5. March 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

I came to Sri Lanka to meet with some nonprofits who are working in the country. I also wanted to head back to Sri Lanka to see what kind of recovery there has been in the last 5 years. I was a little confused when I arrived in the airport. This was not the same airport I was in last time; it is now modern and air-conditioned. There are x-ray machines, computers, departure/arrival screens and it is as clean and orderly as any airport. Last time I was here there were wooden tables set up with uniformed and armed guards demanding money from me. (Although some things stay the same… even though there were x-ray machines, they didn’t use them so luggage still wasn’t inspected).After arriving, I headed from Colombo to Galle, about a 3 hour trip down the coast. I left my hotel in Hyderabad, India at 5 am to catch my plane and arrived at my hotel in Galle at 8 pm. I was exhausted (really long layover in Chennai, India).Next day I headed out to look at the Galle/Hikkaduwa area. Hikkaduwa sits on the coast. After the tsunami hit Hikkaduwa it was essentially destroyed. (When I say on the coast, I mean in the sand next to the water). Buildings were empty shells where the water had come right through the walls and receded back and had taken everything with it. Parallel walls stood with nothing between them and no roof above. Businesses were gone, streets were fairly empty. Hotels and restaurants were empty. Galle, a few miles down the coast, still had businesses up and running after the tsunami. But everyone I met in Galle the first trip wanted to show me how high the water was on the buildings. The brown water mark was on every building, but the locals still put their hands on the mark and said “this is how high it was”. The brown water mark was about the second floor of the buildings. Things have changed for the better in the Galle/Hikkaduwa area. New buildings are everywhere and a lot of building is still taking place. Stores are open and busy and the market is bustling. People are fixing up more shops and tourists are everywhere. There is the occasional building that acts as a reminder that the tsunami tore the towns apart, but they are the exception rather than the norm. It is obvious that there has been an outpouring of money and labor in the past 5 years. The IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps where I worked 5 years ago are all gone. I asked where the people went and the answer I got was that they found other places to live. The fields where the camps were set up are now being used for sports. I was delighted to see local people swimming in the ocean. During my last trip no one was in the water. One of the people I talked with told me it was about a year before the Sri Lankans went back into the water.  I met and talked to residents who tell me they are still afraid, however. That will take longer to repair than buildings.  I met with some nonprofits that are doing some life changing on-going work. Help Lanka is one of the nonprofits I met with in the Galle/Hikkaduwa area. They have been building houses for people who could not otherwise afford one. Through a translator, they told me they never expected to be able to live in a house and they were so very grateful for the place to live. These are very basic concrete homes with a small living room and 2 curtained-off bedrooms. We walked up and down jungle paths to see the homes which are sprinkled throughout the jungle. At one point a monitor lizard walked right across the path in front of us. They are not little cute lizards; they look like left-over dinosaurs. After I got over being startled, I tried to take a picture but he slithered into the underbrush before I got the camera focused.  We took all day to see the area, and from what the people told me, Help Lanka has done a wonderful job of getting people into homes. Unfortunately, Help Lanka tells me they have run out of funding so the house building is on hold for now. Bridge2SriLanka is also working in the southern part of the country, the Galle/Hikkaduwa area. They do various things, depending on the need of individual families. The nonprofit has repaired homes, provided medical care, provided nutrition for families, built a school, and numerous other projects. They are also interested in not just taking care of people needs, but helping people by providing employment so people can generate an income to take care of their families. One of the women-headed families was opening a jungle grocery store which she will run out of her house. She needed staple items to stock the store. CRI and Bridge2SriLanka went to the grocery store with her to purchase the items. She negotiated the price and chose the items that she could sell. CRI paid $100 US dollars for the grocery items and then went back to the home/store and shared her excitement as she and the children stocked the shelves. I wish all of you who have donated to CRI could come when we do things like that. It is awesome to be able to give people hope for their future. It is so easy and takes so few American dollars to do so much. Sri Lanka has been in the middle of a civil war for the past 25 years. The war ended only recently in 2009. Further north in the Kandy area, I met with Visaka who is founder of the Association of War Affected Women.  One of the things she is trying to accomplish is to build peace between the north and the south. She reaches out to women in the northern Trincomalee area. One of the main problems in the area is that there are so many thousands of missing soldiers from the war that women are now responsible for caring for families without a partner. The area is devastated from the war and there is no way for the women to support their families. One of the things that the women can do is grow spices, but they need to be able to grind the spices so that they can package and sell them in the market. Visaka estimated that 100 families could support themselves if they could grind the spices for market. CRI purchased that spice grinder for $400. If 100 families can support themselves for an investment of $400 US dollars, it seems like a bargain. Unfortunately, I do not have time left in my trip to go to the area to deliver the spice grinder. It has been ordered and Visaka promises she will send lots of pictures of the delivery of the spice grinder. I wish we all could be there but I will forward the pictures!Well, all that traveling and looking and talking takes time and it is time for me to head home. I wish all of you who have donated to CRI could see how your money is working for families who otherwise have no hope and no way out. This trip I traveled in Vietnam, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. In the countries I have traveled to, we have purchased audio/visual equipment for a school, goslings, provided tuition for students, goats, grocery stock, tiffins for ladies catering service, and a spice grinder to name some of the things. We have donated pens and pencils for children to use for school. We have donated reading glasses to children and adults around the world. We have made other connections for future projects. What we have done is give people a way out and a way up, thanks to all of you.   SandyPS:  I have posted many photographs of my trip on my facebook page.

