#6

More from Yogi and Boo-Boo in CITY, Vietnam.

"Hello! I hope that you had a great weekend! Mine started out well. We went to Danang to observe teaching and visit the new teachers there. We really had a fun time hanging out with the teachers, and the food wasn’t bad either! We loved eating pasta and cheesecake, things that we can’t get at restaurants in OUR CITY.

I’ve had a sinus infection, or something like that, for the past two weeks. I’ve taken two types of antibiotics, neither of which seem to be helping. On Saturday night, I really started getting sick. I’ve been sleeping almost all day the past two days. I was so sad to miss chrch and Hannah’s son’s birthday party, but I just didn’t feel nearly well enough to go.

Tonight I have my first class of the week, and I’m hoping that it goes well. I have almost no voice left, but since they are university students, it should be okay. If it were a kids class, I could never do it. I hope that the students are very talkative since I am not!

We’ve been trying a lot of new recipes in our rice cooker and toaster oven, which has been really fun. There are no stores in OUR CITY that sell butter or cream, so that cut out a lot of things that we could make. Thankfully, Danang had plenty, so we bought a big supply there. I’m excited to try more desserts! I baked brownies on Friday and took them to my students. They were thrilled, but thought that they were really sweet. Vietnamese people can go through an entire meal without anything to drink, but could hardly eat a small brownie before begging to go out and get a drink of water.

I really enjoyed volunteering in the Vietnamese teacher’s classroom this week. When I walked in, the students clapped, and then they clapped again when I left. I truly didn’t deserve that at all, as I didn’t even have to prepare anything. I just showed up, helped them with their pronunciation, and talked with them. It was fun to meet more students and build rapport with the Vietnamese professor.

I went out for coffee with that professor later in the week, and she told me that she had wanted to invite me out for coffee before, but that the professors have to get permission from our boss before inviting us anywhere. I had often wondered why the professors didn’t ever invite us anywhere. I guess that’s the reason!

I also found out that in OUR CITY, after a foreigner visits anyone, the p*lice come to their home or office and ask them questions about their time with the foreigner. I was so surprised, and questioned the student who told me. She is a gov*rnment employee, though, so I guess that she would know. I am just thankful that people still want to spend time with us.

David’s girlfriend had a birthday last week, so I invited them out for dinner. We went to a hot pot restaurant that is supposedly the cheapest in town. I should have known, when David described it that way, that it wasn’t going to be great. I didn’t eat too much because, as you have probably guessed already, the food wasn’t too good. The worst part was the crab. The crab meat itself was delicious, but David insisted that I eat the shell and entire legs. I’ve had soft shell crab in the States, and this was definitely the hard shell kind. He kept insisting that it was good for me and that I needed to eat it to get the calcium. I tried, but just couldn’t do it. I think that next time I invite someone out for dinner, I will chose the restaurant.

"Boo-Boo"'s all male class of g*vernment officials invited us out for coffee this week. We walked to the university to meet them, and could tell right away that at least some of them were really drunk. It was an interesting evening to say the least. I was just glad that we were both there together. They kept telling us how much Vietnamese men like American women, and insisted that they would introduce us to some nice Vietnamese men for us to date. Thanks, but NO! I was really relieved when we made it back home that evening!

On Saturday, I am supposed to fly to Hanoi to visit Holly and her new baby. Please pr*y that if it is supposed to happen that I will be completely well by then. Also, please pr*y that I get my voice back so that I can continue teaching. Please continue to pr*y for our friends here as well.

I appreciate all of your thoughts and pr*yers. I know that they make a HUGE difference!! I hope that you have a blessed week! "

Love,
"Yogi"