Vietnam Mission Trip 2019: Chúc Mừng Năm Mới...

Happy New Year to all from Can Tho, Vietnam!! 2020 has arrived, at least here, but will arrive soon all over the world too.

A bit of housekeeping ~ I had some trouble getting the videos to play in the earlier posts, but this problem has been solved, so enjoy!

We finished day 2 of our patient evaluations and saw only 38 patients today, making our total 91. This is a bit lower than we were told we'd be seeing, but this is how this rolls here sometimes. Of this 91, there are at least 30 surgeries scheduled for the team. Likely this number will increase slightly, as there are always more 'walk-in' patients as the week progresses. These surgeries will start on Thursday and extend into next week. Because these numbers are lower than was expected, likely Dr. Nyska will assist with some trauma cases with the hospital orthopedists to provide continuing education.

I am going to post tomorrow all about the patients we saw over the past 2 days and all of the adventures that our team had and I had in this process. So, watch-out for that.

Tonight, I thought I would share some random photos and videos taken over the past few days, which show more of life in Can Tho and from our New Year's Eve dinner/party tonight, hosted by the orthopedic surgeons from the hospital.

So, there are 2 elevators in our hotel, which always have been historically very slow (think turtle's pace). When we arrived they apologized for the inconvenience, as one of the 2 elevators had broken. So, they are replacing this elevator. This was the state of the elevator last night, around 9p, with no workers around. Hmm..might be a hazard, but not so in Vietnam.

These were all of the items lying on a tarp just outside the open elevator shaft. If you cannot see, there is a power tool with a sharp blade lying on the tarp, as well as many screws and washers. Watch your step holds new meaning!

Another view of the open elevator shaft. It was open like this all night and still this morning. They were working on it this morning, but it's still not ready for use.

This is a common sight here in Vietnam. Cyclos (or motor bikes) are a primary means of travel here, so in this pic, there is a mom, who's driving (in the middle), older child in back and then, sitting on a little stool wedged into the front of the bike, a little child. This little one was likely between 18-24 months old. There is a helmet law in Vietnam, but only for adults. We have seen many more children wearing helmets here in Vietnam, but they are mainly decorative (and cute, but, as our past interpreter, Phuong (pronounced 'Fung'), "They are not qualified."

This young man was very prevalent in our clinic today. We were unsure of where his parents were, but he said they were in the hospital, but he was seen engaging with our front desk team and one of our team pulled out her phone and was chatting a bit with him via use of Google Translate, so anytime he saw someone new, he tried to see if you had a phone and wanted to chat. As we were leaving for the day, we walk just outside the front of the hospital to get taxis and he was walking side-by-side with us. As we were waiting for the taxis, he pulled out a load of lottery tickets, trying to get us to purchase some. As we said our goodbyes, he moved along to another potential customer. He was a nice kid, but a bit of a 'player.'

This the view from our lunchtime dining area, which overlooks the Can Tin (canteen). We are fed delicious, homemade Vietnamese food each day at the hospitals and if you'd like, you can have a coconut, which is opened, so you can drink the coconut water. Also, cà phê sua đá (iced coffee sweetened with condensed milk) is also offered. They are a favorite of many!!

This was our lunch for today. There are several of our team who are vegetarian and while in Vietnam, I often eat more vegetarian (fish and eggs included) and this was a delicious lunch of a taro soup (purple food in the middle of the table), rau (water spinach/morning glory), baby corn/bitter melon/carrots/mushrooms, friend tofu (not my fave) and rice. Little bananas for dessert. So yummy!

This video was taken as we left the hospital the other day. If you watch it to the end, you will see a family on a cyclo with a small child in front, dad, an infant (under a blanket) and mom all on the scooter together.

More traffic videos, but this one shows you how to cross the street amid the traffic. As the walker, you just go and the motor vehicles/cyclos move around the walkers.

More traffic videos.

This photo was taken as we arrived at dinner on New Year's Eve. We were hosted by the Orthopedic Surgeons and Head Nurse, who are all so lovely. They took us to the best vegetarian restaurant here in Can Tho and it was far enough outside of the city center that we could actually see the crescent moon and stars. The sunset wasn't bad either.

Festive decorations as we entered the open-air restaurant. Vietnamese restaurants are HUGE and hold many people, but on this night, we were the only ones in the place, which means they likely opened just for us.

These are the first course of our meal. Every thing was delicious and the egg rolls had a lot of carrot and herbs, the upper right dish was mung bean thread noodles, which were so yummy and the bottom dish was fried tofu with veggies on a rice cracker.

This is hot pot. It was FULL of delicious mushrooms ~ enoki, oyster, wood ear, and button ~ and was so tasty! It is served over noodles and the broth was made of coconut water and sugar cane water and herbs and was super-flavorful.

This is what remained of my portion of the lotus rice. The little red chili slices in my dish add quite a kick. They are my favorite!

This is a Vietnamese soda. This one tasted like root beer. They are very sugary tasting. I took a sip.

This on was a combination of orange, banana and kiwi and was NEON green in color. I took a sip.

Tiger beer. It hits the spot on a hot day or night. It's pretty watery, so doesn't pack too much of a punch.

This is how the lotus rice (see above) was presented. Beautiful! And tasty!

This is the hot pot in my bowl. Yummy!

The entire main drag of Can Tho was decked out in lights on NYE. So terrific!

This is a lighted dragon on the Mekong River. It spit water, which you can see just at the right edge of the photo.

More lights...bring on 2020!

More beautiful, festive lights.

Lights on the main drag for celebration of 2020!

Today ~ New Year's Day ~ the hospital threw a big party for us at a restaurant on the edge of the Mekong River. The entire orthopedic and traumatology staff was there, as well as their families, which is always the tradition for these big parties. There was delicious food and lots of beer (a tradition too) and lots of karaoke. Karaoke is big and I did my part by singing my go-to song of "Sweet Caroline" (Neil Diamond). It was a fun day, but very warm, so the rest of the day now is our to do with what we please.

Dragon fruit (white with black seeds) and plum for breakfast. Delish!

These are water plants that grow in the Mekong River, just along the shore. When you walk by them, they move in waves with the water, so it's a cool effect.

The banner on the karaoke stage. This picture was from IEP's last mission in 2017.

This little girl was very interested in Amy and me and Amy had a little notebook in her purse and started drawing with the little girl. Amy started by drawing a head with eyes, nose & mouth, and then passed the pen to the little girl and she added hair and then pen then went back and forth until there was a completed picture.

The pic below is the completion of the person, but in the end, the picture had a sky with a sun and cloud, grass, a car or bike (not sure), and the person was holding a balloon (2 pics below). It was super-fun to watch them interact.