Family Pictures

River Photos

Day on the Mekong

Yesterday we spent the day traveling around the Mekong River by boat or should I saw several boats.  We began our travels at 4:30 AM, we had to beat the traffic out of town.  There were six of us including our young 25 year old driver who has been driving for our friends furniture company for five years.  He was great and got us there and back in one piece after going around three accidents that we came across during the day.  Normal for this country.  We stopped in a town where our friend had been born and had a breakfast of barbeque pork and rice and the strong iced coffee with milk.  Dinner for breakfast.  We were looking for an area of town that we had never been to before so we took a few wrong turns but ended up at a cafe near the water where we were met by another man that took us to a very small canoe type boat.  I wondered if we would all fit which turned out not to be a problem except we were pretty low in the water. There were six adults in our group.  We had two young kids paddel us down the water and by the time we got there they were really exhausted.  We gave them a big tip for their efforts. Of course there was not a cloud in the sky, it is rainy season but it was a very warm, cloudless day.  Our navigator gave two of us floppy hats to wear but that did not help our exposed arms.  We arrived at his house and met his wife and several of his five children.  One of our boat paddlers was his son who dropped out of school to help support his family.  This is very common.  The Mekong area is very poor and the people litterally make their living from the water, as well as bath, wash and play in it. We were told that the fish are becoming scarce because of all the fishing and there is not much else to make a living from. We made five other stops along the river and talked to many people who shared stories of their lives on the river.  These are amazing people who desire to work and make money to support themselves but the opportunities are few. I know there are many places in the world like this but when you walk amoung them it is hard not to be touched by them.  That is our Father's heart.  Well it was four by the time we got back to the dock or should I say side of the hill that we began our journey on and as we walked back to our car Mark saw a cafe that had two cages of snakes.  He has always liked the exotic and stange things that I do not and so he called me over to bring the camera so he could take some pictures.  I guess you could pick out the one you wanted and they would fry it up for you.  No thanks.  We had a friend with us last week who was served dog on one of his trips.  That is something else I do not care to experience.  I have had some strange things but there are some limits I have.

I had a few driving observations from the trip.  There is a new freeway that just opened and it cuts off a lot of time getting out of the city.  It was two lanes on each side and the big surprise no motorbikes allowed.  Trucks, buses and cars were ok.  I guess it does not matter what you drive they still straddle that line and pass each other, usually on the right side and do a lot of honking.  This lets the other vehicle know that you are coming or going to pass them.  They also keep their bright lights on and when they want someone to move they flash them until they do.  You have to experience it.   They also have something like speed bumps on each side of a bridge which causes most drivers to slow down.  Notice I said most.  Our driver was very tall so his head almost touched the ceiling of the car so we took these bumps lightly.  My bladder thanks him for that.  Oh I almost forgot.  We were making a restroom break after our first visit and we were back at the cafe, I followed my friend back and when it was my turn she warned me there was no toilet or whole or anything.  You just squat behind the curtain and then there was a bucket to wash the cement down with afterwards.  I still think men have it way to easy.

Buffet

New DIning Experience

On Monday night we were invited to dinner by Mary, who is engaged to our friend Sam.  We were told it was in the new Lotte Mart building.  Lotte Mart is a new 5 story grocery store, not far from our apt.  They have these amazing escalators that hold your shopping cart in place while you go to the next level.  It is similar to a Wal-Mart in that they sell everything you need.  I like it because I can get many western food items there.  The fifth floor has a food court, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Korean, and a cafe, they have cafe's on every street corner here, oh and the famous arcade room that every mall has here, so loud.   We met Sam and Mary on the 5th floor and they took us over to a seperate restaurant that had bar stools around a counter and in front of you was a conveyor belt that held plate after plate of meats, veggies, noodles, seafood etc.  You ordered your hot pot, a pot that comes with a brooth, the choices were, Thai, Chinese, or Japanese.  The only none spicy was Japanese so that is what I ordered.  Also in front of you was a burner set into the counter and you had a knob to control the temperature.  You first put it on high to get it to boil then you add whatever you want from the food that passes before you.  After it cooks for a few minutes you turn it down.  Our friends, Sam and Joseph, the brothers were trying to see how many plates of food they could rack up.  Mind you the amount of food on each plate is maybe a child's portion but they still ended up eating a lot of food.  Those two can put the food away.  They love to help us out so they were constantly pulling off plates as they passed us.  I would then put them back on after I found out what was on them.  They had one flower, not sure what it was but they kept saying it was healthy, I have tasted some of the stuff they say is so healthy and I just can't seem to develop a taste for it.  I always try them out but so far very few appeal. They called this a buffet and the price was an amazingly low $6.00 per person, for all you could eat.  It was a fun evening which we ended by stopping at the bakery back on the first floor and buying some chocolate croissants for Mark to eat the next week.  We love these new experiences.  

The Kids

Moon Festival

The Vietnamese celebrated the Moon Festival from Sept 15 to the 22nd.  It is a time when the harvest is over and they visit family to celebrate.  Someone came up with the idea of making moon cakes, they are round and some have beans in them and well others I am not sure what they have in them..  I tried some but I think it is an acquired taste.  Well two weeks ago a friend who works with street children and teen girls was going around taking names of kids who live on the streets and in the slums to give them a gift for this holiday.  She wanted to bless them and give them something special, the moon cakes were perfect because they are too expensive for them to buy themselves.  She got around 500 names and donations from many and then had a friend make the cakes.  She also bought a carton of milk for them. I was able to go with her on one of her trips to distribute these cakes.  We left around 4 in the afternoon and were suppose to meet around the kids in the park.  We had her cousin and another gal along to help.  As we started to give them out, she started with the names she had gathered, children between 1 and 15 years old, we started drawing a crowd, everyone wanted to have one and she did give a couple to one older very thin lady and some kids whose names she did not have but it was all done in orderly fashion and the kids were so excited. They seem to come in waves.  After finishing at the park we rode over to an empty sidewalk across the street from a family who she helps.  This time we had another 30 or so and many who just wanted to see what was happening.  After calling there names and giving out the cakes she had these paper laterns to give out, she only had 10 of those left from a previous celebration so we waited until most had gone before giving them out.  Finally after several hours we still had some cakes left so as we rode down the rode for home we found some more street kids to give the rest out to.  These were from Cambodia and were so excited to get them.  It was such a blessing for me to be able to go and see these kids, God was sure right when He said give and you shall receive, I received so much joy and love from these little ones. He said," I was hungary and you fed me".