New Couventines Pictures

Here are some recent additions to our Couventines Photo Album:

- Couventines '79 Reunion 2005
- Mini Reunion Paris, Summer 2006
- Mini Reunion, VA
- Mini Reunion, Orange County, CA, 2005
- Mini Reunion, San Diego, CA, 2005
- Resto Paris, Nov 4, 2006

Posting & Viewing Couventine Pictures

(by My Phuong on 16/11/2006)

Hello Kim Phuong va cac ban,

MP just signed up our chim account in Snapfish. Cac ban va KP co the upload our pictures. It's better to create each album for each region (e.g. Paris, Virginia, Canada, California...) vi so far tui minh had mini reunions at those places).

Cac ban co the access Snapfish from Giang's block to view our photos in either way:

1. Click on www.snapfish.com link
Enter email address and pwd

or,

2. Click on Couventines Photo Albums under My Albums on the right.
Snapfish page will be displayed.
Select United States from Sites Snapfish drop-down list.
It will take you to the Snapfish Login page.
Enter email address and pwd.

Thanks,
MP

Remembrance of things past

1969 Tuoi tho au:


1975 Tuoi day thi:


2005 Tuoi xon xon:

Soirée Couventines Paris

La ghe! G. tuy tinh ting hoi chong chong, thich gi thi thich rat nhanh, nhung chan gi thi cung chan rat gon. Nhung chi co nhung cuoc hop couventines thi hinh nhu se chang bao gio chan duoc. Luc vua moi den restaurant minh buc minh bao nhieu, thi khi ve minh phon pho yeu doi bay nhieu.

Mot phan la ruu vao loi ra, nhung mot phan nua la duoc nhin lai nhung khuon mat than yeu, va tro truyen thoai mai, that tinh cam, lam minh thay yeu doi han len. Dac biet la G. con duoc thuong thuc nhay lambada voi MC, va rock voi Nam. Chua len troi, ma da duoc nhay voi tien roi :-P

Lan sau ai se dung ra to chuc day?

Gros gros bisous et merci à toutes et à tous d'être si adorables !
G xxxx

Mini Reunion in Paris (by Kim Thu)

Ca'c ban chim tha^n me^'n,

Da^`u than'g 7 vua` qua mo^.t so^' Couventines '79 da~ hop mat o Paris. Thanh My tu` Amsterdam, Kim Thao va` My Hanh tu` Frankfurt, Kim Phuong tu` London, va` Kim Thu tu` California da~ de^'n tu hop o nha` cua Huong Giang cu`ng vo'i ca'c chim Parisiennes kha'c. Ca'c chim Parisiennes go^`m co' HG, Ngoc My, 2 Thuy Tien, Xuan Dung, Nam, Diem Thu, Ba Dung, Minh Chau, va` Hoang Anh. Ra^'t tiec la` Phuong Mai, Phuong Lan, va` Lien Huong di vacances xa kho^ng de^'n gop mat duoc.



We had a great great time and really bonded - it was as if we had been in touch all these years! It was also amazing that our spouses and significant others got along so so well. Ca'm on Giang va` Chris ra^'t nhie^`u da~ welcome all of us into your charming home va` cho an uong linh di`nh (all home-prepared dishes!). To^'i ho^m a^'y Giang va` Chris don dep me^.t lam do'. Ca'i mo'n pate chaud cua co^ Nam nha` mi`nh thi` ngon nha^'t Paris va` Xuan Dung's ba'nh cuo^'n surpassed banh cuon Bolsa by far! Thu kho^ng biet ban na`o dem tartes de^'n. Thu la` ngu`oi ve't sach he^t nhung mie^'ng co`n la.i do'. Xin lo^i Minh Chau, Thu da~ da'nh be^ chai vin blanc cua ban. Ca'm on Vu~ (cho^`ng cua KPhuong) da~ chup ra^'t nhieu hi`nh cho tui na`y. The icing on the cake la` to^'i ho^m do' Les Bleus (the French soccer team to those of us in the US) da~ da'nh ba.i do^i banh Brazil. The French (including chim an nam mit' mi`nh) went CRAZY celebrating their victory!

With Kim Phuong's permission Thu would like to share her photo album of that reunion night. Mo^t la^`n nua ca'm on ta^'t ca ca'c ban chim europeennes da~ cho Thu une soiree inoubliable! Thu se~ nho de^'n ky niem na`y ma~i ma~i.

Chu'c ta^'t ca ca'c ban mo^t mua` he` tha^t vui ve va` bi`nh an.

Love,
Kim Thu

RM Funding Survey

Dear birds,

Please respond to this survey to let CHH know how much money you're willing to donate to RM to help fund the new 20 or so 6th graders for their year of schooling at Truong Tinh Thuong in Tan Thuan. For more details, see my previous posts on the RM trip reports.

We expect to collect the money by May in time to send it by June for the new school program in September. 2006 of course !

Please respond by clicking on the Comments link below to state the amount, and your name (or anonymous if you wish for the donation to remain anonymous).

Thanks and lots lots of love xxxx

Dinner with Friends in Saigon Mar'06

A hot night in Saigon at Quan an Nhu Y with Thuy Tien, Kim Thuy, Ngoc Tran, Giang, Kieu Hanh and San Ha. The most memorable dish was fried fish balls, rolled in green rice. Lucky NT, she got to drink red Saigon beer! I was too sick and on antibiotics to boot to join in the revelling ...

