The house was very dark during the middle of the day (no windows), full of smoke from the cooking such that we could hardly keep our eyes open. It may be hard to see in the picture but Cy's mum was sitting on a tiny wooden stool, just an inch or two off the ground.

Our internet situation has been generally difficult for a variety of reasons, resulting in delayed postings and such. We are currently blocked from actually even seeing this blog, making Quality Control a little difficult! Hopefully things will begin to improve on that front.

More later.

Black H'Mong School, Hau Thao Village

2008-03-21T03:14:00.000-07:00

Here as promised are two video clips (one more to come) from our Day One Sapa village school tours.

This video covers our shopping expedition in Sapa when we procured some 'Wellingtons' (rubber boots), notepads and some pens and pencils.

Our guide, Trung, was a fantastic help, navigating us through the selection and bargaining process.

We picked up the boots in the Sapa outdoor market, and the other supplies in a couple of stores in downtown Sapa.

This second video covers our visit to a Black H'Mong school in a village called Hau Thao, approximately 20 minutes drive from Sapa, and another 20 minute walk to the village itself (the village is not accessible by car.) Hopefully this footage provides some more background to the previous blog post with the gorgeous photos.

The children are gorgeous, and the setting is stunning

As in Australia, so in Vietnam

2008-03-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Just as the kangaroos carry their joeys (babies) around in their pouches in Australia, the people living in and around Sapa carry their kids around on their backs in very comfy-looking wraps. Even girls as young as 5 years old carry their baby brothers and sisters around all day on their backs as they stroll around the villages and mountains.

The infants look very content - and we have yet to see a single one causing a fuss or crying.

Here we tried to capture the natural beauty of this culture. The Westerners have yet to catch up with their expensive Baby Bjores!

Photos from Black H'Mong school

2008-03-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

We visited a Black H'Mong school in a village called Hau Thao just out of Sapa yesterday. The kids were all adorable; fun, healthy and energetic.

When we arrived, the girls were in some gymnastics / physical education class outside. The music sounded fun, and the girls seemed to love dancing. We were told by our guide, Trung, that in the past these classes were done with music without lyrics, but now they use higher tempo music with fun lyrics etc and the kids apparently enjoy it more. It sure looked like fun!

The boys were playing a game called feathercock - they kick a shuttlecock like thing around to each other, and it isn't allowed to touch the ground. We play a similar game in the West with a little bag filled with sand or beans but I can't remember the name of it. I actually joined in and played with them for a while - mostly they laughed at my beginner skills!

This little girl in the next four pics attended the school with her two brothers while her father worked construction on the school site. We fell in love with her. Can you blame us?!

and here she is with her two brothers.

We took some lovely photos of groups of the kids, and then showed them the photos on the camera screen. They loved it, and would point each other out on the screen and crack up laughing. Whichever kid they pointed to on the screen usually got really shy and embarrassed and then they'd move on to make fun of someone else!

This woman with her child lives in the same village as the school and had just stopped by to watch the kids play during recess.

This woman lived in a small home adjacent to the school. Many of the kids who lived nearby were running around happily without any pants on.

Here are a few more random shots of some of the kids at the school. We tried our best to capture the beauty, innocence, liveliness and happiness of the children - but of course we could never do that justice...

We also have some video from the school of the boys playing feathercock, the girls playing and dancing and other shots from the school. We'll try to post them as soon as we can.

Some Sapa Sights

2008-03-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Sapa is really beautiful and our photos really can't do it justice, but here are a few snaps from our time there to give you a flavour.

First, here are four pics of the mountains.

This pic shows some of the extensive rice terraces which were built approximately 100 years ago. We'd hate to think how many man hours of labour went into the construction!

And here are some sights from around the Sapa region.

Here's a woman from the Red Dzao tribe

Some kids gathering (and selling!) on one of the many precarious hairpin corners on the road between the villages

And some older women doing the same

The next three pics are from Lao Chai Village. The first is a little difficult to make out. The pic was taken from inside a home/'shop' by the river. The running water is used to power a small wooden small rice mill which pummels a small bowl rice (foreground). In the background, through the hole in the wall, two village women are walking.

Here an old man is washing in the stream next to the rice terraces.

It's not unusual to see thatched huts with satellite dishes! They are usually powered with hydro-electricity generated by the running creek water (only one of the villages has 'proper' electricity)... Our guide told us that people first dream of buying a motorbike, and then a satellite dish (or three!)

