A SUCCESSFUL 2008 HOMELAND TOUR TO VIETNAM

Four families, Ruth and Celine Katz, Priscilla and Natalie Gray, Howard, Lori, Caitlin and Lacy Higgins, Gordon, Carol, Victoria and Elizabeth Hanson and one young adult, Louis Peterson, traveled with me, Barbara Graffeo, staff member of New Beginnings to Vietnam this summer for our first ever, Vietnam Homeland Tour. Most of us left on Friday evening, July 25, 2008 and arrived on Sunday morning in Hanoi at 10:00 A.M. where we met our one young adult, Louie who had traveled to Vietnam earlier. That afternoon we met the last family, the Hansons who had also traveled to Vietnam a few days earlier. We were met by our tour guide Mr. Zung and our Vietnam Representatives, Hoang Vuong and his wife Thuy. They guided us to our bus and to our first hotel, the Serenade Hotel, a great small hotel in the midst of the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

This was the beginning of a fascinating, fun-filled and informative 11 days. We ate in some wonderful restaurants and were introduced to delicious Vietnamese cuisine and some beautiful surroundings. We spent one day sightseeing and taking a cyclo ride (very exciting) in Hanoi. The following day we traveled to Vinh Phuc province where we were to visit the Vinh Phuc Social Welfare Center, where we have worked for many years.

We were welcomed by Mr. Long, a local provincial official along with Mr. Thieu, Director of the Center and most of the children living in the center. Presentations were made by some of our families and New Beginnings of donations collected by the children and scrapbook/albums for Vinh Phuc. Three birth families of the children traveling on the trip were at the meeting to greet their children and their adoptive families. This was an emotional and beautiful reunion for all. The children of the center then put on a performance for all of us, with singing and dancing and showed off their great talents and personalities. We were asked to participate and tried to learn a Vietnamese song and sing it along with the children. We tried our best!

After this great morning, we were taken to lunch at a local restaurant where we ate with the Director and his assistants and enjoyed a lovely meal. After lunch we were taken on a tour of the center and were able to see all of the sections of this Social Welfare Center. There is a dorm for the elderly in need of a place to live and help, a dorm for the boys, a dorm for the girls, an area for pregnant women and an area for the younger children and babies. We were able to visit with several of our babies waiting to come home to their new families and meet with the loving caretakers. Gifts were left for everyone.

We went back to the meeting hall and prepared for our English lessons for the children.
There were about 50-60 children and they were broken down into age groups of 8-11 and 12-14. The younger children were given pictures of animals, crayons, scissors and glue and encouraged to cut out the pictures, repeat the names of the animals, color them and glue them on another piece of paper like a frame. Their enthusiasm and detailed work was very exciting and they worked very hard on repeating the words and learning colors, etc. Thanks to Priscilla Gray for putting together this whole lesson and providing the supplies and thanks to the rest of the families and kids for helping teach this. Everyone really enjoyed themselves. The 12-14 year olds practiced some English words and then started a game of bingo using the words. They really seemed to enjoy this and received little prizes when they repeated something correctly, or volunteered to count to 10 in English or won the game. After the Bingo game, they played a game of Memory and several of them went up on the stage making two groups, each group having the same words. The children in the audience picked two words, one from each group and tried to remember where they were to match them. This was great fun too. Thanks to Carol Hanson who provided these games and supplies and to Louie Peterson who was our fantastic translator for the older children. Most of them knew Louie and this made it very comfortable for them to respond.

For our first attempt at something like this, we feel it went very well and we learned what we might do the next time. Everyone enjoyed this time and after we were finished with the games, Victoria Hanson handed out hand-made bags of toiletries to each of the children. Victoria had worked with her scout troop, other troops and her church to collect all of these items and then made the bags herself . Many sports supplies were collected by her as well. Celine Katz mentioned to her schoolmates and friends that she would be going and they collected many toys and stuffed animals for her to bring and Natalie Gray also mentioned her trip and asked her friends and family to collect pajamas for the children and was able to arrive with 81 pairs of pajamas (all new) to present to the center.
This was all voluntary and each of these children decided to do this on their own with their parent’s help of course and we can’t thank them enough, however, I believe seeing the faces of the children was more than enough thanks for them.

After the lesson, a couple of the children played soccer with many of the children from the center and although the heat was almost unbearable, they seemed to have a wonderful time with each other. We then left to go to one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever been to in Tam Dao, on top of a mountain nearby. The views were spectacular and the rooms like being at a spa. Dinner was great and the next morning we were off early to a special meeting with the Provincial officials at the People’s Committee Building in Vinh Phuc. We were met and greeted by Mr. Hoang Truong Ky, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee. He was warm, welcoming and obviously enjoyed meeting with all of the families and children. He invited the families to speak, which they each did and he presented each family with a beautiful book on Vinh Phuc and a special pin. We were also introduced to Mr. Khuat Van Khanh, Vice Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Vinh Phuc and Mr. Dang Wuan Vinh, the Deputy-Chief of Department of Foreign Affairs of Vinh Phuc, both wonderful gentlemen who spoke English very well.
We were treated to a spectacular lunch in their dining room and spread out so that one official was sitting between several different families. The food was wonderful, the company even better and real friendships were made. Mr. Ky is an affectionate and caring man who showed this over and over again with all of the children and families and we can’t thank him enough for his and the People’s Committee’s hospitality.

The rest of the trip consisted of a trip to Ha Long Bay, one of the most beautiful areas I have seen and an overnight stay on a “Junk”, which was nothing of the kind. It was an all wood boat with small, but lovely rooms, a wonderful staff, great seafood, and wondrous sights. We traveled to caves unlike any we have seen, stopped at a beach for a swim and some of us went for a small boat ride in the pouring rain, but had fun. Back to Hanoi and then on a plane to Da Nang. Took a bus ride from DaNang to Hoi An, a beach town and stayed at an absolutely beautiful hotel on the beach with the largest pool I have ever seen.
We toured Hoi An, enjoyed all the history, shopped like crazy, took a boat ride on the river in a boat that looked like the African Queen (if you have seen that movie), to a small village where they made all sorts of pottery, and then visited My Son, a historic archaeological site in the center of Vietnam. We spent the last afternoon and next morning with free time for the beach, resting, shopping or the pool.

It was back to Hanoi then, for one full free day to explore on our own, finish our shopping and just have a leisurely day. That evening we took our guide Mr. Zung and his family and Mr. Hoang and Thuy out to dinner at a lovely restaurant and everyone very much enjoyed getting to know each other even better. The following day Wednesday, August 6, 2008, we were to leave Hanoi and got to the airport to find our flight to Hong Kong had been cancelled due to a Typhoon heading toward there. With the help of Vietnam Airlines, Cathay Pacific and our guide Mr. Zung, we were re-scheduled on EVA airlines to Taipei and from there to Newark airport and with all the trouble we arrived only one half hour later than we had expected and it was a very easy trip.

From my perspective as a leader of homeland tours in the past, this group was a very friendly, easy and cooperative group who truly seemed to enjoy each other’s company and the entire trip. I couldn’t find one complaint from anyone. The kids who ranged in age from 7 – 16 all got along very well together and enjoyed spending time laughing, swimming, playing and singing karaoke.

Even though Vietnam may be closing in terms of children coming for adoption for at least now, those children who have already come should still have the opportunity to visit the land of their birth and we hope to plan future Vietnam Homeland tours. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in a future trip. Our families will be contributing their feelings about the trip and will be added to this site very soon.