This and that...

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures from Ho Chi Minh City

Everyone rides motorbikes or bicycles, there are very few cars and there are no lines to stay in. It seems kind of a free for all when you are driving.

They don't have car seats for children. All the children ride with their parents on the motorbikes. They make it work.

Lots to balance on this motorbike.

Molly took some of us to the street food market with her to see what it was like. The fruits and vegetables were so colorful. Molly does most of her regular shopping at the grocery store as they won't give her a good price unless she has a Vietnamese friend with her.

Had to capture these frogs all tied together so they don't jump away, but for a good price you can take as many as you want home to cook and eat.

This is the alley for one side of the market. People drive their motorbikes all up and down it.

I didn't take any pictures of the meat market, not very appetizing. I guess all these dried fish aren't that appealing either.

One of the mornings our team visited the Cu Chi tunnels which are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during the war. We were smiling in this picture getting ready to go into one of the tunnels, but not so smiley after coming out. After almost having to crawl 20 meters through one of these tunnels where it was dark and hot I don't have any idea how the Vietnamese did it.  They say there was over 18,000 Vietnamese who lived throughout the tunnels.

The guys had an opportunity to shoot AK-47, M30, and M80 Assault Rifles as they have a shooting range available to tourists. They were pumped!!

I love Dennis' face here. He has the look of a guy who means business.

Here we are getting ready to try Pho (sounds like Fa), which is a popular dish here. It is a Vietnamese noodle soup, usually served with beef or chicken. The soup includes noodles made from rice and is served with Asian basil, mint leaves, lime and bean sprouts that are added to the soup by whoever is eating it. It was just okay for us.

One more picture that we all had a good laugh at...

These kinds of wires (whatever they are-power, telephone, cable) look like this all over the city. How do they figure out what goes to what???

Okay, I promise tomorrow is the last day of pictures from this trip - Hong Kong. Thanks for sticking with me.

Free day...

This was our last day in Ho Chi Minh City, so Molly took us sightseeing to a couple places and then we hit the Ben Thanh Market.

Our first stop was the Central Post Office. The building was constructed when Vietnam was part of French Indochina. It was designed and constructed by the famous architect Gustave Eiffel from 1886 to 1891. It is still an active post office, but also has some shops inside.

We sent the kids a postcard from there. It took a week and a half to get to our house from the day we mailed it.

Our next stop was right across the street at the Notre-Dame Basilica Cathedral, It was constructed by French colonists from 1863-1880. We didn't go inside, but it is beautiful.

The last tourist spot was the Reunification Palace formerly known as Independence Palace. It was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was the site of the end of the Vietnam War during the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, when a North Vietnamese
Army tank crashed through its gates.  The day we visited was actually a holiday called Reunification Day. Lots of celebrating downtown.

I had to include this picture of our team member Jonathan. On our way out a Vietnamese couple came up and handed Jonathan their baby and proceeded to take a picture. It was so funny! Grant was telling us that they probably did it to bring the baby luck. A little random for us.

Shopping... We each had a few people to find gifts for, so our team split up and hit the Ben Thanh Market. Molly came with Jason, Dennis and myself and was a huge help in bartering the cost of things. Lots of fun.

After shopping we were famished. Grant and Molly took us to a Vietnamese restaurant that was amazing. It is tucked back in a little alley way that I don't know how you would ever find, but I am so glad they knew about it. The food was delicious. Fried spring rolls, fresh spring rolls, little appetizers with shrimp (below) that I have no idea what they were called and Bún thịt nướng (had to look that up on the internet). Plus the most amazing lemon drink I have ever had. A Vietnamese meal to remember.

Jason trying to eat with the chopsticks. We all did pretty good with them.

We were all exhausted by the end of the day. Molly took us to a spa to get some pampering: $10 for an hour full body massage, $7.00 for a pedicure and $5.00 for a manicure. Those are prices you can't beat! We had fun.

Still more to come...I will share some this and that pictures next post and then Hong Kong.

Be Tho Orphanage...

As I mentioned in a few previous posts our main reason for going to Vietnam was to deliver the money that our youth raised for the orphanage there. On Sunday morning we had an opportunity to visit the orphanage with the national church there in Vietnam.

We took 2 buses from Ho Chi Minh City and drove about an hour to Be Tho Orphanage. The picture below is the final road we turned on to get there, a little different look from where we are staying.

A few times a year Grant and Molly and the national church visit the orphanage and take them a supply of rice and other items. They have built a relationship with the orphanage and the kids enjoy seeing them when they arrive.

There are approximately 130 children/teenagers/young adults at this center. The ages range from 2 months to 25 years old. This center becomes their family as they grow older. Molly told me that sometimes parents or family who have had to leave their children will come and get them on weekends or over holidays, so some still have families but they just can't afford to have them live with them.

All of the pictures from today I got from our team members Dennis and Jonathan, both amazing photographers. These first two pictures means a lot to me. I was thankful when I first saw that one of the guys had taken a shot of this little boy. When we first arrived a girl came over to me and took my hand and lead me over to see this little boy. He just sat there, no emotion, no words. As I took his hand it showed no response to my touch. It was hard. I stepped away and began to take in all the other kids around me. Throughout our time there this little guy stayed in the same place, never moving, different people gathered around him. I don't know anything about this little boy, but the picture of him hasn't left my mind since we left that day.

I know I did what I could for the short time that I was there. I smiled, I hugged, I rejoiced with them over our youths donation, I handed out candy...I wish I could have done more.

