Feb 22nd (Week 10 Vietnam - Danang and Hoi An)

It’s official. We have completed our YWAM Discipleship Training School (DTS) and we are now vacationing in Vietnam. Right now I am sipping my guava juice, slightly sunburned from a day at the beach but clean from a piping hot shower. We are not in Sapa, that’s for sure!

Where did we leave off? We arrived home (Hanoi feels like home) from Sapa after a long 7hr drive. Yngve, Ragnhild and Noah were waiting for us and they were so pleased to see us again. We didn't realize how much we would miss them as they didn't come on the road trip. We went out for a delicious Indian meal (my official birthday dinner) and then again the next day for Noah’s 1st birthday celebration. Saying goodbye to our YWAM family after living with them for 5 1/2 months was very hard. We have grown to really love our team! There were a few tears as we were the first to leave for the airport on Friday. Yngve and Ragnhild were flying out just after us home to Norway and the rest of the team were leaving at 11:00pm to Kona via Seoul, Korea.

The check-in with Vietnam Airlines was seamless and the 1hr flight south went by in a jiffy and before you could say DANANG we had our feet in the sand and were splashing around in the surf! We had the most amazing seafood in Danang. Nearly all the restaurants have plastic tubs full of fish, shellfish, prawns and clams and you simply pick what you want and they cook it for you. We had three jumbo prawns (I would have picked four had I known what was going on - we were pointing and smiling and they were putting prawns into buckets and weighing them) a squid, chopped and fried in vegetables, and some scallops barbecued in the shell. Delicious! No photos, sorry, we were living in the moment.

After two nights in Danang we decided to head down to Hoi An, just 30mins in a taxi south and see what this town has to offer. We are currently staying in an awesome homestay (booked through Airbnb, a hotel booking app, thanks Rebecca) which is super clean and the service is awesome. We have rented a couple of mopeds and have spent the last two days exploring the local town and beaches.

The weather is great right now but after one more sunny day the forecast is three days of rain so we can save those days for museums and learning about the local history. Danang and Hoi An are significant as landing point for the Americans during the Vietnam War (the Vietnamese call it the American War).
On Friday we head to Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho on the Mekong Delta - hoping to be served Pho on a boat on the river.

Oh, another awesome thing. A vietnamese dentist fixed my tooth! It's a filling that is so well matched with my tooth that you would never know. Total cost $25!

Sapa - in the clouds

Sapa - above the clouds 

This is Basil, the most encouraging man I have ever met!
Plus he knows Brad Warner from Burnett!

Goodbye Hanoi!

Goodbye Hosen you were so good to us!

We have arrived in Danang! 

From the top of Marble Mountain

Many caves to explore

Pho for breakfast in Danang.
It's different here. Less soup and more meat or fish - plus quail eggs.

The beach in Danang

Using the ATM in Hoi An, these people are from Powell River, BC
and of course know Don and Marnie!

Ryan Man!

Lunch served on the beach... yummy.

While writing this blog the homestay owner dropped off some snacks.
Fresh guava juice, waffles and shaved sweetened coconut.

Feb 16th (Week 9 Sapa Vietnam)

The final two days of outreach. We are sitting in our hotel room in Sapa (Lao Cai on the map) under the covers with our electric blankets on. Jenny and Ryan have come down with some stomach upset so we are just taking it easy before our five hour drive home tomorrow. The timing is perfect. We just spent the past two days out and about (I can't say exactly what we were doing until we get back). Sapa is at about 7000ft and completely socked in with fog. It’s about 10C, cool and very damp. The fog is a fine mist that soaks you when you walk around. If it wasn't for the perfect sunny weather we had on Sunday we wouldn't know that we are at the top of a mountain overlooking the Cat Cat tribe of Northern Vietnam set amongst terraced rice paddy fields. I have heard that these people are the lowest class and have been forced away, over the centuries, out of China (about 30 miles from here) into the mountains and up the slopes where they have managed to carve out an existence. They sell trinkets in the town of Sapa which feels and looks a lot like Kathmandu. The Cat Cat tradition is to marry off daughters as young as eight years old and there are girls carrying babies around that can’t be more than 14 years old. 
We have had a few very busy days including church on Sunday and some teaching yesterday. Tomorrow we return to Hanoi for a day and a half of debriefing our experience here and in Kona and what we think we will do when we get back home.
We can look forward to some time relaxing in central and then southern Vietnam where the temperatures are 22C in Danang and 34C in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).We will go out to Can Tho in the Mekong river delta and then go over to Phu Quoc.

