Day 1 Ho Chi Minh

Believe it or not, three separate routes and we all ended up in Ho Chi Minh last night very late to wake up to everyone for breakffast this morning! The cliffords and hunts had a hard time sleeping last night which made for some funny pictures tonight as their heads fell to the dinner table. All is all, a great day! We started out visiting The Sunflower Shelter, an orphanage for 30 girls between the ages of 8 and 18. We recieved a quick tour and then introductions were made. The girls sang us a song and then our kids taught them two fun games, "Big Booty" and "ninja" The girls thought this was pretty funny! Elle was a hit as our youngest team member... she is like a magnet for these vietnamese women! We had a great lunch with tons of samplings of food and now we know for sure the kids will eat Pho. Lots of seafood on the menu here and very different. We had to get them some caffeine as well to push them through the afternoon. After lunch we made it to the open market where North Face and Abercrombie items were plentiful. A little hot and overwhelming with crowds so we sent the kids home with the dads and the moms went on from there to the street of vietnamese art to check out our options. some beautiful choices yet we had to be careful as we know our trek ahead will have us with many options to adorn our walls. We met the kids back at the pool which sits on top of our beautiful hotel which is quite a site from above of the city. After discovering the boys got in a bit of trouble playing futbol in the hallway, we were able to relax on the rooftop and watch alec join a group of vietnamese men warming up by running laps around the pool before their swim. quite funny, especially since we were tired! Our evening ended with a wonderful dinner at a restuarant named after MARINA! filled again with food that we could not ever finish and kids dropping like flies at the table. We have some great pics. We were joing by Dr. Anh and Dr. Fung who are a father and daughter team of plastic surgeons who have been very loyal friends to the MAgees and Operation Smile. They are in the midst of getting ready for a local mission next week with 90 kids waiting for surgery. Great people. A lovely way to start our trek. We will get to visit more tomorrow including the tunnels where hundreds hid during the war. must sign off - terry is snoring while I write! tune in tomorrow! ciao!