News paper articles... from Viet Nam News

Christmas day at the hospital

A very sad experience ...
Christmas day we went to visit Ngoc Hong, a student from the Mekong delta. We just got back from a cancer ward at Benh Vien Ung Buou hospital, in Binh Thanh district.

What a shocker, soooo many children, in small rooms, little children ... 20 people adults and kids in one room, parents have to care for everything, ... if you have not seen it, you can not imagine it!!!
Children need an adult look after them, no support from hospital at all. I had my camera with me, but I just could not take a photo, and people who know me know how trigger-happy I can be. That also tells you how I felt about the whole situation.
We did not meet Ngoc Hong, have to contact the parents to find out about her.
A Christmas day experience we will NEVER forget

Christmas Eve 2011

Today is an easy day, Uli is still recovering from her cold and had a back spasm this morning, so SLOW is the name of the game today.

Went for a walk, bought some medication and three 1.5l bottles of "Travelwater" for $0.80, we have to drink a lot ... Walked to the ABC shop for morning tea. Met a guy from India who lives in Germany for over 40 years. Very interesting conversation for over an hour, just great to hear different opinions on what is happening in the world and particularly in America.

Uli is resting before lunch and I have to type ... had a nice lunch and a REST, then a nice piece of German Christstollen and went for a walk around the block and in the park. They are setting up for another food festival in the park ... that will be brilliant.

Went out for dinner with Miss Kim and Miss Van Anh. Uli and Kim were both not feeling too well so just walked back to the hotel and listened to Christmas carols.

In the meantime Hoan was having fun with the kids at the Peace Orphanage and shared the photos below with us.

Photos by Hoan Candy, Copyright 2011

Christmas Party Photos Peace Orphanage

Friday, 23rd December ... at the PO. The kids were already waiting. We had lots of fun with Christmas carols, cakes, soft drinks and ressies!!!

Click on photo to enlarge ... and for a slide show ... but without comments!!!


Christmas decoration at the entrence to the childrens ward


Matt is Santa again ...


... distributing presents






Santa doing a video for the folks at home !!!


Big cake for the kids and staff








Little Thao is six years old and the only child in her room who is able to speak!!!


The nurses do a wonderful job with the kids, no doubt about that.







Little Thao is pretty clever too, I pointed at her saying THAO then at me, saying Matt and she immidiately pointed at me and said MATT




Everyone liked my flashing RED NOSE




"Vui" Thao ... the V sign means FUN !!!


Diep loves to have her photo taken

Car hire and GoVIA in Australia ...

Here is an interesting story. We hired a car at Sunshine Coast airport and drove to the Gold Coast to catch our plane. We crossed the Gate Way bridge. Later after we checked in Matt tried to pay the bill over the phone. No chance ... first this would not work, then the other, try to enter a # key on your mobile ... I have to use the "FUNCTION" button ... invalid entry.

Ok, decided to do it online later. Ok, the next day in Sai Gon ... cannot get it done, always came back with Vehicle Registration error.

By that time I had it. I sent GoVia an e-mail explaining and pls get back to me asap. What happened??? Nothing ... I think I'm a dreamer, expecting those people to get back to me.

Last resort, ring GoVia from Viet Nam. Thanks to MobiPhone it's not expensive. Finally after all the rigmarole I got the chance to talk to a REAL person!!! Hurrah !!!

She took all the details and then she said not to worry Sir, it's already been paid for. I said NO WAY ... I haven't. But she insisted. The hire car had come out of Brisbane and the previous renter had paid for a three day pass, and Tuesday, when we travelled was still included in the three days.

I asked her why the computer did not tell me or give a proper error message so that I, the USER would know. Her friendly reply was "Our computers are not that clever Sir.

I'm the first to agree.

Christmas party at the HOPE School.

First photos ... unsorted ... more later !!! Double click on image to create a slide show.
















First photos from HOPE School Christmas party, 22 December 2011

The Eagle has landed ... red nosed !!!

Hi Everyone,

just a quick message from us ... we arrived in Sai Gon last night, all went well except we were in a "flying freezer" from Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur ... now we know what it's like for Santa and no wonder Rudolph has got a red nose!!!

Miss Kim was welcoming us, waiting outside the hotel ... "Oh what a feeling "Only Viet Nam" Christmas decorations everywhere, lights and shop windows with Merry Christmas"

Have to go and have breakfast now.

