1) we ate dog. It was gross, and not to mention we heard a dog barking in the restaurant before we got our food!
2) We motorbike like it is nobodies business. People have more motorbikes than cars here! Because people don't really follow the whole go the direction that traffic is going, we frequently are somewhat fearful for our lives, but we love it! I want to learn to drive one before I leave!
3) Hai wanted us to sing "It is Well" at his church, and that has to be one of the many funny experiences we have had so far. Or maybe it was just awkward..
4) The beaches here are amazing! It is weird because people go in with their clothes on, and more often than not you can always spot a handful of men wearing speedos or something of the sorts. We have to watch out for jellyfish, but other than that...
5) we went to an artist district to buy things for people back home, and got to stop at a place called Marble Mountain on the way there. It is literally right next to an old US Air Force Base during the war, and in it the Vietnamese somehow had a hospital in a giant cave in the mountain. We got to roam around the mountain and take pictures and such, it was amazing!
6) Vietnam possibly has some of the coolest cafes EVER. I am in heaven...there is boba tea everywhere as well as amazing the coffee. The coffee here is served in very small portions, so it will be interesting to go back to the States and get coffee there! Two of our interpreters took my teaching partner and I out after class yesterday, to this cafe with rad art all over the walls, and there were seats that look like park benches, but without the legs so you are pretty much sitting on the ground. There were even these shiny dragonflys hanging from the cieling, along with sweet techno music playing. There are differen't rooms too so you can go and do hw in one, or go to another where it is definitely louder. Not to mention, they serve you your drink in wine goblets...which just adds to the coolness of it :) All I can say, is that there are some things that only Asian countries can pull off, and cafes like this is one of them!
7) We took some of the kids from Fisher's SuperKids on an environmental walk. Pretty much we walked to a park and picked up trash along the way, then played on a playground there....in the 100 degree humid weather. Other than that though it was fantastic :)
8) Teaching around 35 kindergardners english is definitely interesting to say the least. Half the time we want to pull out our hair because they have no attention span, but really we love them! It is awesome to be able to teach them and play games with them without using tactics like smacking them to get them to move into a circle (an example) and such like a lot of the teachers at the school do. One of the teachers has the kids sing a song to get into a circle where the kids hold the shoulders of the person in front of them, and I always jump in line with them....because I fit right in :)
9) We decided to go to the movies as a team and see I Love You Man...so funny! The theater is nice, and we were all reminded of home while in it (minus the asian snacks we were eating)
Well there is lots more to say, but of course I can't remember it all right now. I am really enjoying my time here, and am being taught a lot through the lives of the people we come in contact with.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Closing Time
We ended our time in Saigon officially on Sunday, and we flew to Da Nang Monday afternoon. We got to do some cool things in Ho Chi Minh City (in Saigon) before we left though. One of which was going to the war tunnels. This was such a cool experience, and was worth the 2 hour bus ride. We got to crawl through several tunnels and go into some of the different rooms that they had. These tunnels seriously amaze me with how much ingenuity went on into creating them. For example, they are 3 stories, and there are several air holes in them that are disguised as ant hills at the top. And, these tunnels are so strong that they survived the bombs that were dropped in attempt to destroy them. Some of the rooms we saw included a dining room, meeting room, surgery room and hospital room. Some of the tunnels were longer than the others, which got me a little nervous, because I am a little taller than the average person, but I survived. We also saw things such as the slots they cleverly created to shoot out the feet of the enemy. There were also huge craters along the tunnels that are still there from the bombs. All of this is hard to explain, but I have pictures of all of it which should provide a better understanding of things. I am trying to figure out how to get those uploaded still.
Something else we did as our time in Saigon came to an end was go on a river boat cruise for dinner. They had several huge boats that were all decorated, ours was a fish, and you getting dinner, an awesome cruise where you can see a lot of Saigon, and there were some fire dancers as well as other live instrumental entertainment. We all had a lot of fun, and enjoyed the cooler (er) air!
The next day we had to leave for the airport by 9:30am. It was really hard to say bye to the kids for several reasons. We bonded with them way more than we ever though we would. This experience was way more difficult than I ever thought it would be, as well as more rewarding as I thought it would. A little boy who I became close with is named Liem, and he has so much joy in him. He represents a lot of what we saw in so many of the children....that despite their circumstances they still had joy. Some days we would come back with pee on us, or food that some of the kids had managed to get on us, but the end of the day we all laugh about it because it is part of the experience. It was hard to leave these children because Sister Marie said that a lot of them don't live past the next level, but it also reminded us that our spiritual ministry doesn't stop when we leave the kids and that it needs to continue afterwards as well(for these children and their health, for new volunteers, for the orphanage, etc). It is sad not saying good night to the kids when we get back from dinner anymore, but we will forever have our memories of them.
We are entering our second day of teaching, and I will right about that whole experience in the next blog. We teach kindergardners in the afternoons, and starting next week we will do that along with teaching kids from orphanages in the morning. The more time we spend here, the more time we fall in love with Hai and the ministry he has created through this school. He and his wife Theresa invited us over to their house the first night we were here for a bbq, which definitely reminded us all of home. Check the website for the school--> Fishersuperkids.com.
This weekend we are taking a tour of the city, and going to the beach. The beach here wa supposedly rated one of the best beaches in the world.....so we will see!
Well that is it for now....more to come soon!
Grace & Peace.
Something else we did as our time in Saigon came to an end was go on a river boat cruise for dinner. They had several huge boats that were all decorated, ours was a fish, and you getting dinner, an awesome cruise where you can see a lot of Saigon, and there were some fire dancers as well as other live instrumental entertainment. We all had a lot of fun, and enjoyed the cooler (er) air!
The next day we had to leave for the airport by 9:30am. It was really hard to say bye to the kids for several reasons. We bonded with them way more than we ever though we would. This experience was way more difficult than I ever thought it would be, as well as more rewarding as I thought it would. A little boy who I became close with is named Liem, and he has so much joy in him. He represents a lot of what we saw in so many of the children....that despite their circumstances they still had joy. Some days we would come back with pee on us, or food that some of the kids had managed to get on us, but the end of the day we all laugh about it because it is part of the experience. It was hard to leave these children because Sister Marie said that a lot of them don't live past the next level, but it also reminded us that our spiritual ministry doesn't stop when we leave the kids and that it needs to continue afterwards as well(for these children and their health, for new volunteers, for the orphanage, etc). It is sad not saying good night to the kids when we get back from dinner anymore, but we will forever have our memories of them.
We are entering our second day of teaching, and I will right about that whole experience in the next blog. We teach kindergardners in the afternoons, and starting next week we will do that along with teaching kids from orphanages in the morning. The more time we spend here, the more time we fall in love with Hai and the ministry he has created through this school. He and his wife Theresa invited us over to their house the first night we were here for a bbq, which definitely reminded us all of home. Check the website for the school--> Fishersuperkids.com.
This weekend we are taking a tour of the city, and going to the beach. The beach here wa supposedly rated one of the best beaches in the world.....so we will see!
Well that is it for now....more to come soon!
Grace & Peace.
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