Hi All.
Today I had lunch at the KOTO Cafe. This is a charitable organization that takes disadvantaged kids and teaches them the hospitality business. They do incredibly good work. They also provide support for the handicapped orphanage in Ba Vi. They were there last year at the same time of our visit. They donated exercise equipment and put on a singing show for the kids. Without comparison the happiest gathering I have ever seen.
I like Vietnamese food, but today I really wanted a hamburger. I know the food at KOTO is really good. I had to order the cheeseburger without cheese, in Vietnam you adjust. I was sitting at a front window table. The Temple of Literature is across the street, a tourist stop and many Westerners are there and therefore many so are many Vietnamese peddlers. While sitting there, what appeared to be a small girl was across the street selling baguettes. She also was carrying a large burlap sack on her head. She was walking fast and I wanted to buy something from her. I explained to the KOTO door chaperon what I wanted to do but had not yet paid my bill. She said okay, Go ahead. I explained again indicating I could just leave and not pay. She said okay. The little girl turned out to be a vey short old lady. (If she was from St Paul I would have asked her if she knew any of my high school class mates, but did not pursue the issue.) I bought ten loves of bread and about a dozen packages of some kind of bakery goods. Not sure what they are but the total cost was less than $4. She was really happy. Me too!
I returned to KOTO and paid my bill for a really good hamburger. After lunch on the way back to our office/my home I traveled down the local side street which had vendors selling fresh food items; some vegetables, some meat, and some other stuff that I'm not sure about. I bought some fruit and vegetables, right now the best are Mandarin oranges. (For you people who have lived all your lives in Minnesota mandarin oranges do not grow in cans and actually have flavor.) I bought some stuff that looks likes lettuce, a cucumber, an onion and a tomato. They would, I suspect, of course, over charge me. I don't mind the extra expense as it is minimal but do mind the fact they treat me as a tourist. However my new strategy is to keep a different amount of money in each pocket. If they want 30,000 dong I pull out 23,000 and indicate that is all I have. I tried it today and they took back one tomato. (Maybe I'm just cheep and not an effective buyer.)
So that's the story for today. What we are doing here is more important than this nonsense but this is what happened today. Without trying to keep singing the same song, HSCV is doing an amazing amount of good here.
Last Tuesday VTV Channel 4 was in Vinh Quynh filming our work there. Annetta and Hanh visit some children who received heart surgery four years ago. Then they came back to the office and filmed us there. This is national TV in Vietnam, the equivalent of CBS in the US. The show will be shown one either Dec 24th or 25th. We have been on TV several times before but this seems like a bigger production. I know we don't need the publicity but it does help us with getting the attention of the governmental officials that have the power to affect our activities.
Helping needy children is a new, and mostly a foreign concept in Vietnam. I mean no insult to those Vietnamese that work with us. Thusoung, Tien and Thao I mean no offense. I know you are the best, and care the most. I say this again, I know you are the best and care the most. However, as a fact, the Vietnamese care greatly about their families, both immediate and extended families. However, outside their families the altruistic empathy seems to be limited. During my last trip to Vietnam I learned of a young orphan girl up north near the Chinese border. Her parents died. Then she was run over by a train and lost both legs. I talked to one of our HSCV employees about her coming to Ha Noi to live in a family and go to school, if HSCV financed it. The concept was foreign to her, basically not going to happen. And this was probably the HSCV employee that I respected the most. That's Vietnam. We have work to do. We can make a difference.
Well, again time to go to bed. Almost 6:00 PM. (I'm not the best at adjusting to the time difference.
Chuck
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