An Hour later ...
Just to update you ... went down to the little cafe at the hotel ... the owner of the cafe shop came and greeted us, which was nice. Then our paper girl, who sells us the local paper every day was overjoed to see us. Then the hamock hawker came and gave Matt a big HI5 ... what a welcome!!!
Now working the phones to get the local sim cards working, Uli's is already and she is texting away ...

Work in progress ...

Been to CBD to get our German Christmas Cake - Christstollen from the Schneider bakery. Looks nice, tast test later on for afternoon tea. CBD is full of Christmas decorations and lights, must go tonight ...
Had lunch at our ususal restaurant, then a nap. Just heard from HOA, the party he had planned on Christmas Eve is not happening. Team is flat ... no alternatives.

Now we are off to the Peace Orphanage.

Our Christmas in VINA ... as per 16th of Dec

We got a tight schedule already.

20th Tuesday: Late arrival
21st Wednesday: Get organised, meet with Dr Nhi at Peace Orphanage to discuss our Christmas party, go to the bank ...
22nd Thursday: Christmas party at the Hope School for Hearing impaired children
23rd Friday: Christmas party at Peace Orphanage
24th Saturday: Christmas party at Company of Grace
25th Sunday: CHRISTMAS DAY. Thank God, it's Christmas with Friends Hien and Bob
26th Monday: BOXING DAY. Relax and watch Sydney to Hobart and Cricket
27th Tuesday: Vist Ngoc Hong in Hospital with our friend and translator MARK
28th Wednesday: Nothing planned
29th Thursday: Possible trip to Ba Ton, Mekong delta

Fund Raiser on 8th of December

Here we go again ...

writing about what we are doing. This time it's about a fund raiser we had on the 8th of December. We got an excellent response, seeing it's Christmas and everyone is as busy as ...

Here is the articel from the Coolum Northshore advertiser, thanks Kim !!!






Uli asking for a bit of a shush ... she thanked everyone for coming.





Margaret was the winner of the lucky door price ... a dinner voucher at Coolum Thai Spice

Hi ho, hi ho ... it's off to Viet Nam we go ...

Yes, that is right ... we are planning another trip. Booked our flights already!!! We had a bit of bad news upon our return from Viet Nam in September. Our family dog was very sick. About three weeks after our return she passed away.

To cut a long story short, we did not want to be HOME ALONE at Christmas, so we decided to travel, but where to??? The answer was easy … Viet Nam!!!
Our first Christmas in Viet Nam!!! We are excited! ! !

All our friends in VINA know we are coming and are looking forward, so do we. It will be a different Christmas. There are no public holidays at Christam in Viet Nam.
Christmas is a good occasion to let the everybody know that we are Christians. Only 7% of the population are Christians.

Later in January we will celebrate TET. Tet means the first morning of the first day of the new year, Viet Nam’s New Year. Celebrations last for seven days.

Watch this space. We will report about our Christmas, New Year and TET celebrations.

Food For Thought ....

Excerpts from E-mails sent to Vietnam@westnet.com.au
about our last trip to Vietnam.


Hi M n U, Pleased to hear you have decided to head back over to VN, am sure you will have a very special Christmas experience there and bring much joy/love into the lives of many of the young ones you are supporting.
Just love the way you have stepped out of your comfort zone and reaching out to those less fortunate in VN and I know what you are doing will reap an eternal harvest.
God Bless and if we don’t see you prior to Christmas, have a wonderful Christmas experience


What an amazing trip you are having and all you are learning about 'things' that assist the people of Vietnam.
So sorry to hear about Nhu....she is not a strong girl so hope they can help her to be stronger and live a full life.
We read your mail....there is so much to do but every little bit can help, and what you both do is truly astounding.
Wish Diep and all her students well.


Congratulations Matt & Uli
You seemed to have covered a lot of people with the funds that you raised. I am sure the money would not go that far other than your personal attention.
You do a great job.
We continue to follow your blog with much interest and prayers. You have involvement in so many projects, it is inspiring! I meant to ask you, have you ever talked to the Sozo Café people? Looks great too.
So much need, it is overwhelming. The Touch A Life project looks amazing, what incredible people!


We are counting the days until we come back, not sure when! I really wish we could have stayed longer. If you ever feel like contacting the children’s home we went to, the couple who run it, along with their church are Sang and Jennifer.
Well, please let us know if you have any other prayer needs, and please say hi to Miss Kim from us.


Thanks so much M & U for your email and update – you certainly had a very productive time this year and I have no doubt much fruit will flow from all the seeds you have sown on this trip, just love what you are doing and the heart in which you do it – wonderful!!!!!!


