On behalf of our family members here in Danang, we sincerely say "thank you" from the bottom of our hearts to the many of you who have sent your love, compassion and prayers toward our mother and her illness! Your prayers have been answered once again and here is some good news to report.
    
Yesterday afternoon our mother called all of us to her bedside and said "I am ready to go and I don’t mind, but I hate to leave all my children here. " We asked, "Why do you have to go?" Her answer was "My body is too old and painful, my whole body is too tired to just lay here." We felt very sad for our mother and planned to take her home this morning, but sister Lan and the nurse asked to let her stay
until the end of the week.
    
Tomorrow it will be two weeks since our mother has been here in the hospital. But for the first two days they did not help her because she did not have all her insurance papers with her. The first 10 days were tough, but today the doctor checked her very thoroughly and let  us know how much she had progressed and regained her strength and courage! She can talk well now, move both of her legs, but still only one of her arms is working. She still eats through the tube but she can eat more, and asked for good food. She can P on her own and they have cut back on the IV.  She knows everything that’s going on around her and all the visitors. My brother Bon brought his 3 young children to visit her last night. She felt the children’s arm and height and told them if they lost or gained weight.  She knew they were getting taller and asked about their study and school etc.
    
For example, my sister Lan came home with her son Eddie.  While they are here Eddie plans to marry a  local girl he knew for 2 years! This afternoon all four of us were sitting around in the hospital while mother was resting, so we discussed openly about the wedding for Eddie. Mother opened her big eyes and said "That good, I am very happy to be at Eddie wedding, " We turned around and asked ‘What did you hear?’  She answered "I hear you are planning a big wedding for Eddie. I will be there on my wheel chair."  We were all so surprised.
    
Besides Eddie’s wedding, there are two more weddings in Phung family in the next 10 days, even though mother is very sick in bed.  But because she is the great-great grandmother for so many youths, the family must invite her to the wedding! She told Lan and I to make sure to be at the wedding and bring some gifts and money to the wedding for good luck.
    
We need two people to be with her 24 hours a day and we always tell her when we change shifts to go home! She does not want us to go! She always calls for me and wants me to stay. So tonight my sister Ba played with her by telling her that she only loves me and nobody else! Mother’s answer was, "Because Bay Ly is the youngest child, don’t be so mean to her."    
    
She is still thinking we are young children and knows every detail what we do and say. She is still very smart with deep wisdom that she’s never lost.

She wanted to go home to Ky La, but sister Ba told her that it will be too hot for her there. She asked "Who say so? That is what Bay Ly told you?" The weather in Ky La has started to get very hot. Between 9 am to 4 pm the temperature can reach up to 100 and we know no way she can make it. We tried hard to find a good nurse to come and help us out, but no one wanted to go there. Not only is it too  far but it is also too hot. No matter how much money we offer no one wants to go. So we will see, another two more days her insurance will run out and they won't let her stay over, so either we pay for her to stay, or discharge her from the hospital! Even though she is OK, she will never be the same way she was before. I will give you an update and some more news soon. Again, we thank you all for your love and compassion on our mother!
    
Other news: Today I donated 20 chairs for two rooms with 20 beds in the hospital for people to sit on while they look after their loved ones. Because the hospital is very crowded, although each patient needs 2 people, only one person can sit on the chair next to the bed, but there is not enough chairs for everyone.  The other person has to sit on the floor in the hallway and wait. So I donated 20 chairs, and will give 20 + more for the hallway and 20 more for another 2 rooms next door. You talk about needs!
    
People here need everything in the hospital. Not only food, medicine, clothes and blankets, but also a mat to sleep on, chairs to sit next to the bed because no one can sit on the bed, toilet paper, toothbrush, soap and shampoo etc, etc. People come from the countryside and they have no money for such things. It costs so little and yet there wasn’t any to go around! Tonight a young man came to me while I was eating and asked for food. While we talked he asked, "Are you the one who built the Mother Love Clinic in Ky La, and your mother’s name is so and so?" I said yes. Turn out he is my mother’s nephew. He pull up his shirt and showed me a big long cut on his chest from a heart operation 2 years ago. But now he cannot breathe, so people brought him here 5 days ago. He saw my mother but too afraid to ask. Now he has to have another heart operation. He is 28 years old, married with 2 young kids.  He used to work at a construction site with his wife, but he fell down from a high place onto a big stick that went through his heart. He had no money for the hospital, so he sold his little bamboo hut in the village to pay for his hospital and medicine bills. But that’s still not enough so East Meets West helped him out a little. That’s what he told me, but  that was two year ago.
    
Since then his wife and 2 children are homeless because he cannot work. Now he is back in the hospital and waiting for a major heart operation within a few days, but he has nothing. He has to beg for his food every day, even if it’s just only one bowl of rice soup. Thing are just so sad. He needs to make a phone call to send a message to let his family know about his health. It’s only 2,000 dong, 10 cents! Yet he had no money to call. I asked Mark Conroy from East Meets West to meet with us tomorrow to see if there is anything Mark can do to help him.

This is just one of thousands of cases like this here everyday.
    
Two nights ago, a young man came to me and asked for some $ for food. I looked at his younger brother right next to him with his head open and blood running down his face, standing on  the street outside the hospital begging for food. Because he had no insurance or money, no one helped him.  Today I saw 2 young children together in one cart pulled by a nurse, pushed by their father and mother from the hospital onto the open street with dust and traffic. They walked from one hospital to another children’s hospital one block away.
    
In the room where my mother stays there are 8 beds but sometimes 10. Every hour, one bed is pulled in, another one pushed out the door with a dead person on it.

So, please tell me what to do? How can I help! It’s just like I died and went to hell! I surely understand why monks and nuns are working their way out of this existence and never return into this body again. If you see what I saw here you would die. Nothing like it in the US. You wouldn’t believe it if I tell you things! That is not to mention about how to deal with hundreds of people who eat and sleep here every day and night, without a toilet or toilet paper in the bathroom! I mean, we live in 2006! This is a brand new hospital just built by the East Meets West Foundation only 2 years ago. I have to go home, or pay 10,000 dong (75 cents) for the internet coffeehouse, to use the bathroom!
    
Hope you get some ideas about helping poor people! Bill Gates was here! I wish he could see what I saw!
    
Thank you and will keep in touch. With Love to you all back home!
Le Ly   :: Go to Part 3

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