And yes, today is my 50th birthday! Hooray! We will maybe go for an Indian tomorrow night with our Vietnamese friends (hoping that Jenny and Ryan feel better) and we have fish and chips lined up for Thursday night which is my official birthday dinner. My 50th is a bit like the "where will I be on Dec 31st 1999" question.  So here I am, northern Vietnam, jobless and following Jesus. Never would have guessed it in a million years!!

Next blog entry will be from Danang.

Amazing view!

Feb 7th (Week 8 Vietnam)

This is it, we are on our two week countdown to end of outreach. Everything here has ground to a halt as the entire country stops for Tet, Vietnamese Chinese New Year. It’s Sunday and today is Lunar New Year’s Eve. Instead of Christmas trees families by cherry blossom trees or cuttings and orange trees. On these will go ‘lucky money’ envelopes as gifts for all younger family members. Also, like Christmas the next few days are traditionally days of visiting family members and friends and feasting. The loud firecrackers, fireworks and dragon dances symbolize scaring away evil spirits. We need some fire crackers here. Last night Ryan came down with stomach flu and he and Jenny have been up all night.
Lets go back a few days. I have been back to my old self the last couple of days. I had 5 days of Tamiflu and other meds to stop this vile cough. We had a quite, restful week with very few formal visits.
On Friday we drove 2hrs out to a home for disabled people. They have about 365 residents from all ages with physical and mental disabilities. There are about 90 full time staff. We walked from building to building chatting and praying for whoever we met. There was a room full of young kids with physical disabilities. From what I could see most of them had what looked like cerebral palsy. Their legs were like sticks and their hands and feet were pulled into tight knots. It was very hard with the language differences to know if they had mental illnesses too. There is no heating or cooling that we could see and it was quite a cool day. It was very hard to see so many people in such great need of additional care. I forgot to mention that it was Ryan’s birthday. He received some gifts from our team which he opened on the bus on the way out to the disabled home. Ryan is so awesome. His favourite gift is a ‘chicken bag’ a material bag that looks like a chicken and converts into a carrier bag. It was made by the disabled residents at the Donkey Bakery and Ryan took a real liking to it and one of our team members bought it for him. They stuffed the chicken with choco pies (like wagon wheels) and candy. Hmmm, now it's not so surprising that he was ill.
We have another fairly quiet week this week. On Saturday we will go out to Sa Pa in the mountains for a few days. The weather has really improved. We are back up to 20C and the forecast is 30C next week. Hallelujah! It will be cooler in Sa Pa but even 20C will be great.

I like this photo of Jemma. She looks like mum.

I missed this trip to the Cultural Village. Our team with some of the NTU students.

Ryan on the bus on his birthday. The Sponge Bob mitts were a hit. 

Yngve playing tag with some of the ladies at the disabled centre.  The lady with me loved hugs. 

All of these kids had severe disabilities.

Ryan was awesome playing with the younger kids

This kid just fell asleep on Jemma's lap. So cute.

Feb 1st - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly! (Week 7)

Sports Day Tug of War victory photo!

This is one of our two classes at NTU

Glenda, me and our student Yen!

Our picnic lunch - Vietnamese style!

Jemma and Rahel at the Cultural Village!   We  were the only ones there!

