Home.

After a century long plane flight, I'm back home! Best (and longest) 4th of July ever. Thank you all for you support and interest in my little stint in Vietnam. I miss it there already. Care to hear the rest of the story that couldn't be put in this monitored blog? Email me and we'll hang out.

Dragon Descending

There's us with one of our classes. Thank you blogger for putting my pictures out of order. In two days we fly to Hanoi. And we check out Ha Long Bay. Then we go home. It's all coming to a close now.

One Week Left

We just finished up the Fisher's Superkids Summer Camp 2009, and it was a resounding success. And now that that is through, Team Vietnam has finished all it has set out to do during this time. Now We've a week left for goodbyes.

I'm not looking forward to it. Saying goodbye is never easy. But I know some sweet hellos are soon following. I'm coming home soon.

What's on our plate for this week? Tomorrow we go to Ban A (I don't know how to spell it). It's in the mountains, and it's supposedly cold. I'll believe that when I see it. And they have the longest cable car in the world, which we will ride. We stay a night there then come back monday. Tuesday is our last full day in Da Nang. Then leave for the capital, Ha Noi, on wednesday morning. There we'll stay for the afternoon, and thursday and friday will be in Ha Long Bay. And on saturday we fly home.

Yes.

One Week Left

That's right- just one more week of teaching!

It's really hard to believe, but this adventure is nearly at its close. Not going to waste any of the time left though. This week of teaching is bound to be interesting. We've two classes that we already taught during our second week. One was really great, brilliant even. And the other ones, well, they really just couldn't sit still. But this is week four- we should be experts by now, right? So now we're branching off far from the alphabet. We've done eight or so colors, and today we're going to move into emotions (Happy! Sad! Scared! Tired!) and into shapes (You! Could! Guess! These!). Which should be tons of fun. The cards with each letter of the alphabet on them now each have their backsides completely filled with some sort of lesson. It's a small feat, but it really feels like acomplishment to me. Amanda and I are the dream team in Vietnam, that's all I have to say about that.

Wish me luck, and I'll come back and tell you all how things turn out.

Livin' in Da Nang

That's me at about 5am in the morning. Sunrise in Vietnam. If California has the best sunsets, I'm giving Vietnam the prize for the best sunrises. There's nothing quite like the view of a sky as it changes colors as the clouds meet the rising sun. And that morning, as I floated in the cool waters of the other side of the pacific, I thought about how the sun there around three o'clock for everyone back home. And here I watched it rise. Quite the mind-trip.

It's so strange to see this week nearly at an end. Out of them all, this one has flown by the fastest. I think it's because I've been here long enough to get into the flow of things here in Da Nang. As I near the end the second to last week of teaching and working here in Da Nang, I find myself comfortable; familiar with my surroundings. We all have a bit of a routine, and night activities to look forward to. Thus time feels like its better able to slip through my fingers. Even so I've been doing my best to.. well.. make my best of the time I have left.

Our teaching has been good. The more classes we have the more comfortable and competant we feel. Even though half the ideas we have end up more or less failing, the fact that we've been able to come up with fresh new ones is a miracle on it's own. And the kids get more and more precious. Vietnamese kids rank among the cutest in the world. Which is saying something, cause to me their all precious.  And the feeling that I get when they make that connection, when they discover that the color that I'm trying to get them to learn is also the color they're wearing, well- it's an incredible feeling, and one I hope to find again when I teach back home.

And when we aren't teaching, we're "working" at an orphanage in the mornings. But who can call that work? We get to play and attempt to teach these kids english. And I only say attempt because oftentimes they know more than we do. Today I played a version of hangman that included a drawing of the object in question, and they guessed the word more than half of the time. Guess I should've known that superman was popular internationally. Other times we just play games with them. They've their own version of rock paper sissors, which includes a "slap" on the palm for the loser. And they catch on to everything so quickly. For example- one esspecially nimble little man had learned a dance routine from Amanda by the end of the hour.

So with teaching in the kindergardens and "working" in the orphanages together, it feels like I'm really getting to connect with all the kids of Vietnam in a special way. And with the Vietnamese. Even on the streets the adults try to coax their kids into saying hello to us. We're always a spectical of some sorts, whether for our white skin, our tall frames, or for our beards. Even if my beard isn't the best back home, it reigns supreme in Vietnam (only cause Tyler shaves his).

