A bit about life in Ho Chi Minh City

The house we are living in belongs to the Canadian Consul-General and his family. It is absolutely beautiful and we lucked out being able to stay here for free! The only catch is that we have to walk their dog Bruiser twice a day. He is about a million years old and walks so slow...we literally only go down the block and back. The house is staffed with a the cook and a housekeeper--Nguyet and Thanh, respectively. We have three fridges in the kitchen, and they are always stocked. We just give Nguyet a list and she does the grocery shopping and cooking! She makes the best banana bread in the world. You can honestly request anything and she will make it for you! They have every kind of food possible in the grocery stores and markets. The house keeper LOVES to do laundry. She irons everything, even my pajamas. Its great to come home to a clean house and have your bed made and all that good stuff, but I am afraid it's going to make me lazy!

Hailey is a great person to travel with. She is very informative since she has already been here for a month. She knows her way around the city pretty well which is great because it is extremely confusing at first. There is so much packed into such little space--visually overwhelming!

The weather is really warm. Its 9am right now and 80 degrees. It will probably get up to 95 or so and it feels much hotter due to the humidity. It rains about once a day, but only for 20 minutes or so and you can feel it coming in the air so you have enough warning to get inside.

We are going to a local orphanage on Saturday and we are going to a mission next week which is local as well. On the missions, I will comfort and play with the children before they go into surgery. We are allowed into the hospital rooms, so we can also get scrubbed up and watch an operation first hand.

The people I work with are great! Other than Hailey and me, there are 5 people, only one guy named Kevin. All of them are Vietnamese except one of the girls who is from Jordan, her name is Lina. Kevin went to Stanford so he speaks English very well, as do the other Vietnamese women. Right now we are making invitations for a OpSmile Co-Founders cocktail we are hosting next Tuesday and working on creating an Operation Smile Vietnam theme song.

Saigon has Westernized shopping malls with makeup counters, and they carry a handful of good clothes. They also have a lot of high end designer clothes, so you can really buy anything you need here. We haven't had a chance to go out at night yet, but the weekend is only beginning! There are a lot of Western bars and clubs which primarily have white people, most of which are Australian or European.

Mani/pedi's are really inexpensive, and the other night Hailey and i got a full one hour body massage for $5. It was amazing! The nail and massage salons are all really new and very sanitary. People are really clean here. The streets are dirty, but inside everyones houses and offices are absolutely immaculate--no one wears shoes inside.

They have movie stores with every TV show and movie you could imagine and you can buy them for about $1 each. CD's are 60 cents. Down the street from work, there is a restaurant called Bobby Brewers that has a free movie theater upstairs. You can order food or and the waitress will bring it to your seat! It's pretty sweet!

The food in Vietnam is great! There is an adorable French bakery across the street from our house and they have the best baguettes and croissants. Otherwise, there is a lot of pho, Italian food, Indian food, and really good sushi and fresh spring rolls. I try to stick to vegetarian platters, just in case i accidentally end up eating dog, which would break my heart. The fruit is amazing, and there are tons of smoothie places that have fresh squeezed juices and smoothies. SO GOOD!

I have access to the computer at work, but haven't figured out how to connect at home yet. I'm working on that! Please feel free to call me and keep in touch via e mail! I have a cell phone, so if you have not gotten the number yet and need to call me, just shoot me an e mail at katie.links@gmail.com and I will let you know how to call me. If you need to send anything in the mail, the best place to send it to would be the office.

Katie Links
Operation Smile Vietnam
170/186 Cong Quynh, Pham Ngu Lao Ward, District 1
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

THE MANSION!

Above: A look down our street, Cherry Blossom Road. We are the fourth house on the left. There are tennis courts, a gym, and a lap pool in the compound as well.
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Above: This is the house from the outside!! (aka the mansion)


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Above: This is the street outside of the gate of our development. The street is called Cong Quynh. The picture is of a great grocery store right on the corner outside of the gated community. It has everything you could imagine inside, including underwear...
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Above: Our street sign. Cherry Blossom Road
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Above: This is the gate to the house. Notice the Canadian flag on the right of the gate.
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Above: This is the entryway, taken from the stairs. Mine and Haileys rooms are at the top of the stairs. There is a TV room and a small office up there as well. To the left is a hallway which leads to the kitchen and connects to a dining room and comes back out to the living room which you can see straight ahead. The front door is to the right.
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Above: This is my bedroom. It has a desk, a couch, a TV, and its own bathroom!
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Above: And finally, our swimming pool!