Everyday is an Adventure: A blog in two parts

PART 1: The foreign teachers interact with the locals

Yesterday was a really good day. I start with this because it's the truth, even if you walk away from this blog thinking, "Man, that SUCKS!", it was a really good day. It was.



We woke up feeling crappy (I promise, this gets better), sick to our stomachs, suffering from sinuses, covered with bugbites, and tired. But devotions were really good. We talked about Jesus' load for us being light and that we are called to help each other to carry our burdens, and it was just what we needed. It was good.

Vietnamese lessons went well. We learned what I like to call "taxi words": go straight, turn left, turn right, right here. We also learned a few other essentials (Toi muon mua chai nuoc - I would like to buy bottled water). Afterwards, I blogged - remember that confusing mess? - and then I played with the kids here at the school. We didn't have a ball, but they wanted to teach me Vietnamese. Apparently, this is entertaining enough that the nuoc mia woman's 24-year-old son and his buddy came over and sat down to laugh and ask questions. It was actually a lot of fun. The kids get such a kick out of knowing more than me, and they quizzed me hard. I had to pull out my notebook (otherwise known as my lifeline) a few times. I seriously carry that thing around with me EVERYWHERE. I don't always remember the words that I need, so I'm frantically flipping through pages trying to put sentences together. The good thing about Vietnamese is that once you learn a verb, you're set. You don't have to conjugate them, so it's easier to put sentences together. Of course, the bad thing about Vietnamese is that they have roughly 4000 pronouns (it seems like it to me) to denote pretty much any human relationship possible. I mean, there are different four different words for "aunt" that I know. Four. That is just ridiculous.



So after an hour of playing with the kids, I walked back to the hotel for lunch. Thanh's sister made lunch and it was a salty, spicy concotion over rice noodles. When I say salty, I mean it was like drinking straight soy sauce. Eleisa and I poured copious amounts of water over it, trying to take the edge off, but to no avail. This, added to my poor stomach, made me retreat to my room after drinking plenty of Pepto.



I took a short nap, then pulled it together and went to the orphanage to visit the kids. The SOS Village is a village of group homes with dorm parents. There are about 300 kids there, and we visited each house and handed out the Vietnamese equivelent of Little Debbie snacks. The kids were adorable. I met one girl who would be in my class later that evening. A few kids there get scholarships to ASEM school, which is pretty cool. Anyway, we'll be going back next week to teach English. The place should be heartbreaking, and in someways it is, but in other ways, they live like families and it's nice. I mean, the place is REALLY nice: the kids are well cared for, they take care of each other and there are no blank stares or vacant eyes. They are lively, bright children, and I can't wait to go back.

My classes yesterday went wonderfully, thank God. My first was a Listening and Conversation class, level 2, which means that they speak English. Let me tell you, after a week and a half of speaking. At. This. Speed. It was. Quite. A change. Yes? Yes. Okay.
One of the girls even told me I could talk faster, so I explained that they spoke more English than any other class that I taught, and we were able to have some conversations. It was fun. There are at least two girls in that class who live at the orphanage, and they stayed after to ask if we were going to come teach them at the SOS Village. They were so excited when I said yes. :)

My next class was a Starter class, mostly adults. They did not speak very much English, but the class went really well. I can't even tell you how intimidating starter classes are: you walk in, "Hello. My name is Frances.", you write it on the board, wait for recognition to wash over their faces. Then they introduce themselves: "My name is Phuong. I am twenty year old. I am student. I like listen to music." I repeat. Yes, that is what they said. We move on.
I had one guy in the class tell me that he was also 25. He likes football and badmitton (the Vietnamese LOVE them some badmitton!). He likes to listen to music. And he is alone. Everyone laughed. That, my friends, was his way of saying that he is single and available. The only way that he could say, "Hey, want to ride on my motorbike?" (totally a date here) with his limited English.
Like I said, the class went well. We studied the present continuous and I gave them postcards from Hawai'i and told them to tell me what they were doing in Hawai'i. I got answers ranging from the basic "I am swimming at the beach" to the more complex "I am picking coconuts". I was so impressed by their efforts and their overwhelming friendliness.

