Last clinic day till last day of relaxation!

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Trip Start Jun 14, 2008 Previous
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  Da Nang, Vietnam
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Wow, 3 days since i have written anything in here. sorry about not keeping up on this but a ton of things have happened since i last wrote.  Our last day of the first round of clinic we went back to the Phu Muy hospital.  We only had clinic till noon.  It was crazy because palmer had set up clinics there on past trips, so everyone around the area knew that we were back.  We had already seen all of the pre screened patients, so it was basically a free for all.  Anyone that wanted in could get in.  I got in a groove and saw 20 people that morning.  I'm pretty stoked about how my adjusting skills are progressing.  
    After clinic was over we went to a local place for lunch.  Very good, once again.  Then we went to visit an orphanage.  It was pretty hard to walk through the orphanage seeing all of them.  On the up side, all of the children were in pretty high spirits.  We donated 1 ton of rice and 5 or so wheelchairs to the orphanage.  After the orphanage we headed back to the hotel.
   At the hotel most of the group jumped in the pool before we had to head to an official dinner w/ the local health authorities and the translators.  Dinner was very good, once again.  After dinner we exchanged gifts with our translators.  I got my translator a palmer shirt and nate got her a Palmer water bottle.  She gave us a bottle of wine/liquor that her mom sells. 
     After dinner we all wanted to hang out with our translators for a few remaining hours so we tried to go to a club.  Right after i got drinks, EVERYONE decided that they wanted to leave.  So i had to hurry up with the drinks and we headed back.  Since EVERYTHING closes at 10 we just decided to go back to the hotel and have a few drinks w/ everyone in the hotel lobby bar. 
     So the next day, we had a travel day.  This time we drove the bus from Qu Nhon to Da Nang.  Total drive time was about 5 hours but we had to make a few stops with some activities.  Our first stop was at Dr. Tran's village.  Dr. Tran is a dr from vietnam that practices in Philly.  He pretty much sets the entire trip up and goes on every one.  Anywho, we stopped at his village and toured the hospital that was there and had a scheduled soccer game against the MD from the hospital. 
    When we got to the hospital we had a welcome from the Head of Health for the district and was the head of the hospital.  After that he took us around and showed us their surgical unit, ICU, ER and what not.  VERY interesting seeing hospitals in 3rd world countries.  I have a few pictures from the hospital. 
     After the tour of the hospital, we went to eat lunch(surprise).  Then we had a couple of hours to waste before the soccer game, so we went to Dr. Tran's familie's house.  We all took naps/got ready for the soccer game.  For the soccer game, they had uniforms made for us with our names and everything on the back.  I thought it was pretty cool. 
    So we went to the soccer field, and that is what it was, a Field.  Two goals set up in the middle of a dirt field that had dried cow shit all over it. But the game started, we had a lil' opening ceremony where they presented us with flowers and we did the same.  Since not very many of us play soccer, we got Dr. Tran and Deuce, Dr Tran's cousin who basically sets everything up for our trip and gets us what we need while on the road, to play with us.  It was hotter than hell and more humid than anyone would have liked, but we played anyways.  There were a total of 6 goals scored, all by Vietnamese born people.  But we ended up winning.  Deuce scored 2 goals and Dr. Tran scored the go ahead goal and the put the game out of reach goal.  So we won 4 - 2.
     After the game we went back to Dr. Tran's house to shower and everything before hitting the road.  we still had 3 hours of driving and a stop for dinner before we got to the sandy beach resort.  Dr. Donabaugher suggested that we get beers for the road and nobody really argued so we got them and hit the road for Da Nang.
     We got to the Sandy Beach resort around 11.  Nate and I were exhausted so we just decided to hit the sack.  The next morning we decided to get some exploring around the resort done after breakfast.  Checked out the pools and the beach.  After that we decided to rent scooters and head into Hoian to do some shopping.  We got our bearings with where we were at and decided to go to the A Dong Silk company(personal tailoring).  We decided to get suits made for ourselves.  I ended up getting a 3 piece, 3 shirts, and 5 ties(3 of which were cufflink and hankerchief sets) all for $330.  Not too shabby!
    After we got back, we decided to hit up the pool and the beach for the remainder of the afternoon, which ended up turning into all night.  There was a group of us that were hanging out in the pool and on the beach till about 3 in the morning.  We started out just ordering beers from the pool bar, we decided that was going to end up being way too expensive.  So nate and i got a taxi to take us into the super market so we could pick up some beer and make the night cheaper.  Little did we know, the super market was about a 20 min. cab ride from the hotel and it was basically a mall that was 5 stories tall.  Luckily we found the grocery store in the place and found the beer.  It was like a mad house trying to check out.  It was almost like the day after thanksgiving shopping crowds.  So we got back and were just hanging out.  around 11 30 we decided it would be a good idea to swim in the ocean, so we did that.  While we were out in the ocean, we saw flashlights being pointed towards us.  Apparently they don't like ppl going into the ocean when they don't have lifeguards on duty, so we got kicked out of the ocean and told to stay up around the pool.  Fair enough.  I ended up going to bed around 3 but a few other people ended up watching the sunrise at 5.  Everybody was in rough shape today.
     So today we had to go to try on our suits.  They made a few alterations to my pants, which only took them about 10 min. to do(in the states prolly take a couple of days to get done).  We also picked up some North Face backpacks while we were there.  It was a factory reject because some of the material had some stuff printed on it, but nothing was really noticable.  The backpacks cost us only 20/backpack.  If you bought them from a camping store in the states, they would prolly go for about $150-200.  I'll deal with the printing on the material for that. 
    After we got back from Hoian, we decided to take a nap.  After that i got up and found myself down by the pool eating a burger that was nowhere near the quality of beef i'm used to in Iowa.  I ran into David, a Palmer West student and we sat down and talked about a lot of different things.  Palmer, opening a practice etc.  After we got done, i headed back up to the room.  My laundry was back, I had the hotel wash some things for me.  A lil' expensive but worth it.  After organizing my things to get ready to leave tomorrow, some people were going to dinner at a seafood place down the road.  I thought it would be fun to get some fresh crab and shrimp so i decided to go.  What an experience.  Trying to order food when they speak broken english at best was fun.  There were six of us that went and we got 1 kg of shrimp and 2 kg of crab.  It was really good.
   So now here i am finishing up my blogs and catching you all up with how my last few days has been.  I'm a little sleepy so i'm going to head to bed and get ready for the flights tomorrow.  Hopefully better planes than the last one we were on.  We'll see.  hope all is well with everyone and i'll talk to you later.  Till next time!

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