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22. February 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

I came to India for the first time about 1985 and am just now returning. When I arrived last week I was amazed at the changes I noticed. The airport was stunning: big, beautiful, air conditioned and modern. That was definitely not the airport I flew into last time. Some other changes I have observed:1. obese people. Last time I was here I remember seeing one over-weight person and it was noticeable because there just weren’t any others. Now there are many men, women and children that are over-weight in the city (definitely different in the villages).2. ads for cosmetic surgery including liposuction. Are you kidding me? Those were not here last time.3. ads for life insurance and health insurance4. Coca cola and Pepsi. Last time I was here I was drinking a not-so-good copy called campa cola. yuck. after drinking campa cola I thought I would never want another cola flavored drink again. 5. ads for gyms. Power body-building no less, what?6. ads for day spas. definitely not here in 1985. 7. ads for investing your money with investment companies. 8. traffic. I think it is much worse than it was, but then, I suppose it is everywhere. There are lines painted on the road for lanes. This morning I counted 2 lanes painted on the road with 5 rows of traffic squeezed into them. You have to see the chaos to believe it!9. ads for high-end cars10. big, beautiful stores for interior decoratingAnd the 2 biggest changes I have seen:11. Couples holding hands! What? Never in 1985. I saw groups of women and children and groups of men, but men and women holding hands in public? No. 12. Lack of articles about “kitchen fires”. Every morning I would read the paper and there would be at least one “kitchen fire” every day. Apparently when a new husband was not happy with the dowry situation, his new wife would die in a “kitchen fire”. One of the articles even described how the door was locked from the outside and the neighbors could hear her screaming but no one unlatched the door. The husband was then free to marry again. I have not read about any kitchen fires this time. Either they are less frequent or they are not reporting them, I don’t know, but it is good to see that they are not still an every day event.  Even though I see changes in the city, the villages I have visited still look like they are from another century. I put a lot of pictures on my Facebook page if you want to see them. We shared the road with goats, cattle, sheep, and wooden wagons. We even passed a camel carrying hay yesterday. The homes the people live in can barely be called shelter. The agency that I have spent this past week with has done an amazing job providing an education for the Dalit children and micro loans for their parents. The loans are provided to enable the parents to start a small business to provide an income for their family. The organization has built schools and is providing an education for the children. Any hope for the children is in the education they will be getting. You can look up the organization at www.dalitnetwork.org. If some of you would like to donate, but want to give to a Christian organization (Crisis Recovery International has no religious affiliation), this is a great opportunity to do so. I am very impressed with what they have accomplished. Also, they have a Womens Enterprise called Lydia to train and empower the Dalit women. They train them to sew, make jewelry, and embroider. They are developing products and hope to develop a market for the items so that the women can be continuously employed.  Love to you all from India. I will be leaving for Sri Lanka in a couple of days, Sandy