Oh! And on the subject of flirting, between the SOS Village and teacing, we stopped at Maximark, the local supermarket, to do our weekly grocery run. We go there quite often, and the workers there know Eleisa and me quite well by now, since we do most of the grocery shopping. There's this guy who works there who speaks English, and he's a real cutie, but a bit short. Anyway, we always take a shopping list and he takes it and tells us where to find things. So he was helping us yesterday and then he wandered over to the cash register when I was paying. He stood behind me as I paid and the cashier said to me, "He love you" in her limited English. I pretended not to understand. He smiled. She said it again, and then went on in Vietnamese. He translated: "She says you are very beautiful". I said, "Oh, thank you. Cam o'n (thanks in Vietnamese)." She said again, "He love you." I played dumb; he smiled. I ran out of Maximark with my two heavy bags of yogurt and icecream once I'd paid. Everyday it's something...

After our classes, one of Thanh's students took us out to eat. We went to this super cute restaurant about half a mile away. She took three of us on her motorbike, and I sat in the front because I had a skirt on. Four people on a motorbike is a common thing here in Vietnam, but it is by no means safe. However, the Vietnamese do not let you walk more than a couple blocks. Eleisa, Andrea, and I are content to walk miles and miles around town, but no one wants us to do so. So we gave in and let them drive us to the restaurant.
We had good food: fried rice cakes with shrimp inside, green papaya salad, fried bananas (amarillitos!), and this drink of mixed fruit and crushed ice in sweetened milk. It was wonderful. The place was cleaner than any restaurant we've visited in Vietnam until now.

We had a good time talking to Huong, the student, and eating, and then it was time to go home.


PART 2: "Toi bi tai nan xe may", or The Dangers of Motorbikes

Andrea and I decided we would walk back to the hotel. It was only half a mile back, and the night before, we had walked about a mile and a half. We like walking, we needed the exercise, especially after eating all those fried bananas and shrimp. So off we went. Walking back to the hotel, enjoying the cool air and the breeze and talking about our classes.
Suddenly Huong pulled up, she signalled her motorbike. Turn out Thanh had sent her back to pick us up. What do you saywhen someone comes back to pick you up? You shrug and nod, and get on the bike. So we headed toward the bike. Huong asked me to sit in the front, and I climbed on. As I was sitting in front of her, not quite seated, but in the process, the bike moved. We were all in shock, I think, and all of a sudden, we were careening towards the sidewalk. We bounced up on the sidewalk, under a tree. I thought, "Oh, we didn't hit it, we'll steer back to the street, it will be okay." And then there was another tree. We were heading straight at it, and I was in the front part of the seat. We were going to run into it, and I could see it, see it happening, and then we were there, and my face hit the tree, my forehead, my nose, my teeth rattled. I thought, "I broke my nose; I'm going to stain my yellow shirt!", and then my head rolled to the side, and I thought, "My nose isn't bleeding, maybe it's not broken." We got off the bike, and Huong was freaking out: "Are you okay?" I told her I was fine, even though I was dizzy, because I didn't want to worry her. We told her we'd help pay for the bike (it's mostly fine, she was able to drive it home) and people poured out of their homes to help us. They delivered some ice for the knot on my forehead and my swollen nose. We called Thanh and she came back. She ended up going to Huong's house with her to explain what had happened to Huong's mother. Meanwhile, Andrea and I walked back to the hotel; we really weren't very far. We did NOT want to get on another xe may (motorbike) in our skirts and with my swollen face. We didn't call a tazi, didn't go to the doctor, didn't call Ms. Yen and Mr. Quy - all I wanted to do was go home and get some ice on my boxer's face.

So off we went. Eleisa, who is a nursing student, hooked me up with some meds, more ice, and checked me out for a concussion. The girls prayed over me, which was good. And I'm looking a bit better today. Still swollen, still looking like a boxer, but not quite as bad. My lip is fat and swollen, and I've been calling it my Angelina Jolie lip. I suppose things could be worse.

Eleisa said, "You know, it's funny how Satan works." The stomach ache wasn't enough to keep me down, so he tried the tree instead. But we're here and we're fighting, and I'm nursing my beat up face and trying not to be as vain about my nose. (Dear GOD, please let me keep my nice nose... ;).) But like I said, it was a good day with a crappy ending.

Today in my Vietnamese lesson I learned to say I had a motorbike accident (Toi di thai nan xe may), which I already tried out with my little buddy, San. He was very concerned. Seriously, the kid is adorable!

I hope that my students today aren't too put off by the state of my face. We were joking that maybe now, Abbey, the Ghanaian soccer player in town won't be so in love with me if he could see me. Of course, I am still NOT planning to meet him anywhere. LOL...

Keep us in prayer though, because our health has been hit hard since we've been here. Allergic reactions to bug bites, ear infections, sinus infections, stomach woes, and now the motor bike accident... But we're fighting the good fight.