We're Not in Can Tho Anymore, Toto!

Greetings and good morning to all!  It's actually about 7p in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) right now, but many of you are just arising for the day (and many others, I am sure, have been up for a while)!!  Happy Tuesday to you all!

I need to recap the dinner on Sunday night, as well as our final day at the Children's Hospital in Can Tho before telling you of the exciting times here in HCMC.  :)  So much is happening...it's hard to keep track sometimes. 

On Sunday evening, nearly our entire group (minus Giang and Diane, ~ the residents ~ I think, as they had not returned from HCMC) dined at the delightful Victoria Hotel.  It is right across the river from our hotel, but requires a cab ride to get to it.  Dinner was quite fun, lively and yummy!  It was both a welcome dinner for Jonah's fiance, Abby, a photographer, who had just arrived that morning and a joint birthday celebration for Abby (she missed her birthday while in the airplane traveling from SF to Taipei) and Fruma, Meir's wife.

Abby, Jonah, Stacy, Tina

French Onion Soup...without the cheesy top (croutons were provided instead of the cheesy top)...still delicious!

Tina, Amy, Bruce (back facing camera), Bob (at end of table), Jean Robert, Henry, Jenni, and Jeff

On Monday, it was back to work for the group.  Amy and I, with Fruma, returned to the Children's Hospital in Can Tho while the surgeons went to the General Hospital to continue with their cases.  As an update ~ on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the surgeons did 19 cases and still had another 15 remaining for this week.  They will finish all surgeries by Wednesday. 

We spent our morning seeing some babies and doing more teaching with the therapy staff.  They were asking some good questions and the children we saw were really adorable and fun...great for demonstrating a variety of treatment ideas/techniques as well.

An adorable 2 year old little girl who had had severe jaundice as an infant (without any treatment) and now has athetoid-type cerebral palsy due likely to a condition called kernicterus.  This occurs when jaundice is untreated and the bile from the liver travels to the brain.  We suspected she is not able to see as well, but she was engaging nonetheless.  She will see an opthalmologist to evaluate her vision. They now have a doctor who did some training in the US.

This 7 year old boy was very nice.  He, unfortunately, likely has Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy.  He presented with all of the classic signs of this dreadful, degenerative disease.

He will see a doctor at this hospital and will have a muscle biopsy to confirm this is his diagnosis.  Apparently, his maternal uncle died at a young age and had stopped being able to walk, etc. ~ so likely also had DMD.  Very sad...

He was a really sweet, engaging little guy!  I am glad I got to meet him...even though it made me sad.

This little guy had come in on Friday and I put some kinesiotape on his left shoulder.  He had a brachial plexus injury at birth and presented with a subluxed shoulder as well as limited muscle activity in that arm.  Over the weekend he wore the tape and his mom said he was able to use his arm a little more than normal.  Upon re-evaluation, his subluxation had reduced slightly since Friday.

The therapists in Can Tho will continue to see this boy and will teach mom how to tape his shoulder at home.  He also said he liked the tape!

This little 17 month old was quite a floppy little girl.  She had no significant birth history, but was delayed in her development although was quite inquisitive and tolerant of Amy and me.  :)

We worked on creeping with her and she started to sort it out by the end of our time together.  We were able to give her mom lots of ideas to work on at home.

Love her face!!

This 18 month old little girl appeared to have untreated hydrocephalus (too much fluid in her brain), causing her to have difficulties with everything.

She was very tolerant of us and we were able to give mom lots of ideas to try at home, but without addressing her brain's needs, she will have difficulties learning to move, etc.

She was a cutie and responded well to the treatment we did with her though.  Here she is chewing on a Jiggler (vibraing teether) and she LOVED it!

Here's Amy and our lovely translator, Phuong, trying to no-avail to load a video onto a computer at the hospital Amy took of me demonstrating some kinesiotaping techniques.

Phuong is a valuable part of our work in Can Tho and she is a super woman!  She is married and is a supervisor at a baseball glove manufacturing plant in Can Tho that is owned by a Japanese company.  She speaks Vietnamese, English and some Japanese now.

We concluded our time in Can Tho with a lovely party the staff provided us.  Bac Si Phuong (doctor) made a cake for the occasion and it was quite delicious.  My all-time favorite pomelo/pompelmousse/grapefruit was also served...so yummy!

Bac Si Phuong and her lovely cake.  Tea (unsweetened or sweetened) was also served.

Pomelo...yummy!!  It's so much sweeter and not tart like grapefruit in the US.

Then, on Monday, night we attended a dinner given by the General Hospital for the IEP staff.  These dinners are frequent and often...there will be a goodbye dinner in Can Tho on Wednesday night as well.

This dinner was attended by all of the orthopedic surgeons from the General Hospital and tend to get a little rowdy.  All good fun...but always a laugh.  Here's some highlighs...

Vietnamese spring rolls...delish!

Peel 'em and eat 'em.  Likely more of a prawn than a shrimp, but pretty tasty.  The Vietnamese like the heads the best.

Vermicelli noodles, rice paper, pork with seasoning, basil and pineapple.  Wrap it up and eat it.

Grilled chicken with fritters

The local brew

So, this morning, Amy and I packed our bags, grabbed our 4 remaining totes and hopped aboard the bus for the trip to HCMC.  Well, we arrived in HCMC today with all of our remaining totes/supplies and our 2 very large, plump suitcases.