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18. February 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

We went out to enjoy the city. There seems to be as much traffic here as in Saigon. It is cooler here though, it was about 80 degrees today. We have met some very friendly people and they are eager to talk to Americans. They are especially intrigued by Steven. Over 6 feet tall, he has bumped his head many times on door jams. Today a group of teen girls insisted that they get their picture taken with him. They wanted him to hold out his arms to the side and they stood under his arms for the picture. Another group of girls wanted Steven and I to stand as they took turns standing next to us for the pictures they took of each other with the Americans.  We went to a Confucius temple. When you go into an Asian temple there is a high step you must step over (not on) to get into the temple. My translator today told me that the high step is for 2 reasons 1) because ghosts can’t get over the step so they cannot get in the temple 2) because you must bow your head to look down when you step over the high step. The bowing shows reverence. They burn incense in the temple to wake up the dead so that they will listen to their prayers. Confucius set down a system of laws for the people. Buddha developed a religion. I asked why people were praying to Confucius in the temple we were in. According to my translator, if you contribute a great deal for your country you become a god like Ho Chi Minh. He explained that temples in the north are dark and quiet for dead people, unlike in the south of Vietnam. A pagoda is a facility where monks live. Monks do not live in a temple. When you burn incense you burn 1 or 3 for the dead. You burn 2 or 4 for the living.  We are staying in an old hotel in the old part of Hanoi. Our translator says this part of Hanoi is 1100 years old. Each street is named Hang something. Ours is Hang Manh. Hang means “product” and each street is named for the product that was produced. Hang Manh means the product is curtains/cloth. In October they are celebrating Hanoi as the capitol of Vietnam for 1000 years. It is apparently going to be a huge party if any of you are interested in coming.  We are headed for Kathmandu tomorrow. We could not reach the airlines to reconfirm our flights, so cross your fingers that we get on our planes. I will write next from Nepal.

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17. February 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

Its been a while since my last email. The one you just got was written several days ago. I have been down, sick as a dog. My head is finally up. I am at a new hotel, one that has a generator when the power goes off. Crisis Recovery International met with a nonprofit that we are really impressed with. The woman in charge is a real go-getter and has accomplished an amazing amount. She founded and runs a group called Women for Human Rights. She works with women who are single, mostly because of the war. The widows are young, early 20’s and 30’s with children to support.  “Widows are seen as a curse on their families. They are identified as inauspicious, symbol of ill omen, and the cause of the death of their husbands.” In many cases, “it is common for the husbands to die even before the bride sets foot in her husband’s home. Most of these men die due to illnesses such as cholera or malaria; snake bites or even disappear overseas where they go to seek jobs and wealth. The child widows in many cases do not even know who they were married to, which family and village their husbands belonged to. such child widows who are known as Vaikalya are considered inauspicious and omens of bad fortune and are treated worse than other widows….The are denied basic human rights such as regular meals, clothing and access to education, ….”  You can access the web site of this organization at www.whr.org.np  The organization has provided a safe place for widows to go. They have 44,000 widows in 400 villages who are part of the organization. The women need skills training and that is one of the things this group tries to provide. They also offer counseling and legal help. Women can come to the safe houses for up to 3 months and then they must support themselves. One of the things they have done is to provide cameras to women. When women can take pictures of the abuse they suffer, and the abusers, they can stop it by posting those pictures. They have also given mobile phones to women in remote areas so that they can support them and keep in touch with them.  They would like 22 laptops for the leaders of their groups. We can buy 2 goats for 5,000 rupees ($65), a buffalo for 20,000 rupees ($260) or a pig for 12,000 rupees ($150). They would also like 500 lunch boxes for a catering business they have started. Lunch boxes at about $4 per box. They have started women weaving and sewing the cloth into saleable items. They would like to rent a store front so that they can market these items. A store would cost about $2000 for one year. All these things are to create independent women who can support themselves and their children.  The newspaper had an article a few days ago about a husband who does not require his wife to go into the menstrual hut. For that his family is being shunned and ostracized from the community. It is a different world here.  We are meeting with the nonprofit again tomorrow. Later, Sandy