The next two pics are from a bakery in Sapa called Baguette & Chocolat. This bakery/restaurant/ mini-hotel is run by Hoa Sua - a Vietnamese non-profit organization which trains and employs disadvantaged Vietnamese youths in hospitality/tourism and then helps place them in external employment. Hoa Sua runs cafes and training schools in Hanoi and Sapa. You can read more about them here. By all accounts they do a fantastic job - the 3000 (so far) 'graduates' have a near-100% success rate in terms of getting placed in desirable jobs in the hospitality industry, and the establishments run by Hos Sua all come very highly recommended. Everybody in Sapa loves Baguette & Chocolat - including us (we were there at least 5 times in four days.) They also have a great business in packaging picnic lunches for hikers and other day-trippers to pick up lunch in the morning before they leave Sapa town for the day.

This pic of a local woman resting on the steps with her baby is taken from the outdoor eating area at Baguette & Chocolat.

You can read more about Baguette and Choclat at the Hoa Sua website here.

Some Ha Long Bay pics

2008-03-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

Ha Long Bay is one of the new Seven Natural Wonders of the world. You can find many gorgeous photos of the Bay online - but here are a few of ours.

The first three pics are from the drive to Ha Long Bay.

First a rice field

Here's a random photo of a scooter packed with (live!) chickens

Here you can see the famous Ha Long mountains standing above some farm land

And here are five 'typical' pics of Ha Long Bay

And here are a few randomish pics from around the bay.

First, a junk.

Here's a family of fisher-folks

Here's a pic in the evening. many of the boats stopped here overnight

A Ha Long Bay residence!

Some still pics from the Pagoda Monastry in Hanoi

2008-03-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are some additional shots from our visit to the Pagoda Monastry in Hanoi.

First up is a cute little boy who intensely sifting some of the dirt surrounding the tree in that basket for some reason.

We finally got his attention with our camera...

We showed him the picture of himself and he excitedly grabbed the camera and took a photo of his toy car... He'll be a great photographer one day!

This girl was the only girl in the orphanage among the older kids. She was very serious and refused to acknowledge our presence and the chaos surrounding it...

And here are some of the boys:

Our day at Hanoi Pagoda Orphanage

2008-03-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we were lucky to visit a buddhist orphanage on the Red River in Hanoi. Duc, our guide and translator, organized a visit at the last minute to the orphanage with the help of his university teacher.

The 'orphanage' or 'monastery' (we're not quite sure how to refer to it) is off the well-trodden tourist path, and the people were most warm and hospitable.

The monks/'sisters' who run the place were very generous with their time and provided us with insight into both the running of the orphanage and described some of their needs and objectives - including the need for rice and baby formula, and their plans for expanding the orphanage.

We were very impressed with the environment and the level of care provided to the infants and older kids. There are approximately 50 orphans, ten of them are younger than 12 months old.Their orphanage is basically run like a big family. They also 'adopt' adults of all ages, mostly women as far as we could see, who become like surrogate parents and grandparents to the kids. The adults take great care of the children, and seem to spend their entire days looking after the babies in particular; playing with them, touching them, singing to them, feeding them, changing diapers, talking to them etc, and appear to never be out of earshot. The babies trust and adore their caregivers, and while we were there the babies never took their eyes off their 'mothers.'

One of the problems in many orphanages around the world is that the children don't get the level of love and attention required for healthy physical and psychological development, often resulting in problems such as delayed development and attachment problems. Vietnamese orphanages appear to stand alone in this regard, and from our experience at this particular orphanage, it is not surprising at all. We all left the orphanage with a smile, a rarity after an orphanage visit.

Here is a short clip of the babies with their care-givers and the head of the monastery

Here is a short clip of some of the older kids playing on the bank of the river

The monastery is currently undergoing a building project to add more sleeping quarters so that they can accomodate more children, as well as more monks when they have seminar-type things in the summer. They began building about a month ago, but so far only have the funds to build a single floor. They are in the process of trying to raise one billion Vietnamese Dong (approx USD $60,000) so that they can add another two floors. Please contact us for more details if you are interested in helping out.

Here is a short clip discussing the building project.

We also got some fantastic still pictures, we'll post them shortly.

An interview with Duc, our guide

2008-03-16T03:35:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, our great guide, Duc, took us to some places around Hanoi, including an orphanage/monastry, a fantastic restaurant on the banks of the Red River called... Riverside... where we had some delicious shrimp presented artistically, see:

After the orphanage visit, we asked Duc to take us somewhere special to him that tourists never visit, and he made a couple of phone calls and a few minutes later we were on our way to a little sand island in the middle of the Red River where he used to play as a kid. He used to swim out there, but we were lucky enough to have a little dinghy take us out there. The boat is owned and operated by a man and wife who live on the boat and make a living fishing in the river. It also doubled as our water-taxi for the day!

Our car driver dropped us off at the highway and we had to walk a couple of kilometers in the dirt to get to the river, giving way to cows carrying carts of sand and fertilizer etc.

There are a couple of families trying to eke out a living by farming on the sandy island - mostly corn, sweet potato and soy beans. This pic is of a gorgeous, shy little girl who was toiling the land as we walked by.

