DAYS 5 & 6 – Dong Thap
Dong Thap is a really interesting province! It is a mix of the city and the country. There are enough stores to get what you need, but you don’t have the congestion and traffic that you find in Saigon. The people are also absolutely wonderful. We visited 3 schools over 2 days. At both schools, the “Catalyst Kids” distributed food and bikes along with fun stuff for the Vietnamese students to play with (i.e. Beanie Babies, stickers, etc.). Many of the Vietnamese students made special artwork for our kids as well. When we arrived at one school, the students performed a Dragon Dance for us!
The real fun in Dong Thap was riding the Tuk Tuks! Our bus was only able to go so far, and then the roads got too narrow & the bridges . . . well you have to see for yourself! The planks that make the bridge literally move up and down when you cross. A Tuk Tuk is sort of like a motorcycle with the back of a pick-up truck and a roof over that. They are typically used for people to go back and forth between the main streets and the remote areas. Catalyst had to rent all ten of the Tuk Tuks in the area to accommodate our group!
Many families in Dong Thap have parents that find work outside of the area. The girls that are part of the Catalyst scholarship program typically have parents that work away from their city, and the girls attend school and are also responsible for taking care of their younger brothers & sisters. The youngest girl in the program who does this is only 7 years old!
Because of crazy schedules, we haven’t seen too much of the other teams. The medical team saw about 300 patients including 1 man with a head would from a local construction site and somebody else involved in a motorcycle accident!
We try to all have dinner together, but sometimes we can’t wait for the medical or home construction teams to finish so we take the kids to dinner before they are back. I’m hoping to have an update from the home team soon. Each morning they seem very optimistic, but I wouldn’t want to have to deal with the heat that they do each day!
Dong Thap is a really interesting province! It is a mix of the city and the country. There are enough stores to get what you need, but you don’t have the congestion and traffic that you find in Saigon. The people are also absolutely wonderful. We visited 3 schools over 2 days. At both schools, the “Catalyst Kids” distributed food and bikes along with fun stuff for the Vietnamese students to play with (i.e. Beanie Babies, stickers, etc.). Many of the Vietnamese students made special artwork for our kids as well. When we arrived at one school, the students performed a Dragon Dance for us!
The real fun in Dong Thap was riding the Tuk Tuks! Our bus was only able to go so far, and then the roads got too narrow & the bridges . . . well you have to see for yourself! The planks that make the bridge literally move up and down when you cross. A Tuk Tuk is sort of like a motorcycle with the back of a pick-up truck and a roof over that. They are typically used for people to go back and forth between the main streets and the remote areas. Catalyst had to rent all ten of the Tuk Tuks in the area to accommodate our group!
Many families in Dong Thap have parents that find work outside of the area. The girls that are part of the Catalyst scholarship program typically have parents that work away from their city, and the girls attend school and are also responsible for taking care of their younger brothers & sisters. The youngest girl in the program who does this is only 7 years old!
Because of crazy schedules, we haven’t seen too much of the other teams. The medical team saw about 300 patients including 1 man with a head would from a local construction site and somebody else involved in a motorcycle accident!
We try to all have dinner together, but sometimes we can’t wait for the medical or home construction teams to finish so we take the kids to dinner before they are back. I’m hoping to have an update from the home team soon. Each morning they seem very optimistic, but I wouldn’t want to have to deal with the heat that they do each day!
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