Thank you very much for everything...
We' re glad that you were back home safe and had enough energy to type long emails to us.
Hope you have good rest before showing your friends your collection from VN...
Thanks a lot for the flowers... Wow... They're so pretty...Please take good care of yourself.
Lots of Love...


Thanks so much for that .. it looks like a great day .. can’t wait to see more.
We arrived home to the cold, but beautiful day, feeling somewhat disorientated!
Back to work tomorrow so all will resume to normal superfast.
We can’t wait to get back and to hear more .. already really missing the people and processing the emotions.
So nice to meet you, somehow feel for us it was a God moment.

Blessings to you and U. Will write some more when the jetlag goes.



Welcome back and your trip sounded amazing......soooooooooooooooo many good things you do for the children of Vietnam in all different aspects. Would love to hear stories about the orphaned children you assist. reading a book about street children in Vietnam at the moment post Vietnam war.............distressing stories . If only the greedy West would do so much more instead of building castles for themselves and more.................
Your flower photos magnificent ......... so colourful and full of beauty. Thank you for posting them.
Hope too we hear good news on Nhu..........she is a frail young girl.


Lovely to hear from you and welcome back. Yes, I did follow your blog once in a while. You have done so much over there again – good on you. You are the kids’ Aussie angels. Great work.


Hi M Thanks for the email... sorry for the delayed reply, I actually got very sick .. perhaps food poisoning. .. still waiting for tests. So I do not get it in VN, but come back home to get it hahaha
Would love to chat and see if we can help in any way. Can't wait to get back, I am talking to my friend Thao all the time, and the pastor guy who runs the children's home. Well, will look forward to hearing. God bless


Thank you for your email. We' re glad that you both feel great. I think we don't change our rules about the way to help kids that we are the ones that will go see the cases and find the way to help people directly. We agree with your opinion about your prefer helping Ut with his people than this one. Hope everything is going well with you. I miss you and feel like you 've been here so short this time so we didn't have enough time to share... Lots of love,


Hi M & U, so appreciate the update, sounds like a real adventure, dealing with all the issues & people etc, but I have no doubt you have made a BIG difference in the lives of many – Praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will look forward to catching up when back in Aust.

Well done guys and much blessing

Back glance ... or ... What did we achieve ???

Here in short a summary of our achievements. We would not be able to do all those projects without contributions from our support base in Coolum, members of the Coolum Beach Baptist Church and our corporate sponsors. We thank everyone who has contributed from the bottom of our heart.


Mekong delta:
- Continued our support for twenty children in My Trung,
- Bought ten bicycles and one desk for the My Trung children;
- Educational support for twenty additional children in Ba Ton district;

Hope school for Hearing impaired Children, Binh Thanh district:
- Continued support for twelve hearing impaired children,
- Support six additional children;
- Bought four laptops, which will be used as teacher aid and for the students.
- Bought two water dispensers, hot / cold incl. water filtration system;
- Bought ten fans for the children's lunch area.

Song Lo School, Binh Thanh district:
- Educational support for two children, Tram and Dang.

Hoc fee support in Da Nang:
- Continued support for three orphans in Da Nang. Lien Chau is studying architecture; her younger brother is in grade 6, High School.

Binh Thanh District, Sai Gon
- Continued support for thirty children in Binh Thanh district. Sai Gon Times Foundation will distribute funds early October on our behalf.

Company of Grace
- Donation for the newly opened Grace Centre (Hoa/Peter van Stone);
- Bought two laptops for the Grace Centre's education program: English and IT.

Touch a Life Project, Sai Gon
- Claude and Bao (Touch a Life project) run twelve shelters for orphans in Sai Gon, and one shelter for pregnant & homeless girls / women and various other support projects. In the shelters the children / women are brought up the Christian way; (over 200 children/ women);
- Bought a laptop for one of the shelters and donated a second hand laptop.
- Two donations, one for the orphans and one for the pregnant women shelter.

Peace Orphanage
- Bought a laptop for the Peace Orphanage, paid for a laptop for Phuong, who lives at the PO. Phuong studies physiotherapy and desperately needed a laptop.

Lien-Hoan school
- Support for Lien and Hoan in their work as part time teachers teaching underprivileged children to read and write Vietnamese plus basic numeracy.
- Donated a second hand laptop.


Medical needs:
Support for two girls who are sick and need support:

1. Nhu, we give her educational support at the Hope School, she is very weak and needs a heart operation in the near future;

2. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hong, from Ba Ton (Mekong delta) she has got bile cancer and is only 12 years old. Hong has to travel to HCMC every second week to receive chemotherapy. CAN YOU H E L P ??


