Travel Back to Saigon (7/27) || Clara Bey

HI EVERYONE! Clinic is officially over and we are traveling back to Saigon! After the long, fulfilling three days of clinic we had, this is kind of our last early morning since tomorrow everyone flies out of Vietnam :(

After packing everything up and getting ready for the long bus ride, I walked to the elevator and took a photo of the beautiful view of Tra Vinh. I loved seeing the sunset through this window after everyday of clinic! Then I went down to have the lovely hotel breakfast. Like the last three days, I had pho and DIY Vietnamese coffee! (Tell me why I perfected my ratios on the LAST day here…)

The view from the elevator!

My breakfast! Vietnamese Coffee and Pho!

After breakfast, it was time to get on the bus! I knew we had about a 3-4 hour bus ride ahead of us so I was looking forward to thinking about clinic, doing my Anki cards and just sitting with Kai!!! Let me tell you, we ALL got to think about clinic as Dr. Bui asked all of us on the bus for feedback about clinic and the mission trip in general…

Kai (right) and me (left) trying said coconut wax candy

Personally, I thought clinic was great this year! My favorite part of clinic is seeing children because they all seem a little bit nervous and I feel a lot of fulfillment trying to make them more comfortable or seeing them smile! Clinic Pro Tip: keep bandaids on you and draw little animals or smiley faces on them. They make GREAT makeshift stickers for kids! It also makes the parents happy to see the volunteers show compassion for their child and it gives everyone a better experience! As always, I was in awe of the amount of people we were able to help and I would get the heat rashes on my face again if it means I could help one more person :’)

Next, we had a rest stop like 25% of the way in and I got off the bus to stretch and there was a little shop at the stop! Here we saw people making coconut wax candy that Kai and I got to sample! Then we got back on the bus and waited to leave again. When we started moving, Dr. Bui got right back to feedback time! I felt bad sleeping while he was talking… When everyone had a chance to share, we literally only had 15 minutes until we arrived at the hotel… So, having no Anki cards done, I stayed awake! Then when we got to the hotel, we got their earlier than expected so here’s me and Erika hard at work while we waited! BYE EVERYONEEEE