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17. February 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

On February 7 (my birthday) we spent all day traveling up to an isolated village in Kavre. The roads were dusty and bumpy. You can’t imagine the bumps! At one point I was thrown up and my head hit the roof of the car and then back down with whiplash! aaawww. The mountain roads were steep and at times I was looking straight down 1000 feet down the side of the mountain! The roads are only big enough for one car, so when another car was coming from the other direction both cars had to move as far to the edge as possible and passed each other with barely inches. They maneuvered slowly and very cautiously. I tried to take a video of the road, but it was bumping so badly there was no way to keep the camera steady, so you will have to settle for pictures. We kept going higher and higher. Each time I thought we were at the top of the mountain, we would go around the corner and climb higher. Steven estimates were were up around 11,000 feet. We had a great driver who was very careful. We were told he is a Sherpa during the trekking season. We went with the non profit Women for Human Rights. The homes and villages are built right on the side of the mountain. Part of the house is on land and the other part is built out over the edge. All the mountain sides are terraced and it looks like every part of the land is being cultivated. When we arrived at the village the women were there to meet us. It was a wonderful greeting complete with necklaces of marigolds sewn together. We had a village meeting in a room built by the community to find out what the women needed. It turns out that in this village they wanted a water supply. They said they have to walk an hour to another village to get water every morning (and it would be a really steep climb back up with water)! They had a water committee there and the village leaders at the meeting. But, unfortunately, CRI does not put in infrastructure. What we hope is that by putting people to work, they generate an income that will pay for their own infrastructure. 

We also got to meet with women who had received micro-loans of 5000 rupees (about $65 USD). One woman had opened a village store. She had paid back the loan and was a successful business woman in the village. Another woman who borrowed 5000 rupees lives in a hut on the side of the mountain. I will attach a picture of this hut. It is literally perched on the side of the mountain. She lives in a space of about 8 feet by 5 feet. In this space she also has her chickens at the end of where she sleeps and her goat. It has no windows. Anyway, she purchased a pig with her 5000 rupees and she now has 8 piglets. She will pay back her loan have money left over. We went to another woman’s shop where she prepares, packages and sells medicinal plants and other food. She also has sewing machines where she trains other widows to sew. It is incredibly impressive!

A most interesting way to spend a birthday! Sandy

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17. February 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

Women for Human Rights, a non profit in Nepal working with widows, picked a village for us because we said we wanted to help some widows, specifically we wanted to donate goats. We drove for some time out of Kathmandu. The taxi driver was angry that we were going so far out of town and he was talking very rude our translator said. We finally got to the village and the taxi driver let us out at the top of hill. Down the dirt path, across the stream, and up again we could see the widows sitting in a circle in plastic chairs, waiting for us. Steven and I looked at each other and sucked in our breath, because we didn’t have a clue as to how we were going to choose the one woman to get the goat. Fortunately, the group of widows had chosen the one they thought was most needy. In fact they chose 3 women and asked if we would buy 3 goats. We were happy to do so, each goat was going to cost about 4,000 rupees or about $50 USD. So the process of negotiating the price started. Oh yes, we told the taxi driver to wait because there was no way to get a taxi where we were to get back to town. Our translators said we would be half an hour. The negotiations got hot and heavy with the goat owner, wish you all could have been there! Finally a price was arrived at. Crisis Recovery handed the cash to the goat owner. We gave him a little more than he asked because it was an even amount. He was truly overjoyed. One of the goats was pregnant. Now the new negotiations began to decide which woman should get the pregnant goat. The widows of the village all talked at once, each one with a point. We couldn’t understand a word of it, but it was clear what was happening. Finally, they decided that the one who needed the pregnant goat was the widow with 5 children. All 3 women took possession of their new goats, or they tried to! The 2 young goats were hard to corral and didn’t stay still long enough to put a rope on them. Anyway, the women just beamed and we finally got a picture! The widow with 5 children talked to us through a translator and said she had no hope, but today she had hope. We gave her a goat and she had hope! Honestly, I wish you all could have been there. It was amazing. I wanted to buy more goats! sheep! ducks! whatever they wanted! All of you who have donated had a part in this, but to be there in person was so moving! I hope that sometime some of you can come along and see what a difference your donation makes to people. And Mara, we donated a goat in your name. I told everyone the story of why it was so important for us to buy a Nepalese goat and donate it. All your hard work and saving paid off. You can look on my Facebook page and see the pictures of the goat giving. 2 hours later the taxi driver was still waiting! Everything takes so much longer in Nepalese time! Headed to India. Later, Sandy BTW, this is my 8th newsletter. I sent 4 from Vietnam and 4 from Nepal. Some of them have been returned because my attachments/pictures were too big. So if there is a newsletter you didn’t get, you can go on our web page and read them. Love you all, Sandy

