Thursday, 2/23/06, Los Angeles:  I caught an EVA Airlines flight out of LAX near midnight, immediately after coming back from a business trip in Santa Barbara.  Flying with me are Binh, Jim, and Tim who all are officers on the Board of Directors of Children of Peace International (COPI).  Binh, who is from Colorado, founded COPI in 1996 after witnessing the immense pain and sorrow the Vietnamese orphans suffered there.   COPI has built several orphanages there and organizes several medical missions to Viet Nam every year.  We are going back to Viet Nam a week ahead of the main group, which my wife will join.  This is my first trip and my wife’s third.  COPI cannot afford to finance the trip for team members so we have to pay for it ourselves.  The cost of the trip is considered a charitable donation so we can write it off on our tax returns.  This year’s trip costs each of us $2,650 and that covers all expenses the moment we boarded the plane for Viet Nam until we got back home, except for expenses personal in nature.  I will spend the first half of the week to visit family and friends; the other three will conduct official COPI business.  The second half of the week, Tim, Jim, and I will go north to climb Mount Fansipan, the highest peak in Viet Nam at 3,143 meters or about 10,340 feet.  Then we will all gather in Hanoi next Friday to meet the main group There will be 37 of us in total.  This is my first trip back in 33 years after leaving for college in America so I got more and more excited as the flights took me closer and closer to the old land where I came from.  The plane landed in Taipei and we took a connecting one to Saigon.  The connecting flight was full of Vietnamese expatriates going back for a visit.  The Taipei airport was very nice and modern. 

Saturday 2/25, Saigon:  I told my aunts in Saigon not to pick me up at the airport.  Rather, I wanted to take a taxi home to see if I could still find the way to my old house.  They were sure that I would not remember the way home so they decided to show up at the airport with several of my cousins to greet me.  The plane landed at about noon.  It was nice to see them again after so long.  I asked them to let me lead the way home.  It was not easy but I managed to find it without their assistance.  I spent the rest of the day visiting relatives and had a big dinner with many of them.  I was too excited to feel the jet lag.

Sunday 2/26, Saigon and Tay Ninh:  I rented a car and driver and went with four cousins to Tay Ninh, a town near the border with Cambodia, to hike up Peak Ba Den for a visit and also to stay in shape for the climb up Fansipan.  I kind of felt like I was cheating on Jim and Tim because they were probably too busy tending to COPI official business to train to stay in shape for the climb.  It was only about a 1,300-foot hike.  In the afternoon, we went to Peak Chau Thoi near my old high school for another hike.  These were big mountains when I was growing up but now seem to be just mere hills as I am so used to seeing the big mountains in California and the world.  Peak Chau Thoi seemed like a towering mountain when I saw it everyday on the way to school; today it took me all of 20 minutes to reach the top.

Monday 2/27,Saigon and Vung Tau:  A cousin who has properties near the resort town of Vung Tau took me and another two cousins there.  He has a nice spread here in Ba Ria with lots of land and cattle and an orchid farm.  We had lunch on the beach in Vung Tau and later dinner in Bien Hoa at his restaurant.  Everything is so developed now.  It’s very crowded; there are motorcycles everywhere which probably mainly cause the air to be polluted.

Tuesday 2/28 Saigon and Hanoi:  Jim, Tim, Tung of the COPI support staff, and I caught a Vietnam Airlines flight to Hanoi at noon.  We then toured the city, walking around the storied Hoan Kiem Lake.  Tim and Jim stopped at a sidewalk café for coconut ice cream.  In Vietnamese it is “kem dua”.  Coconut and pineapple are spelled the same but with a different accent above the word so if not careful you might end up with pineapple ice cream when ordering coconut ice cream or vice versa.  Then we caught the red-eyed train to Lao Cai city in northwest Viet Nam near the border with China.

