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.