'Tis the Season (Part 4): Thuy's Family Supports an Impoverished Shelter for the Sick and Poor

The final part in a series of short stories of friends and family back home who have gone out of their way to extend their own generosity to those in need here in Vietnam.

Sharing information can be one of the most important ways you can help an organization. You never know from who and where help can arrive.

Thuy tells her family about the Francis Shelter in Dong Nai province. On a budget that would make the Seattle non-profit community cringe, the Francis Shelter cares for some of Dong Nai province's most dire and ill citizens. Thuy's family immediately makes a contribution to their cause.

'Tis the Season (Part 3): Friends Donate Large Box of OTC Medicines for Those in Need

Part three in a series of short stories of friends and family back home who have gone out of their way to extend their own generosity to those in need here in Vietnam.

This is a story about friends finding a unique and personal way to make a helpful contribution to people in need.

Two of our close friends in Seattle make a unique donation in the form of a box of medicines to be dispensed to anyone or any organization who needs them.

'Tis the Season (Part 2): UW Foster MBA Alums Offer to Pay for Christmas Gift for OBV Girls

Part two in a series of short stories of friends and family back home who have gone out of their way to extend their own generosity to those in need here in Vietnam.

This is a story about a small group of classmates turned friends who overhear a conversation and take it upon themselves to be awesome.

Three UW Foster MBA classmates and friends want to ensure that the OBV girls have one of the most entertaining and memorable Christmas gifts ever.

'Tis the Season (Part 1): Krav Maga Renton Donates Equipment to OBV Vietnam Self-Defense Class

At the time I wrote this, it was the evening of Christmas Day, which made it the morning of Christmas Day back home in Seattle. Another Merry Christmas to our friends and family in Seattle and across all timezones. We love and miss you all.

In celebration of this spirit of giving, this is the first in a series of short stories of friends and family back home who have gone out of their way to extend their own generosity to those in need here in Vietnam. The protagonists in these stories would probably insist that their contributions were "no big deal." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Thank you to everyone mentioned in these stories, to those unnamed, and to those who continue to offer their support of our work and of OBV. However small these benefactors might think their act to be, they've made a difference in other peoples' lives.

Don't Ask Me If I Learn Vietnamese Because of Thuy

Speaking a language is like doing a crossword or sudoku puzzle. There's the fun in making something unclear clear, the logic and associations needed to make the right guess and get the correct answer, and the beauty of a completed puzzle.

When you ask someone if they learn a language because of a woman (or man), you reduce the years of hard work someone put into achieving that fun, logic, and beauty into nothing more than some pursuit of affection from someone else.

Cambodia Medical Mission Trip (Part 2): OBV Delivers Medicine to Patients in Vietnamese Village

On Monday, December 16, we rejoined Linh Doan, Director for OBV Cambodia, in Phnom Penh for our second mission trip. During this visit, Thuy would be taken to a Vietnamese village to provide follow-up medical consultations for and dispense medicine to the villagers she saw on her first mission trip to the country.

This post is a collection of photos and a video journal detailing our task of purchasing and bringing medicine from Vietnam to this Vietnamese village in Cambodia, and, in doing so, sharing with you a tiny piece of what life is like for these villagers.

UPDATE: Decision Made, Huong Will Return to Vietnam

On Monday, December 16, Huong gave a somber, tearful goodbye to her sisters, a group of girls she met no more than a week prior. She left the OBV Cambodia house and returned home to her father.