Last three days ...

... and today is Melbourne Cup day. See if we can watch the race at 11 AM.

Had a busy day yesterday. Uli was feeling sick on top of her cold, but she soldiered on!!! 10 AM appointment at the HOPE School. Meet the VN press - there will be an article about the sponsorship of the 12 children in a local paper and the principal has already written to the government about it. Anyway ... we met the children again, handed over the 12 pencil cases ... smiling faces ... Lots of thank you's.
Another long taxi ride to meet up with Hien, Lan and Que to visit another poor family with two children. The daughter, her name is Quynh, has got some kidney problems which has not been looked at by a doctor for over 5 years. Phong, the son is also not well he has got some problem with his brain, but he is taking medication.

To cut a long story short and not let the taxi waiting for too long, Lan is taking Quynh to a doctor and gets her checked out, she might possibly need an ultra sound. Back in the taxi and off to Tram's school. Paid VND 350.000 for the taxi - from 11 AM - 1:15 AM - approx $ 22 - but it all adds up.
However, no one at the school - lunch break. We had to wait, but no time wasted, we discussed further actions. It was decided to give Lan VND 5,000,000 for the medical procedures for the Quynh and Que five million to organize house warming goods for the 4 families in the Mekong Delta. Here is the list of what we bought for each family: 10 kg of rice - 5 l of oil - 2 kg of sugar - instant noodles - 2 mosquito nets and 2 fans. Que organized the lot using his motor bike!!!

Finally, the school came back to life ... met the principal and two girls. We thought those are the girls we were talking about earlier. But far from it. The older girl was the daughter of the security guard who attends high school. We were asked if we could pay her school fees as her father has retired. Lan and Hien had a chat in VN lingo, Uli and Matt in German. Well, our Vietnamese friends were embarresd that the school principal put this case before us.
At long last the two girls Truc ( grade 5) and Tam (grade 4)arrived. Truc was very outgoing. Their needs were discussed and we agreed to pay the school fees and school lunch for a year. The fee for both 2 children, school fees and lunch amounts to 6,800,000 VND.

Back to the hotel at 3:30 - no lunch no nothing!!! Had a rest and went to the Peace orphanage late afternoon.

Today we met up with Nanette and Gale again. They arrived just in time to go to Stella's to watch the Melbourne cup. It was icy cold in the restaurant, so we opted for upstairs. We were the only one's, so we got the remote control ... switch to the ABC ... which is called the Australia Network. Matt noticed they had a digital projector and a silver screen. Without mentioning it, the girls wound down the silver screen, got the projector going and we had a bigger picture then at home. We got up for the national anthem and then the race was in full swing. This was the first cup for 22 years where I did not have a sweep stake or a bet. Not to mention that my favorites did not make it ... as I was listening to the commentators. No other information.
After lunch we met with Bob and Hien at their new head quarters. Nice place ... freshly decorated. Later on Matt went to the orphanage, Uli stayed to discuss tomorrows proceedings.

That was our Tuesday ... dinner and a stroll through the park - Saigon is currently hosting the ASIAN Indoor games. Lots of activities, food stalls, entertainment ... plenty of led lights ...