November 2014 - Re-Establishment Tour - Peter Fryers & Miss Suong
This was a tour to re establish contact with all our Pagodas after the passing of Dennis Edwards, December 2013, to ensure all that we were going to continue as previously set up.
After meeting up with Suong at HCM airport after arriving a day late due to my visa being stamped 13th Nov not 14th and missing connecting flights to Da Lat we decided to go to Vung Tai and pick up my planned trip to Nha Trang a few days later, visiting Da Lat at the end of my trip.
Travelling the Vietnamese way we travelled by a sleeper bus. The trip was surprisingly good with free Wi-Fi to help fill in the hours, my new Facebook account my daughter set up before leaving Oz, got a good work out. This was a great way of travel, after 8 hours we reached our destination of Nha Trang the home of two of our Pagodas, Phat Buu & Kim Son.
The first evening we met with two beautiful girls Dennis called them his Angles. They gave us tremendous support in Nha Trang with the two Pagodas. We met them at "Lanterns Restaurant". It was good to catch up with what was happening at the two Buddhist Pagodas, Phat Buu & Kim Son. Between the two Pagodas we support 45 children. We also met Hein a delightful person who is married to an Australian by the name of Robert Constable. They are the owners of Lanterns Restaurant. Hein explained how Dennis worked closely with Robert, once the children we have sponsored finish year twelve & are capable to go onto further education Robert will then sponsor them with further education.
The trip by bus to Hoai Duc was a different story, a 13 seater bus that somehow managed to fit in 22 passengers on board at one stage. Suong said this was typical & sometimes they even put a few more in. On the way they also picked up & dropped of goods as well as passengers. This was the true style of Vietnamese travel. The ten hours went surprisingly quickly. Hoai Duc is the village where Suong grew up as a child. Her father, sisters & cousins still live here. They are extremely poor; they live in a remote & beautiful part of central Vietnam.
Suong's Family
Suong's family is situated at Hoai Duc in central Vietnam, 480kms north from Nha Trang. It is located off highway one, a road that travels from HCM City in the south to Ha Noi in the north. The nearest major main town is Qui Nhon. The area is a tropical setting with many banana trees & coconut palm trees. Employment seems to be zero except for loading sand trucks.
The family of Suong consists of sisters & cousins; there are few men at the village, as most have left to find work. Some return, others are not seen again. As stated earlier they all are extremely poor, although all seem happy.
Kim Son Buddhist Pagoda
Kim Son is a Buddhist Pagoda about 30 minutes drive from Nha Trang. Kim Son is situated on approx 15 acres. The children that live here are destined to become Nuns or Monks. The balance of the children is from the local community. These families, similar as with other pagodas are extremely poor & rely on the pagoda for support. If it wasn't for their help a lot of the children would suffer by not getting any education & would struggle to get any decent food.
Sister Chang Quang who ran the pagoda for many years has moved on for ill health, she also removed most of the files related to the children we sponsor. After the passing of Dennis she thought the program had finished, hence the removal of records. The new replacement Sister Phuc was pleased to see that wasn't the situation; she then explained they had lost about seven children for health & family reasons.
This pagoda is one of the largest with large gardens all taken care of by the sisters with the help of a gardener, they grow a lot of various vegetables that they use for themselves; extra vegetables are sold so they can purchase other items.
On day two we were greeted by all the children, then proceeded to take all their profile photos including the seven new children. Including one, that had come by bus overnight from HCM City. She wanted to be included in our sponsorship program. It was explained that like most of the families they were extremely poor & had contacted the pagoda after hearing of our sponsorship program. Sister Phuc asked us to include her, how can you say no, so she has been included.
One girl who is in year ten who has very good results would like to go to university and study to become a solicitor. What a dream to have, all starting through your sponsorship program in her early years. If we hadn’t given her education, who knows what would have become of her? This is a dream that needs to be followed up further into her education.
Phat Buu
The trip to Phat Buu is about one hour’s drive, from Nha Trang. Suong, Linh, Tram & I hired a car & driver for the day. Tram organized the car as she has used these people in the past; the cost for the day was 600,000 dong about $33.00Aus. Tram told the car company what we were doing so he cut the hire by half & said to spend the other half on treats for the children. Tram bought small packets of biscuits, milo drinks & other special eats the children would love. With a special thank you to the company involved.
As per usual we met Sister Minh at her local Market. Here she had a list of things she required, this included mops, brooms, mats, bowls, rice noodles & many more various items. Each pagoda was given 4,000,000 dong approx AUD$220.00 to be spent on the needs of each pagoda.
After filling up our car, we managed to fit back into the car, on arrival at Phat Buu we were greeted by the excited children. This is also a Buddhist Pagoda so we were met with a polite bow with their hands in a prayer like action.
We gave all the children their treats, and then it was meal time, after their customary singing of a prayer. As Buddhist the food was also vegetarian; it was noodle soup in the true traditional Vietnamese. We sat with them and shared the same meal, it was delightful.
Tu An Pagoda
Tu An Pagoda is situated about 50 kilometres from Vung Tau City. It is in the area not far from Nui Dat where the Australian forces had their main army base during the Vietnam War.
Sister Minh is in charge of this large Pagoda, they feed about 125 children & about 12 to 15 adults. The adults all live in, these people offer loving care to the babies & also help out with the cooking, some have come to Tu An because they had no home, others are volunteers like a woman named Lyn who has given up work for a year to work as a volunteer. She is an Australia who was born in Vietnam, she lives in Werribee. Lyn has a special interest in a young little boy (pictured right) who she would love to adopt. I told her that is not possible at the moment with no adoption policy between Vietnam & Australia, although there is some belief it may happen in the near future.
On arrival at Tu An we were shown a 7-day old baby (shown left) that had been left at the gates 5 days earlier. This happens quite frequently. They have 3 or 4 sets of twins presently, all these they also found at the gates. They would have 20 to 30 young babies that they care for. In a few years these will be the children that will need our care in our education sponsorships.
A New Building to house all the school children & with many other features has started. It is a major project that so far has been built by donations by the Buddhist community throughout Vietnam. Unfortunately they have run out of money. So until they find another sixty thousand American dollars it will remain unfinished.
On the first level temporary walls from metal sheets have been constructed to enclose an area that is suitable for all the school age children for sleeping & playing. Although not looking the greatest, it is dry & the children are all happy. The two photos show how it is today & what they hope to achieve in the future.
Ta Nung Catholic Orphanage
After a few days of R&C in Vung Tau it was off to complete the tour at Da Lat, a catholic orphanage called Ta Nung ran by a beautiful person, Sister Bernadette. This pagoda is situated high in the mountains about 60 minutes from Da Lat. There are 23 children that are sponsored here. A lot of these children actually live in the community & are dropped off by family so they can be cared for, given food & sent to school. The families are extremely poor, so Sister Bernadette takes in these children. These are the ones your kind donations go to support. Photo of Suong at the market, buying commodities for Ta Nung.
Sister Bernadette & Peter Fryers with the children.
Left: Ta Nung vegetables garden, they also grow coffee beans to support the orphanage.
Right: A few of the children.