Wednesday 3/1, Sapa:  We arrived in Lao Cai at about 6 am and then caught a bus to Sapa, the jumping off town for Fansipan.  We got there at about 7 am, had breakfast, then met the guide and porter, then rode the Jeep to the trailhead, which is at 1,900 meters or 6,230 feet.  We started to hike at 10 o'clock.  Our guide's name is Tuyen and the porter/cook’s is Tuong.  It is the same as in Tanzania or Nepal; they are small in stature, in great shape, poor, very friendly, and can carry outrageous loads.  I was very happy that for the first time in my climbing career, the guide and the porter are speaking my native tongue.  We stopped for lunch at noon then parted way with Tuong as he is heading to the hut where we will be coming down to spend the night after the climb.  Tuyen took us on the easier, but much longer trail, to the top.  It has many ups and downs, reminding me of the hike up Iron Mountain in Southern California, except a lot muddier.  Jim and Tim carried too much stuff, especially Tim, who brought along a big still camera and a big and heavy video camera.  It was very frustrating not being able to see the mountain because it was shrouded in fog the whole time we were on it.  The trail was good, except very slippery due to the mud.  After what seemed like an eternity, we reached the junction with the trail down which is about 500 feet from the top, dropped our packs, and headed up to the top. Jim went up to see how far he could get to.  Tim did not feel well so he decided to stop and wait for us at the junction.  It was almost 6 pm when I reached the top with Tuyen.  Visibility was poor because of the fog and it was getting dark.  We snapped some quick photos and promptly headed down.  About ten minutes later, we met Jim and he decided to head down with us.  I talked him out of it and he headed back up to the top with Tuyen.  I came down to the junction, waited there with Tim, and then at about 7 pm, all four of us headed down on the new trail.  It was dark and also so foggy that the beam of the head lamp could not penetrate very far.  The trail down was steep and dangerous, especially in the dark.  There were some severe Class 3 sections that would have been very difficult to head down on if it weren't for all the tree roots and bamboo trees that one can hang on to.  Jim's quads were really hurting so he chose to down climb facing in and that was excruciatingly slow.  Tuyen would go down first and spot Tim.  Then I would follow and spot Jim.  It was so dicey in so many places that this is definitely not a good way to go down in the dark.  Tuyen said that that is why they built the new and much longer trail which we took on the ascent.  A tourist fell and died on this trail a couple of years ago.  Broken limbs have also happened.  We got down to the hut at 2 am.  Tuong was there with hot tea ready for us.  The caretaker of the hut is a Hmong native who was very interesting.  He talks like singing.  Jim went straight to bed.  Tim and I managed to put down some chow.  I stayed up to 4 am to talk with them.

Thursday 3/2, Sapa:  We had breakfast and left for the trail head at noon.  This time it was Tim that was hurting so we also went down very slowly.  It rained or misted most of the day and we got down to a Hmong village at dusk, at about 7 pm.  We got back to Sapa, grabbed a quick shower and dinner at the hotel, caught the ride to Lao Cai, then boarded the red-eyed train for Hanoi at 9:30.  The cost of the climbing permit, a guide, a cook/porter, food and lodging for one night at the hut, lunch and snack on the hike, roundtrip transportation between Lao Cai and Sapa and between Sapa and the trail head came to $58 per person.  Not bad at all; I certainly can get used to this!

Friday 3/3, Ha Noi and Viet Tri:  We arrived back in Hanoi at 6 am Friday.  We met the team members who earlier today flew up from Saigon or Hue at Hong Ngoc hotel, then everyone headed out to the airport to meet the rest of the team, which is supposed to arrive at noon.  Altogether we had about 37 people, some from Viet Nam and the rest is from the U.S.  Most of the Americans are from Utah, some from Colorado, one from Iowa… I means Idaho (aren’t they the same?), and my wife Loan and I and Rosy are from California.  We have doctors, dentists, nurses, druggists, and gophers like me.  It must have been quite an effort to organize the trip, everything from transportation to lodging to food for those many people who will be traveling all over the country for the next two and a half weeks.  And that is not counting about 50 bins worth of supplies, equipment, medicine, and toys for the kids.  Kudos to Thang and Tung for making all the arrangements.  After the team arrived, we all headed to Phu Tho Province south of Hanoi to check in at the Hanoi Hotel there.  In the afternoon, we walked to the Viet Tri Center for Orphans and Handicapped Children to visit the kids.  It was quite moving to see a bunch of kids who are blind, deaf, or otherwise handicapped welcoming us to the Center.  Some were abandoned and now are thriving.  One particular little guy, Tam, who was left for dead on the streets two years ago, is now healthy and happy albeit still quite mentally challenged.