Yep...this was our bus...a little large, but alas...hop aboard!

 Our bus drivers (there are always 2 and they trade-off about 1/2 way through the trip from Can Tho and then again when we arrived in HCMC) called our hotel once we were near (key word) the hotel to find out the final, specific directions.  We then stopped on a street opposite a lovely nursery (plants, etc...not babies) in a park and then another gentleman came aboard our bus and looked at Amy and me and gestured for us to get off the bus and said, "Take a taxi."  What!?!?!

Needless to say...we did not get off the bus!  Rather, Amy asked them to call the hotel again and after a few moments of 'crossing the language divide' with Amy on the phone (speaking English, despite her amazing attempts at speaking some Vietnamese), we came to understand that our bus would not fit down the street (alley...really) that our hotel is located in/on.  We then had to sort out with the hotel that we needed a very large taxi, due to our 'extra baggage,' (actual luggage, that is) and they said they would send one.  Then the bus driver proceeded to make a u-turn in the middle of the very busy ~ insanely busy ~ street and had to back-up as well to complete the turn.  Now, keep in mind, as someone is backing-up/turning/etc. the traffic (mostly cyclos, some cars) does not stop moving.  Rather, they just start going around the bus in all directions.  It is such a frightening thing to witness...so scary!  Amy and I, I think, just covered our eyes hoping no one would be hit, etc.  All was well in the end!

So, we were now on the other side of the street, by the aforementioned nursery (plants...not babies) and all of a sudden a taxi arrived.  Luckily, it was a large taxi (basically, it's a mini-van...sort of) and so all of our baggage and Amy and me were transferred to the new mode of transportation.  Then the guy who originally hopped onto the bus, directing us to, "Take a taxi," actually got into the front seat of the taxi and provided directions.  (we sorted out upon arrival at our hotel that he is the 'muscle' of the place ~ carrying very large, heavy bags up 3-4 flights of stairs)  Excitingly (not!), the taxi then made a u-turn on the same street as the bus had before and we were off to our hotel.  Drum-roll please...it was literally across the street, down an alley (where there was a local eatery and they had to slightly move/lean one of the umbrellas (large) out of the way so the taxi could squeeze-by.  I think we slightly bumped the cyclo on the other side, but alas, we forged ahead.

We then arrived at our lovely home ~ Ma Maison Boutique Hotel ~ for the next 5 nights!!  It's lovely...and...my room has a real mattress!!  Yipee!!  Amy and I decided to 'upgrade' a bit for our time in HCMC, as we typically stayed in the backpacker district, which was so loud, lots of horns honking all of the time, and the hotel was ok.  This hotel is spectacularly lovely!!  It is run by a woman, Natasha, and a gentleman, Trang, who both are fluent in Vietnamese (their nationality), English, German and I think possibly more languages too.  The hotel is very welcoming and quaint and we are so happy to be here!!

My room...how quaint!

Front of the hotel taken after dinner

Amy and I actually have our own rooms for this leg of the trip...she is likely happy for the break from me.  ;)  We will again share a room when we travel along to Hue later in the weekend.

We ventured out to explore our new 'hood and upon the recommendation of the hotel manager, we dined at a large outdoor, local restaurant.  The food was very good and as always, very interesting people-watching.  We were actually the people being watched because it was more of a local place where not many tourists dine, so I think they were curious it we knew how to use chopsticks.  :)

After dinner we took a stroll through part of the park that is quite nearby our hotel.  There were all manner of folks out taking their evening constitutionals, running, playing badminton, and playing this 'hackey-sack'-type of game that is played with a shuttle-cock type thing.  I found a photo of it...see below.

It is the most fascinating thing to watch as the players (usually 2-4) basically kick this off of their heel, back and forth as if they were volleying a volleyball.  It makes a sound when it is kicked and I hopefully have successfully uploaded about 20 seconds of video of 2 guys doing this in the park tonight.  (I will be shocked and amazed if this video works...the power of Blogger!)

These 2 guys in the video were amazing!  It's so fascinating to watch.

We also saw many people taking advantage of the 'exercise' equipment available to all in the park.  It was a great idea and so many people were out and about and moving.  So cool!!

This was a 'swing' that moved from side to side ~ great for the obliques!

A non-electrical treadmill.  Get on and start walking.

 Finally, as we were walking back to our hotel from the park, the main street that we needed to cross is insanely busy and full of cyclos/cars/buses.  So, Amy and I found a spot that was a little less intimidating and made it across safely.  As we were snaking our way down the sidewalk to return to the alley that takes us to our hotel, we were nearly swept away by the load of cyclos that decided to avoid the road traffic before their desired turn and instead began driving onto the sidewalk where we were walking.  Insane!!!  I did not get a photo of the sidewalk violators (obviously), but here's a photo of the throng of traffic we encountered.

A...lot...of...cyclos!!

So, tomorrow will be the start of our 3 days at the Pediatric Hospital #1, which apparently is not far from our hotel.  We will deposit all of the totes tomorrow and will not longer have to 'tote' the totes.  Always a good day! 

I will update you as things move along...always exciting in HCMC!!

xoxo
Stacy