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6. February 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

Well, the adventure just never ends! We left our hotel about 5 am to catch our plane. We arrived in China to make a connection to Nepal. We stood in line at customs. We finally got to the front of the line. The customs man thumbed through my passport, then he went through Steven’s passport, then he set them down and raised his arm. UH OH! Never good when that happens! He called uniformed One Star over to look at them. They talked and then One Star told us to sit on the benches against the wall and he walked off with our passports! Steven sat, I paced, and then a few minutes later another man came over to the benches and asked to see my luggage receipts. I showed them to him and he tore them off and walked off with the luggage tags. No passport, no luggage tag. One Star walked over to the transfer desk and gave our passports to the man behind the counter. Transfer man walked over to the Xerox machine and made copies. Copy man walked back across the lobby to the office and we could hear them talking but, of course, we did not know what was going on. We watched uniformed Two Star walk out of the office and across the lobby and disappear with our passports and Xerox copies. Then he came back and walked back into the office. By then, about 45 minutes, I was composing my next letter to you in my head from a Chinese prison. Then uniformed Three Star and two other people came out of the office. Three Star stood looking at us while another man was carrying on a monologue with his back to us. After several minutes, they went back into the office. Transfer man finally came out with our passports and said, “follow me”.  He led us through some hallways and then into security. I wasn’t sure what was happening, my heart was pounding and I was very nervous. Our carry-on was scanned and we were put through the scanner and had individual time with the wand lady. Then it was over. Transfer Man handed us our passports and luggage tags, and we were on our way to the transfer area. Fortunately, we had an 8 hour layover so we had plenty of time. We are still at a loss as to what that was all about. When we finally arrived at our hotel about midnight and opened our checked luggage, we could see it had been thoroughly inspected.   The night before we left for Nepal, I called the hotel we were going to and made sure there would be a car for us when we arrived. When we arrived in Kathmandu and got through customs at about 2300, we looked for the driver from the hotel that was supposed to be waiting for us. There was no driver. Not only that but we were literally surrounded by taxi drivers standing in a ring about 6 inches from our face. “Don’t go with him he will cheat you. Go with me I am honest,” from about 20 taxi drivers all at once. A fellow flyer from our plane who lives in Kathmandu took pity on us and led us to a taxi and then got in the taxi with us to take us to our hotel. Not that we weren’t a little nervous about that arrangement! The road between the buildings are wide enough for one car and we were careening through the pitch black streets not sure if we were indeed headed for a hotel. The taxi driver asked 3 people on the same corner and got 3 different directions for the hotel. We finally did arrive at the hotel and the manager said he had someone waiting for us at the airport. Turns out he sent the driver to the wrong airline. Then we got a lecture about letting the other person from our plane into our taxi. Oh well, we finally made it. The next day we headed out of the hotel and started walking around old Kathmandu. Some of the buildings in this area are around 400 years old and people are still living in them. We weren’t out for an hour when someone tried to take the wallet out of Steven’s pocket. We were mobbed on the street by the souvenir sellers and we decided to call it a day. However, in this old area, the streets are not straight and lead into each other and we were lost. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find our way back through the maze of streets and to the hotel. We asked several cab drivers to take us back, but none of them knew the hotel. About 4 hours later we found our way back and we were dusty and exhausted. Oh, by the way, while we were lost we ran into a jewelry shop and I found a birthday pair of earrings, so it was not a total loss! I am putting this in a word document as an attachment because there are about 4 hours a day with power, and those are not 4 consecutive hours! So the last time I started this on email, I lost it when the power went down. We met with a wonderful nonprofit and I will put that in my next email. Oh, by the way, it is cold here! I might have to do more shopping and buy a cashmere sweater.  Love Sandy