After our walk, we interviewed Duc about his take on the latest developments in Vietnam and beyond - economics & tourism etc. Duc has some great insights from the perspective of a young educated Vietnamese man who is optimistic about the prospects for Vietnam, and also wisely cautious and aware of some of the possible pitfalls that often come with rapid 'progress.'

Here it is in three parts (note the farmers in the background!)

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

More to come.

Traffic Chaos in Hanoi

2008-03-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

We've had some more difficulties posting blog entries from the hotel here in Hanoi. First we couldn't get to any blogspot.com websites, and then after posting our first post we couldn't even get to Blogger.com (the site where you actually interface with Blogspot to compose posts etc) - but today Blogger has at least been intermittent, so we might have more success. The good news is that apparently neither blogspot nor blogger are blocked by the VN Govt (our problems must have been local to the hotel) so we should have more success from here on out.

In our first post, I wrote about the traffic chaos and mentioned that I'd post a video, well, here it is (via youtube)

This was taken from a place called Highland Cafe on the fourth floor overlooking a five-way intersection. I'm not sure that the video quite captures the actual chaos (or maybe we are just getting more used to the chaos after a couple of days.) We've just been up to the same spot for a coffee after dinner (9pm Saturday night) and things seemed even more hectic. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera this time - otherwise we'd probably bore you with another similar video...

Our First Post

2008-03-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

OK - so we made it to Vietnam, and have had a terrific, hectic couple of days so far.

Apparently either the Vietnam govt or some Vietnamese ISPs are blocking blogs from Blogger/Blogspot and it appears that we can't even view this blog ourselves so blogging might be a little tentative for a while. We also have to actually get into the habit of blogging regularly while traveling which might be more complicated than we'd imagined - particularly with editing and uploading photos and videos and whatnot - but will try to post things when we can.

Saigon and Hanoi are both crazy, and beautiful. We only had one transit night in Saigon so we didn't get much a chance to get a feel for it, except for the motorbikes... so many motorbikes... You know that film Attack Of The Killer Motorbikes? It's a lot like that. What? There's no such film? Well, there should be - and it should be set in Vietnam. The plotline just writes itself, right?

Seriously, that was our first/major impression of Saigon, and Hanoi to a lesser extent - a massive, apparently chaotic, swarm of motorbikes of all flavours (mostly scooters), carrying just about anything, and lots of it.

We haven't yet seen a scooter carrying five people, but that can't be far away. It's certainly not uncommon to see a family of four happily/dangerously diving in and out of the traffic on just two wheels, perhaps with mum feeding a baby with a bottle.

After a short while the apparent traffic chaos becomes even more fascinating as patterns of organization somehow emerge. Today we had a coffee in an outdoor cafe four stories above a 5-way intersection (without traffic lights or stop signs - not that it would make any difference) and somehow the traffic could flow in all directions without any (major) incidents. The traffic streams somehow continue to flow continually and simply pass through each other and proceed along their merry way. I've read before (don't know whether it is true) that sand dunes in Africa can actually pass through each other as they get blown along in different directions by the winds, and that each sand dune actually maintains the same grains of sand in the process - well, this is kinda similar.

Of course, at this particular intersection there were also pedestrians crossing the street in every direction too, somehow (mostly) avoiding the scooters and vice versa. Apparently there is some secret code between the bikers and local pedestrians that enables safe passage for all, but when Western pedestrians are thrown into the mix the whole system breaks down and there's chaos everywhere - mostly for the bikers, actually. I took some video from the cafe of the whole drama and will try to post that when things calm down for us a bit.

I feel kinda silly writing a 'first impressions' post devoted mostly to motorbikes - but the bikes somehow dominate everywhere, the sights and sounds (beep, beep!), the dangers and obstacles (both moving and stationary obstacles - where do you think they park all those bikes???)

And then there's the food... delicious, fascinating, plentiful, and everywhere. I'll write about that later. Oh, and the coffee.

Here are a few of the pics that we have taken so far.

Here's an old lady cooking something streetside. Everybody sits in the street on these little chairs that are just a couple of inches high.

Here's a typical scene: an old woman pushing a trolley full of goods. Women seem to do most of the labour here.

This woman is peeling a pineapple on the street for sale. The rule for Westerners is supposed to be not to eat anything that you can't peel or wash or open or otherwise 'guarantee' that it is clean and safe to eat. We didn't buy any of this peeled pineapple!

This lake is the centerpiece of Hanoi - basically the Central Park of the city. It's pretty (except for the green swirls of slime)

This is called La Vong - a delicious white fish cooked on your table in tumeric with dill weed etc. Yum!

Another typical street scene. Only women seem to wear these conical hats.

A big bowl of Pho for breakfast overlooking the lake.

Coffee to die for. Black, black, thick black coffee over a dollop of sweetened condensed milk

More later.