A few Days in Phố Châu

Charity Work with Mr. Trần

Mr. Trần Đình Trợ is not an ordinary man. He is out there to help others. And he does it every day! I use Mr. Trần here so you do not confuse him with my friend Trần! Mr. Trần usually wears a hat so it is easy to know who is who!

My friend Trần took me to meet Mr. Trần. We went to the English School he is running on the side. They collect books for the children. Fixed a few computers and provide internet in the classroom. But the main purpose of the building is giving free English class to kids that could not afford it otherwise.

One day he went out to give donations and money to people. Trần asked if I want to ride along. Gitte and Gieter stayed at the same hotel so we took them too. Mr. Trần collects donations and gives them to those who are in need. This picture is from our second stop that day. We went to a home where the parents take care of their son. His hip is open and he has multiple other problems. Money and supplies where dropped and a picture to proof that the family got the donation is taken. On the green paper you see a list of names and the amount they gave. This way everybody can be sure that the money they gave reaches the people.

On the way to the next house – Heenezy and Maria protect us. You do read right: Heenezy! The car is not from the organization. Somebody drove us with his car so we could go from house to house. Since some people get not only money we needed a car to transport the other things.

House and household goods donated. A guy from the local government was also there and a few neighbors to celebrate.

Counting the donation money

Group photo. You can see how much they got on the wall. Not sure if you really need to have a banner like that all the time but that is the way they do it.
I was hoping for the food they prepared but we went on to the next place after the picture.

Another House – this one still under construction. We stopped at a few more places and where back at our hotel in the late afternoon. Quite a day different from the others. And very interesting as well.

The Green Food Place in Phố Châu

Nothing special but I liked the green walls and the contrast with the orange and red plastic.

Photo shooting at the Temple

Trần is into Photography and one of his friends is a Photographer. One afternoon we tagged along with him to a temple where he took some pictures of an old man. I took the opportunity to get a few pictures as well. But the guy had my lens so I only could use the 50mm and of course I had to stay back and could not get the best angle.

So this is staged – not like the usual pictures I take

He does look like a happy old man!

Not sure why but they put me there to show him the pictures so they could get some shoots with us.

Sunset at the temple – not really – only some clouds.
We went to another small temple far from the main road.

Baby Goat

Kids on a bike

Bringing home the buffalo

Can I have a picture with you? Sure enough word spreads fast when a tall white guy stands in the fields. So everybody stopped and they waited to see what we do.

Even he came over for a selfie with me

Back in Phố Châu

At the butcher shop in the morning

Song Hà – a famous Vietnamese writer. He offered me a drink and we took a picture together. He put me on his Facebook for a while and I never saw that many likes for a picture in one day.

Trần took me to a temple. They wanted a picture with me as well.

Later another monk came over and walked us round the temple. He invited us to stay for dinner. Great – only vegetarian food here. One of the monks worked in East Germany before and could speak German. So he was happy to talk to me in German. He still has his former wife and kid over there in Germany and visits every year. Small world!

Nice dinner – not too much food for me but the beer was cold

The next evening we went to meet some of Trần’s friends. A picture with the girls – why not?

At the Wedding Shop

Phan Chau Trinh School

Strange things happen everywhere. More or less this school is in the middle of nowhere and a German guy helped to build this school and another one in Quang Nam. Rudolf Walther gave 500.000€ the German World University Service gave some and the rest of the money was from the province government. The school can also be used as shelter if the province gets flooded.

The school board