da nang
Hello all!! If you are reading this, you were successfully able to log into my blog with my password ~ congrats!
I am in Vietnam! I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam on Saturday morning (11/10). We arrived and almost immediately got onto a bus for about 20 hours to travel to the north of Vietnam to the city of Da Nang. We arrived into Da Nang on Sunday morning, and man was I relieved to stop traveling lol.
Here is a little about what I am doing this month!
Where am I?
Da Nang, Vietnam, a large coastal city in central Vietnam with about 1.064 million people. The city has mountains and beaches! It is on the coast of the South China Sea and at the mouth of the Han River. It is the fifth largest city in Vietnam and is known to be the commercial and educational center of central Vietnam!
What do I do?
This month we are paired with Campus Crusades for Christ or CRU! CRU’s vision is to share Jesus’ love throughout Vietnam to University students. This ministry is so special to me because I was very interested in serving in college campus ministry in the US this year if I did not choose to do the World Race. It is cool that I am getting a taste of this work! This ministry month is very interesting because the entire organization is underground with no offices or publicizing of the organization. Because of the secrecy, they use English Club as a primary way of meeting students. They have a weekly youth group meeting for students who are Christian. So what is my job? My job is to help teach English at the English clubs. The clubs are like a small class. We meet at different coffee shops all around Da Nang with students from different universities in Da Nang. I teach about 10 classes a week, 2 hours each. The classes range from 3 students to 10! At the classes this first week, we did introductions, played some games and went through questions in English around a certain topic. I have learned that it is very important to work on pronunciation with the students because the English language sounds are quite different from Vietnamese and very difficult. I have really liked getting to know the students!
Who is hosting us?
A young mother named Phuc is hosting us. She lives with her daughter and mother in Da Nang. She works as part of the CCC staff. She meets with University students all the time and helps with their english as well as disciples students and leads weekly youth group meetings. Phuc is really amazing and I am glad to have a local leading us to teach us Vietnamese culture and norms!
Where do I live?
Our team lives in a hostel called Hi Beach Da Nang hostel, which is actually owned by a Christian and it has verses all over! We have a room for the girls and a room for the guys. My room has 2 sets of bunk beds and I have the bottom bunk with a curtain (yay for privacy)! We have one bathroom and two showers. We have air conditioning (at night) and sometimes hot water for our showers… but honestly it is pretty hot here so cold water is nice. The hostel is located in a fairly touristy part of town. We are just two streets away from My Khe beach!! We have food options, markets, and coffee shops all around us.
What do I eat?
For breakfast, the owner of our hostel has offered to provide breakfast for us for free every morning! So I have tried some different things each day. I have had Banh Mi sandwiches, sweet sticky rice, and coconut net buns. We will not cook much this month, it makes more sense for us to eat out for lunch and dinners. We have discovered a cheap market about 10 minutes away walking that has very authentic food. There are also some more pricey/Western food options close to our hostel which is nice when we just want a taste of home.
Currency?
The money here is the Vietnamese dong. 1 USD= 23,310 dong
Transportation?
We walk to places close by, but anything further away we bike (our hostel has provided us free bikes to use and one free motor bike). Anything a little further, we can ride motor bikes (the primary transportation of people in Da Nang. Places that are much further away, we ride in a taxi. We have used the app Grab (much like Uber) to get around here. They have grab motor bikes and cars.
Tourism?
There is SO much to do in Da Nang. It is a huge place for tourists. We have already been to the beach, seen the dragon bridge breathe fire and water on Sunday nights, seen Marble Mountain (mountain with caves and any Buddhist sanctuaries), been to a museum of military, and eaten lots of traditional food… some a little weird. I have many many other things on my list of things to do, so stay tuned!
