05/28/2026
This trip honestly felt like a SLAB to my face.
I came to Vietnam thinking I needed āhealing,ā meanwhile there are people here fighting every day just to surviveā¦ praying they have enough rice for tomorrow.
Yesterday in Ta Van Village near Sapa, I met two Hmong women, Di and Ly. Di invited me to see her home near the rice fields.
The walk there was difficultā¦ but seeing the house honestly broke my heart.
In that moment, I felt guilty thinking about all the things I complain about in life while some families are carrying debt just trying to build a tiny shelter to sleep in.
I gave Di all the cash I had, but it still didnāt feel enough. She didnāt even have a bank account, so I asked her to borrow a family memberās account because I couldnāt walk away knowing they were struggling that badly. I helped pay off the debt on their house and gave them enough for 6 months of expensesā¦ but my heart still felt heavy leaving.
Then there was Ly.
She is 70 years old and still walks over an hour through dangerous mountain paths every day to sell handmade items to tourists. Her husband is sick, and she works just to buy his medicine.
When I gave her money to cover the medicine expenses, she told me she had never held that much money in her hands before in her entire life.
That sentence shattered me.
If you ever visit Sapa, please visit Ta Van Village.
Your $10 could be a familyās meal.
Small kindness can truly change someoneās life.
So many families here are not livingā¦
they are simply surviving.
