We've been back in Vietnam for over 3 weeks now. Last week was a highlight where we spent 3 days in Haiphong visiting old students and teammates and then 5 days in Hanoi with Team Vietnam on our annual retreat. We are now back in Dalat with our new teammate for a new school year.
In Haiphong, we spent some kindred moments with team and flock, eating and sharing together. The picture shows the girls picking rau muong for dinner!
While in Hanoi, we met the sister of one of Andy's old students who is working as a legal assistant in the capitol. She insisted on bringing dinner to the hotel for us. So we enjoyed a nice bun cha night snack as seen in picture.
The first weeks back in Vietnam always means lots of cleaning. After cleaning up our room which was infested with rice weevils, we helped our teammate clean up her room which had a fridge infested with thousands of maggots. Actually it was not us but students who really helped her clean up the room. You can see the maggots in the fridge magnified in the picture. It was my first time in over 40 years seeing these horrid creatures. Caleb also was a mighty little helper in sweeping the whole corridor for the foreign teachers while the cleaning lady from the university dusted the doors this morning. The guesthouse for foreign teachers is again filled for the semester, with three older Korean couples, a new older Japanese teacher, another teacher from the US, and our team.
Being back also means lots of catching up with students. You can see in the picture Andy and Caleb introducing their new frisbee from the US to one of Andy's students in the backyard. And some students already came to cook dinner for us as shown in the picture where you can also see our new teammate Jenny.
Our teammate Jenny and I got a mini-course on how to make kim chi the other day from our dear Korean neighbor Mrs. Park. We each got to take home a good portion. Caleb actually really likes it even though it is spicy. And I am slowly acquiring the taste as well. Here I am including a short clip of how Mrs. Park rubs the paste onto each leaf. Fun exercise!
Dunkin' pictures of three of Andy's old students in HP brought tears to my eyes when we received them from an email yesterday...
When he starts posing with the "victory" sign in pictures.
Though cooking is still more of a chore than fun to me, Andy's students never fail to delight me in this aspect whenever they come and show me a new dish or dessert. This time they made young coconut jello. First you cut a hole on the top of a peeled young cococut, pour the juice out to make the gelatin mixture, then pour the hot mixture back in the steamed young coconut (so the jello will stick to the coconut flesh). Refrigerate until set and cut into wedges and enjoy!
We sampled some interesting moon cakes from the school this year, including a chocolate one and a green bean pandan leaf one. Caleb also got a nice lantern from a student and had a nice outing with a new friend (cousin of the student who gave him the lantern). His new friend "Sue" came to play a couple times, and one time with another younger cousin. Caleb enjoyed showing them all his trinkets and toys.
We've been back in Vietnam for over 3 weeks now. Last week was a highlight where we spent 3 days in Haiphong visiting old students and teammates and then 5 days in Hanoi with Team Vietnam on our annual retreat. We are now back in Dalat with our new teammate for a new school year.
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