Good morning, Vietnam!

We’ve been in Vietnam for a little over a week now. Travel went very smoothly this time around. Short ride to the Bangkok airport, two hour plane ride, and here we are. I find great comfort in the fact that we only have three big travel days left. I won’t miss the hustle and bustle of travel.

 

 

Our time in Vietnam has been great so far. We’re in the city, which continues to make it difficult to transition from Africa. We can no longer follow African time, meaning we actually have to follow our schedule to the tee. The structure is actually nice. We’re staying in a small hotel, if you would call it that. Many of the shops on the street have rooms above them that are rented out. It’s not as extravagant as our hotel in Bangkok, but it works just fine. We have air-conditioning, which is all that really matters.

 

 

 

Just like Thailand, things here are so incredibly cheap compared to the States. For example, you can buy an entire television show series DVD set (7 seasons worth) for around ten dollars. We spent the entire day at a waterpark on our day off for $4.50. You just can’t beat that. The currency is a little strange. One dollar is approximately 18,604 Vietnamese dong. After visiting the ATM, I can literally say I’m a millionaire.

 

Our work here has been right up my alley. The first thing we did was visit a home for the elderly. It would be the equivilant of our nursing homes, but with much lower standards. About 100 people lived there, and shared three large rooms. Their beds were simple wooden slabs that we lined up in rows. Many of the people I talked to told me how lonely they were…they had no family, no friends. Just boredom. One lady I talked to was absolutely adorable. She had three cats that kept her company. One cat especially took a liking to me. She asked me to take it home to America (I suppose so it could have a better life). I explained to her that I didn’t think the cat would enjoy living out of a backpack for the next three months, and she agreed. We decided on the next best thing. The cat didn’t have a name, so we named it Halley. She told me that I was beautiful. She told me that I was her daughter. She told me that she used to think very poorly of Americans because of the war, but now she saw that there kind Americans that cared. Visiting this place was wonderful, but also difficult. Many of the people were on the verge of death. Many of them couldn’t eat, sit-up, or speak. It reminded me of how fragile this life is. One life, one life to love.

 

We also got the chance to visit an orphanage type center for children with HIV. All of the kids were under the age of five. Asian babies are so incredibly beautiful, and their hair often forms a natural fro-hawk. We played with them, helped to feed them, bathe them, and get them ready for their naps. We sang songs and simply loved on them. They returned the favor.

 

A large portion of our time is spent with college students. They accompany us to places to be our translators. We have something called “tea time” twice a week. Basically, we meet around 100 young people in a coffeeshop to simply talk and hang out. Last night, we attempted to play an ultimate frisbee game. Frisbee isn’t a popular sport here, and most of them had never even seen one. After a few short drills, we explained the rules and divided the teams. The game was….entertaining.