Tam Ky with Suz and Liz

I'm PRETTY sure that I've already written this blog, but I'll write it again. If you see a duplicae, let me know...

Anyway, right after conference Brittany, Melissa, Holly, and myself got the chance to go to the infamous Tam Ky City, where there is nothing, to see where our friends Suz and Liz live and teach.

I was pleasantly surprised to find more than nothing. Actually, it looked like a lot of developement, but it could have just been at the University where they work. I REALLY regret not getting a picture of the rooms they rented for us.



This is Suz and and Liz. They are amazing for living in this city just the 2 of them, far from everything. The only foreigners in the city as far as they know. I thought it didn't look so remote, but when we got to Coop Mart (kind of like a mall with a grocery store), there were cows hanging out in the front. Then it seemed to fit more into the image I had.

Liz was showing us her classroom. She recently became the Field Director in Vietnam and she is great at it. She checks up on all of us, emails, texts, calls, lets us know that she cares. She even responds to the team reports that we're supposed to do every month! She has been a great friend and encourager to me especially this year.

Suz's classroom was also what I had imagined for Tam Ky. I thought she just needed an old-timey dress with ruffles, and a lunch pail. That would have been perfect.

Suz has also been so great to us this year. A paramedic (and a lot more things, but I forget), she's always available to us for medical questions or any random conversation. Last year too.

I don't know what I'd do without the two of them.

They took us to a restaurant that they like on the roof of a hotel. The sunset was perfect and the view too. And I had sharksfin soup and it was very nice.

The next morning, Suz and Liz took us to the train station and put us on a train to Đà Nẵng. I wasn't feeling so hot (bad expression. i was VERY hot), so I closed my eyes for most of it. But what I saw was really beautiful. And I got to talk with Holly a little.

Still, very very ready to get off the train.I remember how sad I was that I got placed in the south, so far away from the mountains. And in the largest city in the country, no less! I do miss the mountains, but I'm glad that I live in Ho Chi Minh City. Off the train and into a taxi, quickly heading over to Bread of Life, a bakery that trains, employs, and supportsVietnamese people who are deaf. Very cool place with delicious banana bread.

We got to meet some friends from last year who taught with our program. We really miss Kristen and Lance this year. I KNOW we would be friends if we were in America too. That's probably not true for everyone over here, but they are just really great to hang out with, be serious or funny, play games, etc. I'm jealous of their friends who get to see them more than I do. They are now working with Orphan Voice.