Saturday 3/4, Viet Tri, Phu Tho province:  At breakfast we introduce ourselves to the rest of the team.  There were so many faces and names to remember.  I sat next to Willa, a young lady from Salt Lake City.  Her son Curtis is also on the team.  He and his wife have adopted two kids through COPI.  I explained to Willa the reasons why the country of Viet Nam has its current shape and then cajoled her into explaining it to the team.  We had several families on the team.  Donna and Brick and Loan and I were two couples.  Binh and Preston and Willa and Curtis were two mother-and-sons.  Kathy and Susannah were mother-and-daughter.  Van and Dung (who joined later) were sisters.  We spent the morning sorting out bins for the screening team, medical team, the dental team, the recreational team, the pharmaceutical team, etc.  It was quite chaotic and took all morning.  In the afternoon, we divided into two groups: one went to a school that COPI built about an hour away from the hotel; the other, comprised of mostly rookies like me, went to visit the tombs of the founding fathers of VN.  These were the kings of the first dynasty.  It was quite impressive.

Sunday 3/5, Thanh Ba, Phu Tho province:  This clinic at Thanh Ba orphanage was the first of many outings in which we did what we came to do for the kids: providing medical and/or dental care, handing out medicines or toys, entertaining them, etc. and generally showing them that we care.  The screening team would decide whether a child needs medical or dental exam or both and some medicine.  Then they will be sent to the medical and/or dental group and the pharmacy for medicine and the entertaining group for toys.  The healthiest of kids, who were uncommon, was given multi vitamin pills and toys.  During their long wait for processing, they played with some of us in the entertaining team making bracelets, doing jigsaw puzzles, or getting their faces painted.  I was tasked with helping out the dental team.  Dale, the dentist from Loveland, Colorado, brought a portable high-speed tooth drilling station so he focused on doing fillings, and I was his interpreter/translator.  He also had Darroyl (no, this is not a misspell) as his assistant.  Dale gives very thorough and comprehensive answer whenever I asked a question about dentistry.  The other two dentists, Huong and Giao who are Vietnamese, were in charge with extractions.  It was quite an eye-opening experience for me.  Lots of blood and crying kids and stressful situations.  They just don’t have any inkling about dental hygiene at all; some may have never brushed their teeth before.  The officials of Thanh Ba village where we worked treated the whole team to lunch.  We finished late in the evening.  Half of the eligible kids showed up this time of year; the other half shows up in August on another COPI trip.  I got to know well the Vietnamese dentists.  The female one, Huong, is from Saigon, my mom’s home town.  The male one, Giao, was from Hue, my dad’s.  We left Thanh Ba to go back to Viet Tri, retrieved our luggage from the hotel staff, and headed to Hanoi.  The big bus we were on and the truck transporting the bins are not allowed inside city limits.  We were supposed to transfer to smaller buses to get in Hanoi but received a special permission from city officials to head right to Hong Ngoc hotel since we are on a humanitarian mission.  Still, the trip to Hanoi took so long and there were so many interruptions and waiting periods that Jim remarked that “this is like Fansipan; it just goes on and on and on”.  But at last, we arrived at the capital city.

Monday 3/6, Ha Tay province:  We went to a parish of Father Ly, a Catholic priest, to have a clinic.  The parish is in Ha Tay province and the people are very poor here.  I decided to work in the medical groups today to learn about what they do.  The nurses would check on the general health conditions of the kids and refer those needing more medical attention to the doctors or nurse practitioners.  I worked as a translator for Ellen.  We examined about ten kids this morning.  The one leaving a most impression on me was a mentally challenged teenage girl whose mother complained that she had some stomach ailment which caused her belly to swell up.  We looked into the possibility that she is pregnant but unfortunately could not find the pregnancy test kit.  Since we only do general medical exam, we recommended that she goes to the hospital for more specific testing to diagnose her stomach ailment.  In the afternoon, Trinh who has been working in the pharmaceutical group today asked me to trade places with her.  So I went there to work in that group, which is led by my wife Loan who is a California-registered pharmacist.  It was very hectic; my job was to explain to the kids or their parents the directions for taking the medicine, which was given to them.  It was very crowded with people jostling for position in front of the pharmacy window.  I told them that medicine is handed out on a first come-first served basis and they should stay in line but that only seemed to help a little.  At the end of a long day, we went back to Hong Ngoc hotel to spend the night.  We dined together at the best “Cha ca Thang Long (Thang Long fish patties)” restaurant in Hanoi.  I had on a Minnesota Vikings T-shirt and that pleased Dale and Darroyl because they both were from Minnesota.

