...Because if you're not in Asia, you're in yesterday


Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Vietnam Thanksgiving 2009

Welcome to Thanksgiving in Vietnam 2009. Here I am the night before as Erica and I created Indian and Pilgrim attire and names for the other members of our team. In order to make them fit other normal head-sized people, I had to make them too small to fit my head, and too big for Erica's.
I made the pilgrim hat for Lance a little lopsided. I thought I was going to have to bribe people to wear them, but they all wore them for like three hours or more without complaining. That made me so happy. Even Suz. She might not look happy about it, but she accepted her role as Chief very readily.The team was supposed to go to a restuarant that night to eat, but because there were so many differing arrival times, the task fell on the HCMC team (Erica and Carolyn) to find a place to eat in our city. We decided on OUR APARTMENT.I tried to act like it was no big deal, but inside I was SO PLEASED. How sweet to help prepare Thanksgiving dinner in Vietnam. We had to borrow plates and forks, and Nikki bought glasses for us to have. And everyone squeezed together and had a place to sit. We had stuffing, sweet potatoes, a big salad (we have 3 vegetarians on our team) and some roasted duck and gravy. Fine, fine, I bought the duck already cooked, but I mixed it with a little pork and onions.Steph and Brittany brought rolls and sparkling apple cider, which when opened, almost killed me. Everything seemed appropriate, just like the first Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.Sure Steph looks disguested, and she only has salad and a roll on her plate, but she liked it.It was really fun being back with everyone. All of these people that I really only knew for one month for training are now part of my family.We left to catch a bus to take us to District one to catch another bus.And I almost single handedly ruined everything due to my eternal bus optimism. "It'll come guys! Don't worry. Five more minutes."
We got a couple of taxis before it was too late and caught our bus to Mũi Nè. I sat shotgun with the driver and tried to talk with him for the five hours it took. After we stopped to go to the bathrooms, he bought me a bánh bao (sweet bread with meat and quail eggs in it) and offered me candy and water and a toothpick and a cloth to wash up. He also asked for my phone number, but unfortunately I don't know it...


3 comments:

Andrea said...

I enjoy the pictures to go with each short statement. It was such a joy to get to see you all again. And again. And again. Thanks for letting me stay at your place so many times. :)

Unknown said...

It's dressing. At Thanksgiving we eat turkey and DRESSING. Who ARE you?

Carolyn said...

ok, no, see Erica says "stuffing" and I made salad "dressing," so I made the compromise to settle some issues. I didn't sell out. Also, what Erica made wasn't like what we have at Thanksgiving, so it's possible stuffing and dressing are just two different things