Living off of the Fat of the Land

By Angela (with Bethany ghost writing).

Today we taught the second group of students. While fun and humid, the group wasn't as enthuisiastic as our first group. It may be because they were more knowledgeable and the training may have been review for them. Maybe we weren't as fun. Nonetheless, we were able to engage and they came around when we handed out candy.

After class was dismissed, we met with the student's teacher and discussed the conditions of the boarding house of Bao Nhai. Currently, there are 50 inhabitants - 9 girls and 41 boys. Each week, the kids get to go home every weekend, however, they have to bring rice and 10 dong (less then $1 U.S.) with them upon return to get through the week. The teachers pitch in to help out the kids as well. Our heart goes out to these kids as this allowance currently provides for rice and tofu. It is in our desire to help these kids out in the future.

The highlight of the evening was visiting Sa's guest house as he invited us over for a feast. And what a feast we had! While it was a meal, it was an experience in and of itself. We were able to enjoy seeing the land where the vegeatables are grown, the animals flourish and experience a place of a bygone era (according to American culture). We enjoyed the food of the land as we watched it go from crop to table and we were able to genuinely connect with our company which included our group as well as some other visitors.

We also met a multi-talented man. The extraordinarily diligent plumber who assisted with our water project at the school also assisted with creating our meal. We were very impressed with
his many talents and still are.

Currently, we are pausing to reflect on how hard working the people of Vietnam are. It's not just that they are hard working, they are also fruitful. We ponder and wonder how they are able to be more than the label we would like to assign to them so we can neatly fit them into a category. Tonight, we are impressed that the "plumber/chef" provided the most delicious meal we've had since being here in Vietnam. What is his name? That should be his title. Period. We'll ask tomorrow.

We have 2 more days in the country...so many possibilities.

P.S. We are technologically challenged this evening as our laptop friend (i.e., Kevin) is staying at Sa's. More pictures will follow when we are able.