Ryan is ready for our trip to the mountains of Sa Pa!  Who cares what you look like  as long as you are  warm!

Ryan holding a 4 week old baby at the orphanage!

What a blessing to get to spend time at the orphanage!

Don't worry! The swelling is going down and he is looking much better!    A little cap and he will be good to go!  I wonder if our dentist follows the blog?

THE GOOD. Lots to report on!  It's been a busy couple of weeks with lots to share (Jenny reporting). We have officially finished teaching English at NTU! The teachers organized fun Friday activities for us for the last couple of weeks.  We had a "Sports Day/Cultural Tet Day" and then we had a "Music Festival" where each class learned an English song and had to perform it in front of everyone!
We were very busy teaching and practicing our songs and the "Festival" was a blast.  We performed a traditional and popular Vietnamese song that was all about how important family is!  I think we did fairly well!  Last Friday, we went on a field trip to a cultural village outside of Hanoi.  The teachers arranged this for us and some of the students came with us, while others rode their motorbikes out there (60km) and met us for a picnic lunch the teachers put on!  It was a great way to end our time at NTU.  But, the fun did not stop there!  Here is what you should know about the Vietnamese: they love to bless you with gifts, food, bananas, meals and entertainment!  We were actually really tired after our day out and by the time we got back to the university we were ready to head on home and relax!  But that was not to happen!
We were ushered to the front row of the hall and we were treated to a "End of semester, Staff party, Entertainment extravaganza" complete with speeches, and different acts prepared by each department.  Let me just say this - this was like no staff end of year party back home!  The performances were hilarious- the men dressed as ladies and the ladies as men, there was singing, dancing, impersonations all done with a rocking loud music system!  We were presented with gifts, dragged up onto the stage for some impromptu dancing, and then were about to leave when the teachers announced that we could not go until dinner was finished!  Within minutes the stage area and seating were cleared into banquet tables and then the feast began!  The word I would use to describe this was surreal!  At the end of all the courses, Yen our translator, saw that Jemma was dipping something in a sauce!  Turns out the sauce is a fermented raw shrimp sauce that is not meant for Westerners!  Poor Yen had heart attack when Jemma said she had dropped some pork in the sauce and ate it!  Yen's friend ended up in a bad way in hospital after a similar eating scenario!  But thank goodness Jemma was alright!  We prayed over her and she was a little worried but she was just fine!  So that basically sums up the good.  Meeting lots of wonderful people and just really enjoying Hanoi.

So that is the good!  Here comes THE BAD!  We had a cold snap last week with a lot of rain!  We all got really cold and wet and on one of those days, Barry and Jemma got stuck in an elevator for 45 minutes where they got really chilled!  The following day Barry came down with fever, chills, aching etc!  He missed the last two days at NTU and was in a really bad way!  We thought he had pneumonia!  Well, the night of the "raw shrimp sauce debacle", Barry went to bed and was coughing all night!  He got up at 5:30am to try and eat something and felt really sick.  He went to the bathroom and before he knew it, he went down face first on our tiled bathroom floor!  At 6am he awoke and called out to me!  I found him on the floor with blood all over his face and blood all over the floor!  His tooth was embedded in his face!  I will spare you the gory details.  He went to a clinic, got medication for the flu and is on the mend!  His side tooth was chipped off and his lip is pretty swollen but he will heal and we will get his tooth capped hopefully here in Vietnam!  But, it's been quite a weekend!  So that is the good, the bad and poor Barry is THE UGLY (for now anyway!)  But through all of this, we have been so thankful for where we live and how God has provided for us!

We have 18 more days here in Vietnam and some exciting things planned.  We have this week to connect with our friends we have made and to experience all of the hustle and bustle as people get ready for Tet (the big New Year celebration which is like all of our holidays rolled into one)!  Then we will head north to Sapa for 4 days and then it will be time to pack up and move south to warmer weather and beaches!

January 23rd (Week 6 Vietnam)

Last Saturday we went for a day trip to Ha Long Bay. 

