#9

Another update from our friends in Vietnam!

"Hello! It’s hard to believe it’s almost Thanksgiving! I am reallylooking forward to Thanksgiving. All of the ESI teachers will bemeeting in Ho Chi Minh City for our yearly Thanksgiving conference.

This is typically the most difficult time of year for teachers. The newness and excitement of Vietnam has worn off, and homesickness andculture shock have set in. Although this hardly affects me anymore, I can certainly empathize with the new teachers. My first year ofteaching, until at least this time in the year, I cried every day. I try to remind myself of those tough times so that I can better help and understand the new teachers and the emotions they are feeling.

The other reason that this time of year is tough is because of the holidays. I rarely cry here anymore…..unless I think about Christmas. I really miss spending the Christmas season at home with family. I am so thankful, though, to have "Boo-Boo" here as she is like a sister to me. Because of the reasons mentioned, it’s good that we have a time every year at Thanksgiving where all of us teachers can gather together fo ra few days. We will talk about culture shock, study sc*ipture, andjust relax and chat together. I’m looking forward to some good westernfood, too!

Sunday was Teachers’ Day in Vietnam. It is a HUGE celebration. Theyhave a saying here that parents are most important closely followed by teachers. All week long we received flowers from our students. Wereceived at least 2 dozen roses, along with a large, decorated cake from our boss, and last, and certainly the most interesting, is the skin whitening cream that I received from my wealthiest student. Actually, it was a whole boxed set of skin whitening products. In Vietnam, white skin is the most important beauty component for women.It was a really sweet, and expensive, gift, but I think I will “regift” it at Christmas. Somehow I think that Hannah would appreciate it much more than I ever could.

Because of Teachers’ Day, the university had a huge traditional singing and dancing program that began at 8:30 am. That is actually late for Vietnamese, but still feels early to us on our day to sleep in. After the program, we were invited to a big dinner. Since we’vebeen teaching here for more than a year, and volunteering by helping the Vietnamese teachers in their classrooms, we have a lot of friendswho are English professors. It makes things like this so much more when you are among friends and not just people who are curious about us because we are Americans. I attached a photo of the party.

The director of the English department gave "Boo-Boo" and I each two different colors and patterns of silk material to have some clothes made at the tailor. Hannah’s friend’s sister is a tailor, so she is going to make some clothes for us. We are excited to have some new, free silk clothes!

Just when we thought our Teachers’ Day celebration was over, Hannah invited us to her friend’s party. We ate hot pot, which was really delicious. We had spent time with these friends before, so it was a fun, relaxed time. It was nice for Hannah to get out, too, since she’s been staying in bed most of the time. Please continue to pr*y for her. She is supposed to be on bed rest, but is afraid that she will lose her job if she doesn’t continue teaching. Also, please lift up the coming Christmas season. It’s a great opportunity to share with our friends. We really want them to come to the Christmas service with us, and plan to invite them soon. Please pr*y for the conference thisweek, too.

Our class of gov*rnment officials ended on Friday, so they took us out to eat the specialty of Tam Ky, which is chicken rice. While we were eating, they asked if "Boo-Boo"'s real name was "Yogi". He proceeded to tell us that we are "famous" in Tam Ky and Danang, but people are arguing about our names. They are confused by my name on e-mail and Facebook being "Yogi", but going by *** in class. We tried toexplain that *** is just a nickname, but I am not sure they totally understood that. It's hard to explain nicknames to Vietnamese people because their names are all only one syllable long, so they never need nicknames. I attached a photo of us with this class.

Thanks you to each of you for pr*ying for us and supporting us! We feel so THANKFUL for YOU this Thanksgiving! We are so thankful to beserving in Vietnam, and we couldn’t do it without you.

Thank you verymuch, and may G*d richly bless your Thanksgiving celebration!"

Love,

"Yogi"

#8

Another post from Yogi and Boo-Boo as they share the Good News in Vietnam:

"Hello! I hope that you are having a good week!

Although we miss the beautiful fall weather in the States, we have been thankful for a few sunny days this week during the rainy season. Some of you have just started receiving our newsletters this year, so I want to take some time to fill you in on the people who are mentioned often:

First there is Holly. I met her in Vinh more than three years ago. It was a really tough year there, but she became not just our language tutor, but also like family when she helped us out in many of our difficult and lonely times. She graduated from university, and is now married to a French man, has a one month old son, and is living in Hanoi.

Next, we met Anna when we lived in Da Nang. Although she is a practicing Buddh*st, she often came to ch*rch with us on Sundays and became a close friend.

Last year, we met David. He is a university student and my Vietnamese tutor. He is from a very poor family in the countryside, and we have had many fun experiences introducing him to western foods and customs.

Hannah is our friend who is a professor and comm*nist informant. We are glad we learned about her part in the gov*rnment long after we became friends. She was extremely resistant to anything pertaining to G*d when we met her last year. She has been reading a lot of Chr*stian fiction books that many of you sent with me, and she’s becoming more and more open to the G*spel message. After reading a Karen Kingsbury book last week, she sent me a text message saying that she learned so much about forgiveness through the book. Thank you for your pr*yers for all of our friends!! We appreciate all of you!

Last week, I invited David and several of our friends out for dinner. We decided to eat snails. Unfortunately, they were the tiny kind that I have trouble eating. One of David’s friends, after watching me struggle for a long time, told me to just pretend I was kissing my boyfriend, and the snails would be much easier to get out of their shells.

We also had another snail experience last night with "Boo-Boo"s class. The class is full of men who are gover*ment officials. They also happen to love soccer. Her class started at 7:00 pm, which just happened to be the starting time of a big soccer game between Vietnam and the team from the Philippines. They invited us to drink beer and watch the soccer game at a restaurant near the university. We agreed to go with them and drink Pepsi. Besides the snails, they also ordered chicken. When it came to the table, one of the men reached into the pile of chicken, pulled out the chicken lungs, and plopped them into my bowl. I was a little panicky, but then decided that I could swallow them whole with the help of my can of Pepsi. So, that is what I did. I just pretended that I was swallowing pills, and downed the lungs. I felt sick the rest of the night, but I really think it was more about my mind getting in the way than an actual physical problem.

We were thankful that finally, at 8:30, the two least inebriated men drove us back to the university. We had another outing on Monday that was very last minute. "Boo-Boo"’s class called while they were in class, and wanted me to come join them for chicken rice. It was 6:00 pm, I had to teach at 7:00, and I was still not showered or dressed. I tried to decline, but they wouldn’t hear it. So, I rushed and got ready in record time and went out to eat with "Boo-Boo" and her class. It was a fast paced, but fun, dinner.

Please pr*y for Hannah as she found out that she is pregnant and is now on bed rest after a scare and a hospital visit. Please also pr*y for me as I cover some of her classes. I just don’t feel comfortable teaching the young children by myself. Please lift up the other ESI Vietnam teachers as many of them are struggling with teaching and culture shock. This is typically the roughest time of year for first year teachers.

Thank you so much for your pr*yers and support! I hope you have a blessed week!

Love, "Yogi"