"Hello! I hope that you are doing well and enjoying your week so far! We’ve been doing well, but busy. In about two weeks, Andrea, my boss from California, will come to sign contracts with the schools. We haven’t given up on the universities yet, but things aren’t looking too bright concerning working with them for this coming year. Things with the English centers are also quite difficult. It seems that there are a lot of doors closing, and not many opening. Please lift us up, especially the next 3 weeks, as we finalize things with the schools for next year. We need some open doors! Or at least open windows!!
Things in OUR CITY are going well. We started several new classes next week, which went well. "Boo-Boo" and I share one class that has a policeman and a policewoman in it. I was pretty nervous about this until we got to know them. They are really kind, and so far are our favorite students in that class. Their friendship may come to help us someday if we have any problems. Friends in high places come in handy in a society based almost entirely on who you know. It also doesn’t hurt that Hannah’s husband is now working in immigration for our province. I feel like the L0rd has placed them in our lives for a reason. We hope to be able to share more and more of the Good News with them.
We’ve had some funny conversations with David and his girlfriend this past week. At the beginning of the week, we were talking about Africa, and how Obama is an African American. The concept of African Americans is really difficult for Vietnamese people to understand. While trying to explain the concept to them, David asked, “How many different kinds of humans live in America?” I had to stifle a laugh, and told him that all “kinds of humans” live in America. People from every continent in the world. I mentioned that I don’t often see any people from Africa in Vietnam. He said, “Well, why would they want to leave one undeveloped country and come to another undeveloped country?” He does have a good point there.
He was also shocked to find out that not only do Americans not eat rice at every single meal, but they don’t even eat it every day. I’m not sure how we could be friends for two years and he never picked up on this. On Sunday, we went out to eat che, the sweet bean soup. I included a picture of the che. While we were sitting there, David said that he had just gotten his hair cut and ears cleaned. In Vietnam, the barber or hair dresser always cleans your ears when you get a haircut. They use a pointed metal object, which looks a bit dangerous to me. However, David was surprised, once again, to discover that in America, we do not get our ears cleaned when getting a haircut. He commented, laughingly, that I must have very dirty ears. I told him that I clean my ears often myself, using a Q-tip. I explained that it is like a little stick with cotton on each end. “You mean a tampon?” his girlfriend asked. Hmmm, well, not quite.
On Sunday, I baked Easter cupcakes for the kids in Hannah's class. They loved the wrappers, which were sent to us by a teacher who is coming next year, Sherman Graham. I included a photo of Hannah's son and some other students with their cupcakes.
The girl at ch*rch who often translates for us offered to have an ao dai made for me. She bought the material, and a lady at the ch*rch made it. I was a little embarrassed by the material, as you will see in the picture, which looks like Halloween, but it fit better than I expected, so I was happy. I wore it to ch*rch on Sunday, feeling positive about it. I got a lot of smiles and compliments….that is until I was leaving. The tailor who made it came up to me and said that I had it on backwards. How embarrassing! I was almost over the embarrassment by the afternoon, when our translator sent me a text message telling me that I had worn it backwards and telling me how to correctly wear it. I just had to laugh and chalk it up to another crazy foreigner mistake.
Please keep us lifted up in pr*yer as we work on contracts for next year. Please also pr*y for open doors of opportunity for m*nistry, and for our friends. Thank you very much! We couldn’t be here without your pr*yers and support!
Love,
"Yogi"
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