So there's life in Vietnam, and I'm living it. Weird things have been eaten. Motorbikes have been ridden (but not driven, yet). Pictures (thousands) have been taken. And of course, high fives have been given. And it's not over quite yet. Even if I miss home, and even if I sometimes fill my idle thoughts with long lists of all the food I'm going to eat when I get back home, there's still time for me left here, and I plan to make the most of it.

Teaching Da Nang

Today I'm going to talk more about the teaching aspect of our stay here in Da Nang. 

A usual day in lovely Da Nang begins in many ways. But each weekday afternoon we all put on our "business" clothes, meet up with our Volunteer translators downstairs, then hop on their motorbikes and ride to our respective schools. Each week we teach at two different classrooms, but our groups of two (Amanda and I) stay at the same school this month. Thus we've one week to teach these kids, who've probably never spoken english before (let alone have heard many forgeiners speak it), so there's a couple of boundaries to leap before any concrete absorbsion begins. 

A typical lesson goes as such:

Enter. Say hello, try and see if they'll remember your name, or at least repeat it. Often not. But smiles are good enough. Start things off with either a recap of the last class day, or an introduction if it's the first day of that week. That's usually the Hello song, which, is exactly what it sounds like. Then we go into whatever we're trying to teach for the day, and approach it from different angles. Take a color for example. We would first say the color to the group, hold a card featuring that particular pigment, and have the kids repeat the name til we're satisfied. It's all about pronounciation. After that we like to have some of the kids come up and call out the particular color to the class, this way we see how they're doing individually. Then it's game time. And we try to make them interesting and engaging, which is difficult when dealing with young minds. One game, for example, involves the color cards laid on the floor. I call out the color, then whoever gets to it and brings it to me first wins. Which.. works better in some classes than others. Some classes are competitive, some shy. In the former we have huge collisions over a color, and in the latter only a few tenatively go over to the right color, and it's usually the same kid. And in some classes, whether it's our explanations or they're learning level I'm not sure, won't pay attention to the actual color and just pick up whatever card they want. Yeah- that's when adaption is essential.

Our lofty goals for the kids during our weeklong tour of the english language consist of: The Alphabet. Colors. .. And that's pretty much it. And even the coverage of those two topics vary. If the class is really responsive, the Alphabet works well. If not, we usually focus more on the colors.

A week in and I feel like we're getting the hang of it. The best thing to realize is that we aren't trying to, as much as I'd love to, teach them all they need to know about the joys and perils of the english language. That's an impossible outcome for a weeks worth of brief lessons. Our goal, and hope, is to get their interest, build a bit of confidence and compitence, and leave a few words in their memory. So that's what we set out to do.

PS-Maybe we're just teaching Vietnam about hi-fives. And once they know, they can't stop. Someone send the Todd here.

Pictures from Da Nang

This is Hai And Teressa's house on the outskirts of Da Nang.

This is part of the mountain landscape surrounding the city (which is off in the distance, past that Buddah statue)

This is from a resort cove, which you can stay at for 300.000 Dong a night (16$!).

This is a gorgeous sunset at China Beach.

And this is me. Tan and slightly dumb looking.

Da Nang

Okay, so, It was bad enough that I had waited five days to post last time, but this time, with nearly 16 days under my belt, excuses are limitless and irregardable. All I have to offer besides a feeble promise to update more and a somewhat healthy update presently is my apology to those that have been waiting for a sign of life from this traveler.

This sunday marks the close of our first, out of four, week in Da Nang. And it has been a busy one, with even more busy-ness waiting to attach itself to us in this next week. Busy with what, your information starved eyes so feverishly wonder. Well, mostly with teaching. In aide to Fisher's Superkids, we've paired off to visit five local schools, in two classrooms per week, to teach intorductory lessons in the English Language.

Many of you will doubtlessly understand my enthusiasm for the subject and its instruction, so listen well to what follows- it isn't easy. Not at all! For one, the children that we try to instruct for three-fourths of an hour each week day have never tried to speak English before. And many of them have never seen a foreigner! It's odd to think that they'll always remember me when they think of the first time they saw an American. Needless to say there are some barriers to overcome before we can even think of correcting their grammar. Which is difficult for me, as my calling, or my interpretation of it, has more to do with teaching older children who presumably can already speak English. That's what makes this experience so important though.