We were told it would be a 2 1/2hr drive and then 4hrs on a boat. The drive was a bit scary as the bus was passing on blind bends, scooters were constantly swerving in and out and trucks generally cutting everyone off the entire way. The tour guide told us that it is was probably best not to look out of the front window. I guess he has had western tourists turning pale before. We were reading a guide to Vietnam guide book on the bus and were led to a couple of useful points. 
1. If you are in dangerous car accident in Vietnam that was your Karma and it was meant to happen. So, drive like crazy and if its not your time to die you are pretty much invincible. Hmmm. I cant seem to find any road traffic accident statistics on-line. 2. In the absence of Judeo-Christian 10 commandment (particularly ‘do not lie’) morality guidelines the general rule here is to say what people want to hear so as not to offend them. Ie ‘no I did not damage your car’ and then think quickly of a way to break the news to them later while drinking a glass of tea together, Which brings me back to the 2 1/2 hr bus ride with was actually a 4 1/2 hr bus ride with a 1/2hr stop at a conveniently located souvenir shop and cafeteria. Therefore the 2hr bus ride was explained as a ‘Vietnamese 2hrs’ (laugh, laugh) and we will be there soon.
Ha Long Bay was worth the 10hr return trip, however. It is listed as a Unesco world heritage site. It was a bit foggy and cloudy but not cold.

The past two weeks have been the same. We broke out into four classes each with 12-24 students each. We have been teaching new vocabulary words, watching inspirational videos, doing tongue twisters and then breaking into small groups to get to know the students better.   Ryan and Jemma have been great teachers and helpers.

As of yesterday we have our revised tickets home. I can’t remember if we mentioned that we have been looking into staying on for a few extra weeks to explore southern Vietnam and then pop over to Thailand to see friends up in Chiang Mai. This is now all booked so we will be in DaNang for a week (middle Vietnam beach area), Saigon or ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta for a week and then another week in Phu Quoc a little island off the coast. For the last week we will fly up to Chiang Mai in Thailand. We will be home on Thursday March 24th in time for Easter. We have a Timmys card (thanks Neets) with some credit on it and we cant wait to get a double double and a Boston Cream. In the meantime we will enjoy Bun Cha and Pho for breakfast, dinner and lunch for the next 8 weeks!

Ha Long Bay 

The judging panel for a talent show

Lunch on the Ha Long Bay boat trip

January 12th (Week 4 Vietnam)

A very busy week. A couple of videos this week. To see the videos click on the highlighted words below.

Jenny and Ryan went to a drug rehab on Saturday. Ryan shared his testimony with about 30 women through an interpreter. Many of the women there are HIV positive and are recovering from drug addiction and lives of prostitution. We recorded the whole thing but we are not allowed to post the video so you will have to wait until we get back to see it.

I (Barry) went to a private drug rehab on Monday to teach English and we went again on Saturday for worship. They use the Celebrate Recovery program which I only just learned about last year at our church. The authorities here are really opening up to Chr*stanity as the moral teachings and effectiveness of Chr*stian based rehab programs really work and the cases of relapse are fewer.
Attached is a very professional youtube video about the private rehab recorded last year. The worship on Saturday was exactly like this. It was awesome. Gord, I thought of you when I saw their facility and heard about their plans for expansion.

We met a nice Vietnamese family at the park on Sunday. They were at the park last week when we played parachute. They invited us over for dinner Sunday night. They have a 13 year old daughter and an 8 year old son. We went to their place and then went out for some pho (noodle soup).

Here is a short video of Ryan reciting some of his Vietnamese.

Family car in Vietnam

Carrying a fridge home and a dog on a bike

Small group today. We have four classes now 24 in each, twice per day.

Ru ro

Jenny did get a photo of the crepes. 

Our apartment at night. We are on the 3rd floor (4th level)

Thuy (pronounced twee) and her daughter Sunday night