Tuesday 3/7, Hanoi:  Although this is a rest day, we had the option of visiting Soc Son Leprosy colony in the morning.  Since this is my first trip, I decided to join the group to go there.  It was sad to see these people shunned by the rest of society but I am glad that they have a place to stay, albeit not very desirable, and that COPI provides one nutritious meal a month to the residents and visit them once a year to provide medical care.  In the afternoon, back in Hanoi, I went with Dentist Giao to purchase a couple of special tools used to remove the roots of the molars once they broke off during extraction.  The team got treated to dinner by Ms. Mai Thao, an assistant to the American ambassador.  Dung, another team member, flew up from Saigon to join us here.  Her sister Van has been with us from the start.  At night, we went to the train station to catch the red-eyed ride to Lao Cai as the team was heading to Sapa.  Déjà vu?  The support staff did a great job moving all the needed bins from the hotel to the train and off the train to the hotel lobby in Sapa.  That’s a job and a half!  I shared bunk in the cabin with Tim, Jim, and this time Curtis instead of Tung.  Curtis beat me like a drum in a Sudoku puzzle challenge.

Wednesday 3/8, Sapa:  After feasting at a nice breakfast buffet at the hotel, we headed out to a school for minority children.  They are mostly from the Hmong and Dao tribes.  They put on their best outfit and lined up in front to greet us.  What a wonderful sight!  I decided to stick with the dental unit from now on as I feel that was where my translation service goes the farthest.  I also held a flash light to help Dentist Dale see better inside the patient’s mouth.  The kids are older here so their teeth are permanent so all the decays must be repaired to save those teeth.  We worked until about 9 pm.  It was a long and hard day.  I was on my feet all day so I was very weary.

Thursday 3/9, Sapa:  We visited another school further outside of town.  Conditions are more primitive here.  By now, things more or less fell into a pattern in the dental group.  Huong and Giao still do extractions but also started to give numb shots to kids needing fillings to save time for Dale.  I became quite good with dishing out to the terrified kids the dental lies such as “You won’t feel a thing”, “It doesn’t hurt much”, “We are most done”, or “Your mouth will look like a million dollars after today”, etc.  My most common command to the kids was “To ra” which means “Open wide” since they had to be constantly reminded to do that.  I became familiar with the tools dentists use such as a spoon, an explorer, a carver, a burnisher, a carrier, etc. or the difference between glass ionamer (spelling?), amalgam, and composite.  I got to know how to identify human teeth, at least for adults.  Today we finished a little early to be able to attend a meeting with Sapa city officials.  They thanked us for our work.  COPI is the first humanitarian group to come and do clinics in this area.  The rest of folks who come to Sapa are tourists.  We went back to the hotel afterwards and my wife and I went shopping for Hmong tribal souvenirs.  We were then bussed to Lao Cai to catch that red-eyed train back to Hanoi.  I sent words for Tuyen and Tuong to come and visit me and meet my wife before we leave town.  Only Tuyen was in town.  He came and accompanied us on our shopping excursion around town.

Friday 3/10, Hanoi and Da Nang:  After arriving back at Hong Ngoc hotel, I went to the gym for a workout.  The facility was very basic.  I racewalked for about an hour on the treadmill and that felt very good.  Afterwards, I went with Dentist Giao to have Pho at what is supposed to be the best Pho place in the city.  The reputation was well deserved.  And it cost only about one and a half dollars a bowl!  In the afternoon, I walked around Hanoi a little before we left for the airport to catch a flight to Da Nang.  In Da Nang, we were joined by Thuy, another Vietnamese dentist.  She is married to a guy in the Los Angeles area and is awaiting a visa to join him there.  We spent the night at Lang Co resort, a fabulous place right on the beach.  Accommodations were terrific.

