I am adding to Raina's blog:  The clinic in Cam Kim was in a village.  A neighbor across the clinic was having their children wedding with the loud music was very interesting.  We had to shout at our clinic so we can hear each other.  Our doctors had a hard time exam the patients with the noises.  I washed the face of a mentally challanged boy about 13 - he had on a Gungam Style t-shirt so I pointed to it and started dancing.  He was so cute - he started danceing also, but no smiles.  Small rewards make the mission so worth while.

When we arrived at our beautiful resort in Hoi An we were greeted by a chorus of frogs.  This town - very old- is beautiful and so is the place that we are staying.  This community and the surounding area has been hit hard with many wars!  I do have a sad story to tell about an elderly gentleman that we cared for in clinic #6. Will tell someday.

Jeanne, Magel, and I walked to "Old Town"   last evening.  It was beautiful!  The town was celebrating the full moon.  No electric lights; only candles and lanterns illuminated the shops, streets, river, and bridge.  What a beautiful walk!

Our suitcases are on the COPI truck on their way to Saigon.  We fly out tomorrow via Da Nang to Saigon.

Love and blessings,

Cleone

Clinic #4 - Phu Loc, Thua Thien, Hue
7:00 left for the clinic - Hue Viet Nam. 10 hour clinic again. First time for COPI to serve here - poorest of the poor- farmers. Before we opened the clinic, COPI donated 10 bicycles to 10 poorest fifth graders (8 girls, 2 boys).  The children live too far from school and they would have quit school if we didn't provide them their bicycles.  Magel Walo's church paid for two of the 10 bikes.

I will add to the e-mail that Raina sent.  Fantastic and surprising help form the "party" member.  He was there to observe us.  He was always there when we needed water - always looking ahead.  We called him "water boy". He said that that was his new nickname.  Of course I showed him my grandchildren (all four).  He wondered when Thane and Nina would visit Viet Nam.  I told him that they had those plans in the furture.

Two hour drive to Hoi An.  We are staying at a beatiful resort.  Tomorrow another clinic.

Clinic #5 - March 24

Clinic in Dai Loc where COPI has never been. We saw only the children - about 180.  Very sweet, clean children. A pleasant day - only about 8 hours.   The street was so narrow that the bus had to pull over and we walked the rest of the way. 

For your information - HOT & HUMID..  It really drains ones energy.

Tomorrow clinic #6 in Cam Thanh Village.

Love and blessings,

Cleone

An evening in Hue

Today was our travel day.  We landed at the beautiful airport in Da Nang and then a two hour bus drive to Hue.  This afternoon we toured the "Forbidden City" of the former nine kings of Viet Nam.  Very interesting.... We had a wonderful dinner with nuns at the convent here.  I brought a gift for the nun that I worked with in dentistry on my last mission five years ago because she is taking her final vows in August.  I was told that she was sequestered and could not see me.  (how sad)  We went to vespers in their chapel.  They had a beautiful service chanting the stations òf the cross.  As we were boarding our bus Sister Ha ưas brought to me.  She ís such a lovely person!!!!  Many hugs were exchanged.  Hẻr words to me were, "I'm so happy".  I felt blessed... She also asked me to pray for her...  My evening ís complete.  No more words from me - she said it all.

God bless,

Cleone 

katie - wisconsin

Born and raised in Alaska, my life has always been an adventure.  

I grew up in Valdez which is a small town of 4,000 people in southeastern Alaska.  Fishing and exploring the outdoors were a large part of my family life.  I later went to Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA.  

In one of my biology classes, a speaker came and talked about his Peace Corps experience.  I knew then that I is would spend the next few years of my life somewhere other than the US.  

East Timor became home to me and the people I met are now my family.  I applied to medical school from East Timor and completed my degree in Seattle, Washington.  

At the end of medical school, my husband (currently a general surgery resident), infant daughter, mother-in-law, and I had the opportunity to go to Malawi, Africa and spend time serving the underserved.  As a current family medicine resident in La Crosse, WI, I see my future career including missionary work abroad.  I am very excited to be a part of this adventure.

raina and binh - utah and colorado respectively

Binh Rybacki and I (Raina Zeeh) became friends on a mission trip in 1994. When I first met binh she invited any doctor or nurse to come with her to Vietnam. As a nurse and with a desire to do a short term mission, with God's leading, I decided to travel with binh. At that time the trip was more of a fact finding mission than actually providing care to kids in Vietnam. 

binh & Raina at binh's son wedding 2009

It was a very eye opening experience and one that stayed with me. In 1999 binh helped my husband, Curtis, and I adopt my son, Thane, from Tam Binh orphanage in Saigon. In 2001 binh helped us adopt my daughter, Nina, from the same orphanage. 

Curtis and I decided in 2005 to take a more active role in COPI by serving as mission coordinators. Curtis or I have led each March mission trip since 2006. Binh and my friendship has grown over the years and I am honored to call her one of my best friends. Binh is an incredible woman with a heart for God and the people of Vietnam.

The family picture was taken on a trip to the Great Barrier Reef last summer during a trip to visit the Catfords (Tanya, one of our team members). Thane is now 14 and in 8th grade. Nina is 11 and in 5th grade. One day they both would like to make a trip back to Vietnam to see the country where they were born. We hope they can go on a mission trip in the coming years.

gene morris - seattle, WA

                                                                 Gene Morris

Greetings from Seattle, Washington.

My name is Gene Morris and I live in West Seattle, that is somewhat of a peninsula, with the sky line of Seattle in the back ground.  The water in the background is Puget Sound where the salmon come and go from the ocean and the Orca whales along with them.  The scuba diving is some of the best in the world.  Just south of here we have the worlds largest octapus.  They are very friendly and intellengent creatures. 

I am orginally from Montana, where all my family still live.  I left Montana a "redneck" outdoors man, and now when I go home to visit my ranching and logging family ask my sister when her, tofu, ganola, liberal brother is coming home.  I rodeoed for the University of Montana and "God Forbid" I moved on to enjoying the theater, opera, academia, and cultural events that Seattle has to offer.  For the last seven years I have dog sledded the Artic Circle to the top of Anaktuvuk Pass to the last eskimo village, tracked the changing mirgration of the wolf and carabou and picked up artifacts for the University of Alaska.  The Brooks Range is still rising out of it depths of the sea and sea artifacts can be found on top of the pass.  My passion is long distance running and in 2011, on April 18th, I turned 65 and on that same day I ran my 6th Boston Marathon.  I only mention that because my running buddy was Bob Dolphin (can be found on the web) qualified to run it and he is 85 and has run 1+ marathons a month for the last 26 years.

 

I retired in 2011, after 40 wonderful years as a physical therapist.  Seattle offers many wonderful medical oppurtunites so I was fortunate to practice in 11 different setting, including Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center when they started bone marrow transplants.  A number of "Boat Children" were wonderful patients of ours.  I was in Vietnam in 1965 and returned in 2010, with some others, to peddle our bikes from Hanoi to Saigon.  (Some short flights along the way) I fell in love with the country and the incredible people and the "peace" I found there. 

 

I am really looking forward to work with all of you and look forward to a wonderful trip.