Just wanted to give a quick update... looks like Kids Building Hope is on track to build another school in Vietnam (Thai Binh Province -- Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam) to be dedicated in March of 2010. My niece Abby Zalenski is taking the reins this time ... Family and friends plan to travel back to Vietnam for the dedication of the school and to see more of this beautiful country. Please plan to stay in touch!! ... Tracy [View Full Entry]

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Okay - I’d like to thank all of you for tuning in - and being part of this journey with us. I must admit that it is hard to sum things up with a conclusion of sorts when this trip really feels more like a beginning than an end… but, I think a story would best convey how I feel today… so here goes… While in Ba Chuc (the side trip we took to a very impoverished area to try to dispense food, but couldn’t), we were quietly leaving the very dramatic monument in the town when a group of women [View Full Entry]

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We traveled from Chau Doc to a village by the name of Hoa Lac, where our school is located. A 7 mile drive took two hours! To say "the road was bumpy" is an understatement. You can ask my cousin Helen who got carsick twice! We began to hand out candy, suckers, balloons and other goodies to the kids along the road through our windows. At one point, the narrow dirt road traveled through a small rice business... one of our buses was too big to fit through all the bags of rice. Everyone had to get out of the [View Full Entry]

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Today started with a tour of the region -- we went by boat to see a fish farm. Doesn't sound that interesting -- but it was mesmerizing.... the day in- day out hard work. Without the use of modern equipment -- these workers collect 30,000 pounds of fish per day. They begin by collecting the catfish eggs, then breed, then feed fish in underwater hatcheries... once the fish reach a certain size, they are moved into a bigger pen. They are then harvested by a group of fishermen (each earning 4-5$/day) who use nets, baskets and a crude underwater breathing tube [View Full Entry]

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golf cart/speed boat/bus/bus/plane/bus/canal boat/ferry/bus/ferry/bus................we're finally here!!!!!! We arrived in Chau Doc at 8 pm after a long hard day on the road. Along the way we ventured into the Mekong Delta. (See attached pics) As if the final six hour bus ride wasn't uncomfortable enough, the poor living conditions we saw out the window made us all even more uncomfortable. I've heard stories and seen pictures of the living conditions in third world countries but seeing it up close is overwhelming. On the other hand, it really gave us all some perspective on what we value in [View Full Entry]

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We took a one hour flight north out of HCMC and landed at Cam Rahn Bay (an American Naval Base during the Vietnam War). Next came a 1/2 hour bus ride to a local restaurant for great food and a little karaoke (even Jake joined in on Dancing Queen). From there, we took a speed boat ride (very Fantasy Island-like 'the plane, the plane') to our resort. This place is absolutely beautiful... a little slice of heaven on earth. Clear ocean, rocky shorelines, islands covered in mountains -- stunning. Pretty soon the world will be in on the secret -- the [View Full Entry]

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Today was a hard day for several reasons... some of the reasons will be the fodder for many a laugh a month or year from now -- "and just how long do you think we sat in that bus trying to get to the orphanage?" "How far did we go out of our way to get to a place we didn't want to go??" and "Why didn't the cab driver just shake his head 'no' when we communicated (in the best way we could) "could you take us to Pizza Hut?" and then there's the very real stuff... the stuff that [View Full Entry]

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Today we (the 2nd half of the Kids Building Hope crew) ventured to the Cuchi Tunnels. During the ride there, we absorbed information about the Vietnam War courtesy of our tour guide, Mr. Bin. Mr. Bin fought for Southern Vietnam during the war. (Up until today, I thought the Vietnam War was between the whole country of Vietnam vs. America for some unknown reason.) Also on the way we saw miserable conditions of the people in the rural areas. Part of us wanted to look away because it was too hard to see how lowly these people lived, but the other [View Full Entry]

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Sorry that I've been away for a few days -- didn't have easy internet access while up North... so here goes... We (Helen, Will, our friend Viet and I) flew to Hanoi (the capital of Vietnam) on Saturday after saying good-bye to David as he flew back home. Not easy... Anyway, we were greeted in Hanoi by some of the same things -- namely motorbikes and gut-splitting traffic manuevers -- but the scenery was somewhat different -- as we immediately got out of the city by hopping into a van headed for Ha Long Bay. Lots of rice plots between Hanoi [View Full Entry]

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The Zalenski, Lorigan, Butler, Warren contingent has arrived! After a 36 hour tour (24 hours fly time), we, all of our mangled boxes of donations, and SOME of our luggage are in Ho Chi Minh City. We took a cyclo-tour of the city --WOW-what sights and sounds. Words cannot explain the wild ride - people, bicycles, motorbikes, buses, taxis - EVERYWHERE! We then met up with Tracy, Will & Helen (David had to get back to school) for a wonderful Vietnamese meal complete with squid, monkfish and some things we're not quite sure of. At the end of the day, we [View Full Entry]

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