Sy Visits Orphans

It has been a couple of weeks since I am back to California. The past months have been filled with travels but what stood out for me were the visits to the orphanages. It has been astounding outpour of support among friends and family as I was able to raise over $3K for my visit. It was a packed filled week in Saigon. I was trying to balance work and meetings in the office while visiting the orphans in the evenings and weekend. I wanted to summarize some of the emails I sent out to friends during that week.

• March 2, 2009
  Just got into Saigon yesterday and still adjusting to the schedule. I woke up 3am thinking it is lunch time. I am able to catch a Wifi signal at the cafe across the street of my office. It has been quite an amazing couple of weeks. Within this relatively short time, I received the generous total of $2,800. This is going to be a nice amount to purchase gifts for the orphaned children. I recall last time after work, I invited some of my employees to cram into a taxi as we went out to purchase food from the local store. We had purchased milk cartons, rice bags, pencils and school supplies. We filled up several shopping carts and stuff as much as we could in the taxi's trunk.
  
  I am planning my first trip to an orphanage after work today. I spoke to my employees and they suggested a market that is analogous to Costco in the US where we can get nice items for the children at a good price. I don't have membership but will plan to go with my employees to purchase food, books and school supplies.
  Thank you for all your support.
  
  Sincerely,
  Sy
  
• March 5, 2009
  I wanted to share with you a couple of videos I took on the way to the
  orphanage and at the orphanage of one of the children.
  
  Crossing the street on the way to the orphanage.
  
  
  

  An orphan child singing about an orphan.
  
  
  

  
  Cheers,

  Sy
  

• March 6, 2009
  It was nice to get a chance to visit "chua Dieu Giac" which is one of the largest orphanages in Saigon. I just recently caught the movie Owl and the Sparrow which had a section filmed right in this Pagoda. It was nice to visit the children since I have not visited them for over a year. There were over 100 children with some with special needs. There was a boy who has a medical condition which has a swollen head.
  Here is a link to some of the pictures my co-worker took when we visited.
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/sytruong/sets/72157614863823152/
  
  
  
  Sy
  
  
• March 8, 2009
  had a day off Sunday so I was able to visit the orphanages during the day. I was fortunate to have my employee Phuong volunteer herself and her brother Sang to join. We visit a shelter home for children named "Mai Am Hoa Hong Nho" which is in district 7. I did not know at first the condition of the children but there was group of about 23 girls in this home/school/shelter. I later learned that they were all abused in various ways including molestation and rape so they were taken out of their homes to stay at this shelter.
  I am including a video and some phontos.
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/sytruong/sets/72157615008050768/
  
  
  
  My co-worker was also driving me back on Saturday when it rained and flooded parts of downtown Saigon. I'll also include a video here:
  
  
  Cheers,
  Sy
  
  
• March 11, 2009
  I flew to Bangalore where I am meeting with a client and performing training for their team. On my last day in Vietnam, I was able to visit a Pagoda named "Long Hoa" where they housed over 100 orphaned boys. When we arrived, it was during the middle of the day so it was siesta time for them. I was privileged to take a tour with the head monk. He showed us where the boys slept and how they had to become resourceful by operating a water bottling company right on the grounds of the Pagoda. This gave the boys an opportunity to work while also providing funding to maintain their dilapidated orphanage.
  It has been quite a journey visiting all the Pagoda and shelter homes in the past week. I feel so fortunate to be able to extend gifts and spread a little joy to these children. I am going to share the final set of pictures from the VN trip at the chua Long Hoa. I hope to be able to do it again in the future.
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/sytruong/sets/72157614990683539/
  
  
  This is the last of this type of emails from this experiment. I am going to fly back so will be home in the US soon. Thanks for joining me on this journey.
  Cheers,
  Sy