I have been quite busy and have not written in my journal like I had intended to do.  I am going to try to make it a habit of writing at least something everyday once I start my trip.   Kim, my in country volunteer coordinator, has been most helpful and courteous.   She will be abroad while I am volunteering.  I am sorry that I will not get to meet her.  I will also be working with Ms. Tran, the Saigon coordinator, and another person whose name I do not know.  My assignment has been changed from working with handicap teen girls to working at a shelter that serves street children.  They are orphans or come from remote areas in search of a better life.  They will be in school during the day.  So, I and another volunteer will be teaching them English and doing other activities during non school hours.   

I have also gotten a lot of help from Henry Bechtold to whom I am very grateful.  He has made several trips to Vietnam in the last several years and has given me some invaluable information.   Thank you Henry!

Becky my wife, and I have been busy lately.  In fact, we just returned from visiting our daughter in Delaware yesterday.   This coming weekend promises to be a full schedule as well with my sister-in-law getting married.  I haven’t had a great deal of time to think about my trip.  So, I need to get with the program and start pulling things together.

It is now a little over a month until my departure on October 11^th.   While I already have my plane ticket and visa, there is still a lot to do before I leave.  I want to learn more about the kids that I will be teaching.  How many will I be teaching?  Will I be starting from scratch? Or, have they had prior instruction in English?  What kind of teaching aids will I need?  Further, I would like to have a rough idea for two weeks worth of lesson plans.

As a precaution, I went yesterday to get vaccinations for Hepatitis A and B since I do not know the kids with whom I will be working.   Mack, the physician’s assistant at my doctor’s office told me that I will also need to get a TB screen when I return home.   One of the ways that Andrew Speaker, the Atlanta lawyer who traveled to Europe while infected with a drug resistant form of TB, could have contacted the disease was while visiting hospitals in Vietnam.  While catching TB is not likely, it is most easily treated if caught in the early stages.