Saturday 3/11, Da Nang:  We had the clinic at an orphanage for handicapped children in Sweetwater which is run by a group of nuns.  One of them, Sister Dien, is a doctor and she has been with the team since the first day.  Since Thuy has just joined us, we had four dentists so we were in good shape.  Except we still had only one drilling station so Dale still had to do all the fillings.  Occasionally, I got pulled away for translation duties when there was a complicated medical case.  The dental group was always the last to finish because it takes more time to do dental exam and extractions and fillings than a medical exam.  Plus the medical exam was usually done before the kids were sent to dental.  We had the group picture taken today.  At the end of the day, we traveled to Hoi An, the oldest city in Viet Nam, to stay at the also very nice Vinh Hung resort.  I rented a motorcycle and my wife and I went downtown with Van and Dung to have some clothes custom made.  Van was with the team from the beginning.  Dung is her older sister who joined us in Hanoi when we came back to the city from Father Ly’s orphanage.  They are on the screening team and both are from Saigon.  I had six pairs of pants made for about ten dollars a piece!  I for sure can get used to this!  A dollar is worth about sixteen thousand dongs and thus in Viet Nam all of us became instant millionaires!  Today is also the last day we had Sister Dien, Doctor Van (a different Van), and Dentist Giao in the team.  They will not travel with the team any more starting tomorrow.  They live in this area and they had to get back to work.

Sunday 3/12, Hoi An:  We have a clinic in Hoi An, at a government medical clinic.  A child was hit by a motorcycle on the street in front of the clinic today so that created a lot of commotion!  We gave her medical care right away.  She was all scratched up but appeared okay overall.  Some said it was the motorcyclist’s fault; other said it was her fault.  The clinic staff treated us to lunch.  We were served Cao Lau, a tasty noodle-in-broth dish that is particular to this locality.  As usual, we were very busy in the dental group.  One particular kid refused to receive numb shots for several fillings.  She just wanted to go home.  Her mother was rather passive, not encouraging her child enough to cooperate with us.  I told her and her mom that since we had other kids waiting their turn, if she did not want to have the fillings done she would have to leave.  That did not seem to help.  I then asked Dentists Huong and Thuy how much it would normally cost to have the necessary fillings done in Viet Nam.  They came up with a total of about 400,000 dongs, which is about twenty five dollars, not a lot of money to us but a handsome sum for someone in Hoi An.  I then told the mother to either have her kid received 400,000 dongs worth of dental care for free or take her home.  And that did the job!  She started to yell at the daughter to cooperate with us and it was all downhill for us from there.  After the clinic, we were treated to a wonderful dinner at the beautiful Huong Chau restaurant right on Cua Dai beach.  Too bad it was at night.  I have no doubt it is a beautiful place in the day time.  The team frolicked in the sand for about an hour after dinner before going back to where we stayed.  It was a lot of fun.  We let our hair down and just acted like a bunch of kids.  We had a good time.  On the way back Loan and I and Van and Dung and Lynny got off the bus near the tailor shop to go there to try on the clothes we ordered last night.  Minor adjustments were needed and the tailor promised to deliver the finished garments to us tomorrow.

Monday 3/13, Hoi An and Saigon:  We had a free day today and will be flying to Saigon this evening.  I went for a workout in the morning.  They only have free weights so I did some lifting.  Some of us, especially the nurses and nursing students, went to visit a local hospital.  After brunch, I rented a bicycle to take my wife to town to shop and sights see.  That was a big mistake!  It was so hot riding the bicycle (with Loan in the back) in the mid day sun that after several breaks and cold coconut drinks I beat a fast retreat to the resort to take a shower and relaxed in the air-conditioned room.  Our clothes were delivered; they fitted fine.  We left the resort at 2 pm for Da Nang.  We had dinner at a place famous for Mi Quang, a Central Viet Nam noodle soup which is a lot more popular than Cao Lau, which we had for lunch yesterday.  Binh seems to know where all the famous restaurants are all over the country.  Then we spent some time enjoying ourselves on the river walk on the bank of the Da Nang river.  Then it was time to head to the airport for the flight to Saigon.  Upon arrival in Saigon, we checked into the Rex Hotel which is very nice but will even be nicer once all the remodeling and expansion is done.  I helped my wife organizing pharmaceutical supplies for the remaining clinics.  It took several hours and we went to bed late.