Here I'm doing something that I'm not used to, in a place that I'm a stranger in. Even so, it's been quite the experience. Teaching this week has been a lesson in trial and error, with a healthy dose of persistence. When some idea doesn't work, we have to try another one. And repeat. Next week, which loams ever so close, we'll also be playing with kids at a local orphanage for a couple hours MWF, and working at Superkids during the leftover days. So there's not a dull moment here in Da Nang (except for today. I've been in my room for hours. Lazy sundays exist here as well).

Hopefully I'll be better at this in Da Nang. Lord knows you all deserve it. Check out the pictures coming up next! And comment with any questions that you have on them.

With love,

Chris

In Saigon

Hey all my loyal readers.

I feel bad, because I've been in 'Nam for 5 or so days without a peep. I've been fairly busy though. When we first got in to Saigon, after a layover in Taipei, we dove right in to the bustling chaos that is Ho Chi Minh city. The most memorable aspect of this city has to be the motorbikes. There are so many that the occasional actual car looks strange. The streets are filled with zooming, swerving, and constantly honking motorbikes. And if that sounds crazy, then try thinking about crossing the street, which we constantly have to do.

It's funny how well we adapt to new situations. Five days in and we already have favorite food places. Our choice coffee shop for cafe sua da, which is right across the street from us, knows what we want as soon as we stroll in (which is good because the less sign language we have to do the better). This street that we live on feels a bit more like a home away from home every day. And still, our adaptation is short lived. We leave for Da Nang on monday, where we'll be staying for a month and where there will be hopefully more reliable internet. Not that this internet cafe is that bad, but i tend to hurry when i've to pay for my time, even if that time is incredibly cheap.

Hopefully once I'm in Da Nang i can give you all some better bloggage, and fill you in on all the great happenings down here in Vietnam! Thanks for your prayers, adoration, and gentle reading-
from the future-
Chris

Prologue

It's May 19th, 2009. I'm sitting in my living room before rushing off to take care of the last minute packing purchases (If saying "last minute" makes it sound like I only have a little left to go, I only wish that were so). I and my team of 9 other APU students leave for Vietnam in a mere 4 days.

To think that this whole adventure started with casual conversation, well, that actually sounds about right. The grandest and most changing events all begin with something small. I'm sure if that wasn't the case many people would bail at the first sign of epic. Can't really say I'd be that different. But this started off small. I had MAS (ministry and service) credits to fill, and I was friends with Kristen, who had gone to Vietnam last year and was leading the team this time around. She mentioned the processes of forming a team, and I'd ask about details here and there. Slowly my interest rose. I'm always looking for new ways to prove my desire to teach as a real passion, and teaching in Vietnam sounded surreal. And the seed was planted then.

That was 7 months ago. The time between then and now stretched on forever yet sped forward without remorse. I interviewed with Tyler (the other leader, and my fellow [read: only other] guy on the trip) and Kristen, was accepted to the team, and met all the rest of our star crossed group.
The picture is a little small, so in a circle from the left- (Top) Kristen, Mya, Tyler, Me, Faryn, Amanda (Bottom) Jessica, Kristin, Sally, and Marissa. It may seem odd that Tyler and I are the only guys, but anyone knowing APU would understand- we're outnumbered there. Even so, it was surprising how well everyone got along, even in the first meeting. That didn't change as the weeks went on. Our weekly monday (late) night meetings became a sort of beacon, and I looked forward to catching up with everyone after the long week.

And the weeks went by, and by and by. I balanced school, love, and Vietnam like an amateur juggler, and usually slipped in one place or the other. Still, God was forgiving enough, and my survival in this last semester is proof enough of that.

And if you're reading this, for some reason you've seen this through with me too. and I hope to help you see the rest of my journey. It's weird that the months behind me all lead up to this one month that's ahead of me. But I've a feeling that this small time will last a lifetime in memories and lessons both learned and taught.

Thus- welcome to this, my travel blog. Next post- via vietnam!