Log of Day 5
March 22, 2001
Someone asked today, "I wonder how my teams are doing." The reaction for many of us was, "Oh yeah. . . the rest of the world is still out there."
This year, "March Madness" applies to our ongoing fascination with the traffic patterns! I'm still trying to figure out the logic behind it, but it all somehow works.
So many beautiful sights, sound, smells, tastes--and people--have made us a little oblivious to the rest of the world.
There is also the extreme poverty. It was shocking to learn that it costs a family $9 a year to send a child to school--and many of them can't afford it.
Today we visited an orphanage of children with serious hearing impairments; they were very thankful for the medicines, candy and toys we brought.
From there we went to a visit one of the tunnels used by the North Vietnamese during the Viet Nam war. These tunnels extended for hundreds of miles with rooms, schools, kitchens, etc. (Editorial note: they weren't built for the comfort of someone over 6 feet tall!!!)
We first saw a propaganda film very heavily biased against the American military. It was very easy to see how powerful a message coming from people you trust--your own people--would be, as opposed to an opposite message coming from someone completely foreign, someone who looked, talked, and acted completely different. For those of us who remember the time very well, of stories of how sometimes women and children would sometimes attack Americans, it explains a lot.
We saw some of the booby traps of bamboo spikes and metal rods created for American soldiers.
As we walked along the path to the tunnels, firecrackers went off to our left and right--our trail had been booby-trapped!!! Our guide thoroughly enjoyed our surprise. After the third or fourth one, we found a few of them before we tripped them.
On the way back, we visited a Buddhist temple, the largest one in Ho Chi Minh City. A few of us bought some caged swallows and released them back to freedom--one of the customs at the temple.
Hard to believe we've been here almost a week. . .
Happy spring, everyone!
Gary Daum
Today's photos: sunrise over Saigon, March 22, 2001; our visit to an orphanage for children with hearing impaired students (photos 2 - 5); a North Vietnamese booby trap; our guide disappearing into one of the tunnels; examining some of the types of guns used in the Viet Nam war; going down into one of the tunnels; the group around a tank; inside one of the tunnels used by the North Vietnamese; at the largest Buddhist temple in Ho Chi Minh City
