Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Heading up north

We'll be heading up north this Friday to Hai Phong to visit our old teammates and Andy's old students from 3 years ago! After that on Monday we'll head off to our annual retreat in Hanoi spending time with our Team Vietnam before the school year begins.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Subscription Links Added

To our faithful blog readers: you can now subscribe to our blog posts by clicking on the Subscribe To buttons on the left sidebar. Looking forward to sharing more of our lives in Vietnam with you!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

A trip to the market

Here are glimpses of my trip to the market, taken this morning while Andy is watching Caleb.

First I get geared up with my backpack, helmet, and mask.












On the way out to the gate, I pass by ladies sweeping the campus.











Reaching the gate of the university.









My faithful motorbike taxi driver Mr. Vinh (or "The goggle guy" as our old teammates used to call him when he did have his goggles on all the time).











A 5-minute ride costing 50 cents brings me to the main market.









This is the small grocery store where I can get fresh packaged meat in a tray and foreign products such as cheese, margarine, peanut butter, cereals etc.









It is avocado season so they abound in the market.









Motorbike parking is quite a nightmare and maneuvering through them is even more challenging:









Some nice treats from good earth:









I avoid buying meat this way and opt for the packaged ones. But at least I've seen this while growing up in HK so it is less intimidating.


















A must-stop is snacks for Andy (banh bo, or "white sugar cake" in Chinese).






















The major brand of ice-cream (and all other diary products) Vinamilk comes in durian, coconut, green bean flavors, and more.









Dried shrimps also abound here.









My rice lady enjoying her breakfast in the back corner.









My veggie ladies.


















My cute canh chua (Vietnamese sour soup) lady. It comes complete with a slice of pineapple, bean sprouts, tomatoes, okra, tamarind, and other greens ready to be tossed in the boiling water once washed.









Dalat is, I believe, the only place in Vietnam that can grow strawberries.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Starting a new school year

We had a blessed time with family and friends this summer in Hong Kong, Canada, and the U.S. See some of the pictures here. Now we are back in Vietnam settling in for a new school year. Caleb started school this week in 3rd grade. Here is his time table. So far so good by His grace!

Caleb got this Pop-Up Port-A-Bug this summer perfect for his bug collection here. Today he caught a little grass hopper.

Do continue to lift us up as we begin our fourth year here. Thanks!