New updates

Thanks again for all your love and thoughts for our little boy. He's feeling a lot better today. No more fever, no coughs, and no diarrhea (yet) today. He's constantly asking for food, to make up for what he's lost in the past week.

One of Andy's students brought home-made yogurt from her mom a couple times. They are delicious! Caleb and I love it. You can see in the picture how each one is nicely packaged.

The second picture is of where we gather on Sunday mornings here in Dalat. It is the only one foreigners can attend. And what treat, there's translation in this one special pew. They provide headphones, but Caleb and I bring our very own personal ones. I am so grateful. Last year in Haiphong, the only translation offered was from my own beloved. And Caleb and I often sat and read our good Book during the Lesson.

Update

Caleb's fever has been on and
off, and he is still coughing and having diarrhea. We are in the wait and see mode. Please ask for endurance for Caleb and for us as we wait upon His timing.

Here are another two pictures of Dalat: 1) The 5-way intersection at the bottom of the hill from the University (I often make a 10-minute walk down here to pick up household and grocery items) and 2) a view from campus overlooking houses and a distant huge white statue of some sort.

Andy continues to meet with students on a regular basis outside of the classroom. Caleb likes to sit in on these sessions sometimes.

Birthday

Thank you all for sending birthday wishes through FB. I am overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness. This 41st birthday of mine has been a memorable one because Caleb got sick with a 103-degree fever. He's been coughing again, and this time threw up quite a bit and is not keeping much food down both ways. So please do lift him up. Thanks! We've been singing "The lily of the valley" this week and he loves the chorus: "He's the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star, he's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul..."

Writing Chinese

The past couple of visits to Hong Kong have somehow piqued Caleb's interest in learning how to write Chinese characters. He sees them on signs everywhere in the streets. So my mom bought some notebooks with big squares used for writing Chinese characters for Caleb. He's started learning how to write some very simple characters these days as part of his homeschool.

Town pictures

Here are a few pictures of Dalat: 1) View of Xuan Huong Lake from beautiful park, 2) Statue at town center, and 3) Person sleeping in cauliflower basket at the Dalat Market.

Good "Pho"

Each time we ask for a recommendation of a good "Pho" place to go to, we are referred to some hole-in-the-wall type of eatery. We did sample a couple of them and they are indeed very good despite the sanitation. At these places, it is an option for trash to land on the floor or in the basket by each table. And their pet (cat shown here) will make sure nothing is wasted. What's more appetizing is the recycling system of the veggies and herbs shown here where leftovers are tossed back into the veggie bins to be served the next customer.

Nem Nuong

Here's a picture of a favorite Vietnamese meal of mine--pork sausages (nem nuong) wrapped with green veggies and herbs and pickles in rice paper dipped in special peanut sauce.