Pipeline:
- Support for a photocopy shop, which is run by disabled people. The shop just bought a new photocopier. The desktop computer is getting a bit long in the tooth. Investigations are under way.

Tuesday - Wenesday 20/21 Sep 2011

Tuesday …
Met with our friend Hien at Central Garden, only a short walk from our hotel. Final packing a weighing … we are just over 50 kg; Uli bought 50 kg for us.
Sad farewell at hotel … mixed feelings as we love Viet Nam, but we have to go home to our little Tilly who is sick and needs us. Our friends Fran and Phil looked after her, Knowing that she has cancer but not knowing … We are so grateful, this was not just looking after a dog!!!



The ANAN girls in their ao dai saying "good bye"

Hotel car driving us to the airport, check in … there is trouble … we are 2 kg’s over, either pay $30 or unpack. We cannot check through to Coolangatta which means we would have to pay again when we check in at KLIA. We decide to take our shoes out and put them in our hand luggage. Funny enough we were weighing our shoes when we were packing. That did the trick.
We do not know what difference it makes as the aircraft is taking off with exact the same weight … but it saved us $60. When we were waiting for the plane to arrive Matt found our electronic room key card in his shirt pocket. Sorry Miss Kim and Miss Van Anh … will have to send it from Australia.
Short flight to Kuala Lumpor, plane arrived a little late, but we left Sai Gon on time. Good, we only have just over two hours, we have to go through immigration, pick up our luggage and go to the check-in counter to drop off our three bags again. Completed the whole routine in less than 45 minutes, grabbed a bit to eat, found a coffee shop, sat down and sent e-mail to hotel regarding the room key card.
I do not know how often the ground staff was checking our passports and boarding-passes. Each time Uli put the passports in her bag … “Passport and boarding passes please” even before we were entering the aircraft.

Found our seats … plane was not full, but just before takeoff someone came and sat next to Matt. We had booked the “hot-seats” … which means lots of legroom but seats are fairly narrow. And then the wrestling for elbow space began. Matt was standing his ground … sharing the armrest. After we reached the cruising altitude the guy got up and walked back … then he cam back to grab his gear, we never saw him again!!! Matt moved to the aisle seat … even more legroom. We slept a bit, read a bit … and all of a sudden we were descending. Hurray … eight hours of flying were nearly over!!!
Perfect sunshine, with the new passports you are through customs in no time, our luggage arrived and we went through quarantine. We packed all the things we had to show, like tea, bamboo hats and other products. No worries, thank you. Then we picked up our hire car … no waiting there either.
An hour after the plane touched down we were sitting at Elephant Rock Restaurant on the beach in Currambine. What a day, beautiful sunshine, nice cup of tea, good breakfast ocean breeze included.



Nice and quiet. Coming from VINA the bill was a shocker … $31 ~ VND 650.000, we did not spend that much money for breakfast, lunch and dinner drinks included!!! Welcome to our WORLD!!!

That’s it. No more to say except that we love Viet Nam, we are very passionate about it and we will definitely be back, sooner rather than later!!!

It is now time to thank all our friends, supporters, and sponsors both in Australian and in Viet Nam. Without your help and support we could not have achieved all those tasks we set ourselves; and those we came across during our trip.

25 years ago today two people tied the knot !!!

Monday, 19/9/2011

9am Meeting at Sai Gon Times Foundation -



Meeting at Saigon Times Foundation

then taxi to bank, taxi to Peace Orpanage - meeting with Nhi and Tan, discussion about Phuongs laptop, need cash, cannot transfer the funds, taxi to hotel, get PASSPORT, fill in tranasfer forms, taxi to bank, sign, grab cash, taxi to Peace Orphanage, meet Phuong, hand over the money, taxi to hotel - lunch.



Taxi to Peace Orphanage to say good bye to Dr. Tan and Dr Nhi … got a present … it's framed … then last visit of the kids, bye bye for another year.







Last minute shopping …. Induction cooker … light n easy … it came with hot pot and steamer … packing

7pm … Invite our friends for dinner … going to STELLA’s restaurant … celebrating M n U’s 25th … later meet with Hoan and Lien to discuss a project we could get involved in …. Hoan went to …. Province to check out Kiet’s photocopy store which is run by disabled people.

Lots of fun to be had by all. Thanks girls for your HELP, support and friendship!!!