Vietnam Day 3 – Around Vinh Long
Good morning Vietnam. I am still in Vinh Long which is located about 3 hours south of Saigon and right on the Mekong Delta. You know the Mekong Delta is the long river like the Amazon that flows through most of the south of Vietnam. The river is a source of transportation, food and livihood for the people of Vietnam. In fact Tu’s parents own a large construction supply company and they use the river and barges to transport their goods. The river branches in so many directions here in Southern Vietnam you can practically get anywhere that you want by River. The second choice of course is scooters and there are millions of scooters virtually everywhere on the streets. You don’t see cars but you see millions of people riding scooters – in fact the whole family will jump on the scooter and head out to dinner just like we would jump in our cars with the family to go out for a nice dinner.
This kid looks a little sleepy. It isn’t unusual to see passengers on the scooters so comfortable that they actually fall asleep while the scooter rumbles down the road.
The other way people get around here is by bike. You will see people dressed up in their Sunday best on their bikes. I have noticed the roads are so dusty that my clothes actually get quite dusty by the end of the day. Thank God that Tu has a laundry machine in her house or I would be looking pretty dingy.
The Mekong Delta can be very pretty but everything here is so green. When you are traveling along the river the jungle is so dense and green and tropical. You can pick fruits off trees and eat them if you want. I don’t but Tu always does.
Vietnamese food is really good and fresh and pretty low calorie. For lunch today we had hot soup that was boiled fresh over wood. This is the equivalent of a Vietnamese hot plate done the old fashioned way with burning wood. So great.
The Vietnamese kids are very cute. Tu has a ton of nieces, nephews and kids running around. We took some pictures of some of the girls at her mom’s workplace.
Here she is again being funny.
And another little girl that works with her mother.
Here is another black and white portrait of her.
I took this picture at Tu’s factory. The guy was toiling away carrying loads of bricks on his back off a boat into the warehouse.
I always wonder why everyone stares at me here and then I realize that they have a big camera pointed at them.
Vietnam Day 2 – Vistor to the Home
Day 2 in Vietnam and we had another great time today. Tu is planning a Christmas party for the kids at the orphanage this next Sunday so we are busy getting clothes and planning the party. There are about 50 kids so that is a lot of planning that has to take place.
We were taking pictures in Tu’s house when a familiar face came around. This man is mentally handicapped but he comes to the house every morning to collect $2 for his food that day. Tu’s parents have been giving him money for many years. Sometimes when they aren’t there Tu’s mom gives them instructions to give him the $2 so he can eat that day. Sometimes the staff working at the house give him less. He is always sure to come back and tell Tu’s mom that he was short changed the day before.
He is a quite happy guy. The vietnamese take care of people even if they are homeless or can’t take care of themselves.
Vietnam Day 1 – A visit to the orphanage
Arrived in Vietnam and spent the first day at an orphanage and living facility. It was quite sad to see the faces of the children, the mentally ill and physically disabled that called this place home. They live beyond poverty in some of the saddest and most barren places you could imagine. The place used to be a jail but now it houses babies, kids, mentally and phyiscally handicapped people. The only thing they have to look forward to are infrequent meals and the occasional visitor.
This little boy has aids. He is kept alone. He cannot play with other little boys or girls but he is always very happy and smiling. We gave him this candy and he did not know what to do with it.
This little boy sits behind the steel bars in his crib. The walls are white and there are no toys here. Just the cribs, a little food. Many of the babies sleep right on the floor.
This cute little girl is the youngest in a family of four. All the kids are left here in the orphanage but they were so cute and happy.
Happy faces. Happy times in a very poor place.
This was the oldest brother of the family of four that was left abandoned. You could tell he was the oldest brother because he kept taking care of his brothers and sisters.
Here they are. They are all so cute. I wonder if anyone will adopt all of them. I hope they don’t get split up.
Sometimes it is hard to tell the little boys from the girls because they give them all the same hair cuts. They just shave off all of their hair.
There are three parts of the facility – one for the mentally instable, one for the physically disabled and one for the kids and babies. As we drive up we saw the mentally disabled jail that they put the mentally instable people in. This guy was intently staring at us. He was very nice and waved and was very happy with the very little we gave him. It’s sad that he must live like a prisoner everyday for the rest of his life and he did nothing wrong.
This is a lady. She sits on the hard cement everyday. The only thing she has to look forward to is meals that come all too infrequently.
This was the happiest boy there. He came up to us immediately and smiled the whole time. He could not walk but dragged himself along the ground. When we left he dragged himself across the building to thank us and wave goodbye,
She asked me to take a picture of her. When I showed it to her, she asked me to give her a copy of it. I need to make sure I do that. In fact I should give them all the pictures. They probably have no pictures of themselves in their lives. Imagine how that must feel like.
Overcome with grief, or perhaps because a respite in it this lady broke down in tears when she received her small gift which was just a little bit of candy. She will never leave this place. There is no where else for her to go.
No matter what we did, we could not get this boy to smile. He had a sadness inside him.
This baby sat in her crib behind barred windows and the steel bars on her crib. So many barriers between her and others.
The kids cheered and sat in a row to greet us when we arrived. They were cute and so well behaved.
This little boy was shy. Very shy but he finally took a photo for us.
McKenna Movies – Fun Times.
Everyone always ask the same question. What was it like to grow up with 12 brothers and sisters and the answer is always the same. Fun.
McKenna Movie’s – Easter Sunday at Grandpa’s House
Everyone loved Grandpa McKenna a lot. He was a very kind, calm and happy guy and was always smiling. We used to love going over to his house and playing in the backyard which was very simple but well groomed. They also had things in their house like a radio from the 1940’s and a mirror that you could stand against and do weird tricks to make it look like you were levitating. Grandpa was so nice and when he got older he got Alzheimer’s. At the peek of it he used to eat pages out of Grandma’s cookbook when he got hungry and Grandma would exclaim, “He at my best cookbook!”, which is not something that you hear everyday. Here were some happy times in that old backyard in that modest house in Chula Vista. You have to check out everyone trying to convince Patrick to walk his first steps. He will have nothing to do with it but continues to crawl. Patrick eventually did walk – and he was pretty good at it too.
McKenna Movies – Fishing with Frank and Bill 1971
The good life was a hamburger, a fanta and a fishing pole out on the kelp beds catching sea bass and mackerel. That is what we used to do as kids. Usually we would go a few times a summer and often we would catch lots of fish and eat some of the best hamburgers I have had in my life. There was something about the hamburgers cooked on that grill on the boat and the way they wrapped them in wax paper. This particular day I apparently caught one of the biggest seabass of the day and I almost won the jackpot. The jackpot goes to the person that catches the big fish but the catch is that you need to put money in to collect. I didn’t so I didn’t get to collect. These were really fun days.
McKenna Movies – Riding Ponies 1972
Every Sunday we would pack into the yellow cadillac, go to church and then later in the afternoon head over to ride ponies in Bonita. It was just this tiny track with little ponies and you would buy a ticket and the pony would take you around the track like 2 times. Dad kept buying tickets and everyone just kept going around and around and around. We loved it.
McKenna Movies – Kathy and Suzy head to camp
It’s neat to see people grow up before your eyes and watch fashion trends change. I would have to say that the Beatles were responsible for a huge shift in fashion, ideology and music in a very short period of time. Kathy and Suzy went to summer camp at Divine Word Camp for several summers and this is a film my dad took of them leaving and on their way. I would have to say both of the films are quite well choreographed and filmed since I didn’t really edit or cut these at all. Dad just filmed the action as Kathy and Suzy did their thing.