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