Tuesday 3/14, Saigon:  We went to the Youth Shelter on the edge of town in Go Vap.  This is where the youths who got into trouble with the law got sent, sort of a juvenile detention center.  They have a small medical/dental facility, including a chair and a drill.  Thuy and Huong used them to relieve Dale of the fillings work load.  It even has an autoclave so we used it to sanitize the burs (used to drill the teeth with).  We ran out of the amalgam we brought and started to use the one we bought today, thanks to Huong’s help with ordering.  There was a pretty teenager who came in for several fillings.  One staff at the shelter told us that she was in a group of five girls who tried to break out a few days ago.  They climbed up through the roof of the dormitory to reach a tree overhanging the compound wall.  She and two others were caught; the other two got away.  I shuddered at the thoughts of what would have happened to a pretty girl like her on the streets had she been able to get away.  She would have most likely ended up being a prostitute.  I was told that the kids in here are not treated with love and respect by the staff.  I wonder how much of it is due to bad staff and how much is due to the kids being troublemakers.  Dale got a not-so-secret admirer today.  She is about nine and although her teeth were generally healthy, she insisted upon getting a dental examination by Dale.  I think we ended up pulling a crooked tooth for her.  It’s amazing what women would give up for love!  Darroyl and I were jealous!  Today shaped up to be another long day.  At dusk we still had several kids waiting to see the dentists.  I had a dinner appointment with my high school friends at a restaurant in Saigon at 5:30.  At 6:30 pm, I left the Shelter to go see friends who I have not seen in 33 years.  The dental team was still busy at work when I left.  I had a good time with my old buddies; we are all 50 years old or more and some of us are grandparents now.  A friend took me back to the hotel on his motorcycle.  It rained hard while we were en route so I got a thorough soaking.

Wednesday 3/15, Thu Duc:  We were at the Tam Binh Orphanage today.  This is home to about 700 kids ranging from one week to 19 years of age.  The younger kids, still with only baby teeth, were a little young to have fillings so things were slower in the dental group today.  We did fillings for some of the caregivers.  The older kids came in during lunch but we have too little time and too many kids.  They had to get back to class after lunch.  One particular girl, about 12, was examined by Dale and she needed 9 fillings.  We told her that it would take too long so she must return after class.  I did not expect her to return.  But to her credit she came back and received a mouthful of amalgam.  After closing the clinic, we walked over to the back compound to visit the infants.  They were soooo adorable; most have birth defects and that was probably the main reason their parents abandoned them.  They could not afford to raise these babies.

Then the bus took us to the Tam Binh HIV Center for Kids.  It was heartbreaking to see that these kids came into this world with less than a full deck.  At the moment they were born they have already been cursed!  Do you believe in Karma?  One girl in particular for some reasons picked me out of the crowd and became attached to me.  She is very cute.  Had I had adoption in mind this girl would have been it.

Afterwards we visited the House of Love run by the retired nuns who used to run the Tam Binh orphanage.  They built this facility to take care of children who are not orphans but whose parents are too busy trying to make a living during the day to take proper care of them.  The House of Love receives them in the morning, provides nutritious meals and educates them, then gives them back to the parents at night.  They would have become street peddlers and thieves and law breakers if left alone to roam the streets.  I recall vaguely there were about 40 kids in the House of Love at the moment.  I wonder about the hundreds, if not thousands, of kids in the area that are in a similar boat but not as fortunate as these ones.  We were treated to a few wonderful dance performances by the kids and then a nice dinner.  At my table Cassie seemed reluctant to dine on the seafood dishes to the delight of Jeff and I since we got extra servings.

