On the occasion of a wedding ceremony in Vietnam, we traveled to Vietnam at the end of 2022. Together with Mrs. Ninh Hong and her husband, Mr. Duong Kim Dung from Canada, we visited some children in Tay Ninh on December 30th, 2022.

Ms. Ngoc Anh took care of the preparations for the visit: renting a car and driver, sorting clothes that fit the children's size, arranging an appointment with the school administraion and the staff representatives of the "Association for the Promotion of Education".

As we arrived a bit early, we visited the Cao Dai Temple and had lunch in a small restaurant near the Chu Van An high school, where we later met Nguyen Thanh Hien (6th grader), Le Minh Khanh (7th grader ) and Le Thi Thu Thao (12th grader).

The children were a little bit shy when they received the sweeties and New Year's lucky money (VND 200,000 each). They felt more comfortable trying on the clothes. The conversation afterwards, with questions about their academich archievements and future plans, was more open. Minh Khanh enthusiastically talked about his performances in soccers, Thanh Hien was a little bit reluctant, but answered all our questions about which subjects she had good scores and which she didn't particularly like. Thu Thao, an orphan, intends not to continue studying but to learn a profession in healthcare in order to take care of her elderly aunt who has been taking care of her since childhood.

We encouraged the children to invest more in English as Tay Ninh has recently become a tourist city. They should continue to learn well at school and also not forget to help friends and people in everyday life as much as possible.

All expenses for the visit, sweetiess and lucky money were covered by us and by Mrs. Ninh Hong and her husband, Mr. Duong Kim Dung.

The deepest memory of this visit was the image of Minh Khanh fiddling with the colorful Lindt chocolate candy wrapping paper to make it sizzling, and the scene of motorbikes crowded sidewalks on the road on the way back to Saigon.