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30. January 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

The train trip–We left Dalightful Dalat, cool, clean and picture pretty and headed down the mountain road. It took us 4 hours to go about 60 miles in a car we rented (no more busses!). We were dropped off at the train station at 4 pm. We got on the train at 6 pm. As we were about to board, a young Danish couple got off to ask us questions. They looked “shell shocked” and exhausted and they had not come as far as we were going. That was the first clue we ignored. We boarded a train that had to have been left here by the French 60 years ago and did not look like it had been maintained, certainly not painted or repaired in all those years. Clue number 2 we ignored. My companion was starting to get nervous, but I assured him that this would be an “adventure”. A big heavy metal door was slid open for us and there was a 6 foot by 6 foot space. ok, not luxury, but an adventure. there were 6 bunks in this space with used sheets and blankets thrown on them. ok, it would do for 1800 miles for 2 of us. The travel agent assured us that we would not be sharing the room, that we had reserved the room for us. We moved the used sheets and blankets, sat on the hard surface, and the train lurched forward. I mean lurched, hard. We traveled for an hour of what would be a 26 hour trip. The train stopped at the next station and all was well until, you guessed, 4 Vietnamese men pounded on the door and wanted in. I tried to explain that we had reserved the room, but they pushed in, yelled in Vietnamese and put their boxes and luggage in the room. My companion, a Vietnam vet, was backed into a space that he could not turn around in by 4 Vietnamese men all yelling and pushing. I was afraid we were about to have an international incident. It was very tense and we were not having fun. the men were all very nice, just pushy, as it seems to be the custom here.  6 adults in a space that was 6×6 feet, that includes the bunks and luggage. I looked for another room but the train was full. We looked at a map to see where we could get out and take alternate transportation to Hanoi, but there is nothing along that coast that would get us to Hanoi. We were stuck for 25 more hours. He is over 6 feet and he couldn’t sit up on the bunk and he couldn’t even stretch out all the way in bunks made for shorter people. I could stretch out on the bunk, but even I couldn’t sit straight up on the bunk because of the one right above me, and I am short. After an hour or two, I finally convinced him to take some Tylenol pm and go to sleep and I would make sure he was ok. Eastern toilets are a challenge in the best of circumstances. If you don’t know, eastern toilets are a hole in the ground; some are porcelain, some wood, in this case a metal hole in the floor of the train. For a woman with pants on, it is a challenge to be mastered. You have to pull your pant legs up so they don’t drag in the urine on the floor. You have to pull your pants down so you can squat over the hole. You might want to hang onto something so you don’t loose your balance and land on the floor. And you have to keep your pants that you are hanging onto out of the way so you can use the facility. By now you need at least 4 hands. Now imagine a train, a very old train, going 60 miles an hour and lurching and bumping along. You don’t want to fall, or miss the hole, or let go of your pants! At some point you have to let go of whatever you are hanging onto, and this is where it gets tricky! You can see the tracks below and the sound of the wind blowing up through the hole is very loud! Imagine sharing this one hole with a train full of passengers.  One of our bunkmates seemed to have a bad cold. He kept coughing and blowing snot out of his nose. I mean he stood in the hall (which was less than 12 inches wide) and blew his nose onto the wall.  Well you get the picture of the adventure. We finally made it to Hanoi, but the taxi driver didn’t know where to take us and aimlessly drove around the city for a while. he finally pulled up next to another taxi driver to ask for directions as they were both driving down the street. Lesson learned, if a travel agent and your translator both look at you like you are making a big mistake, you probably are! Sandy

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30. January 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

