It was 5am early in the morning when we started from Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital (District 5, HCMC).
Just fifteen minutes after the trip began, there was something wrong with on of the tires we must all get off the bus for the driver to fix it. Nevertheless, that was a great chance for me to get to know and make friends with this charity group. Although the name is “Giac Ngo charity group” (Giac Ngo is a Buddhist magazine), the group’s activities depend heavily on the donation of its members and their relatives. Every month, they made a charity trip of which budget is from members’ contribution. Each trip made them closer together and now they call the group with a beloved name: “our family”.
After about half an hour for me to get acquainted with the group’s members while waiting for the bus to be repaired, the trip began again. Over many roads and many bridges, we arrived at about 9:30, quite a bit behind the plan. In order to catch up with our schedule, we began immediately.

Our destination was Ngoc Phuoc Pagoda which is 200 meters away from the main road and the path was so small that the bus could not enter. Fortunately, having been informed in advance, many people volunteered to help transport goods and take our group to the pagoda. Donated presents were unpacked and moved to medical examining place. Today was very crowded, partly because people are coming for a ceremony, partly because the visit has been informed to every family.

While people were still preparing for the ceremony, our group laid out tables and chairs, prepared equipment, organized the place for medical examine. As members of the group has been very experience with this kind of charity trips, the organization was quick and efficient. The whole location included:

• Reception: record patient’s information and provide prescriptions. Patients who are above 75 years old or really in need would have a “High Priority” stamp on their prescription
  
  

  Reception

• Blood pressure measurement: measure blood pressure of all patient, except children who are under 18
  
  

  Blood pressure measurement

• Medical examiner: including examining generally, dentist, eyes and gynecology
  
  

  One of the examiner desks

• Medicine supply: base on the doctor’s prescription, medicine was supplied in small basket which was re-checked to make sure the right medicine was given with the right quantity. Each type of medicine is provide with a clear description of how to use it. The elderly was also given a bottle of massaging oil.
  
  

  Medicine supply

Around 1pm, the monks invited us to a vegetarian lunch but all tried to finish their lunch time within 30 minutes because there were still many patient waiting outside. During this 30 minutes break, I had time to look at people who had receive their medicine. One member of the group shared his mind: “If we gave food, we can only help them for several days. But if we give them health, it would be the best thing they might have”

After lunch time, the reception was much less crowded. In contrast, the space for medical examine and medicine supply were full of people. The weather is very hot at the middle of the day but everyone were still happy to continue their work. Some patient even tried to help by paper fanning our doctors and volunteers.

At 3 o’clock, we stopped receiving new patients but there are still many prescription waiting for medicine supply. There weren’t many newcomers anymore. Only a few people came late because of various reasons. With those really need health care, our group leader still arranged to examine their health so that their trip (some from very far away) was not in vain. There were inevitably some people that could not be examined. Anyway, we could not stay longer as we need to avoid the rush hour that would lead to traffic jam until night. When it was nearly the time that we were supposed to leave, on my hand there was still a pile prescriptions that need medicine to be supplied and checked. However, as we have promised to help, we would completed it.

About 4pm, everything was done, we cleaned up and prepared to depart. The monks said goodbye to us by a party of soya milk. It was the best soya milk I have ever tasted.
4pm, the bus left, went over the many bridges and many roads. The group leader reported a very impressive number: 890 patients were examined and supply medicine today. The whole group have had another beautiful trips, collect more happy memory, and wait for a future trip to help more people.

You can view more photos of the trip on imageshack.us