Let the unloading begin

After a few days of exploring the country and acclimating to the culture, the end of our cultural awareness part of our trip arrived, In a long, hot, sweaty way!!!! Part of our responsibilities when the "Mission" component begins is to unload all of the prosthetic supplies from Bac Si Ha's brother-in-laws (Anh Du) house. Mind you this very beautiful house is 4 stories high, has a very narrow spiral staircase and the upper floors do not have air conditioning. This makes for a very long, tiring, sweaty, painful day. Our team arrived at 11:30 am, and begin this 2.5 hour process of carrying from the fourth floor to the first floor enough prosthetic supplies to fit approximately 600 amputees. Molded plastic, metal bars, braces, molded feet etc.... After one trip up and down the stairs it was clear that the cultural awareness abruptly ended, and the hard work acutely began. Although this day is exhausting, it is a means to an amazing end for those 600 amputees who will once again walk, pain-free. I hope to tell more stories about these patients as the mission continues. Stay tuned.

Charity work in Tay Ninh

As part of our pre-mission cultural awareness tour, we decided to provide some charity assistance to one of the poorest regions in Southern Vietnam, Tay Ninh. Through the assistance of one of our Vietnamese partners, Chi Tien, our group visited an area on the border of Cambodia and Vietnam. What I initially thought was going to be distribution of rice, noodles and vitamins turned out to be one of the most eye opening events in our missions short history. The story of this region goes something like this: Up to about 10 years ago, the Cambodian government was sympathetic to large group (200,000) of Vietnamese refugees, allowing them to work, make a living, and have safe harbor there. About 10 years ago, the sympathetic notion turned, and those same refugees were no longer easily welcomed to stay and earn a living. If the refugees requested to stay, The Cambodian government would charge the equivalent of $50 USD for a "work" visa. Sounds like an easy decision, except the fact that these people were so poor and so uneducated that they would not agree to pay that fee. Ultimately, some of them were deported over the border back to Vietnam, where of course, their own government will not recognize them as citizens. This leaves these patients in a very strange and horrific situation. They reside in make shift huts,(made for approximately $25 USD), on the edge of a strip of land surrounded on two sides with water. They have no country to call their own, so they basically developed this primitive society trying to exist. They have no employment, no education system, no running water, no clean water supply, and no one to turn too. The result: Incestual Imbreding (12-15 kids per girl/woman) lack of common education, spread of terrible disease due to surrounding water (which is used to drink, bath, urinate, defecate etc...), HIV, local theft, and a lack of self worth. They live for today only, with no hope of any reasonable future. Each rainy season, there "homes" get flooded and destroyed and they have to rely of external "Church" group to raise money to build them a new one. So where do we come in: we visited a Church (Giao Xu Suoi Day), where a very dedicated and passionate priest assists with this groups unusual dilemma. He provides food and filtered drinking water, and helps to build their "homes'. First we met with 474 patients, donated 5 kg rice, packs of noodles, and multivitamins. Although this was a very short term help, I could not stop thinking of the long term struggles these patients will continue to face. As missions go, someone steps up, trying to provide the needy with as much assistance as possible. This trip was no different, as one of our group members discussed the horrible, sad situation with their family, and word spread of this crisis. A large sum of money was then donated to provide funds to build a significant number of "homes" in the future. It is only because of generous and selfless people that these people may get a small glimpse of a future. A new church is going to be built that will house a sunday school, with the attempt to provide a safe place and a means of education. I pray for your futures!

Chuc Mung Sinh Nhat Dr. Lee

This May is the first time our team has brought a pharmacy resident on the mission. Dr. Sarah Lee approached me during her interview in February 2016 and inquired about this opportunity. Typically it is very difficult to increase our numbers, however, being that Dr. Lee was persistent, we made the appropriate arrangements. This, however, comes with a small price. As we started training back in January 2017, rumors about our tradition of celebrating birthdays on the mission began to surface. Needless to say, Dr. Lee was not very excited about this "event" that was to take place on May 21. I promised Dr. Lee that I would wait until we arrived in Vietnam to execute our tradition. I was under the impression that whenever we were out socially, Dr. Lee was prepped for the inevitable. This happened to not be the case, because as our elaborate plan started to take shape, Dr. Lee said she was not expecting to be "caked". She was a good sport about it. Welcome to our team Dr. Lee. Chuc Mung Sinh Nhat!! (Happy Birthday)

Cham Island

The Cham islands are a small group of Islands that was gifted from the Cham people to the Central Vietnamese people in the 18th Century. Story goes, a King from the Cham Dynasty wished to marry a princess from Vietnam, and the "gift" to her family was to give this area in the Central region to the Vietnamese people. Today there still lives 3000 Vietnamese natives on the largest of the 7 Islands. The Island is still remote and primitive, having just received electrical power 2 years ago. Prior to that, it was still powered by generators. On the Island exists a Buddhist Temple and a school for children. Mainly the inhabitants of the Island make a living through either fishing or, now, tourism. Children who grow up on the Island after school will relocate to the mainland where opportunities thrive to exist. Ultimately this conundrum, will leave the inhabitants to become less and less, yet the future of this resilient group will be bright. One smaller Island close by is known for having swallow birds nest to give birth to their young. The nest are made from the saliva of the swallow bird. This "birds nest" is a rare delicacy of certain parts of East Asia. Approximately 1 kg of "birds nest" can sell for $5000.00 USD. Maybe someday.

Begin Cultural Awareness Tour

After arriving in Saigon early May 24th, we unloaded our 18 checked-in luggages, each maxed out in weight (23 Kg), of medication and supplies and dropped them of at a local co-mission colleague's home. We then continued our expedition with another flight from Saigon to DaNang. Although the pharmacy mission is the primary objective of our trip, one would be missing out if they couldn't at least experience a bit of the Vietnamese culture before hand. Therefore, we begin our cultural awareness tour by eating some fresh local seafood. So Huyet (Blood clams), So diep (scallop clams), Oc (snails) and Muc (squid). This region is a rapidly growing area, that despite tremendous growth in tourism, retains its long history. But first, Chuc Ngon Mieng!!! (Bon Appetite)

Travel and "light" reading

This year our journey started in Philadelphia with a 3 hour bus ride t JFK airport. From there, we boarded EVA airline and flew 15.5 hours to Taipei Taiwan for a 2 hour layover. We continued on to Saigon on an additional 4 hour flight and landed at 10:00am on May 23. This type of travel is not for the faint of heart. As you can see, I have assign some "light" reading to the students and at least one of them "attempted" to take advantage of some down time. A valiant effort from Sydney to begin her evaluation of the medical literature, however, at 35000 feet altitude and close to 24 hours of flying takes a toll, and thus her attempt at journal club.

Meet Team May 2017

Khanh Nguyen, Sydney Nguyen, Dr. Sarah Lee, Lin Tran, Thuy Lin Cao, Marcus Opraseuth, Andrew Milewski and Amni Kaur. This team of highly motivated and extremely dedicated students was chosen from a pool of over 20 candidates. This selection process began in October 2016. Team May 2017 started training weekly with me in January 2017 and fundraising all Spring semester. Overall, with the assistance of Team November 2017, they helped raise more than $25,000 USD. Every dollar of that money raised goes 100% to the purchase of medications, supplies and charity donation for the patients in Vietnam. I am excited to share in their journey and document for you the amazing things our students will accomplish through this global health mission.