So guess what? We are in Vietnam and it’s raining. Surprising, right? Well it actually is surprising. Yes it does rain a lot here in Southeast Asia, but only during the rainy season, which for Vietnam ended two months ago. Never the less it is rainy and quite cool today, which is a good break from the heat. The rain has been a blessing. It has aloud me extra time to just sit with my new friend Binh.
Today Binh and I were supposed to build more in front of the shop, but due to the wet weather we have elected to sit, drink coffee, and enjoy the cool weather. OH and did I mention eat? For free? For those who have never been on The Race, or traveled on a budget, you can not imagine how much anything free means, especially FOOD! I just finished an amazing bowl of rice noodles with fresh peanuts and ginseng, pork, and shrimp, prepared by Binh’s wonderful wife Trinh. Together they have loved me well this month.
(Tom and I hanging out in the coffee shop with his pet bird)
It is amazing how fast the people of Vietnam will take in a stranger as a friend. I now enter into Binh’s home (located behind and above the coffee shop), find a place on the couch next to his son Tom, and enjoy myself like I’ve always been a member of this sweet family.
To add to this already awesome day, I also won the latest drawing for blogging the past two weeks. Together as a squad (lead by our fearless dani) we are trying to turn this blog game upside down. For far too long on The Race, blogs have slowly declined to less than one blog per month for many racers. As a squad we have set a goal of at least two blogs per week. It has actually turned out to be quite easy. To help facilitate this, dani along with Uncle Seth, came up with the idea to do a few simple raffles. Nothing will stimulate a basically poor and homeless 20some year old like free money (other than doing work for the Big Man Upstairs of course). The first raffle would go to the people who for two weeks in a row hit the goal of at least two blog per week. We had twelve people (awesome, but out of fifty-two still kinda lame) make the cut, and out of those twelve, I won. The BIG PRISE you ask? $25, which is practically…well a lot on The Race. Ah, so thankful.
As always Fam, please continue to always be in pr@yer for my squad, my leaders, my team, and me.
God Bless
PS please pr@y that an opportunity to share the Good Word comes up between Binh and I. He is a practicing buddhist and knows I am a Christi@n. It is very hard in a closed country to speakto him about it, especially when it is highly illegal. I know no matter whats happens, I have changed his life and he has changed mine.