Thursday 3/16, Lai Thieu orphanage:  I could not believe this was going to be our last clinic!  We were scheduled to have nine clinics on this mission, which was more than what COPI did in the last two years on the March missions according to my wife.  And it seemed like just yesterday that we had our first clinic!  But here we are and this was going to be a short one; we were scheduled to be done in early afternoon.  It was a generally uneventful day.  I was looking forward to going back to Saigon so I can go visit my relatives and say goodbye to them.  I brought my wife along since most of them have not met her.  In the evening we had a nice dinner with Van (who had to go to work this week so has not been with the team at the clinics since we came to Saigon), Dung, Huong (and her two boys), Thuy, Preston (Binh’s son), Shannon, Tung, Thang, and Trung.

Friday 3/17, Saigon:  This morning I planned to either work out at the hotel gym or do some shopping in the Saigon market before meeting my friend Toan at noon when my wife asked me to come to Binh’s room to sort out the medicine bins.  It took a long time since we need to know how much and what type of drugs are left and organize them so they could be effectively dispensed on subsequent COPI missions this year.  When my friend Toan arrived we were still in the middle of it.  Toan and I worked together in Alaska and Texas in the oil industry in the old days.  His job as Unocal Oil Company representative in Hanoi has recently been eliminated but he wanted to stay and work in Saigon rather than moving back to the U.S.  After finishing sorting out the medicine bins, we went to lunch at a nice restaurant on the bank of the Saigon river.  Toan then took us to Saigon market for shopping.  I bought cashew nuts, dried fish, and jackfruit chips.  Dung, through her connections, later got us some dried shrimps and dried squids.  In the evening the team got together at the farewell dinner.  Everyone dressed up so we all looked very nice.  Accolades, gifts, presents, awards were handed out.  And we had a surprised birthday cake for Preston, who decked out in a nice suit.  It was a lovely evening.  Unfortunately I started to feel ill later that night.  Tomorrow we will fly home.

Saturday 3/18, Saigon and Los Angeles:  I must have gotten a mild case of food poisoning.  I felt weak and my stomach was queasy.  Ate very little at the hotel breakfast buffet and on the flights home, mainly just fruits.  At the EVA Airlines check in counter in Saigon airport I felt so weak I had to find a place to sit down while Loan stood in line for us.  Everyone is going back home except Rosy; she will spend an extra week in Viet Nam with her sister, who will arrive in Hanoi in a few days.  Donna, Brick, Lynny, and Darroyl will return to Utah via San Francisco; the rest of us via Los Angeles.  Loan and I will get off at LAX.  Binh, Dale, Candace, and Tim will end up in Colorado, the rest in Utah.  Huong, Cuc, Thuy, Dung, Van, Tung, Thang, Trung will continue to reside in Saigon.  Preston and Shannon will continue to stay in Saigon to teach English.  Sister Dien, Van, and Giao will continue to live in Hue and Da Nang.  I will miss them.  What a trip it has been!

EPILOGUE

This is a very eye-opening and sobering trip for me.  The sufferings and misery was everywhere, which is not totally unexpected since the mission was aimed at helping the handicapped, underprivileged, and abandoned kids.  I wish the government could do more to alleviate poverty for the people.  But until darkness is eliminated, I feel we need to light as many candles as possible.  The trip was also very enriching and rewarding for me.  It makes me appreciate the good fortunes I have had in my life.  I learned a lot about dental procedures and terminology.  The team members were all very nice.  I enjoyed picking on Trinh, Suzette, Magel, and Noelle in particular.  And they were all very capable of dishing it right back to me.  I think the evening we spent frolicking on Cua Dai beach in Hoi An was the best moment the team had.  We ate very well on this trip or at least I did because I love Vietnamese food.  The hotels were very nice.  And the breaks and free days seemed to have come at a perfect time.  I wish we could have done more clinics in Sapa.  I wish we could have visited more COPI sites/facilities but of course we had only so much time.  You can bet that I will be on future COPI missions.  I will to continue to work hard at raising funds for COPI.  Thanks, Binh, for the opportunity to serve.