Saturday March 27

We arrived last night after about 26 hours in transit. Everyone did well on the flight.

Most of the 85 other team members have arrived. We have not had a meeting yet, so you just see them on the street or in the lobby. We made a visit to the Ben Thanh Market, a huge warehouse of a structure that rents to vendors of all types of things.. They sell everything from t shirts to live eels. The alleys get to be about 3 feet wide, which is barely enough room to squeeze by and say no thank you.

The heat took its toll and we kept walking to the Building named Saigon Center where we all spent time during the second step in the adoption process. We ended up on the Top of Rex Hotel for a snack.

Later, Tammy and the kids cooled off and I took off for a hike across town. i sometimes wish I could takes pictures without a camera. Hard to explain. I saw the outside of Independence Palace and the inside of the War Remnants Museum. Quite an experience.

Found these great alleys that are attached to smaller sub alleys, which answers the question, where do these 8 million people actually live? You walk along get distracted by a grandmother cleaning vegetables on the sidewalk and then a motorcycle come out of no-where from a side alley. It's great fun.. keeps you on your toes.


Huge rainstorm tonight. The streets filled with water, but it did not stop the motor bikes. They looked like boats as they made wakes. The homeowners scramble to save the water or use it for a well deserved cleaning of the porch and the sidewalk / kitchen (they are the same thing in many cases).

Later today, there is press conference at 3:30. The next day we head by bus to Rach Gia where the center of the effort will be.

We'll try to add some pictures next blog.

Dwight