LSVN Day 8: Saigon

Today was the first day of service. We started the day by attending a funeral for a Frere (brother) who passed away three days earlier. The brother was supposed to be joining us on our tour. Three days earlier, he was in Cambodia trying to save a girl who was drowning in the ocean as a wave was pulling her out. He swam to get her and bring her back to shore. The girl survived, but he passed away in the process. He was only 28 years old. Hieu told me that he was a very chill and fun guy. The funeral hit me pretty hard and I didn't even know the guy.

Afterwards, we went to visit some sick children at an institute called Trung Tam Mai Hoa. They were terminally ill with HIV/AIDS. We gave them toys and snacks and then sang folk songs with them. It was great to see the kids smiling. When we left, we took a ride towards the city, to spend time with and take out some students from a school. We were to take them out to buy clothes and supplies or whatever they needed and then take them out for dinner. Frere only gave us about $20 and we didn't go to the cheap flea markets, we went to the expensive mall instead, so the money didn't last long. We ended up going into our own pocket money, but that was all right. Most of the kids wanted to buy things for the rest of their family. We spent about four hours with them in the mall just hanging out with them. Some of us went out to eat again when we got back to the hotel.