I am in Hanoi. Before I tell you the story of the idea that went horribly wrong, I want to finish telling you about the Highlands and the “minority people”. according to my translator, they are matriarchal. in these villages the women have to work for many years to buy a man and he is purchased with water buffalo. the better “quality” the man, the more buffalos. Some men are also bought with cattle or chickens, but the quality ones require several buffalo. They apparently speak a version of Malaysian and Indonesian. the family lives in a long house and the man goes to live with the wife’s family. according to our translator, you can tell how many daughters a family has by the number of doors on the long house, one door for each daughters family. As a group they are very poor and they apparently don’t want to send their children to the Vietnam schools, so the children don’t get an education. By the way, education is not free in Vietnam. All families in Vietnam have to pay for the school, uniform, books, etc or the children don’t go to school.  On our way down the mountain to the coast to catch the train, we passed through the Cham peoples village. The Cham people apparently came to the area in the 7th Century. They have elaborate buildings, some which are still standing. The Cham are also matriarchal and the husband goes to live with the wife’s family. They worship the “Shiva angel” (all this information from my translator). You will recognize the Shiva from India, the one with the many arms. She apparently also has many eyes and is all seeing and all knowing. Because of this, the people worship Shiva and she answers prayers and watches over them. The woman pays for the wedding, of course. But interesting note on the funeral. When the man dies, the woman’s family keeps his picture up for 3 years. After that, the picture is given to the mans family and the woman is free to remarry.  Also visited several monasteries and now know the difference between a Zen monastery and the other kind of temples. the Zen monastery always faces south with a lake in the front. Opposite the main temple is a bell tower and a drum tower.  Sandy

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28. January 2010 by Sandy Ramsey.

I took a tourist bus on Tuesday from Saigon to Dalat. Both the interpreter in Saigon and the travel lady tried to talk me out of it, but you who know me will laugh when I tell you they couldn’t talk me out of it. I wanted to see the country side. I travelled from the hotel to the bus station by taxi and waited for my bus to arrive. After trying to get on two different big orange buses, they told me to sit and wait. Finally my bus arrived and I got comfortable at 9 am. My bus said “Tourist” across the front of it so I was certain I was on the express bus to the mountains. I discovered that “Tourist” doesn’t necessarily mean people from other countries. It means someone who lives on the edge of Saigon all the way to the mountains! We stopped every few miles to pick up or drop off more local “tourists”. We stopped for bathroom breaks (eastern style), we even stopped for a lunch break. We arrived at my hotel at about 6:30 PM. Steven and I were the only “Tourists from another country” on the bus. The only thing we were missing were the chickens.  We have now seen the country -side  and will fly next time!!Wednesday we got into the car with a local translator. Her English was excellent and her knowledge of the area was outstanding, much like the translator we had in Saigon. Both were wonderful. We started early in the morning and we went until it was dinner time and we were exhausted. We learned hello, (spelled phonetically) “sinchow” in Vietnamese. But we went to 3 minority villages where hello is (spelled phonetically) “nimsa”. Minority village people are not technically considered Vietnamese but people who descend from other groups. The first village we went to are apparently descended from the Malay/Polynesian people. These are the Kho Chin people. They are very, very poor. I went to the villages to see if there were some projects that Crisis Recovery International could help with. We also went to a village where the Kho Lat people live. I will try to attach some pictures later when the computer will cooperate. But we went to an orphanage that was very poor. There are 3 people who take care of 52 children. I took pictures of the children at nap time laying in rows on a mattress on the floor. The buildings are horribly inadequate. It would be wonderful if we could build a new building for the orphanage. The woman who runs the orphanage says she runs it on about $5000 US dollars per year. The woman says for the children she needs books, pencils, clothes, and land for a vegetable garden. Three of the children who stay at the orphanage have a father who is paralysed from the powder from a bomb. He was apparently trying to remove the bomb when it exploded.One of the things I know from working disasters is that reading glasses are always needed. With your donations, I bought boxes of new reading glasses and left some of them at the orphanage and some at a school. When I was in the bank in the United States, I told the lady at the bank I was headed to Vietnam. She started to cry. She said she was from Vietnam and they were very poor and couldn’t afford pencils to write with at school. She went to the back of the bank and brought out a box of pencils for me to leave in Vietnam. She will be happy to know they have been delivered to the orphanage that was in such need of pencils for the children.I am headed to catch a train to  Hanoi today. Again, they tried to talk me out of it, so we will see if I have made another travel mistake! I will write more in a couple of days. Sandy

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