9:00 AM Sunday
This morning we worshiped at the Vietnamese Baptist church where Pastor Le was the guest preacher. Most of the worship was done in Vietnamese, with a little interpretation from Pastor Le. After the service we all enjoyed a great lunch at a restaurant. We were joined by members of the congregation. (Pictures will be uploaded later) - Laura
8:00 PM Sunday
This evening we risked our lives as we dodged legions of motorbikes and cars as we journeyed to the night market in Ho Chi Minh. Okay, well, it's hard to judge how much our lives were really at risk there, so for those of you back home, don't panic just yet. It certainly feels a bit like a game of frogger crossing the streets here. However, with so many people on the road here, it seems as though every driver is well aware of what's going on in traffic. Despite what seems to be chaos, we haven't seen an accident and all the pedestrians and the drivers seem to be rather calm.
The area around the night market was full of people and a spectacular array of lights and decorations. The Lunar (Chinese) New Year is coming up soon, so some of it seems to be permanent decorations and some of it seemed to be special for the holiday. Either way, I think we were all suitably impressed.
We stopped for dinner together so that we could enjoy each others company as well as delicious dishes of rice, noodles, vegetables, fish, and meat. (Well, I'm a pescatarian, so I can't really speak for the deliciousness of the meats, but I will say that everything else was quite good) I think that most of us on this trip would agree that we're really enjoying the Vietnamese iced coffee with milk. I'm pretty sure that the milk is sweetened and condensed milk, so it's pretty much amazing, a perfect drink for the warm weather.
This is my third time in Vietnam (but my first time in the south of the country), so a lot of what I'm seeing and eating is familiar, but that doesn't mean I love it any less. For me, this has also been a wonderful opportunity to get to know my fellow LTSP folks and to meet new people like Pastor Le and the others we've been introduced to so far in Vietnam.
After dinner, we wandered around the area, checking out some more lights and the random assortment of things for sale- from t-shirts and hats to all sorts of light up toys and fresh fruits. I don't think any of us bought anything tonight, but we're probably all still a bit too jet-lagged to properly bargain for good prices, so that's probably for the best.
Well, I could probably go on a lot longer about this evening, but you've probably heard enough of me for now.
Chuc ngu ngon!
(My phrase book tells me that means goodnight...minus the accent marks because I don't know how to do that on Tristan's computer)
-Meg
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