Casey from our team.

The girls did some traditional dances for us.

The boys were enthralled by the guitar

I love the smile.

Our youth have a place on the wall in Be Tho

Showing off their new toothbrushes and toothpaste.

 

This little baby is actually 2 months old even though she looks 2 weeks old.

This little girl kept repeating something over and over to me. One of the nationals told me she was saying "Candy, Candy".

Beautiful dancers.

Jason presented the sister who runs the center with the money from our youth group and she was excited to receive it.

The last thing that will stand out in my mind is "Hollister" bags. The center does different things to bring in money to help them, such as making quilts, hand drawn pictures and some other things). One of the other things is to put these Hollister bags together. For those of you who may not be familiar with Hollister it is a store similar to Abercrombie or American Eagle. Now whenever I see these bags or even carry one I will think of these kids at Be Tho and maybe one of their hands put them together.

It wasn't a completely easy morning. It was hard to see how these kids live, even for as good of conditions the orphanage is in. I was blessed though to be able to bring a gift to them from youth half-way around the world. I was blessed to see their smiles. My heart and mind were given a fresh perspective on things and I pray it will forever change me. I don't want to come back home from this trip just to settle back into life as I knew it before, I want to be changed.

More to come...

P.S. I slept from 10 p.m. straight until 7:00 a.m. last night. Felt great. Still dealing with the tiredness in early evening, but we are getting there.

Travel, Arrival and the Coffee House...

Thanks for being patient with my updates. I am still feeling the effects of jet lag and getting back to normal life as I know it. I am also trying to work through over 600 photos, not all mine may I add, to determine what to post. Hope you don't mind that my trip will be broken down into a couple of posts.

We flew Cathay Pacific, which was a great airline. Their seating and service were amazing. Do I have to go back to US domestic airlines? I have been spoiled and wasn't even in first-class. It really helped make the first 16 hour flight go smoothly. Yes, I did enjoy the 16 hour flight on the way there. I got half-way through my book, finishing the other half on the way home. A few naps here and there. I watched 6 movies between our flights there and back. We had two meals and one snack. We were cracking up as the snack was very similar to our "Cup of Noodles". All we had were chopsticks, guess they were preparing us for our meals in Vietnam.

We left at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning New York time and arrived at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night in Ho Chi Minh City. Amazing! Our friends picked us up at the airport and we went back to their house to eat Domino's pizza for dinner. Yes, they have Domino's in Vietnam. After settling in we headed for a good nights sleep.

The next morning we had orientation and off to Master's Cup Coffee House where we would spend most of our time over the next 3 days. We couldn't get over how beautiful the area we stayed in was. I felt like I was in Florida. Below is our friends Grant and Molly's town home.  The picture below that is looking off the balcony from our bedroom.

The coffee house is just around the corner from their town house. We all broke out in a sweat on the walk over. They told us Vietnam has two seasons, hot and dry or hot and wet. We were in the in between season, so we got hot every day but some dry and some wet each day.

The first floor is the cafe with tables to eat.

The second floor has two speaking rooms where the Vietnamese people can come and practice their English. They have one "speaker" for each room (usually an American), or more than one in our teams case, who takes a 4-5 shift to sit and talk with the Vietnamese about whatever. I loved the concept. The Vietnamese people want to learn English as it helps them to get better jobs. they are so eager to learn and can sit for hours and talk. I am amazed at some of them who come for most of the day, or drive an hour each way just to come to the coffee house. They are so friendly and we really enjoyed our time connecting with them.

 More to come...

Home again...

We arrived back in New Jersey from our Vietnam/Hong Kong trip late Thursday night, but didn't climb into bed until 2:00 a.m. Friday morning after a long wait at the airport for our bags and then the drive home. Sleeping in our own bed was wonderful!

Now to deal with the jet lag. It was a 12 hour difference the last couple of days we spent in Hong Kong and they say it takes one day for every hour difference to get your body adjusted again. It has not been awful, but by 4:00 p.m. I am feeling it and if I stop to sit on the couch I would fall asleep, by 9:00 p.m. I am starting to see double and can't wait to get into bed. I then wake up around 4-5-6:00 a.m. and have been forcing myself to go back to sleep for a bit. If what they say is true we have 3 nights down and 9 to go.

I will add pictures over the next several days of our trip, but will share our homecoming with the kids. It was so good to be able to wrap our arms around them and hug them. We were blessed to be able to talk to them almost everyday through FaceTime (an iPhone/iPod app and completely free). I think it made it a lot easier for us and them. MeMe and Grandma said they did great and we are so thankful for such wonderful grandparents to help us out so that we could go.

We walked into the house with this sweet sign greeting us. 

We picked up Brayden on Friday from Grandma's and got to see Sarah after school on Friday afternoon. They each got a few gifts from our trip. Sarah a ponytail holder, iPod purse and a Harajuku purse. Brayden a "Tin Tin" shirt, Cars 2 Legos and racing car Crocs. Oh, and we can't forget the little Star Wars toy that came out of the cereal box that our friends we stayed with had which includes stickers, tattoos and a notepad. Yeah, everything little counts with this kid. The best part was it didn't cost us anything.

We headed to IHOP for dinner/breakfast. Ahhhh, tasted so good! Sarah and Brayden gave us an AMAZING photo book of their time with MeMe and pictures of what they did each day. So sweet!

It is so good to be home with our kids again. Love them so much!!!

We had an amazing trip and look forward to sharing with you more over the next week.