Road to Lau Chai --- 21/1/08

Sapa --- 20/1/08

VRE Mission = Success

After five days of intense travel and hard work with the Vietnam Relief Effort, I am quite pleased to report that it was a very successful venture for all involved. In Tien Giang, 700 students received medical check-ups, medicine, and gifts all provided by VRE, a charity organization based in New York, and KPMG Limited, an accounting firm based in Ho Chi Minh City...It was a joy to interact with the kids, making photos along the way, sharing them to the kids as much as possible in efforts to boost their self-esteem (next time I would like to take a small printer to make copies on-site to give back to them). We also visited a school in Ben Tre, where as soon as we exited the car we entered an opening ceremony for a school donated by VRE, complete with musical performances, speeches, more giving of gifts to and fro, and followed by an authentic meal accompanied with home-brewed sake, a favorite of mine. Very hospitable and thankful everyone was, as I, to be included. Then we traveled to Long An, taking a skinny boat on the Mekong River, to visit a potential school site where the kids will have to boat-pull to go there if built....amazing. Once arriving back to HCMC we rested and celebrated with dinner, preparing for a trip to Phu Yen, via private charter (my first experience, most welcomed), where we attended another school opening. This school was donated by John Altorelli and he was the honored guest of the day, no doubt about it, and well-deserved. Here are several images from the days mentioned:

Ride when Ready

For so long I have resisted,
ideas of freedom convoluted and twisted,
leaving me independent but impotent,
thinking that I had it made.


No longer do I want life easy and steady,
now I say Ride When Ready.


Do not force, stay on course and never say no,
you will find yourself in a marvelous flow,
within life and all it can provide,
now it is time to enjoy the ride.


However it is not free,
sacrifice is key,
and you must chose wisely you see.


For all that you want,
and all worthwhile you receive,
should not be the source that is money,
for that is greed.


Success will come,
bridges will be built and hum,
the cycle begins anew.


What will truely be,
will reside by the see,
water waits for no one.

13/1/08 -- hotel room in Saigon
All images shot from back of scooter

Saigon Portraits: A Warm Welcome

Sometimes you try, sometimes you let go, and sometimes you just be.









Images made around 7am -- 3/1/08

Speaking of Writing

Just as there is a fine line between love and hate,
so is there a fine line between truth and embellishment.

Both can be positive to create the opposite,
the world consciousness grows and evolves all environments.

Serving each other to understand,
there is no such thing as a truly evil man.

date unknown

Trouble Sleeping Again III

I have joy and I have pain,
with rain follows sunshine,
leads to disdain,
sinking into the self,
life melts over hearts,
new starts begin again.

Give more to receive more,
without thoughts of what is in store.

Lessons learned and stories unturned,
to see urns filled and burned,
people believe and love to deceive,
quintessential hues of every color but blue,
fade to grey and forget to play,
blend and spin to friends' chagrin,
leaving them lost to begin again,

more rapidly,

learning of life, themselves, and all that is contained,
exploding again, tickling the brain,
feeling, before longing, experiencing glee,
on the flip side is it a he or a she?

3/1/08 -- Saigon hotel room

To Give is to Receive

To Give is to Receive as to live is to believe,

To laugh is to relieve as to craft is to concieve,

To grow is to love as to show how is to rise above,

your own selfish needs,

We give and receive.

8/1/08 -- aboard private charter plane to Phu Yen

Goodbye & Hello

Goodbye to paranoia and other sources of wasteful thought to ideas bought and sold to feelings of remorse from growing old to negative desires surrounded in mires of places to be so selfishly,

to goods of no intrinsic value that suffocate the soul and lead to a fallible shortsightedness of purpose and worth,

all pertinent tasks in order to bring US closer to earth.

Hello to the shores of a new day as all the goodbyes have now washed away leaving fresh connections and directions to be,

how wonderful it is to be set free.

8/1/08 -- aboard private charter plane to Phu Yen

Kindred Spirits

Two types of shark,
neither from the ark,
one gathers and feeds,
other kills without need.

As I dwell in the sea,
I prefer neither you see,

Choosing to be a tortoise,
swimming around with purpose,
attacking not what breathes,
but feeding only on leaves.

A hard shell defending prudent life,
those ride on burdened with strife,
building up strength of their own,
now the choice of what to condone.

Leaving sentient beings alive,
Striving everyday to survive,
creating in every stroke a new way,
believing in birth of a peaceful day.

Hunting mosquitoes before i sleep,
remember you sow what you reap,
enlightened moths drawn to the light,
Pests of their own know they are right.

16/1/08 -- Saigon hotel room