Today

Good day today. Great day.

Erica and I made breakfast and got some coffee-to-go on our way to the bus stop. We passed a woman who we wave to every day and she looked genuinely hurt that we bought coffee somewhere else. We had no idea that she sold coffee! Using charades we tried to express that we would never again violate our friendship by doing such a horrendous thing as buying coffee from someone else. She silently nodded in understanding and we berated ourselves for not knowing (we're very eager to please).

The bus ride went smoothly. Erica was offered a seat when someone got off. She gestured to an older woman to sit, and the woman thanked her but declined. She gave us an explanation, but we didn't understand. So Erica sat, and the two American girls on the bus (I’m talking about us), along with the usual stares, received approving looks from many other passengers, and a peace sign from the grinning guy in the back seat.

We got off the bus and crossed the street like pros. Our fellowship is now meeting in a different location every week and we started walking to where we thought we were supposed to go. A woman from our fellowship pulled over on her motorbike and offered us a ride. She had dropped her kids off and come back for us. This might seem like a small gesture, but each week we are asked, “Oh are you new here?” Granted, we are only averaging every-other week at this fellowship, but we recognize so many people there, so we are starting to wonder what it is about us that makes us so easily forgotten. Erica and I squeezed on the back of the motorbike smiling, thankful to be remembered.

The talk was given by Steve, from South Africa, and his accent (I’m with you Janell) makes one pay attention. He spoke on ‘dealing with offence (I’ll complain about British spelling later),’ and spoke on revenge, forgiveness, justice, mercy, and grace. They're going through Acts right now and he began by scoffing at those people who talk about all of the things they would say to the Father if they had the chance. And he reminded us of Paul, who saw just a glimpse of a bright light and was struck down and blind. He had my attention the entire time, and not just because of the accent.

Afterwards we went to a Thai restaurant in District 1 with Janell, Jannene, and Sarah. Great food, great people. I love hearing about Janell's and Sarah's jobs, dealing with HIV and reproductive health. I think I'd like to do something like that. I’ll just skip over our major topics of conversation, save those gems for another time.

Later, we wandered aimlessly in search of dinner. Seriously. Aimlessly. We were just talking and trying not to get hit by motorbikes. We ended up at a place that we pass every day on our way to school, but usually they’re not serving any food, only chopping raw meat out on the tables. Not tonight. We walked up and immediately all eyes fell on US. I was suddenly concerned that I had forgotten to wear pants or something. We sat and started looking at the menu and I had that “feeling.” I look up and not only are all of the other patrons stopped eating (AND talking) to watch us, but the entire staff has come out, the cooking has come to a halt, everyone just standing, staring unashamedly.

We wanted to try to order in Vietnamese, but they scrambled to find someone who spoke English (poorly). I know they are really going out of their way to show us hospitality in doing this, but it drives me craaaazy. He interpreted all of the words we already knew: fish, chicken, rice, egg. Thank-you sir. We shared noodles with beef and within one bite we promised to come back to this delicious place. Most of the eyes wandered back to their own food, but the eyes of the woman w2ho had cooked our food, never wavered from us. She watched every bite.

Not quite full after our shared entre, we went for fruit juice. There is a woman there who really goes out of her way to act out each fruit. It’s really comical actually. One day I pointed to the word that eventually turned out to be honey, but she enacted a bee coming to bite her arm and how much it hurt. That one took a while to figure out. There is an old man there too, her father perhaps. He likes to practice his English numbers and greetings with us.

He’s a sweet man, though the conversation was a bit painful. Erica and I made eye contact, signaling the time to make an exit. I started to reach into my bag for money and when I looked up, the man had a HUGE grin on his face and was pulling up a chair.

He sat down and we went over fruits… their names in English and Vietnamese, very slowly and painfully. Then we spent another 20 minutes on one question that we’re still not sure about. Then Erica and I walked home and discussed today's blogability. And that brings us to now. Great day.