RM March Trip Report

I met with sr. MA and TM this past Saturday (March 5) and here are some of the key points we exchanged:

1. Sr. TM accepted to be our interface, to receive our funds, to disburse them to the projects in need, and to give us a once-a-year report on how the money was spent. Addtionally, she's offered to be a guide to whomever among us who happens to be in Vietnam, and interested in meeting with the kids who received scholarship money from us. The only thing she asked is for us to try to keep the scope of the work reasonable, and not up the scale too much, or she would not be up to the task. I asked whether $1000-$2000 a year would be reasonable, and she said yes, but no more.

2. The sisters have just recently been granted the right to expand their Tinh Thuong school in Tan Thuan, to add grades 6 to 9. Before, the school was only operating up to 5th grade. Concretely, by September there will be (at least) a new 6th grade with about 20 students attending. If we could get the money to them by June or so, this would come in very handy to fund the new expenditures for the new 6th graders (lunch money, school books, etc.) Any fund remaining could be used as part of the "roving" scholarship fund, used at the discretion of the sisters.

3. About the best way to get the money to her, Sr. TM recommended that we get it to her personally. The sisters do have an account in France, but ultimately to get at the money, they would still have to get someone to carry it from France to hand it to them in VN. So the best way is if we could find a trusted courrier to get the money to her once a year.

4. We got to talking about Chi Tam, and how the kids from the school really appreciated the gifts Chi Tam's kids put together for them. Sr. TM mentioned that if any of our kids are interested, she could set them up with kids their own age here in VN. The kids could correspond, and the American kids could help the VNmese kids with pocket money once in a while. She even came up with a name "Ba.n giu'p ba.n".

That's it, birds. Get your checkbook out and ready ...

Love from Saigon,
G xxxx

Corono Delmar with Thu and Linh

Co Chau (much later ...)

Spleen for Harriet

The Muhammad cartoon flap

The cartoon flap is pretty scarry ... I think for a long time, Western governments have been tolerating and even partnering with really shaky, corrupted leaders from the Middle East, who cared not a whit about their people. By building a couple of schools here, a couple of dispensaries there, it didn't take much for the faction of Muslim fanatics to show the poor people in these parts of the world a semblance of equity and justice. Unfortunately, the road from schools and dispensaries and food-for-the-poor to religious intolerance and jihad was just a hair's breadth away. The ironic thing is, these fanatic values are now being institutionalized, aided by the very same democracy framework, proned by Bush as the cure all to the region's political ills (I'm thinking of the Hamas). The story of the cartoon shows how much of a gap there is in the mutual undestanding/appreciation between the Western world and the Middle East. Unless there's some way to bridge this gap (and why not through economic development rather than through this silly and much over-used notion of democracy imposed from without) we're heading toward WW3 slowly but surely. And I just really hope I don't live to see that day !

With some of the gals in Saigon - Dec 2005

Chuyen tien ve Vietnam

Truoc day KL co de nghi G. giup nhom CHH trong van de chuyen tien vao tai khoan cac sœurs neu can. G. se san sang nhan lam cong tac nay va de nghi cach lam sau day:

1) ca'c ba.n gui? check to G.
2) sau deadline, G. publish total amount (dollars, and euros equivalent) and who sent what
3) G. transfer total amount in euros cho tai khoa?n ca'c sœurs, và publish copy cua wire xfer
4) G. hoa(c mot ban khac confirm voi mot sœur trach nhiem la their account has been credited, and let everyone know

Nhung cung chua chac la cach lam nay co pha?i la cach tot hon het. Neu chi? là mô.t na(m mô.t lâ`n, thi` cha(?ng ha.n mi`nh co' thê? nho*` mô.t ba.n nào do' co' di.p vê` VN dê? trao tiê`n tâ.n tay ca'c sœurs ...

CHH Questionnaire

1. What's CHH mission?
2. Do we see our involvement as something long term, or on the spot for this year only?
3. Should we set up a pilot project first as a way to test our commitment, and the feasibility of our mission? If yes, what would be its scope?
4. How should we organize ourselves
- Set up an NGO
- Operate under another NGO's umbrella
- Informally, until certain key milestones (time/financial) have been achieved? 5. Even if we don't set up an NGO right away or opt for informality, what are the basic rules of engagement (bylaws) regarding:
- Roles and responsibilities
- Nomination process
- Financial management
- Project implementation, communications and monitoring
- How to change the bylaws
6. Do we need 501(c)(3) status?
(If we plan to raise money from US donors, then this is a must. And apparently, it's hard to get, hence the possibility to work under an existing NGO's umbrella)
7. Should progress (in defining, planning and then monitoring a project) be recorded in a live "blog" open to all viewers?
8. Should we limit communications to a newsletter once in a while?
9. Do we want to do a Fund-Raising Event to kick off our effort?
10. Or do we want to limit the financial contributions to our inner CHH circle?
- For now? For the pilot project? Forever?

Poem for Kiki

(Désolée M. P., c'était nullement mon intention de vous plagier ...)

You said you wanted a poem
I went to the market and found
Rows and rows of yellow sunflowers
and red tulips
Men and women probing dead and live
merchandises
But no one to sell me a poem

You said you wanted a poem
The cleaning woman swearing at the vacuum cleaner
The abandoned dog howling in the abandoned car
The phone ringing with unknown faces begging you to buy
unknown things
When will I find the time to find you a poem?

You said you wanted a poem

It was the downpour on this late day of March
Keeping me in and making me think
I could just sit down and make you that poem
The way cobblers made shoes
Not for their children
But in a strange quest to make friends of
weary feet and restless mind
dreaming of the miles and miles still to be covered

I’m your cobbler, and you’re my feet
Will my love make these shoes soft and strong enough
for you my love?