Overwhelmed by Extremes: Diary of a Vietnam Medical Mission

...I am sipping a double chocolate mocha looking out my Saigon French windows at a hot steaming street. OK I confess, it is instant coffee from a tub, spooned into hardboiled water and the French windows are fake. Cycles are meandering in busy streets like ants. The traffic pattern is organized chaos: the aggressive have the right of way--just like in life. Thirty-five weary giving souls have traveled 27 air hours with 60 suitcases of medical devices, medications and other equipment. Some of us strangers traveled together, others not. But here we all are in 1 piece--a miracle... There were a few mishaps along the way. The photographer's medical bag was too heavy so he shifted some cardiac medications to his personal carry-on. "No worries," was his positive attitude. "If the plane goes down, none of us will die from high cholesterol!" Another of us was issued a work visa whose dates had already expired. That person was me. After $225 of fees, fines and attempts to persuade; I managed to convince the Vietnamese that it wasn't hurting me to stay behind in Tokyo. It was their people in Vietnam who would miss the care that I could have otherwise provided...